I'm seriously struggling with food at uni

I need about 3,000 calories a day but i'm barely averaging 2 and for the first time in months other than illness i've lost weight (2.5kg). I'm six foot four and curently 80kg but was 82.5

I'm particuarly struggling with lunches and dinners. I can make most things. I tried making pasta bake today in the hope i'd have a lunch for 4 days of the week but that was a pretty epic fail and now i just have a load of pasta with not much flavour. There's hardly any space in my fridge. I do a weekly shop for £40 a week but that needs to be topped up as i usually run out of chicken and other stuff. So often more like £50.

I tried having bagels and stuff but I found them dry and was still hungry after them. I've bought a weight gainer shake only to realise you only get 8 servings in it as 1 serving is like 3 scoops.

Used to make stir frys for dinner but last time I threw up and always had issues with my stomach with them not sure if its the s auce or something in the noodles but never goes down well. I do chicken pasta, chicken curry. Usually have something like fishcakes in the fridge with fries/garlic bread/frozen veg. Started having more things like peanut butter on toast for breakfast or a snack or eggs on toast for lunch but I'm struggling to get over 2,000 calories a day. what do you do for lunches/dinners etc as I'm seriously struggling. There's only two shelves in my fridge and one is very small i have more stuff in the freezer but i'm not great at planning. And then I do plan and things don't work out like the pasta bake i planned.

Reply 1

avaf

Hi! totally understand where you're coming from, I struggled so much during my undergraduate degree to plan for meals. What I do is meal prep. I know it sounds daunting. But it's a time saver overall!! Basically I would advise making stuff like you said- chicken curry, pasta salad, fajitas, potato gratin, fish with veggies, nuggets, noodles (try the rice noodles they go down better)... But instead of making it for 2 days make it for 4 days, and get some tupperwares. Then spread out your meal into 4 tupperwares, and add a carb like rice, pasta or potatoes when there isn't one yet. Then you'll have one meal per day for 4 days already preped, ready to be heated. Gamed changer. You can do that for lunch and dinner honestly. For your plate composition, try 1/3 veggies, 1/3 proteins and 1/3 carbs. Carbs and protein make you full longer. Fats help you gain weight too. For the flavour, I would suggest getting some herbs and seasoning like oregon, thyme, fajitas seasoning, paprika basil etc. You can't go wrong with these. Hope it helps!!

Reply 2

black tea

Nuts and seeds are high in calories - having those as a snack will go a long way to help make up the numbers. Adding cheese and swapping to full fat milk will also help (but will also add a lot of saturated fat).