Need to increase calories, but not weight!

Hi, i am 113 pounds and would like to maintain my weight, however, i have been eating only about 600 calories a day. I would like to incrase my caloric intake but not gain weight! How do I do this, do I slowly add calories or quickly... I need help on this, please! I would like to eat around 1, 200 calories a day. Please give me advice

this is a very common question so try searching the forums for keywords and you'll find tons of information.

unfortunately you will gain weight, you are starving yourself and when you eat more your body will cling to every calorie until it feels secure that it will get a consistent amount of nutrients and then it will stop. 

it is best to increase to 1200 right away because you are damaging your body each and every day by drawing this out so i would recommend just going for it. at first i

t might be uncomfortable so maybe you should try adding

1peanut butter and banana sandwich with 2 slices regular bread, 3 tbsp peanut butter, and 1/2 banana...that's about 550 calories...and that will bring you to 1150.

and then maybe a cup of skim milk for 80 calories 

Thanks,

But will peanut butter make me fat? And will the weight eventually drop off?

no peanut butter will not make you fat. and yes eventually you will stop gaining.

what height are you and what age are you?

Well, I may be weird but I increased my intake from somewhere below 1200 (before I joined CC in February and was restricting as much as I possibly could), to currently 1800, without gaining a pound. I went gradually: two weeks on 1400, two weeks on 1600, and I have now been on 1800 for roughly two months. It was hard work as my stomach had shrunk so much, and I still have to make a conscious effort to get to 1800 sometimes, but I was given lots of excellent tips on this forum on eating calorie dense foods. These are not bulky but highly calorific, so they don't fill you up too much.

Bear in mind that if you are clinically underweight, you will need to actually gain weight, as you may be putting your health/life at risk. Also, 1200 calories a day is most likely not enough for a healthy lifestyle. Finally, if you are only eating 600 calories at the moment, it is conceivable that you have an eating disorder, in which case you need to look for help from a health professional.

If you answer Fidget84's questions, she will be able to point you in the right direction.

Good luck!

I am 16 and 113 pounds, height= 5'2

http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/bodycomp/bmiz2.html

Use this site which is aimed specifically at the under 21's.  You'll find that a healthy weight for your height and age is anything up to 134lbs and that, if you're just normally active (low activity) you need about 2000 cals a day to maintain your weight.  If you do more than an hour a day exercise you need more than that.

If you've been starving for any length of time you will gain some weight when you start eating normally again.  That's the problem with crash-dieting.  If you creep your intake up slowly you'll gain a lot more weight and over a longer period than if you do it quickly.   You'll also be malnourished for longer.  So increase your intake to 2000 cals in as few steps as possible.... 1500 immediately (because you're a teenager and that's the bare minimum you need) and 2000 as soon as possible afterwards.

Sorry, did not realise you were only 16. Please disregard my previous post and follow Gi-Jane's advice.