Want to gain weight

Question
Hello Evelyn Alexander
How are you doing?
I am a university student and have been a vegan for 2 years. My diets contain large amounts of rice, beans and nuts along with vegetables. I am very aware of my diets. I eat to avoid deficiency. I eat a lot, particularly peanut butter and other high fat nuts, soy, chickpea... in order to gain weight. I exercise regularly. However, I have lost 5kg since then and my BMI just falls in underweight catalogue. I had a body check and everything is ok, I am not anaemic or deficient of any.
I am perplexed.
Your advice and suggestion would be really appreciated.
Thank you very much for your valuable time and listening to my concern
Best regards
Aunz


Answer
Dear Anunz,

If it is not a thyroid or metabolic problem and you are not putting yourself under great amounts of stress, then I can only suggest there is a more elusive reason behind this weight loss. First of all, you may not be right in stating that you eat a lot. It may only seem so to you. A bit like it happens often with overweight people, who really feel they are cutting down, but once you add it all up: it's still too much. Maybe, for you it is still not enough. Don't forget it takes an awful lot of energy, too, to digest pulses and grains: all that eating (if it really is a lot) might be simply too much exercise for you! It might sound weird, but some foodstuffs cost more to digest than they give you calorific value.
In my experience it is carbohydrates which are a sure way to "fattening up": think bread and pasta rather than fats. You may simply not have the fat cells to replenish (they absorb fats really fast) or you simply don't absorb fats very well in the gut. You need to think of building up tissue first which requires sugars as found in carbs. I also miss fruit in your diet. Bananas and potatoes never fail. As a vegan, of course bread is only an option with this surrogate yeast, but that should not make much of a difference to the carbohydrate story.
In the worst case scenario you are one of those body types who cannot very well make their own proteins which vegetarians need to take from pulses and milk products and you, as a vegan, only from pulses: then you are basically always doomed to consume yourself. This process can also happen, according to more esoteric understandings, because of excess "yogic" energy, which needs then to be contained by grounding yourself better.
Also bear in mind you might be burning up too much because of over-activity: too much studying, too many late nights, too deeply in love, or nervous exhaustion from exams? Then this phase will surely pass. Don't worry, considering your clean bill of health, otherwise, it is unlikely that you are going to continue to lose weight until you disappear in between the floorboards!
I hope I have been able to hand you a suggestion,
Good luck and keep thinking chubby thoughts.
Happy eating and greetings from Evelyn.

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