Roasted peanuts are cheap, high calorie, high protein, and shelf stable. It’s a decent mix of all the macronutrients (including carbs and fiber). Personally, I can also eat them all day.

Around me, a $3 jar has 2500 calories, over 200g fat, over 100g protein, and about 30g fiber. On a per dollar basis, it’s hard to beat for shelf stable food.

I am by no means expert on the topic but I am also in the same situation as you. If your job is a 12-hour shift pattern, that means you have 3-4 days off in one week. Use those days to cook food and do meal prep for your job, and also to eat as much as you could. Eat food high in proteins and calories. Chicken is the usual go-to meat because it is low on salt and fat, but high on protein and calories. Lean beef is also great. Moreover, it is also important to eat fruits and vegetables to provide nutrients that amplify the muscle intake of proteins, such as spinach, quinoa, lentils, avocado, banana etc.

If you are really skinny though, you have a licence to eat. You could “dirty bulk” by eating as much junk foods as possible to accelerate the weight and muscle gains.

Again, I am no expert but these are what I had been advised and researched on. You should find more information on the Internet.

I did GOMAD, actually more like 1/2 GOMAD. https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/gomad-diet for 4-5 months to gain weight. Went to the gym as well, so at least some of the weight goes to muscles.

Trying to eat more is going to be very difficult for you due to early satiety and not knowing how much more you actually need to eat and it is hard to count calories from random food and do math in your head all the time is annoying.

We skinny people think that we are eating enough but actually need to eat a lot more than we think. Maybe our bodies are not efficient at extracting the calories from food or high metabolism, I have no idea. I will be eating the same as my normal/ overweight - friends but not gaining weight. With GOMAD, you can monitor the calories and can figure out at which point (calories) you start to gain weight. The math is easy to do as well.

In my opinion, milk is the most easiest if you can handle milk. It is fast to consume, 0 preparation, easy to monitor/count the calories, easy to adjust as needed and can fit easily in to your normal habit/schedules and lastly no dishes (only cup) to clean up. The more easy something is to do, the more likely you will stick to it.

I built up to it, started with 2 glasses of milk a day, and slowly increased every few days to 1/2 GOMAD. Your bowels will tell you if you are drinking too much too soon. Go slow, the body digestive system, and microbes need to build up to it. Once I noticed I was gaining weight, I stayed at that amount for a few months. It was 1/2 GOMAD for me.

Note that this is not a long-term thing, I don’t think it is healthy long-term. Once you reach your goal, focus more on a variety of food. I still drink about 1 litre of milk a day. One thing I notice is that once you gain quite a bit of weight, it is quite difficult to lose it.

You want carbs (energy) and protein (muscle). Stack up PB&Js. Dude I worked with in the coast guard would have two triple deck PB&J for lunch absolutely loaded with pb and j. You get your carbs from the bread, the protein and fat from the pb, plus sugars and a small amount of vitamins and shit from the j.

Rice and beans

Chicken (season and cook on a pan in the oven at high temperature)

Make soup

Stew (thicker soup)

Oatmeal for breakfast

While you’re bulking: pasta and bread

You can cook diced onions and other vegetables and add to pasta sauce to improve it

I worked with a guy who was taking roids to bulk up. He once ate three sandwiches on his lunch break. I am not suggesting that you do the same. It’s just the only thing I have as a point of reference.

Search for sites about muscle building, probably.

For one thing stop the Kratom. It’s highly problematic in general but weight loss is a common side effect. General stimulation without energy reserves is also a common side effect leading to dizziness.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/prescription-drug-abuse/in-depth/kratom/art-20402171

For food try a Shooter’s sandwich.

If you have use of an outlet for an hour or so before lunch rice cooker meals can make a great hot lunch that only needs to be plugged in before lunch.

If you’re not sure about something, rub it against a piece of paper! If the paper turns clear, it’s your window to weight gain.

I like to make up pasta dishes in sauce with veggies that reheat well. Pasta alfredo (made with butter and parmigiano reggiano) with spinach and pieces of chicken, or red sauce pasta with a bunch of veggies like zucchini, broccoli, onions and even beans, with some olive oil in the sauce. I buy the precut frozen veggie medleys and chuck them in. You can also make egg fried rice with veggies in it, with your choice of butters and oils. Cheese, nuts, dairy, eggs, I agree with other commenters that fat is not your enemy. Sugar and ultra-processed stuff should still be avoided but embrace the butter, haha.

