What motivated YOU to gain weight?

jo_marnes

Before I start, please don't shoot me down for this thread. I realise the majority on here are trying to lose weight but we are not all in the group and I know there are some very knowledgable people here who might be able to help me out.

I've been aware for about 12 mths that my body fat % is too low (14-15%). I've stopped having periods, I'm always cold and I look thin (BMI is 18.7). I want to gain in order to be healthy, but I just can't seem to do it. My head is still programmed to lose weight. I eat maintenance cals and feel bad if I go over. I exercise 6 out 7 days. I am concerned that I will lose the fitness and body I have worked so damn hard to achieve.

I am aware of the health risks of being underweight. But being aware is not helping - it's clearly not working to motivate me. So I am asking, what motivated you to regain some weight? Any tips/ ideas/ stories welcome! Thankyou xxx

Dahllywood

I am having the same issue. You are not alone

jo_marnes

bump

DesireeLovesOrganic

What if you add 100-200 cal a day of healthy fats? Avocado and nuts, etc?

feltlikesound

This is not my problem, but a friend of mine is trying to gain weight for similar reasons -- she is always cold, she doesn't feel healthy, and she feels awful/unattractive in clothing. She also hates looking very child-like, especially as she tries to compete in a competitive professional career.

She is having a hard time with it, i'd say a much harder time than I am having losing weight, and she doesn't get the same respect for it.

I wish you well on your journey!

eireannyoung

I was always underweight and always tend to forget about eating or not bother. I never bothered to try gaining weight until about five weeks ago. I went to the doctor complaining of muscle weakness, they ran some tests and told me that my body was breaking down the protein in my muscles for energy - this was from a combination of eating too little carbohydrates, and not replacing calories burned after working out.

I'm motivated to gain weight (and eat more carbs) because I'm tired of being weak and sickly! I want to have enough energy to get things done and enjoy life, and I want to look better (too much weight loss gave me dry and cracking skin, shadows under my eyes, and limp hair... not so attractive).

Nuts and seeds are high-calorie and very nutritious. I soak them overnight and eat them in the morning for breakfast - that paired with a green smoothie gives me about 1100 calories right at the start of the day. Cream-top or traditional greek yogurt is also excellent for weight gain and very easy to eat.

EarthyChocl8AKA

I agree, try adding healthier cals like nuts, avacado, etc and maybe once a week have a large calorie laden meal or two (but healthy still).

TyFit08

I agree with others here, but also considering cutting back you exercise too.

C00lCountry

You could try bumping your calories up a little.
Remember to shot for a weekly average instead of daily.
If you go over one day and under another about the same they cancel each other out.

bbrat333

I've never had to try gaining weight, it's been a struggle to lose any. However, I would assume you could use many of the same reasons you lost weight as reasons to gain... for attractiveness, healthiness, energy, etc. It seems to be similar symptoms. I lost my period due to being over weight, It has become regular again now that I'm losing weight. You just need to find the right medium for yourself where you feel healthy.

MaryJane_8810002

:happy:

aproc

I was at a bmi of 16.5 and I had the same problems and still stressed eating over maintenance. I eventually picked up weights and still was spinning my wheels for a while until I met my amazing bf in the gym. With his encouragement I started eating more and after seeing the results that come with it like higher weights I could lift and progress more often in the gym I was just hooked... Now I can't imagine dieting down too much again. I didn't want to lose what I had worked for then....well now it is the same way but in the other direction. I don't want to lose the progress I've made in the gym. I love the thought of more muscle and now at a healthy weight (I was before getting serious about weights but it still came from encouragement and support from my brother) I am still working on gaining to put on muscle.

