Over a period of about eight weeks, I gained around about seven kilograms of weight. I was curious to see how hard it would be. Now I know. Eating 500 kcal or more in addition to my normal basal metabolic rate was not an easy task. Sometimes I really had to make myself eat. Especially in the mornings, when my stomach was still full from the day before, I found it exceptionally hard to get anything in. But I’d made a decision, so I had to. Normally I’m hungry every meal, but not for the last two months. It was not only hard to get anything in but bigger portions than usual, too. I would, under normal circumstances, call myself an ambitious cook and eater, but eating without an appetite is no fun at all.

In the beginning, I noted down every little bit I ate. As I gained a sense of how much I had to eat I stopped writing it down and followed my intuition. Mostly it was bigger portions with every meal, plus a snack here and there.

On a vegetarian diet, it is close to impossible to consume the 300 g of protein I was aiming for each day. I tried to eat a lot of cheese, fish and vegetables with a high content in protein. Sometimes – actually most days – I would have a piece of cheese or fish in between meals  – leaving my flatmates overly disgusted. The downside of eating these foods is that they come with a lot of fat as well. The day would end with a surplus of fat and without me reaching my protein goal. Protein shakes were my last resort in even getting close to my daily goals. Carbs were easier to control: They come fairly separated from the other two sources of energy, and it is fairly easy to avoid food that comes with supplementary sugar.

For good measure I kept up the diet until I overreached my goal, at about 101 kg. Just to avoid any measurement errors. I kept eating until I was stable at over a hundred kilograms.

Some friends say that they can see it in my face, which is supposedly rounder now. Some say I grew a bit of a belly. I can’t really see the difference. Maybe they only want to get to my feelings. At least, nobody calls me ‘fatty’, yet!

Telling from the fast rate that I gained weight and the knowledge that I definitely haven’t reached my daily goal every day, I suspect that I haven’t calculated my basic metabolic rate correctly.

I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen over the next couple of months. I’ll continue tracking my weight. I suspect it will drop to my normal 95 kilograms again

Lessons learned:

Take pictures before starting a challenge like that.

Sample meals:

Breakfast: cereals (oats, milk, cottage cheese)

Lunch: half a cup of rice, a can of peas and carrots, 200 g of mackerel and two boiled eggs. Usually leftovers from the previous night’s dinner warmed up at work.

Afternoon snack: normally a protein shake made of milk and some fruits and protein powder

Dinner: 450 g creamed spinach and penne with gorgonzola

Snacks: four clementines, a kohlrabi and an apple

Total intake for the day: