Underweight and trying to gain weight and recover

brittanyfaith7031

Hi all, trying to gain weight, I'm 5'2 and I usually weigh around 88-90.

My short backstory. First off, I DO NOT have an eating disorder, or feel any negativity toward my body. But I do have depression and anxiety. I've struggled with these things for a long time, and didn't start getting help until around recently, I was just always in denial that it was a problem and considered myself insane and pathetic for being this way, basically I was embarresed and I hated talking about it. But last fall my mental health was at its worse (I'm the complete opposite of a stress eater) and although I've been underweight my entire life my weight declined a lot during that semester, I just had no motivation to eat or an appetite and my bmi dropped to 15. Obviously my doctor freaked out and that's when I realized it was a problem and I needed to get better.


Now it's been 6 months and although my weight has improved and I've started taking medication for my mental health, I'm going through another episode of depression and my weight is dropping again. But I still feel like I eat so much more than I did last fall, but it's still hard for me to feel hungry, especially lately. I just need advice on how to eat when I have no appetite. And how to gain weight in a healthy way. I downloaded this app because my doctor told me to. I see a nutritionist sometimes, and do research on what to do, but I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing.

If anyone has been through a similar situation or knows of any good books or articles to read that wild be great! I really just want to gain and maintaine my weight and find ways to motivate myself.

Thanks in advance

brittanyfaith7031

Also I'm currently writing this in the car so I'm sorry if I'm not being clear. By recover I mean, I think after basically starving myself for that semester (unintentionally) I think it's been even harder for me to feel hungry and when I eat I get full too quickly off of very little food. Maybe I need to take baby steps to help my appetite recover but I don't even know where to even begin.

jgnatca

The hard thing about depression is that everything goes grey. Even taste.

You might have to treat eating like a necessary chore, like brushing your teeth, until the meds kick in. Set reminders on the phone. Carry protein bars with you. Add nutrition wherever you can. Like drinking milk instead of water, picking fried instead of grilled. Fat is your friend.

jgnatca

Oh yes I was going to say. I'm a post bariatric patient and it was drilled in to us to make sure to drink enough water (hard to do with a small stomach) and watch that I get enough protein. So I have to be quite intentional when I eat and drink.

For water, I start my day with a full glass, work at another at my desk all morning, another all afternoon, and another in front of the TV. All I can take is a sip at a time so it takes all day.

For those of us who let this slip we risk kidney stones and life threatening dehydration.

For you, find a nutritional drink and work on it all day. Fitness stores should have single sample sizes that you can try until you find a flavour you like.

Have you heard of the Mira insulated bottle?

https://www.mirabrands.com/collections/mira-products/products/mira-insulated-double-wall-vacuum-stainless-steel-water-bottle-17-oz-grey

If you are having to be intentional about this you might as well keep your nutritional drink st optimal temperature.

brittanyfaith7031

Thank you @jgnatca that's really helpful, I'll look into all of this, I started eating granola bars everyday and eating nuts like cashews to snack on. I'm sure eating protein bars would be better since I'm assuming most granola bars are just sugar and that the nutrients I probably need to gain weight (I don't really know much about nutrition science). Recently I've stopped drinking coffee and I drink water with those flavoring things you can add to it to make it taste like juice, I have no idea if those things are unhealthy to use everyday, but it helps me drink a lot more water.

I'm just discouraged because I worked hard to get my weight from 86 to 92 during this last half year and improve my mental health, and now it's at 88-89 again, which scares me to think it'll drop even lower especially with my appetite being so bad again lately.

I'll definitely look into the Mira bottle! Thanks!!

jgnatca

Hey, nuts and granola bars are good too. Don't knock them. For you, all food is life. You have chosen life.

jgnatca

Coffee is fine. Coffee with cream is even better.

You are one of the lucky people who gets to drink juice. Calories! If you want to feel virtuous drink one with extra calcium or something. There's V8 Splash but personally I find it vile.

Chocolate milk. Calories!

brittanyfaith7031

Chocolate milk sounds good lol. And oh okay, I heard coffee boosts your metabolism so I was trying to cut down on that, but maybe drinking more of those sugary ones with cream/milk is better. Thanks for all of the advice so far. I'll try V8 if it's helpful at all, i mean nothing taste good anyways when my appetite dies, might as well drink something even if it tastes bad, idk.

rheddmobile

Have you tried any of the supplement drinks like Ensure? They recommended that for my dad when his meds were killing his appetite.