Kenzietea2

Continue your exercise regime, there is no need to give it up. There is definitely a healthy way of gaining weight and you sound like you are fully aware of this. Just like when losing you should do the slow and steady method, you should do the same when gaining. Maybe change your weight to 5-10 lbs heavier and start eating the maintenance calories for that weight, and eventually you will get there. Who cares if it is slow, gaining weight quickly no matter how underweight you are is never a good thing. Good luck!

monty619

it was that friggen mirrior i had to look into every day.

skinnylove00

last year i had really restrictive tendencies...i lost my period, had an underweight bmi, lost a LOT of my hair, my hands and feet would turn bluish/purple in air conditioned rooms, i had a very low heart rate and a low blood pressure, and i was just really really sick and bony looking. my doctor told me if i kept running/excersing at the vigorous pace i was, that i was going to have a heart attack. i mean, can you imagine a 98 pound 19 year old girl dying from a heart attack? :noway:

so i saw a nutritionist and she really helped me balance my meals. i stopped running 10k a day and did pilates, yoga, and resistance exercises instead. they helped me stay fit but i TRULY needed to gain weight back in order to be healthy, so i had to back off. the biggest motivation was to get my hair back (i know, kind of vain, but true. i was BALDING!) definitely talk to a nutritionist, tell her your situation. my girl was awesome and she showed me proper portion sizes and set up a simple chart showing me what food groups to eat at each meal. it was easy to follow, so i shut out that ED voice and began nourishing my body again. it took a LOT of effort to get rid of `that voice` and i still hear it daily, but i ignore it and tell myself that healthy is better instead. if i cant be the epitome of thin, then i might as well become the epitome of health and fitness, right? thats the road i am on right now. hope this helps and good luck on your journey :flowerforyou:

jo_marnes

Thanks everyone. I do know HOW to gain.... I just don't let myself do it!

I'm not tired all the time, I'm not sickly and I am the strongest and fittest I have ever been. Hence no real motivation to actually start putting on weight again! I can see abs for the first time EVER - any fat on and they will disappear. I'm having a hard time agreeing that extra weight will make me look better I suppose. It's all about vanity I suppose.

gogophers

Well first of all, extra weight will make you look better. Are you hungry and just forcing yourself not to eat, or do you just forget about eating?

Do you work at a desk? If you do and you are simply forgetting to eat, maybe put some nuts in a jar and grab a couple every time you sit down. I don't know what your diet consists of, so you can substitute something else for nuts if they don't work for you or you don't like them.

FoodieGal09

I'm not underweight, but I recently read a thread on a clean eating board about coconut oil. This woman's child was under weight for his age, not unhealthy but he was in like the 80th percentile or something like that. She started adding a tbsp of coconut oil to his cereal each morning and his weight has slowly gone up even though his diet hasn't really changed. So that is my advice, start adding in healthy fats. You don't need to eat a huge amount of food, just make a small change.

daisyhougan

I personally have the opposite problem but have a slightly different experience with this. My daughter has a health problem that has resulted in a fairly high metabolism so she's both growing and underweight and it was impacting her growth. (Plus, she looked frail.....and that wasn't just my perspective.) Try having that conversation with your pediatrician! It was so obviously the opposite conversation than the one he was used to having but it was frustrating. I wanted to teach her healthy eating habits so I didn't just want to give her lots of junk food or discourage her from being active because both would be detrimental to her long term. What worked for us was to try to sneak what was essentially another snack into the day. She'd have breakfast, lunch, afterschool snack, dinner, and before bed snack. It was usually something healthy,we did lots of nuts or veggies dipped in peanut butter or pretzels. Perhaps I'm wrong but it sounds like part of the problem for you is that you've done such a great job in losing weight that it's hard to have to readjust slightly in the opposite direction. Good luck in your journey!

WillPowerYes

So I am asking, what motivated you to regain some weight? Any tips/ ideas/ stories welcome! Thankyou xxx

Back in the days of being skinny, I was motivated to gain weight because I wanted to have a healthy pregnancy.

jo_marnes

So I am asking, what motivated you to regain some weight? Any tips/ ideas/ stories welcome! Thankyou xxx

Back in the days of being skinny, I was motivated to gain weight because I wanted to have a healthy pregnancy.

