What Foods Should I Eat If I'm Trying to Gain Weight?

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Your education should be a right, not a competition. At University of Phoenix, you'll get the best scholarship or savings you qualify for. Simple as that. Explore scholarship options at University of Phoenix what Foods Should I Eat if I'm Trying to gain Weight? This is JJ Virgin, four time New York Times best selling author, celebrity nutrition expert, and Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert. As pretty as it gets from Instagram, ask what food should I eat if I'm trying to gain weight? Now, I know this is usually not a popular question. Everybody's probably like going, are you kidding? Boo. Hiss. But it can be super frustrating if you're one of those people trying to gain weight and fighting to keep the weight on. I've got a sun like this and I had a client like this and there turns out to be something else going on. So I will share that all with you when we come back.

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I still remember this client. She. I pretty much remember 99% of my clients. But this gal was an amazing dancer and she had a very successful father. And so they all kind of pegged her because she was super skinny. They all pegged her because she was a dancer and came from a lot of money that she just must be anorexic.

But it didn't add up.

She came to me and I went, I don't, you know, I don't buy that. Nothing's looking. Pointing to this and what she's writing down on her food diary and sharing with me. Boy, it sure looks like she's got issues with gluten. So what we did is basically did the virgin diet. And in the virgin diet, I'm figuring out if you have hidden food intolerances. Now, most of the time with hidden food intolerances, they cause gas and bloating and joint pain and headaches and fatigue, and they can trigger autoimmune disease and they can cause rashes and skin breakouts and headaches and cravings for the foods that are hurting you. But if you are celiac, it can make you so that you can no longer. It damages your gut. Gluten will damage your gut. You can't absorb your nutrients, and you will not be able to maintain your weight. You will lose weight. And when we pulled the gluten out, all of a sudden she started gaining weight and getting healthy. It was amazing. And then the weird thing happened. So here we are. We fixed it. She's great. She's off gluten, she's healthy. She feels great. I had to coach her through. No, just because you're off gluten, don't go eat gluten cupcakes, right? She was like, the minute she saw it, I'm sorry, gluten free. The minute she got off the gluten, she's like, I found gluten free cupcakes and cookies. I'm like, no, just. Just stay away from the garbage. But she was gaining weight, and what was important is she gained. When you're gaining weight, I'm assuming you don't want to just pile on a bunch of fat and make yourself worse, not better. You want to really build muscle. And so that's what she was able to do with this. So that was really key. So the things you want to rule out for are celiac, make sure you don't have any kind of a metabolic disorder, make sure nothing's going on with your thyroid, it's not too high. Hyperthyroidism, you're not celiac, so we're going to clear that. And when you're gaining weight, we want to make sure you're gaining muscle, not fat. So it's not like, oh great, we'll just load up on junk food and we'll load up on sugar. No, we still want to eat from the plate. Clean protein and keep your protein stable. Healthy fats increase those and slow low carbs and non starchy vegetables. So increase the slow, low carbs, the fat. And then what I'm going to have you do is eat four meals rather than two to three. So eat breakfast within an hour of waking up. So maybe you'll have breakfast at 8, lunch at 12, or breakfast at 7, lunch at 11, next meal at 3, next meal at 7. So you still get that, you know, stop eating three to four hours before bed. That's it. Report back in. This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetojay.com.

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