To gain weight intentionally?

[Tooskinny]

Anyone ever done it and felt good about the results?

I'm tall and skinny, always been slim. But at 37 and post kids am slimmer than ever with a BMI of 18.5. I'm struggling with my energy levels and needing to sleep a lot to feel human (9 hours). I think I'm starting to look haggard and I disappear when I turn to the side.

The thing is, my diet is excellent. All from scratch, minimal processed food. I eat dark chocolate every night and a glass of wine a few times per week. I don't feel I restrict anything so I'd have to intentionally add quite a bit which feels so counterintuitive. Plus maybe it'll all just pile on my stomach and I'll still look haggard...? I have daughters and am starting to feel uncomfortable about being so skinny.

I can't find anything online because all the dietary advice is tailored towards people who are overweight. Please no 'nice problem to have' - I'm starting to feel really self conscious about it.

maybe some collagen supplements for your skin and feroglobin and vitamin d for the tiredness.

They are under 6.

To answer your question, id have a chicken breast, maybe 4 new potatoes and 4 broccoli florets.... Is that normal? Husband would have twice that and kids probably about half but varies a lot for them.

I hesitate to poke my head above the parapet here as MN tends to be a bit weird about the subject of food.

But the size of that meal sounds a bit small to me for dinner. I'd definitely still feel hungry afterwards - unless I'd had an enormous lunch.

How much exercise do you take OP? Moving tends to boost your appetite so you might feel able to eat slightly larger portions without feeling stuffed.

Yes I’m not great with these either but according to MyFitnessPal that comes out at around 500 calories which isn’t great if it’s your biggest meal of the day

is that what you computed it as?

If you’re not motivated by hunger it’s hard to eat. That’s a small portion and what I might eat, but I’d have some sauce on the chicken which adds calories.

I should say, I probably wouldn't eat that meal as it sounds very plain but that's probably what I would serve myself if I did.

I'm relatively active - probably get my 10k steps in. Do the odd workout but not that often.

I have a friend like you, who claims to eat normally but her view is skewed! Been on several holidays with her over the years, big group ones with kids and adults and I’d say she eats about a third of what the other adults do.

I suppose that’s the thing - are you adding butter/sauces etc

I think you should just do a review over the next couple of days. Maybe weigh things out so you can see

I can only imagine it’s portion size. My dd is a teen and she just doesn’t really get that hungry or take pleasure in food. So she eats until she is full and that’s it. She is hovering around being under weight so I try and encourage one more mouthful or one more potato and after school I will encourage her to have a sandwich or some biscuits.

What about having a smoothie/milkshake as a snack ? Eg liquidise banana , milk and another fruit or peanut butter for taste. And slightly increase portion for your evening meal - do you mean 4 mini new potatoes ? That's not much . Perhaps do mash instead with butter and cheese.

I’m similar, 20 BMI and I do notice if I’m stressed I get scrawnier, so I’ll consciously increase what I eat. I don’t have a particularly sweet tooth but cream cheese on dark digestives is high calorie and appetising. Nuts too, including peanut butter etc.

I would add things like peanut butter and avocadoes. Healthy fats, high in calories and good for the skin.

I'm also tall and skinny (182cm or 5'11 and 60kg) and this really doesn't sound like enough if you're trying to actively gain weight and not just maintain.

I’m tall and I would probably lose weight slowly on that amount of calories and the typical day you posted so it stands to reason you wouldn’t gain and just maintain on that especially if you’re not sedentary. You just need to get an online calculator and work out how many calories you need to gain 1lb a week and eat them.

You also need to consume extra calories every day, which is the hardest part because it's like there's no buffer zone at this size.

A meal tracker app might be good to make sure you're getting enough and tracking weight gain. Exercising and weights are also good (or so I've heard, I want to go but life is in the way!)

Some people are just naturally very skinny though. I had a friend in college who constantly ate crap, didn't exercise at all but was like a twig. It was just her build and metabolism. Not saying it's healthy, but I don't think she would ever have been able to put on weight no matter what she ate.

Ok thanks. I'm 180 and 60kg.

Hate the idea of tracking calories but guess I should look into it!

I would just try it for a couple of days to just figure out how you are doing. Not long term

How old are you?

Be careful what you wish for. I was the same (also posted on here and basically got told to stop whinging). I eventually put on 3 stone thanks to a mix of medication and turning 45. I wish I could go back to moaning about being too skinny.

If you’re 5ft 11 you’re definitely not eating enough not to be super skinny. 9st at that height is very thin indeed. I’m 5ft 10 and 11 stone makes me a size uk 10. I would be shooting for 10.5 stone at least. I doubt it will make you flabby. When you’re tall it goes on all over a little bit

I wouldn’t bother tracking calories, I would just eat more protein and full fat stuff - either dairy or good quality oils and nuts. There’s no point feeding yourself empty calories. You could try to build muscle while doing with some resistance work/weights.

My friend had this issue she did 2 breakfasts and added in things like nuts as snacks.

She also introduced avocadoes and started high fat proteins more things like chicken thighs and sirloin vs prawns and fillet steak

She gained I'd say a stone? And looked wayyyyy healthier for it

My mum has massive issues with weight gain- probably due to some sort of underlying health issue but dr can't find it.
She genuinely does it good sized portions but has found that adding snacks in helps a bit- so in your case that might be little and often, a morning and an afternoon snack. In the evening try adding something with healthy fats to your chocolate- so nuts, smoothie etc

Can you add in one or two 200 calorie healthy snacks? A glass of whole milk and a banana for elevenses or something? Or porridge for breakfast then the yoghurt as a snack.

yes I was going to say porridge as the breakfast is borderline keto