The doctor recommends my 74 year old dad to gain weight and as with most elderly he doesn’t like eat a lot. One of his suggestions was to drink Ensure Plus Calories (Ensure® Plus Calories – Gain Or Maintain A Healthy Weight) meal replacement. After looking at the ingredients and the cost, I was thinking I could probably make something similar with Whey Rx, chocolate milk, maltodextrin, and peanut butter. He’s on a bunch of medications so I’m not sure if there’s anything specific about Ensure meal replacement or if my homemade shake would be just fine?
Anything extra I could add for calories? Olive oil?
My other thought was to buy a classic bag of weight gainer from supplement store.
Is there anything wrong with his ability to eat? I would just aim for more calorie dense foods instead of supplements. It is sometimes a slippery slope if you jump on the supplement wagon because supplement ends up becoming replacement. Find foods he enjoys, set timers to remind him to eat, make his ass eat lol, all of these IMO are better than jumping immediately to supplements.
The only time I take a protein supplement is if I am trying to lose weight and that is because of the increased protein needs (270g).
I would say screw a weight gainer when there is this awesome delicious stuff called ice cream, candy bars, etc.
If he is set on a protein supplement I would say BBM’s whey vanilla is good, I mix it with some coffee in the morning (like a powdered creamer) and its sweet enough, or I make a batch of cold brew and mix it that way.
given his age I would focus on protein intake so yea, definite get a nice whey. As always, confer with his medical provider if you have concerns.