This would defo be a reason - if I hadn't already had my 3 kids! lol

I am not working - well, not employed anyway, haha. I am a Mum to 3 young boys, a midwifery student and I volunteer with the SES (State Emergency Service) and am the chairpeson/ fundraiser at my child's Kindy so I'm pretty busy. I don't forget to eat and I'm not hungry. I actually eat a fair amount - around 1800 cals a day. Considering I was eating 1200 - 1400 6 months ago (I've lost 25kg/ 55lbs since 2008) it seems like a lot for me. In fact, when I eat more than that, I never have an appetite the next day and therefore eat less!

I don't FEEL bad - that's the point. If I did, or was unhappy with how I look, I'd sort it out. But right now I just have everyone else telling me to gain weight and I'm just not seeing a REAL reason to. Maybe 100 - 200 cals a day wouldn't be too scary. I'm just not so good at sticking to the amount. I do it for a week or so then fall back in to the same habits. My dietician says I shouldn't count cals, but I feel I'd actually eat LESS if I didn't.

findingmyhappyplace

How about osteoporosis, a rubbish immune system, infertility, depression, increased cancer risk, anaemia, poor quality hair/nails/teeth...

If you really are refusing to maintain a normal healthy body weight, then I would consider whether your problem is as simple and innocent as it might first seem. Your long term health should be a good enough reason to gain weight, but if you have a genuine fear of gaining or you won't prioritise your health, then I think maybe you should talk to a doctor. Good luck! It's not easy to gain weight but it is completely worth it (I gained 15lbs and it's the best thing I've ever done).

lisabrezina1980

Girl hang out with me for one day...seems like anyone that hangs out with me gains weight, smokes more :smokin: , and finds the love for hanging out in pjs all day. Ask my husband Good luck to you I havet he opposite problem but it's a problem none the less and I hope we both get it figured out. :flowerforyou:

catshark209

So a bit of a backstory on me. I was a heavy drinker and well everyone knows when one is drunk one eats. And I ate. And ate. At my "heaviest" I was 125lbs. One day I look in the mirror and see a massive beer belly ( at this point I had been sober for a year but food became my new addiction ) and saggy back and rounded shoulders.

My solution: I had to lose weight. I didn't know what skinny-fat was.

So fast forward to December of 2011 and I'm at a scary 98lbs and my hair was falling out. I was sort of toned but I looked like an emaciated ladyboy. Size 00 Hollister.

I lose weight very easily and have the worst time gaining. I'm trying to gain because I'm tired of the weak waif look and frankly, I'm sick of looking like a transvestite Nicole Ritchie.
I'm at 106lbs and holding but I'd love to be 110lbs and muscular. I want to bulk up. So far I'm trying to get as much protein as I can and eat as clean as possible. I have a nut stash and Ensure for the days I have a hard time getting to 2020 calories. Gaining isn't easy for those of us that tend to the underweight.

All these stupid threads about "Who would want to be a size 2???", look b!tch, if I was a size 00 before and now I'm a 2...that is a victory! Getting rid of my size 00 pants was awesome!

catshark209

I'm not underweight, but I recently read a thread on a clean eating board about coconut oil. This woman's child was under weight for his age, not unhealthy but he was in like the 80th percentile or something like that. She started adding a tbsp of coconut oil to his cereal each morning and his weight has slowly gone up even though his diet hasn't really changed. So that is my advice, start adding in healthy fats. You don't need to eat a huge amount of food, just make a small change.

I'm going try this. My son is also underweight. We're blessed/cursed with this waif-y build!