Basically you should do the opposite of someone trying to lose weight - avoid bulky, low calorie foods which fill you up, and concentrate on high calorie foods. The nuts are a good start. How do you feel about avocados / Guacamole? Cheese? Are there any foods you used to particularly enjoy?

V8 is pretty low calorie - you can drink straight up fruit juice and get more calories.

Have you talked to your doctor about exercise? I know working out seems counterintuitive when you're trying to gain weight, but it can be helpful with depression and it might increase your appetite.

brittanyfaith7031

@rheddmobile thank you. I've heard of ensure, and I think someone recommended it to me once months ago, I just wasn't sure what it was. But I'll deff look into it. I deff do enjoy all of those foods, my only problem is that I can't get myself to eat anything I enjoy when I get anxious/depressed, my appetite dies and I'm turned off to all foods, I am trying harder to fight this especially now that I'm aware how my mental health effects my appetite and how after starving myself has effected my health. I had to force myself to eat a bowl of rice today, and it took me like over an hour, but I'm just glad I ate something. It's been easier to force myself to eat after working on it all these month, but I'm still not doing enough since my weight dropped back to 88/9.

My first nutritionist told me not to exercise when I weighed 86 because having a BMi of 15 and exercising is bad for your heart or something like that, but I have been trying to do some smaller exercise routines lately that have less cardio and more muscle mass building (some articles I read said assuming to avoid cardio because it might cause me to loose weight?) also I heard exercising can help depression too.

I don't know, I'm obviously trying to get better, but sometimes I have no motivation especially if I'm experience anxiety and just want to give up, and when I do try it's not enough it seems. I'll deff be talking to my doctor about these things too, i just can't see her until 2 weeks from now.


Thank you everyone for the kindness and all the advice so far!

skymningen

Would it motivate you to not eat alone? In that case, make lunch and dinner dates with friends. Talking while eating might keep you from thinking about the fact that you are eating and also they might help nudging you to finish your plate when they realise you need the nutrition. It can add some variety to what you eat and you spare yourself getting fed up with it already while you prepare it.

If you exercise, definitely log that and eat back all of your exercise calories (and more). I am not sure if exercise is good physically at your stage, but if it is good for you mentally I would do it, as your mental health is the key for your physical health.

misnomer1

Lift weights if you can. Join a gym and start a beginner program like strong curves or strong lifts. Up your pizza and donut intake. Full fat milk can help too

Raegold

Full fat dairy would be great for you... they have some different varieties of full fat yogurts, some with a cream top. Maybe cereal with whole milk, full fat cheeses. Maybe they won't be appealing to you, but they will help you put on weight. I would also double check with your doctor or nutritionist about any exercise you're doing, whether it's cardio or weights.

richardgavel

100 calories can make a lot of difference in a day. That's one of those Fiber One bars, makes for a great snack.

Also, I've found that appetite can be a very fluid thing and habit plays a role in it. If you throw in a snack between meals, not necessarily because you're hungry, keep it up for a while, you'll find your body now expects it and might get hungry when missing.

ROBOTFOOD

Extra liquid calories work for me. My go to is Chocolate whole milk. Just 32oz is 920cal!

As for lifting, I'd recommend checking out Stronglifts 5x5 or 531. Both have free apps on Android and apple. Beginners through adv use them. I've used them several times. Through in some calisthenics. Pushups, pull ups, dips. That will get you a real solid base.

brittanyfaith7031

Hi everyone, thank you so much for all of the advice!! I was hesitant about posting about this since it's an uncomfortable subject for me, but everyone has been really kind and helpful, thanks so much! I will deffenitly be looking into getting ensure, taking to my nutritionist or doctor about muscle building exercising, protein bars, and keeping more snacks around me. My boyfriend often acts as my accountability partner, but when my mental health is bad it's difficult for me to even want to ask for his help, but Ill have him remind me more and have him make sure I'm eating my snacks. Currently I'm trying to get through my lunch which is just a bowl of fried rice, but it's been sitting here for over an hour and I've hardly made a dent. Maybe I need to keep more foods at my desk to eat if I can't get myself to eat one of them.. I don't know, but I am deffinetly trying to find ways to motivate myself, even if I feel awful.

rheddmobile

brittanyfaith7031 wrote: »

