Reverse Chub Club (Help me gain a stone)

Couple of extra spoonfuls of porridge in the morning with gold top milk. Lots of pasta. Kebab after your pint.

Cheese and/or chocolate though maybe not at the same time

Peanut butter for a really enjoyable calorific experience closely followed by Nutella

Butter?

I don't know, watching with interest. I've always had the same problem, I struggle to put weight on. I'm a little bit 'soft in the middle now' these days but I'm still little. I live off pasta so it ain't that.

To gain healthy weight - lift weights
To gain unhealthy weight - lift pies

High sugar and high saturated fats.

Dairies like Milkshakes, ice cream, cheeses. Fried food and fast food in quantity, oh and big bags of crisps, some chili heatwave doritos and sour cream dip 🤤

Also lots of takeaways and don't stop eating when you feel full, only when you feel sick 😂

Are you actually underweight?  Whats your BMI?  I would strongly say don't start unhealthy eating habits. I wouldn't worry unless your BMI is showing you are actually seriously underweight

I find swimming makes me really hungry.  Maltodextrin is what we used with old folk that are underweight.  Its totally empty calories but does not taste (very) sweet and can be added to everything.  35 calories or so in a heaped teaspoon.

Are you actually underweight? Whats your BMI? I would strongly say don’t start unhealthy eating habits. I wouldn’t worry unless your BMI is showing you are actually seriously underweight

This is a good point,  id forgotten about BMI

The calculator says 19.2, so healthy weight but at the bottom end. I've been this weight before but I don't like it, it feels like you have no reserve and it's uncomfortable sitting on a bony arse!

I genuinely find it hard to put weight on, I've tried before but never been terribly successful, I guess because I fill up quickly and don't really like sweet things and don't really crave.

The calculator says 19.2, so healthy weight but at the bottom end.

stop worrying then.  BMI is not a perfect assesment but its a reasonable indication

I genuinely find it hard to put weight on, I’ve tried before but never been terribly successful, I guess because I fill up quickly and don’t really like sweet things and don’t really crave.

Maltodextrin then - as above

Peoples perception of what is a healthy weight has become distorted.  My GP today said i was slim.  I am at least half a stone overweight with a BMI just into overweight.  last summer lost weight - down to BMI of 22.5.  folk kept telling me I was too skinny.

Ask some of your local chubsters what their secret is; when you explain what you mean, run away - they'll never catch up.
But, less seriously - more, smaller meals, per day with emphasis on protein so chicken and lean beef steaks.
Lots of porridge made with lots of full fat milk.

If you're a gym goer or know someone who is, ask a PT.

Crisps, pizza, beer and loads of other things are just empty calories - to be avoided, particularly if you're addicted to them!

I'm currently using Ensure Compact supplement drinks to help regain the 16kg lost after a cancer op (6ft 2in and was 70kg). Found it pretty effective after a previous op 5 years ago.

Could you fit in an extra (healthy) meal? Or have breakfast if you don't normally?  Another option might be a meal replacement shake if it's more palatable than eating when you don't really want to.

I think the worst thing to do would be binge on high fat/low quality/processed food...you can be unhealthy and thin at the same time!

"Gaining weight" means gaining fat, gaining muscle, or both.

I can't see benefits health or otherwise to gaining fat unless you were going to do an arctic expedition or something similar.

Or gain some muscle too: squats will give you more to sit on and help general weight gain, with deadlifts and some chest exercise.

Or buy a softer cushion?

In my case, break a bone or 2, then go to the Alps on holiday and pig out on local cheese and cured pork products.

More seriously - pick up heavy stuff and put it back down. Repeat.

Oh, and people have been telling me I've been too skinny my entire life (BMI 20-20.5). Meh. Most of them now look and act 10 years older than they are. Its harder to maintain now I'm approaching 50, but seems to be a better place to be than overweight. (I do think many people's sense of what's normal now is a bit distorted - as above).

