Weight Gain
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Am I healthy?


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I am 15 yr old male, 5 ft 5 weighing 97 pounds.  I have ADHD and anxiety and take adderal. I  am picky about food for the most part so I dont enjoy eating as much as other people. Usually, although just an estimation, I eat 1500 calories a day. Pretty much from the day I could walk  I never ate alot. At the moment I have a PE class in school and lately I started daily push ups and sit ups.

Only now I started to consider that my weight might be a problem after seeing the bodies of other dudes. Not exactly sure what to do, but I managed to eat 1800 calories yesterday and 2200 calories today to maybe help gain weight (if I can manage consistently)

So, what would be best for me? And dont say doctor, I tried, but no help from them really.

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It helps to start with the basics and this site.... http://www.kidsnutrition.org/bodycomp/bmiz2.h tml ... is specially aimed at younger people.  If you input your stats and read off the numbers you'll find you are quite badly underweight with a BMI just over 16.   Even if the doctors you've spoken to so far haven't been helpful you should talk to your parents about locating other, better doctors because being very underweight has medical implications.

If you're reasonably active you'll see you need 2200-2500 calories a day just to maintain your weight... so you can see that 1500 calories a day meant malnutrition.  Interestingly, malnutrition is a big factor in anxiety and behavioural problems.  You're looking at 3000 cals a day, every day, to gain weight steadily.  You could easily find all your other problems melt away as soon as your diet improves.

What would be best for you is to understand what you need to do and then take ownership and do it.   You've made a great start getting up to 2200 cals but it needs to keep going.  It's going to take some planning and effort to work out a 3000 cal diet.... are you up for that challenge?   Aim to eat & snack frequently so that you're not trying to eat massive meals at one sitting.  A really fantastic thing you could do, if you're quite fussy about food, is to learn to cook and experiment a little.   It puts you more in the driving seat.  Broaden your palate from a boy's to a man's... Try new foods, new tastes...  As people get older their tastes tend to change and if you never try something new you miss an opportunity. 

There's a great list of foods for a weight-gainer at the top of the board.  Foods that are rich in calories, nutrition, fats.... nuts, avocados, oils, red meat, salmon (and oily fish in general), full-fat dairy products, chocolate.  And if you increase your intake of things like bread, pasta, potatoes and other starches they're a really good way to gain weight.  Combine with light strengthening exercises.... sit ups and push-ups are fine.... and you should convert a lot of the extra energy to muscle as well as fat.

Talk to your parents about what you want to achieve, have a game-plan and then keep going.  Good luck

As Jane has said, you're going to need at least 3000 calories a day to gain steadily. You're very much underweight for your height, and again as Jane has rightly said - if your doctor wasn't a help, go to another one.

Take a look at this thread: The Aim is to Gain: Advice on Weight Gain, Whatever Your Reason - it's full of tips and advice on how to build up your meals and calorie intake. There's also a sample meal plan of 3000 calories and ideas to increase on it.

It WILL take planning, and regular eating. Will your parents be able to help you out doing all this? Making cal-dense meals for you and so on? Either way, I hope this advice (mine and Jane's) helps you out and if you have any more questions, ask.

Hmmm well i think you should just work out and eat like they said 3000 calories, but try to eat protein; meat, nuts, fish, chicken, etc. =D

Wow, I did not realize it was that bad. Thank you both for responding, I wonder if maybe a high calorie supplement of some sort would be recommended if i cant get 3000 cals naturally?

No. Try to get your nutrition from food, it's not difficult.

what about fiber supplement for digestion?

I agree with what others have said about trying to eat at least 3000 calories, and trying to get it from food too. Being a 15 year old male, your body is still developing and you need food! If I were you I wouldn't really be thinking about taking a supplement for calories, mostly because you should try to get your body accustomed to eating proper meals. You don't really want to be relient on supplement drinks or that kind of thing for the rest of your life. If you are struggling with food quantities though, try eating really dense calorie things, like nuts!

If you're worried about digestion, you could always try getting a general supplement to increase your intake. But I would try eating things high in fiber in your diet first (like fruit, veggies, breads and cereals) before trying that, because you should be ok if you have a balanced diet.  

You will not need a fibre supplement if you get enough in your diet. Which is doable, like flicky said, if you eat a balanced diet. Get at least 3000 calories, with a ratio of about 50-60% carbs, 10-15% protein, 25-30% fats. Three or more servings of dairy or calcium rich foods a day, five or more of fruit and veg. Aim for complex carbs in order to meet fibre needs, and go for about 80% healthy, 20% fun foods. You can have your cake as part of a weight gain diet and eat it too, as well as "junk" and whatnot. There are no bad foods, only bad diets.

Alright, thanks alot for all of your help everyone, I really appreciate it. I now have a general idea of how I should maintain my diet and im definitely going to work on it. Hoping to see some progress in the months to come.

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