Tips for gaining weight and muscle?

Big time congrats to you on moving forward and talking about it! I've gone though my own journey with B.E.D. and blogged about it at my site. Coming out about it has been the most positive change of my life.

Protein shakes are 100% healthy. They aren't weight gainers, most are about 120 calories per scoop of 22-25g protein, but 1 or 2 a day will help you pack on some muscle. I usually drink 1 scoop durin gmy workout, then 1 more with added glutamine following my workout. The biggest thing for packing on muscle is to eat slightly above maintenance calories, if you're eating at maintenance, then you will struggle with adding muscle, regardless of protein/fat/carbs. I'm working on adding weight slowly myself actually, and eating 300-500 above maintenance daily.

Steve
KnightFit.com

You'll need to eat lots of protein and eat more than your maintenance calories. With your weight lifting you'll need to lift heavy with few reps, that's how you'll build muscle. Protein shakes are fine but I recommend one that is made with all natural ingredients and no artificial sweeteners. (I use Bluebonnet soy protein, I find it at a local health food store. Spirutein is also good.) Drink a protein shake (I make mine with soy milk) immediately after working out to deliver protein to your muscles quickly and to replenish the glycogen stores in your muscles. It helps them recovery faster and aids in building muscle tissue.

Glad that you are taking steps to getting healthier.

Personally I prefer getting protein from food, not protein shake (but I do drink some protein loaded smoothie/shake from time to time, when I don't have access to a real meal, within 45 min of after workout). I've found myself can get loaded protein without need protein shake or bar.

A general rule of calculating how many protein you needed for you is: 0.5 to 1.0 gram per kilogram of body weight to maintain, and 1.5 to 2 grams to build muscles. In your case, you definitely want the 1.5-2 grams per kilogram of body weight.

Be careful with "loading up with the protein" thing. It's more about eating them at the right time and right amount. Have some protein before workout helps with the performance of your muscles. You want to "load" those proteins within 45 minutes of the workout. Beyond that, just eat normally. :P

Another thing for you is definitely eat lots of healthy fat (best is the polyunsaturated, the monounsaturated).

Congrats on moving past your ED. Gaining muscle is more about the workouts then anything else. High weights, low reps. As for adding calories, carbs, and protein, it's really not as much additional as people think. You shouldn't go more then 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight to gain muscle. At 85 pounds, you're 38.556 kilograms, so 77.111 grams of protein is sufficient for you to be able to build muscle. As you gain, that will go up, but for now, that is enough. More then that can be dangerous to kidneys that may have been damaged by your ED. Focus on getting healthy and the muscle mass will come without the risks. Carbohydrates for the volume of weight training that is needed for muscle building is a lot more then protein at 8 to 10 grams per kilogram. For you, that would be 308 to 386 grams of carbohydrates per day. You still need fat too, though, so be sure your fat is 15-20% of your total calories. Based on the max for protein (77 grams) and the low end of the range for carbs (308), I'm estimating a calorie intake of 1925 per day with 42 grams of fat to be 20% fat. I don't know what you are currently eating for "maintenance" or "weight gain" calories, but I'm guessing this is higher then what it's been estimated as because it is about 300 more then I get when figuring your maintenance for highly active not counting exercise with the basic formula I've been taught to use. But remember, these numbers are based on building muscle and working hard in the gym for it so it will be higher then you expect. I know that is scary coming from ED. Add in what you can emotionally first and set the higher numbers as a goal. You can do this and we're all here to help you if we can. Feel free to add me as a friend or send me a message if I can help or if you ever just need to vent your way through.

You mention having a hard time hitting your maintenance calories daily. This is something that i struggle with from time to time as well. Keep in mind that liquid products, such as the protein shake, aren't going to keep you as full and will allow you to eat more often. Obviously (or not maybe) don't substitute protein shakes for a meal, they don't have the other required nutrients that you get from real food. Find one you like and it becomes a real treat instead of "ugh - i have another ### calories to eat before i got to bed".

You got some really great advice in this thread - just adding my 2c.