Considering weight gain UNWEIGHED- (please be my scale!)

Hey- as y'all may know, I've been hopping in and out of the gaining forum for the past several months in an attempt to recover completely from my very short bout with an ED. Now, I currently have no clue how much I weigh, but I do know that despite the fact that I consider myself chubby, my family is constantly accusing me of having lost weight and looking skinny.

I want to do the right thing here and do what is best for my physical and mental health, and after looking at photos of myself from this week and the last, it does in fact appear that I've lost plenty of the weight I gained (I have been trying to maintain a weight of 115ish for a month). 

I really want to make myself healthier, especially to regain my period which will have been absent for 7 months on the 24th. 

Anyway, is gaining weight always necessary for full recovery? I was a BMI 20 at my highest, so should I aim for that? I just want this to be over with, even if it means gaining even more weight.

There are some photos in my gallery that I just uploaded which show my current weight- how much would you guess me to weigh??? Would I look horribly overweight if I gained? And yes, I know that I am not cute.

Man, this whole post was annoying. Better click "post topic" and get this over with.

i dont think you look far off from 100.  im struggling with regaining my hormones as well but im a male so i am trying to get my testosterone back up which is my main goal. i think you need to put on some more weight. you have hardly any body fat and you need fat for your body to produce estrogen. just like i need body fat so my body can produce testosterone. you would look a lot better if you put on 10-20 pounds. how much did you weigh before the ed? how tall were you and what was ur age/ what is ur age now?

Really? Not far off from 100? I'm shocked. I feel like I have a lot of body fat.

Before the ED, I weighed 114-120 at 5'4, that was the highest that I have ever been at the age of 14. 

Now I am 15 years old and have grown an inch. 

wow i would have guessed 20 something years old. you look very mature in your current profile pic. i would suggest trying real hard to stay on the high side of 120. try to at least stay at 120 minimum. you dont have much body fat. im bad at estimating BF % on females but it cant be much more than 10% which is very low for females. my try to get it measured or try using one of those scales that magically tells you your BF% i was shocked when i saw that i was at 5% when i was very convinced iw as at 8% im at about 6% now and i figure i should probably get up to at least 8% so i can tget that testosterone production back up and running so i can build some muscle.

Original Post by jakederry:

wow i would have guessed 20 something years old. you look very mature in your current profile pic. i would suggest trying real hard to stay on the high side of 120. try to at least stay at 120 minimum. you dont have much body fat. im bad at estimating BF % on females but it cant be much more than 10% which is very low for females. my try to get it measured or try using one of those scales that magically tells you your BF% i was shocked when i saw that i was at 5% when i was very convinced iw as at 8% im at about 6% now and i figure i should probably get up to at least 8% so i can tget that testosterone production back up and running so i can build some muscle.

I think Jake has pretty much summed it all up.  You look really skinny to me now, and judging by what you said about your health, gaining may be the best thing to do.

I looked at the photos and since you said you're 5'5", I would put your weight at 108-112 lb. Nothing too far off that range, and that's not chubby/fat at all. Maybe you feel bloated or something, but physically, no one can see that but you. :)

Hope you feel better about yourself. Recovering is also about healing your inner self as much as it is a physical recovery.

The fact that you haven't had a return of menses more than suggests you are still at a too low body fat level. Essential body fat in females is around 12% -- most elite athletes are between 14-20% -- I know when i was competing, when I got below 18% my periods stopped.  And I was never "skinny."

I'm not sure where it is you see the chubby on your body, however -- as I can see none.  Your arms look very spindly. You certainly don't look like you weigh 115.

i know its different for females but how long would it take for your hormones to get back in check once you got your BF back up to where it needed to be , after competing?

What I've been considering doing is increasing my calories to 2300-2500 (estimates since I don't want to count) and then seeing if I gain or maintain, because gaining "hardcore" seems really scary at this point, but if I can maintain on more that could be the answer to my lack of menstruation. 

And thank you coach K for the insight. I imagine that my body fat is somewhere in the 18-20% range, but perhaps I'm just in denial. I'm pretty squishy though. Last spring before I started losing weight, my goal was to reach an 18% body fat by fall. Funny that right now I'd be considering raising it. 

I generally don't like these questions because I think they fuel ED, but I'd say you look slightly underweight.  I think your weight should be determined more on what your doctor says is healthy than what people online think, though.  Are you seeing a doctor?  Has your period returned?  What is the weight that you maintain at when you eat an intuitive, comfortable amount?  I think these are the types of questions you should be asking yourself.

ETA- just saw that you stated that your period has not returned.  If you maintained at 114-120 before your ED, I think this would probably be a healthy range to aim for.

I don't really know, I'm pretty bad at guessing, but I'd say anywhere between 100-110 pounds. To me you look about similar to what I weighed when I was at 103ish (which is in my gallery if you want to see what I mean). You're definitely on the slim side of healthy, and it would do you no harm to gain a little.

You've got a very beautiful face by the way :)