I think it is hard to give good quality advice without knowing more specifics - and I certainly wouldn’t be the one to give decent advice. However, for the last year or more, I’ve been persistently losing weight, and I began to worry that something sinister was wrong. After various scans and checks, I was recommended a dietician, who I saw privately. She was highly recommended by a very well regarded (medically)  gastroenterologist friend of mine.

to cut a long story short, the main flaw in my diet was not enough protein, so my body wasn’t replacing what cycling was burning. Out of the several recommendations, the main one was to eat more high quality red meat, and more meat in general. There were other recommendations too of course, and I just want to say that the process of establishing those recommendations was really very onerous, and took weeks of critical dieting to cut out certain foods and introduce others.

this is dramatically over-simplifying my own situation (which involves quite severe IBS). And it may bear no similarity whatsoever to the OP’s situation. But I thought I’d share anyway. My recommendation is more about seeking expert advice than assuming that eating more red meat would work for the OP.

Another vote for thinner better than larger, especially as we age. And 100% agree that 'normal' is now massively skewed - the 'heroin chic' of the 90s has been totally revered, and skinny people are now being pressured to gain weight. A work colleague really turned his life around a few years ago, started going to the Gym, lost a few stone, and was really in a good place. After one christmas & new year he packed it all in and really went downhill physically and mentally. It turned out that he'd spent the week with his family who made him feel so self conscious about being 'thin' that he didn't think it was worth it!

What is your goal? Gaining fat or gaining muscle? you may need to think about what forms of exercise you do - the more I cycle the 'skinnier' I get and peoples advice on lifting weights is very valid.

FWIW, my BMI is around 22.

Thanks all, plenty of food for thought pun intended

I'm picking up and putting down heavy stuff all day long (builder), so I don't feel the need to be picking up any more heavy stuff!

Being skinny isn't much fun really, although I know people always say 'oh you're lucky, you can eat what you want and never get fat' etc etc. It tends to mean there's no reserves, i'm cold most of the time (long johns always on) and nothing ever fits properly. I do a lot of biking/endurance stuff so having reserves helps a lot.

Interesting comments about the actual diet above, thankyou. I have a good diet but fundamentally I think I probably just don't eat enough and get by happily enough on the minimum - time to supersize my portions perhaps

I think I probably just don’t eat enough and get by happily enough on the minimum

If your weight is stable you are eating enough.  don't overeat unless you exercise more - it will just put fat on.

You aren't eating enough for your daily (work) activities. When I was training 400 km/week, it was 10 days of food a week, and even then I struggled to keep the weight on (179 cm and 70 kg). Now I am not riding anything like that distance, and walking doesn't burn the same calories. So 73 kg and eating a lot less. I too have a boney derriere. Had it my whole life - you won't be any different! And yes, at race weight I was always cold too.

More seriously – pick up heavy stuff and put it back down. Repeat.

You still need to fuel correctly for this 🙂

Just gotta eat more food but healthy stuff so you don’t have a calorie deficit.
(Probably easier said than done tbh)

I would use something like myfitnesspal to log what you are eating. If you have mainly processed food you can scan bar codes to enter calories, protein, fat and carbs. Food cooked from scratch is a bit harder - you need to weigh stuff - but doable.

Do this for a few weeks and you can see what your intake is. Also maybe get a fitness tracker that can monitor your heartrate and tell you how many calories you burn (they are not 100% accurate but give a useful idea).

Then compare calories in against calories burnt to see if you are in a deficit. With an active, physical job you may well be burning 3000+ calories per day which would may be more than you would consume with three typical meals per day.

To get more calories along with a decent amount of protein you could try something like Huel Black Edition shakes - 400 calories and 40g of protein.

Lookup the 3 ingredient peanut butter cookie, sugar egg and pb. Taste amazing and addictive, like crack. Seems to have worked well for me recently (not that I needed the extra weight).

The weight training suggestions simply won’t work for some body types. Ectomorphs will just end up wiry and strong, with maybe a tiny bit of weight gain. My experience of weight training enough for any gain is that it also leaves you too tired to properly enjoy other activities.

I would just try and add an extra small meal to tip the calorie balance in the long term.

Could you squeeze in something like a Huel shake every day on top of your normal food..?

Maybe neck one as a chaser after your last meal of the day so you're not too full for the next meal?

A BMI of 19.2 puts you at the very light end, no matter your height - although since BMI is more of an estimate rather than a science, if you feel too light, then maybe you are.

Mine is 21.5 and my OH says I'm "too skinny", but as with many (especially those of us in the 2nd half of life), whenever I gain any weight it always goes straight on as belly flab - so I avoid it.