Hey, I'm trying to recover from EDNOS before going to college. I'm 5' 3.5'' 100 lbs. I'm trying to gain at least 6 before college, preferably 9 lbs. But gaining weight terrifies me Maybe we could support each other.

Hello!

I am in the same boat. I know I CAN gain weight...I just don't really allow it to happen. I'm stupidly underweight, and it just keeps dropping. If anyone would like to be gaining motivational buddies, add me! I could really use someone to yell at me when I'm under my calorie goal, haha.

I hate all those expressions "You need to put some meat on those bones!", "It'd be so nice to be that skinny!", "Must be nice to eat what you want" and yet they don't realize that even if i eat 3,500 calories in a day, gaining weight is very hard for me. It sucks to be at an abnormal weight. I'd like to say to those people: "Must be nice eat 1 slice of cake and gain weight" "You need to put some bones on all that meat" but I don't because then I'd be no better than them.

I hear people complain all the time that if they eat just one more piece of cake they could gain weight. Heck if I ate ten peices of cake everyday I probably wouldn't gain weight. It's frustrating. It really is. But I'm slowly beginning to accept that I just have to work harder at it. This isn't just about gaining weight anymore, it's about proving everyone wrong for the right reasons. I'm not skinny because I under-eat. I overeat, a real glutton. I do it healthy, but an overeater to the standard. I'm constantly full, constantly not hungry, but constantly eating. It's a chore, and the results are coming, but very slowly. Patience is always something I;ve never been skilled at. I'm 3 weeks into my diet and have gained 4.5 pounds so far. It's a good feeling but I dont feel much bigger than I was.

I don't have a condition, that I know of, and I know I'm a guy so my situation is different than yours, but just know theres other people out there trying to gain weight too. We're going opposite direction than the rest of the country who can seemlingly eat an extra doughnut and appear to gain weight.

I just want to be a normal weight, and stay there for once in my life. Whose with me?

Okay, I have a question for you, or anyone that sees this (not a very active forum!)

Currently day 36 of my 3,500 calories. (My body type should maintain @ 2,500, so I'm eating 1,000 calories extra per day. I've been getting the gains in of 2 pounds, 3 pound, even 4 pounds per week. Everything is great there, and I'm adding in healthier foods that I can find. The habit is there, and my motivation is strong. Going good.

What I'm wondering is how this will effect me if I'm not going to the gym? I'm underweight and I am still 143 pounds. The 13 pounds of fat, and more that I will gain, will it all just go to my stomach or will it "fill me out".

Now trust me I will hit the gym, but I NEED the fat. My BMI is still way too low.

Also, once I hit the gym, I imagine I'll lose weight. Is the muscle heavier than fat or vice versa?

Muscle is much heavier than fat. I recommend ignoring BMI as it's misleading. Your body fat % is what you want to pay attention to, or a combination of total weight in conjunction with measurements (waist, thighs, biceps, etc). Many athletes are "overweight" on BMI because muscle is heavy, but BMI essentially assumes all weight is fat. Thus it is pointless.

As to where the fat will go...that's genetic. You can't control how much goes where. It will be spread out everywhere, but how much goes to your gut compared to another guy will vary based upon genes (and stress, actually).

If you're lifting now but quit/travel/get injured later, you may want to adjust your diet accordingly. I won't advise how to do that, I'm not familiar enough. If you're lifting and want a community that's focused on fitness, and want to talk to knowledgeable people about exercise and nutrition, I'd recommend joining Fitocracy: http://ftcy.me/scTABZ
It's free, you can log and track workouts, etc. I like it.