Hi everyone, thank you so much for all of the advice!! I was hesitant about posting about this since it's an uncomfortable subject for me, but everyone has been really kind and helpful, thanks so much! I will deffenitly be looking into getting ensure, taking to my nutritionist or doctor about muscle building exercising, protein bars, and keeping more snacks around me. My boyfriend often acts as my accountability partner, but when my mental health is bad it's difficult for me to even want to ask for his help, but Ill have him remind me more and have him make sure I'm eating my snacks. Currently I'm trying to get through my lunch which is just a bowl of fried rice, but it's been sitting here for over an hour and I've hardly made a dent. Maybe I need to keep more foods at my desk to eat if I can't get myself to eat one of them.. I don't know, but I am deffinetly trying to find ways to motivate myself, even if I feel awful.

Rice can be hard to eat even when you feel perfectly well, and has very few nutrients. I know that part of the problem when depressed is making an effort, so I'm not going to tell you to fix yourself better lunches, but is there someone who can fix one for you?

clayelliott847

Just stay on schedule. When I was depressed, I stayed in bed 18 hours a day. I just knew by noon I needed to eat. I usually went to neighborhood market and ate roast pork, yellow rice and black beans. Just needed some human interaction as well.

HeliumIsNoble

Do NOT do any kind of exercise routine at your current weight, without discussing it with a doctor. Lifting isn't safe enough. I know it burns less calories than pure cardio, but lifting weights still means your heart has to work harder, and this could be very dangerous right now. You are below the basement healthy BMI level for your height by approx 15 lbs.

I understand that you are not underweight due to anorexia, but the physical effects of long-term malnutrition apply equally to you, and one of those is heart damage, from muscle loss. Your doctor should have talked to you about this really clearly.

Don't worry about sugar in granola bars- sugar is at least energy.

Your stomach will have shrunk, so you should be trying for multiple tiny meals each day. Full fat milk; bowls of granola, nut and chocolate chips all mixed together; peanut butter sandwiches; pasta with delicious sauce...

Hamsibian

HeliumIsNoble wrote: »

Do NOT do any kind of exercise routine at your current weight, without discussing it with a doctor. Lifting isn't safe enough. I know it burns less calories than pure cardio, but lifting weights still means your heart has to work harder, and this could be very dangerous right now. You are below the basement healthy BMI level for your height by approx 15 lbs.

I understand that you are not underweight due to anorexia, but the physical effects of long-term malnutrition apply equally to you, and one of those is heart damage, from muscle loss. Your doctor should have talked to you about this really clearly.

Don't worry about sugar in granola bars- sugar is at least energy.

Your stomach will have shrunk, so you should be trying for multiple tiny meals each day. Full fat milk; bowls of granola, nut and chocolate chips all mixed together; peanut butter sandwiches; pasta with delicious sauce...

Yes to this and all of the other good advice. I am trying to gain weight like you because of chronic health (not an ED). The same rules do apply, but the only thing that is different for me is that certain foods aggravate my symptoms, so I have to avoid them. Eat and drink everything that was suggested, add extra oil and butter whenever you can, make sure you're getting enough sleep, and stay away from strenuous exercise. When I got really sick last year, I could barely walk from one room to the other, so I focused on fixing my diet first. Then, I walked around the house for a few minutes at a time (during commercials, while food was heating in the microwave, etc). That slowly increased with more minutes and more often, then kept building up from there. I lift a few times a week even though I am still underweight - My health team gave the the green light because my labs and symptoms are improving. It is important to keep your team informed.

Edited to add that eating gets easier over time! At first I really struggled getting to 1500 calories, but now can eat 3,500 to 4,000 every day. Also, and I am still learning this, don't ignore any sort of hunger cues (whether it's real or the imagined). Your body needs a lot of nutrients at this point to repair tissue and balance energy. So eat even if it ends up being 1,000 calories over goal. Your intake will redistribute overtime.

splash03

I know exactly what you're going through. I too am 5'2" tall and weighed 88 pounds when I graduated from high school. I would cry because I couldn't gain weight and I hate the word skinny. I tried drinks, protein bars, exercise, blah, blah, blah and nothing happened. It wasn't until I learned how to relax, not stress so much and enjoy life that I started gaining weight. I started taking paxil (ask your doctor) and began relaxing that I began to eat more and keep weight on. I'm now 126 pounds and everyone tells me I look great and happy. Good luck and hang in there.