Gaining back

ok well I am on my way to recovering from an eating disorder. Not so much anorexia or bulemia, but I was eating like 600-1000calories a day and all relitivily low carb things (think no bread/rice/pasta) Well my weight went from 105lbs to about 87lbs in about 6 months or so. But now that I have seen my doctor, she wants me to gain the weight back. I am ok with this because I am too skinney now and my bones stick out. I was happy weighing 105lbs. (healthy diet 1200-1500calories & excercise)

I am going to see a nutritionist soon, but I can't wait that long for advice. I would like to know how many calories I should eat a day to gain the weight back, but SLOWLY because I don't want it to cause strech marks/ turn into fat and not muscle/ or accumulate in one area (mainly my thighs) ..and  it is summer, and i have a new job and boyfriend, so i don't want people to notice a huge change.

So about how many calories should I eat a day to gain gradually?

From my experience (Although I didn't get as low as you) I added on about literally a snack a day.  Hmmm like Jamba Juice or a Nature Valley bar....Something stupid like that.  But It might be diferent because I lost my weight from only eating 100 calories a day my body was so shocked that I gained 3 pounds in a night crazy huh?  So basically thats all you have to do.  Good Luck.  And you should start doing that (Adding more calories)  If #1 You dont want to be a fatty when youre in your 30's-40's

#2 You want to grow taller if you're under 18

#3 If you dont want to gain a pound a night from eating a grape

#4 Get entangled in psychiatric disorders

#5 Have a face with shitloads of pimples

*Youre pretty, Dont ruin it*

Eat at least to gain 1,900-2,000 my nutritionist said according to my height and weight 17-5"4-108 pounds I can maintain at 1,700 calories.  So therefore you would probably gain gradually at 2,000 Good Luck <3

The general rule is that you gain weight when the amount of calories you take in exceeds the amount of calories you burn. My suggestion is to go to the activities section of this site and log in absolutely everything you do in an average 24-hour period. See how many calories you burn on average, and shoot for 2-300 more than that. (That really would just be a jamba juice or something simple like thebledx3 said.)

Good luck! :-)

Good for you thinking ahead about stretch marks. The following are advices that keep popping up from articles/sources I find during my research:

- Drink a lot of water; basically make sure you are properly hydrated
- Be religious about applying moisturizer, especially on the zones people typically get stretch marks (butt, thighs, calves, tummy).

Basic idea is to get your skin stays supple and elastic during the change of body girth.

You can use the tools in reverse.  Let it calculate your expediture, and add calories to that to gain weight.  It takes 3500 extra calories to gain one pound.  If you add 250 calories a day, you should gain 1/2 pound a week.  Don't forget to log any activities over and above your normal activity level, and add calories to compensate for those burned by exercise.

well now i am confused... some of you say to increase gradually and others say to go straight to 2000 calories a day! This is very contradictory information. Yesterday I ate about 1400 calories and today my scale had me up like 3lbs... I know that most of it is water weight because my body doesnt know what to do with the extra calories, but still.

The thing that I am concerned about is that i want to boost my metabolism too. I heard eating like 2000calories will do that, but I think that would cause me to gain weight too quickly, like it is still summer, I don't want to have everyone notice a huge difference when i were bathing suits and what-not.

So i guess until i talk to my nutritionist I will just increase gradually...

I think you should just deal with what you weigh  now, we all have to any other day. If you are fine with the calories you eat now then stay at it.

Hi. I replied to your post on the ED Recovery 2 Board but I thought I'd reply directly to the question on here too. I know when I was in a treatment facility and going through the process of weight restoration I was eating 2900 calories a day. However patients were eating a range of 2200-5000 calories a day in order to gain weight.  I'd suggest working towards eating a minimum of 2000 calories a day for a week. See where you are then and then slowly continue to increase your calories. Your body WILL adjust to the increase in nutrients and your metabolism will pick up. Try to work on getting in enough fats. I know that's troubling but try to get in maybe 8 or so servings of fat. Aim for 5 fruits, 2 veggies, 4 dairy servings, 6 proteins, around 12 servings of starch. If you ever need any help with meal planning or setting things up just let me know! I have AIM if you ever want to talk - or email. Hang in there and keep fighting. Recovery will be worth it!

- Erica