SpaceHornet

Hello there! I should gain weight as well. I'm underweight (BMI 16, probably a bit more right now since I feel I've already gained something, however I put away the scale so I don't really know) and I'm eating around 2500-2700 calories/day at the moment. Here's the summary of my story that I also posted on some other forum, if you're interested (sorry but english is not my mother language as you can guess, then writing again everything would cause me to consume too much energy! :P)

To cut short, I've been overweight in the past (up to a BMI of 32), then I lost too much and fell into the abyss of anorexia nervosa. After almost 4 years of restriction (and with a dangerously low BMI of 15.3 at its lowest), on february 2012 I finally decided I had better recover before it was too late (I already attempted recovery twice in the past and failed, but this is another story). Previously, I had been eating 700-1000 calories a day if I was lucky, and I also exercised a lot (up to 3-4 hours a day on the exercise bike). From mid-february I slowly started eating more and exercising less, still counting every single calorie (I think I'll never stop doing that - also because even if I try, unfortunately I know the calories of almost everything in this world!). Until Easter I ate from 1200-1300 to 1500 with 1 hour of exercise at least. Then I felt it was not enough and adjusted up my intake to 1700. Until last week my maximum had been something like 1800, but then I read all those amazing things about eating the 2500 minimum (here: http://www.gwynetholwyn.com - if you have an ED and want to recover, it's definitely a site worth visiting!) and I surprisingly made up my mind to stop exercising and reach that huge amount on a daily basis, at any cost.
My aim is to gain at least 10 kg (22 lbs?) and reach 51-52 kg (I still had a regular period at that weight, while below 50 it started being irregular and then disappeared... this happened 3-4 years ago I think), but even ending up at 53-55 wouldn't be that bad (I looked at some pictures where I was that weight and actually I didn't look so bad as I thought at that time).

Well, I use MFP in order to make sure I'm eating enough and it's very helpful. Those of you who are attempting to gain, how many calories are you eating? What's your meal plan like?
Good luck

MaraDiaz

I was walking down the street one day, and someone leaned over and said to his buddy, "She's a crackhead." Yup, that did it. I had been trying to lose the last bit of belly fat (not realizing it was loose skin and not going anywhere). My face was all sunken in, I was dizzy all the time, I almost fainted at the gym a few times, and that belly just would not go. But the crackhead comment snapped me out of it.

pandeamonia

I understand the concept. I'm about 5'9.5", trying to put on a little muscle weight. I was content, or happy with my weight, but I want to put on some lean muscle. I also found out recently that my body fat might be too low (inaccurate measurement tool, so it could be OK..), but just to be safe I was asking around about what to do. I also go to the gym 5-6 days a week, and am starting to see some results in the tone I want. I generally eat healthy, low fat foods and avoid fast food (most of the time). I was told to not be afraid of eating healthy fats, such as avocado, nuts, etc. Basically, that fats from plants (veggies, fruits, nuts, and what have you) and to some extent fish are good, but to still try and stay away from animal fats (beef, pork, etc.).

LovesGG

I was tired of:
- being confused for a middle school-aged child skipping school during school hours
- being asked if I was older than 18 before being able to go inside certain places
- being the butt of everyone's skinny jokes
- looking like a popsicle stick in a dress
- not having any energy
- not being able to go up a flight of stairs without feeling I was going to collapse
- not being able to focus in school
- having breathing problems accompanied by a super fast resting heart rate of 90-95 bpm
- seeing my collar bone's shadow be the center of attention in every picture I took
- always being told I need to eat a couple of cheeseburgers
- terrible acne
- abnormally frequent periods
- being called anorexic on a regular basis
- pancake butt syndrome

babystepsforward

i am exactly the same. my BMI is under and ive stopped my periods. i look thin , i feel cold etc... i want to feel andlook good but i cannot get out of the habbit of choosing low calo, low fat, exercising etc... I cannot convince myself it is a good thing to eat junk etc.. its so confusing and hard. help!

lcfairbairn74

Firstly, may I just say how refreshing it is to hear the other side of weight and health issues. Most on here are trying to lose weight (including myself), but rarely hear from people struggling trying to gain some.

It sounds to me, with my completely inexperienced opinion, that there is more a psychological issue stopping you from gaining weight. You can have all the reasons in the world told to you as to why you need to gain from other people, but you need to find the motivation that spurs you on to do it. Maybe you need to speak to someone about the psychological block you have?

I hope you find the motivation to be healthier and happy with how you look. :flowerforyou: