Does this sound right?

I'm attempting to gain weight, and I'm unsure what a good goal weight would be for me. I'm 5'5" with a TINY bone structure - 5.5" wrists. I used to eat around 3000 cals a day with absolutely NO NO NO exercise. My workout was getting up to pee. Hahaha. I maintained at like 120 but I was all jiggle and very unhealthy. I was sick all the time.

My doctor recommeneded 100 lbs. because of my structure and history. Does that sound about right, considering my tiny frame?

sounds loooooooooooow.  sorry.  recovering as well but im slightly under 5'4 and wouldnt be healthy until i reached 120s.  use the bmi tool above.

No waaayy. I think because of your history, getting down to 100 might be dangerous. I think 108 is the cutoff for a healthy weight at that height.

How old are you, wistful? Though 100lbs for a teen or an adult at 5'5 small frame doesn't sound healthy regardless. x: But I know BMI ranges differ a little with age.

Aha.  I'm having HUGE issues with gaining... it's STILL not happening. Uuuugh.  I'm smack in the middle of teen years. =)  It's all coming on as muscle... which is taking forever.. and I need body fat. =( I really don't want to be 110-120 lbs of pure muscle - which I personally don't think is attractive! Girls need jiggle!
My biceps are like three times larger than my wrists and it's starting to look funny. =/

I feel very healthy and energetic where I am now, just uncomfortable with my body. So I'm happy with that, at least. I wish I could steal people's fat! =P

wistful, gaahh I know just how you feel.. I was gaining and gaining and it was basically all muscle, and I dreaded the thought that I'd just keep putting on muscle and then have to put fat on over that! I was advised not to work out at all [a lot of recovery patients are advised to do light strength training, but as my body fat was already very low, I was advised to stop] while I was trying to put on fat. Maybe you could.. stop working out as much? Ironically, when I first started working out again I only did cardio, and my body fat went UP! Maybe just ease up on the strength training a bit [assuming you do any].

Jeeze, maybe I should stop offering to carry the grocery bags and start running around in circles instead! =P

*I think anyone in the Weight Loss forums would be hating us right now. Aha!

But yeah, I really don't do much strength training. