I was told to gain weight. You'd think I'd be more happy about this!

glassyo

Hello, people in a section of the mfp message boards I thought I'd never have to venture into. Everyone have a good weekend? Good! (Or awwwwwww )

I think I need a little mfp therapy session.

A little background: I'm 5'2" and, as of last Saturday, 100.8 (those 1/10ths of a pound are always important) lbs. I saw my gastro earlier last week and he told me he wanted me to gain weight.

I've spent the last 10 years in some kind of deficit or, in the year I gained and lost the same lb, what I thought was a deficit but was already planning on crawling into maintenance before he gave me this mission.

VERY pertinent info: I'm not afraid to eat. I LOVE to eat! Put food in front of me and I'll eat! I try to be incredibly active so I CAN eat!

You know how the two most often said pieces of support on here are "weight loss isn't linear" and "the last few pounds are the hardest to lose?" Yeah...well...color me a special snowflake because once I hit 107 lbs, the weight started flying off. (And I consider even .2 lbs flying at this point.) Actually, I'm thinking the weight loss is medical related and have an email into my endo to look at the thyroid panel my gastro ordered.

Even with my perfect world deficit numbers (2300 ish calories for the week) and cheating (cheating to me is taking handfuls of cereal or mini marshmallows and either not logging them or only logging an estimate and I'm not really known for my overestimation of calories in), I lost a pound and a half last week.

So, basically:

1. How does a person who goes straight from losing to gaining, change their mindset? I'm so used to trying to lose weight, I could never even fathom needing to gain.
2. How do you not worry that once you start gaining, you won't stop? I'm a creature of habit and could get very used to eating more than I do now.
3. Why am I so freakin' hungry all the time now?! It's not like I don't eat. I usually eat most of my food right before bed but never really had trouble being all that hungry during the day when I eat more lightly.

I think that's it for now.

Thank you in advance to anyone with tips.

robininfl

Maybe you are hungry because you are underweight, and your body seeks to restore its mass?

You gain, the same way you lose, SLOWLY. Work out so that you can increase muscle along with fat. Otherwise, you will just gain fat.

You don't seem so radically underweight that they should be worried, though. Maybe the margin is smaller because you are short? My mom was 5'4" and healthy at 110 and the doctor had no problem with me hitting 120 at 5'9" as long as everything else was OK, so 100 for 5'2" seems well within the window of OK...If you are right and there is some health issue causing you to lose, I think just telling you to "gain weight" is not reasonable advice, you need to fix what's causing the problem.

glassyo

I forgot to mention I have ulcerative colitis and it came up because I mentioned the weird weight loss wondering if that was a symptom of it getting worse. And, seriously, as much as I tell people not to complain about losing however little they lost that week, this is only weird to me because of the linear/it's flying off thing.

As for being under weight, I ran my scale at home weight through a bunch of bmi calculators and it's *just* below normal. My gastro told me to gain when the doctor's scale had me at 105.

I'm still waiting for my endo to get back to me. One of the tests run was low but who knows what that means in relation to the other two?

Erik8484

To avoid your weight gain getting out of control, log your food and weigh yourself regularly (it's just like losing weight!).

And as for it being a different mindset? It's the same mindset! Set a calorie goal, log your food, weigh yourself regularly, stop before you go too far.

glassyo

Erik8484 wrote: »

To avoid your weight gain getting out of control, log your food and weigh yourself regularly (it's just like losing weight!).

And as for it being a different mindset? It's the same mindset! Set a calorie goal, log your food, weigh yourself regularly, stop before you go too far.

What I meant about mindset set was...well, here's a really good example that just literally happened. My boss decided to buy us lunch and the coworker suggested the Cheesecake Factory. I was looking up the menu on their website and the calories on here and trying to justify anything that actually looked good. And I couldn't. Besides preferring to eat most of my food at night, only 1% of my brain was all, "you can afford to eat more than the 80 calories of chicken you were planning on having for lunch". The other 99% was all about, "600 calories is way too much for me to spend in one meal!"

Also, the weight loss because of my thyroid is off the table. My endo said everything was normal.

fitmom4lifemfp

glassyo wrote: »

Erik8484 wrote: »

To avoid your weight gain getting out of control, log your food and weigh yourself regularly (it's just like losing weight!).

And as for it being a different mindset? It's the same mindset! Set a calorie goal, log your food, weigh yourself regularly, stop before you go too far.

What I meant about mindset set was...well, here's a really good example that just literally happened. My boss decided to buy us lunch and the coworker suggested the Cheesecake Factory. I was looking up the menu on their website and the calories on here and trying to justify anything that actually looked good. And I couldn't. Besides preferring to eat most of my food at night, only 1% of my brain was all, "you can afford to eat more than the 80 calories of chicken you were planning on having for lunch". The other 99% was all about, "600 calories is way too much for me to spend in one meal!"

