Tips to Eat More Without The Stress + Meal Ideas for Hypothalamic Amenorrhea

Eating more food for HA can be TOUGH. I’ve seen every kind of challenge from “I just cannot eat that much – I’m so full!” to “I cannot STOP eating – I’m afraid that I will never stop.”

And that’s ok, there are tactics that you can use to over come each of them.

Balance your fats, carbs and proteins

First off, if you’re eating a lot of fat you’re going to be FULL very early. Fat is a really satiating macronutrient and although it is wonderful for helping us avoid serious hunger by actually helping us feel full, when our goal is to eat more, having a heavy focus on fat is going to make things challenging.

So if you’re pounding the nut and nut butters, eating all the cheese or dousing your food in oil AND struggling to eat enough for recovery, backing off on the fats a little and heading over to the carbs and proteins will help. Don’t stop your fat intake altogether, just lighten up on it!

IMPORTANT: If you’re issue is that you NEED more dietary fat, this likely doesn’t apply to you at all.

Eat Less Frequently

Many of us approach recovery with the common advice of “snack constantly” but if constant snacking is actually making it impossible for you to eat full meals, back off the snacks and focus on full meals that fill you up, try that.

Eat More Frequently

And of course, counter to eating less frequently, you might have an easier time getting more food in if you eat more frequently through the day, smaller meals. You might get too filled up with a big meal.

It’s important here to know what works best for you, and it’s ok to trial and error a few different tactics.

Eat FIRST THING In the Morning

If there is one thing that living with a hard gainer (my husband is one of those guys who needs to eat and eat and eat to put on size) it’s that if you don’t eat breakfast IMMEDIATELY you will be too full when it comes to lunch time resulting in eating a late lunch and then, unfortunately, being too full for dinner and definitely too full for dessert.

Have you ever noticed that when you eat earlier, you’re ready for lunch by 11am? This is great because it means you could fit a whole bunch of snacks in, a full dessert or even an extra meal in simply because you started your day of eating early.

Eat Calorie Dense Ingredients

This one may go without saying but eating foods that are calorie dense is key. Food that is NOT helpful to eat in abundance during hypothalamic amenorrhea recovery are fibrous, cruciferous vegetables like spinach and all the leafy greens, broccoli, asparagus and green beans. You can eat these…but you’re past the point of making them the base of your meals, ok cauliflower rice?

Calorie dense ingredients, in particular ones that actually provide sustenance and nutrients for your body, would include:

• Fats: oils, nuts, cheese, butter, full fat dairy.

• Protein: skin on chicken and fish, dark meat poultry, red meat, pork chops, lamb and any meat that generally isn’t 100% protein and zero fat. Those meats, like shellfish and chicken breast are fine, but if you’re trying to get more food in it’s not ideal that they take up the bulk of your meals.

• Carbs: vegetables technically fall into the carb category but in the HA space, we tend to talk about them more specifically like grains. So, bread, pasta, rice, all of that is a great source of calories. The good thing about them is that they are typically high-GI, which means they will fill you up but be out of your system soon enough to give you the space to eat some more food later!

• Vegetables: Like I said, put aside the cauliflower rice and pick up the potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets and turnips. We’re looking for starch from our vegetables whenever we can. Don’t forget to make them delicious with some butter or olive oil.

Reduce Your Movement…

An honourable mention is the fact that if you’re still exercising a lot, you’re expelling energy which means you need more food. Just like you can be more financially secure if you curb your money spending, you can be more energy secure and require less food if you curb your activity. If you are staying active you definitely need to implement these tips because you should be eating well above your recommended maintenance calories for recovery.

Purees and Liquids

Food that comes in a puree or liquid form will typically digest easier. Those of you who lived in the diet space for a long time have probably heard the idea of “don’t drink your calories!” because it will make you hungry sooner but on the same calories as a filling meal full of solids would.

Well, right now is a great time to actually implement that wonderful strategy. A smoothie, shake or flavoured drink could be a great hit of calories and make room in your stomach sooner because it’s not taking as much time and energy for your stomach to digest. It kinda just goes straight through you.

You can also use a smoothie to get in some of those vegetables you’re struggling to get in because of all the calorie dense foods you're prioritizing.

Ditch the Non-Stick Pans

If you’re used to cooking with non-stick pans and barely any cooking oils, it’s time to change that up. Not only is it more delicious and going to pack more nutrition and calories into your meal, cooking with non-stick pans isn’t that great for you. While we’re at it, all of you with an iron deficiency should try cooking with cast iron pans!

Eat From a Large Plate or Bowl

To eat a lot of food, you need a bowl or plate that can fit it all! Start using bigger plates to promote yourself serving large portions. CAUTION: Don’t just fill a bowl with leafy greens. Use this to eat lots of rice, beans, pasta, starchy vegetables, protein etc.

Eating a Lot...But Keeping it Budget Friendly

I don’t want to discredit that eating a lot can get costly...I mean so can all of those low-calorie fancy foods we were buying before, amiright?

Cheap, Easy and Recovery Friendly Meals:

Rice with chicken legs, sauteed greens and a creamy sauce

Rice is cheap and high carb, chicken legs cost nothing and are an invaluable source of nutrients from the dark meat and the skin, sauteed greens will get your vegetables in but cook them down so much that they’re less filling and they’re sauteed in oil and the creamy sauce, which could be a simple creamy dressing from the grocery store, makes a great burst of flavour. Finish it off with some chocolate or fruit.

Spaghetti Bolognese

Pasta is pretty affordable, and so is ground beef! Cook the sauce with canned tomatoes (or fresh), pasta sauce, onion, garlic, carrots and whatever else you want if you like to deviate from tradition and you’ve got yourself an affordable, high calorie meal that's easy to make in bulk!

Curry

A bit of protein, frozen vegetables, rice, curry paste and coconut milk will not set you back much and it’s also easy to make in bulk!

Sandwiches

Meat (optional) cheese, bread, butter, mayonnaise, and whatever else you want – whats not to love?

Fajitas

Protein, sauteed vegetables, tortillas, rice, guacamole and sour cream – nothin’ but good calories!

Cobb Salad

I know – a SALAD! But when you throw boiled egg, olives, blue cheese, bacon and a creamy dressing on top of that lettuce, you’re getting a lot of tastiness without the heaviness of a hot meal.

Stew

Stew is always great because you can cook cheap cuts of meat in with potatoes, carrots and onions which also cost nothing, and have a tasty, cheap, bulk recipe that you can pair with extra carbs if you want.

I hope these ideas help as a base to kick off your increased eating – if you have more tips that I didn’t mention, which I’m sure there are plenty I would LOVE to know. Come tell me at @thehapodcast so maybe one day I can do a round 2.