Peanut butter is also fantastic for healthy calorie density and travels well.

The easy way to add calories and protein is dairy products. Start your day with coffee and heavy cream instead of milk or half and half. Add cheese or butter to meals you already enjoy.

When a buddy of mine was general labor at a warehouse, his lunch was occasionally a sleeve of Oreos and ice cream. You can be as “irresponsible” as you want for a while.

Last year I got down to roughly 115lb abs 6ft due to a combination of job stress, alcohol related gastritis, then when I used weed gummies to quit the booze I got cannabinoid hyperemesis (1 year no booze now, about 6 months no gummies. Might try one or the other again at some point but I’d need to address my lifestyle and job stressors first).

I went to see a gastroenterologist and their main advice was just to take the opportunity to eat terribly, or at least, what would normally be considered terribly. Normally calorie dense foods are ill advised because they lead to obesity but if you’re having trouble keeping on weight they’re exactly what you need.

I basically wound up living off snickers bars for a few months. Rock climbers actually use them for the same reason; there’s a looot of calories packed into those tiny bars, and a decent amount of it is fat / protein compared to similar options (maybe payday bars if you really wanna up the protein factor). The caveat here is that I also have IBS, so I needed to take Metamucil / psyllium husk fiber as well to make sure my stomach kept functioning well / keep the chocolate and sugar from agitating my colon, which also would have led to malabsorption / not absorbing the calories, which would have defeated the point.

You can get the fiber in capsules to just take with water instead of having to mix up a whole beverage to chug, but if you do that you need to make sure you stay hydrated so it doesn’t constipate you. I recommend getting a water bottle / skein of some kind that sits against your body well so it can stay with you on the move. I used one of those gallon bottles and would leave it on my work computer with a tall straw and just sip at it every time I stopped to chart, but it sounds like you might need something more around the size of a quart to strap to you.

Best of luck!

My bulking food was always Triscuits and hummus. A lot of calories in a small package and not really unhealthy. Walnuts are also good for you and calorie dense.

Ok you need to separate this. You need food options and you need bulk calories.

For breakfast, you need a decent hit of low GI carbs and a protein source. Whilegrain toast with whatever or oats is GOAT, add in a protein coffee (Cold brew/espresso and vanilla protein powder) and you have my breakfast. If you want some more calories and fats in breakfast mix the protein shake on whole milk not water. But this combo burns long and slow.

For the calories at work onsite grab yourself some mass gainer protein and smash a shake with lunch. Lunch can be whatever the hell you want with one of those. One serve of most mass gainers is half of my daily maintenence calories. Unless your job is professional weightlifting, you probably wont out-work this. Although Id advocate for a big boy wholemeal roll stuffed with some meats and a lot of salad.

I think it would be a really good idea for you to track your intake for a few weeks and get a good idea on how much you really need to eat. My Fitness Pal is ok but Macrofactor takes a breakdown of what you put in and your weight and over time dials in how much you need to eat for what physical result you want.

In simplest terms for muscle gain in most grown men the rule of thumb is 1g of protein per lb of lean body mass is a good number to aim for spaced as equally as you can throughout the day in 3 to 5 meals. I could write more about the myths and legends that permeate this shit but for 99% of people 99% of the time - This will work.

Take me for example. My 0% body fat weight would be 155lbs. So 1 scoop of protein in the coffee, 25g. Protein bar mid morning 25g, mass gainer at lunch 50g, even if your afternoon snack is pure carbs dinner only has to be 55g for me to hit the base markers for ideal muscle growth and theres 56g in a double quarter pounder.

Get some soylent and take it with you to the job site. You just unscrew a bottle and you can chug 320 calories in a few seconds.

Easy, clean energy. Doesn’t have to replace your meal either. Just something you can ingest very rapidly even if you don’t have an appetite.

In other news, nuts are very calorically rich for their volume. So if you’re just wondering how to get a lot of calories with something you can take on-site, a big jar of mixed nuts can’t hurt. Keep it in your car or break room.

I heard the latest research is indicating that we use the same amount of energy each day, no matter what activity we are doing. Thus gaining or losing weight is a matter of controlling what we eat. Bigger people eat more and smaller people require less food.