Also, the weight loss because of my thyroid is off the table. My endo said everything was normal.

Sounds to me like you have an eating disorder. No one that has a healthy sense of self would be worried about eating 80 calories of chicken.

glassyo

LOL no. I love food too much and I hate throwing up too much. I wasn't worried about eating the chicken. When I talk about my mindset, I'm strictly talking about going from being used to being in a deficit (it's been 10 years straight except for that one I inadvertently ate at maintenance) to realizing I don't have to be in one anymore and acting on it. That was part of the reason for the slow crawl into maintenance instead of jumping that step and going straight to gaining.

<----creature of habit

(Plus, I'm having some of the snicker bar cheescake I couldn't even bring myself to LOOK at the oreo cheesecake)

glassyo

Diem78 wrote: »

Oh how I wish that "cheating" for me was only a handful of cereal or marshmallows. LOL. Not to make light of your situation. But come on! Maybe that kind of thinking is why you continue to lose weight.

LOL well I won't be weighing the cheesecake I'm gonna have.

I know! I actually really do feel stupid for "complaining" about this. It's just defying logic because my weekly deficits never really added up to what I should have been losing. And it used to be with the "cheating" along with the logging that I'd at least break even over the week. Plus I always figured I was underestimating my exercise which is why I always needed a bigger deficit than the math says I needed.

I'm kind of disappointed it wasn't my thyroid (ok not really). That's at least easy to fix and would be a ready excuse.

retirehappy

"A little background: I'm 5'2" and, as of last Saturday, 100.8 (those 1/10ths of a pound are always important) lbs. I saw my gastro earlier last week and he told me he wanted me to gain weight...My gastro told me to gain when the doctor's scale had me at 105."

That is not too low a weight for your height. If I were you I'd get on the phone with the dr. office and ask exactly WHY they think you need to gain weight. It is irresponsible of them to just say 'gain weight' when you fit into the normal range as per National Institute of Health's chart, for your height 104-131 is the range. Those charts are based on weight reports from dr. office type scales not something from Bed Bath and Beyond, etc.

As for maintenance, I would suggest adding 100 calories per day /per week (if at 1400, up to 1500 for a week, adding that 100 more until you see real weight gain, then level off. You have been eating restricted for so long, it probably won't take long to hit that maintenance number.

Good luck with the health issue and keeping your hard won weight loss under control. You have a good problem the way I see it. LOL.

AliceDark

glassyo wrote: »

1. How does a person who goes straight from losing to gaining, change their mindset? I'm so used to trying to lose weight, I could never even fathom needing to gain.
2. How do you not worry that once you start gaining, you won't stop? I'm a creature of habit and could get very used to eating more than I do now.
3. Why am I so freakin' hungry all the time now?! It's not like I don't eat. I usually eat most of my food right before bed but never really had trouble being all that hungry during the day when I eat more lightly.

I was in a somewhat similar place a few years back: I'd been under-eating and slowly losing weight for a long time, and I was terrified of trying to gain. I've actually found that it's easier to cut now that I've bulked -- I know that it's a temporary thing and not a matter of "omg, I have to eat this little for the rest of my life!" Plus, I have a ton of empirical evidence showing that, given enough time, I can successfully manipulate my weight. Before I started bulking, I was legitimately afraid that, if I wasn't consistently eating as little as possible, my weight would balloon. I started eating a more appropriate amount, and my weight didn't get out of control. I gained at the rate I'd expect, and that gave me the confidence of knowing that I could maintain/lose just the same way later.

My experience with upping my calories seems to be that I feel stuffed for a few weeks, and then I'm STARVING for a few weeks, and then it evens out. Give it some more time, and I'd bet your hunger cues start to regulate.

glassyo

amyrebeccah wrote: »

retirehappy wrote: »

"A little background: I'm 5'2" and, as of last Saturday, 100.8 (those 1/10ths of a pound are always important) lbs. I saw my gastro earlier last week and he told me he wanted me to gain weight...My gastro told me to gain when the doctor's scale had me at 105."

That is not too low a weight for your height. If I were you I'd get on the phone with the dr. office and ask exactly WHY they think you need to gain weight. It is irresponsible of them to just say 'gain weight' when you fit into the normal range as per National Institute of Health's chart, for your height 104-131 is the range. Those charts are based on weight reports from dr. office type scales not something from Bed Bath and Beyond, etc.

As for maintenance, I would suggest adding 100 calories per day /per week (if at 1400, up to 1500 for a week, adding that 100 more until you see real weight gain, then level off. You have been eating restricted for so long, it probably won't take long to hit that maintenance number.

Good luck with the health issue and keeping your hard won weight loss under control. You have a good problem the way I see it. LOL.

