Weight gain issues?

[FlossHW]

Hello!
Right, sorry if this makes no sense or is annoying.

So i'm trying to gain weight, which is "easy" as it's a case of, eat more. However, i'm struggling to do that due to eating disorder recovery. I'm 24 and currently fluctuate between 39.6-40kg. 

Now, in the last 4 days I have gone from 39.9 to 40.6, but my intake has not changed. Literally, not moved. From this time last week it's up from 39.6, but there we have the little fluctuation so .9 is fine by me. 

Now I know that really gaining is the goal so I should be happy, but of course i'm confused and a little freaked out because how has it gone from .9 to 40.6 in 4 days when my intake hasn't changed? I've been full of a head cold this week and noticed i've been really bloated and i don't know if that's related? It's very weird and I just wondered if anyone has any ideas what's going on? I mean I know I can't have gained a kilo in a week, or .7 in 4 days, but like... what on earth is making this happen?

Thank you

[SunsetRunner]

Weight fluctuations are normal. It could be a number of things from what you ate to exercising to having your menstrual cycle and more. Don’t worry about fluctuations. If you begin to see a consistent increase over a long period of time then you really are gaining weight. Is it safe to assume you are associating the number on the scale with fat gain? That’s not always true. It might put your mind at ease if you changed your goal from gaining weight to gaining muscle. You have to eat more to achieve that goal anyway. Don’t bother with cardio right now. Find a resistance training program you can do a few times a week. At least this way you know you are putting on healthy muscle mass instead of gaining fat and may help you develop a healthier relationship with food because now you have to view food as fuel for your muscles.

[Baltoscott]

Hi @FlossHW.  Agree with @SunsetRunner that weight fluctuations are normal.  I weigh in daily (unless I'm traveling) and even when I eat exactly the same thing, my weight can change a couple of pounds depending how much water I retain, and a host of other things. Happens all the time.  Here is good article that explains a bit more about the many factors in play besides how much you ate yesterday.

I like the advice of more strength training and less cardio while trying to gain weight.  If you find you are having a hard time eating more, try eating relatively more high calorie nutritious foods -- nuts and nut butters, cooking with healthy oils, adding some starchy veggies and whole grains to your salads. 

Drinking calories can also help with weight gain because what you drink does not tend to satisfy hunger for very long.  Just make sure it's not just junky no-nutrition sweetened drinks.  That can turn into bad habits that can make it hard to maintain a healthy weight.  If you like dairy, whole chocolate milk would be good, as well as full fat yogurt or kefir.

[bikerhiker]

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@FlossHW wrote:

Hello!
Right, sorry if this makes no sense or is annoying.

So i'm trying to gain weight, which is "easy" as it's a case of, eat more. However, i'm struggling to do that due to eating disorder recovery. I'm 24 and currently fluctuate between 39.6-40kg. 

Now, in the last 4 days I have gone from 39.9 to 40.6, but my intake has not changed. Literally, not moved. From this time last week it's up from 39.6, but there we have the little fluctuation so .9 is fine by me. 

Now I know that really gaining is the goal so I should be happy, but of course i'm confused and a little freaked out because how has it gone from .9 to 40.6 in 4 days when my intake hasn't changed? I've been full of a head cold this week and noticed i've been really bloated and i don't know if that's related? It's very weird and I just wondered if anyone has any ideas what's going on? I mean I know I can't have gained a kilo in a week, or .7 in 4 days, but like... what on earth is making this happen?

Thank you

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If you are eating the same food macros while losing weight, eating the same foods and more of that won't really help you add the healthy kind of weight.  Adding weight, aside from increasing body fat, is a basic function of cells growth.  Since you are young @ 24 years of age, you should be eating nutritious food that promote cells growth and body growth.  Foods that are rich in natural protein, minerals, vitamins from leafy greens, complex carbohydrates and dietary fats from dairy or fish.  All you have to do is to consume the calories needed from these natural ingredients within your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) plus maybe a few hundred calories so you gain weight from increase muscle growth and bone growth, which is part of your natural growth process being as young as you are.  The problem with the culture of weight loss nowadays is the total fixation of body weight as the measurement of weight loss success.  This is a dangerous example to follow, because there are certain foods out there that you can consume with a caloric deficit in mind that will accelerate weight loss to a body that is as thin as sticks.  These food macros are meant to remove the body's source of nutrients for growth or to stop muscle growth, bone growth and suppress the immune system thus preventing you from re-generating new cells.  Which is why the food that helps someone lose weight fast in the beginning will never help you gain healthy weight.  Even if they do, most of the weight gain is going to be body fat based, not lean muscle mass growth and neither is bone growth.  A tell tale sign of someone who is lacking nutrients and the proper macros necessary for muscle growth and bone growth is a compromised immune system.  That is, you get very easily sick and your skin will usually get very dry and skin repair takes much longer with a person who is malnourished.  Another tell tale sign of malnourishment is through a DXA scan, a type of bone density x-ray scan that can determine the bone density of the person.  It is NOT uncommon to find young people with osteoporosis; a type of bone disease that make the bones porous, which is easy to break from a fall and so forth.  And while that sometimes can be due to genetics, another possibility is eating foods that do not provide enough nutrition to promote bone growth, and hence the bones are like old people.  In North America, 1 in 2 women suffer from osteoporosis.

Always consume foods that promote body growth and you will gain weight, the healthy kind of weight gain.   

[Musthafa]

Gaining weight is common if you have no control over your food, using smart devices can measure and analyse your health or physical activities. If you have weight gain problems you had to control the diet by consuming sugarless, starchless food items. Or you can consume VLCD products like Optifast, they can give you enough energy with no weight gain. 

[Dominique]

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@Musthafa wrote:

Or you can consume VLCD products like Optifast, they can give you enough energy with no weight gain. 

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These products appear to be highly-processed, industrial foods. For instance, here are the ingredients of their vegetable soup: 

I’d rather buy fresh vegetables and make the soup myself.