Are you familiar with UC? It is very likely that they want her to maintain a slightly higher average weight because it is so hard to keep weight on during a flare.

Thanks, everyone I also did some googling while playing with the bmi calculators and thought maybe it might be because a lower weight could screw with your immune system and I have to watch out for that.

robininfl

OH! I do have technical advice on gaining, actually. Triscuits and Hummus.

In other words, high calorie, nutritious snacks.

Eat exactly like you were eating, the diet you are comfortable with, but ADD to that each week a goal of healthy snacks that are high in calories. So for the week buy a box of Triscuits and a pack of hummus (that's what I used) or if you prefer, a trail mix with lots of nuts, or a latte each morning, or something like that - the same way you can sneak calories OUT of your diet by changing coffee with milk and sugar to unsweet tea or diet coke, you can sneak them IN by adding some low volume but high calorie foods. You do have to eat them in addition to your regular diet.


This was easiest for me to manage, easier than just trying to "eat more" and I think should help you feel more in control. Basically measure out the extra calories you need for the week, buy them as snacks, and then eat them during the week.

mom23mangos

Good advice @robininfl! When I had to gain weight, I just ate a lot of ice cream. :P But again, 100lbs is not too low for 5'2" unless you have a larger frame or some other medical reason as stated above (my profile pic is 5'2" and 100lb). But I would assume your Dr. would know best.

I think other posters advice to add 100 calories/day of high calorie snacks, then go up another 100 calories the next week until you hit your happy spot is a great idea. A handful of nuts will get you there.

glassyo

Definitely good advice on adding that extra 100 calories a day altho I was planning on 100 a week *cough*. I *did* say crawl!

Personally I still think the "cheating" should be taking care of that. Yesterday, not only did I eat half that piece of cheesecake but some of the coworker's mashed potatoes and a piece of bread. Half the cheesecake got logged but nothing else.

You look great, @mom23mangos! I still have a stomach and thighs (but much smaller bat wings!) but my dirty little secret is I kinda don't care about strength training.

AliceDark

glassyo wrote: »

Definitely good advice on adding that extra 100 calories a day altho I was planning on 100 a week *cough*. I *did* say crawl!

Huh? An extra 100 calories a day above maintenance will give you a gain of 0.2 pounds per week, so it would take you 5 weeks to gain a pound. That's slow, but reasonable.

An extra 100 calories per week above maintenance will give you a weight gain of 0.03 pounds per week, which is a rounding error. At that rate it would take you 33 weeks -- OVER 8 MONTHS -- to gain a pound. If that sounds reasonable to you, you really need to be speaking to a professional.

robininfl

glassyo wrote: »

Definitely good advice on adding that extra 100 calories a day altho I was planning on 100 a week *cough*. I *did* say crawl!

Personally I still think the "cheating" should be taking care of that. Yesterday, not only did I eat half that piece of cheesecake but some of the coworker's mashed potatoes and a piece of bread. Half the cheesecake got logged but nothing else.

You look great, @mom23mangos! I still have a stomach and thighs (but much smaller bat wings!) but my dirty little secret is I kinda don't care about strength training.

No. Not 100 calories a week. You can't possibly be measuring closely enough to figure that out.

My triscuits-and-hummus trick was 2,400 extra calories a week, every other week, and that only increased my weight slowly. You need snacks that are calorie dense, not things that are low calorie. Right now your standard diet doesn't have as many calories as you are burning, so you are still losing, you have to eat something that makes up that difference, then the cushion that adds a little bit of weight.

Again - I'd not worry about being 100lb at 5'2". I would worry if I thought 100 calories a week was material.

glassyo

Oh I definitely need professional help and I absolutely appreciate the tips and the concern but I swear I don't have or want or need an eating disorder. I'm VERY good at eating any and all foods. (Except spicy...or alive.) I'm not so good at changing my habits (yes, I'm almost sure this makes sense ).

I wasn't married to the idea of 100 calories a week less. It's only been a week since I've seen my gastro so I haven't even had time to REALLY get into eating more. Hence the post about changing my mindset after having been so long in a deficit. I've spent 10 years eating (or attempting to eat) less than I burn. I was really taking the rest of the week to see if any of the extra cheating would make a difference. I was also planning to knock down this week's deficit to about 1000 instead of the 2300ish from last week. I think it's more a mind game with me (like you either do the NEAT method or TDEE but either way you're hopefully freakin' eating back your exercise calories ). I loosened the reigns on the estimations when I cheat so that, coupled with the planned deficit, will be the real test during my weigh in on Saturday. If I still lose, I'm definitely upping my calories to make a difference because I'm back to thinking it's a UC thing.

And, for what it's worth, I eat between 2000-2300 calories (eating back every last exercise calorie I can dredge up) a day which is another reason I wanted to go more slowly. I was already working towards maintenance when all this came up.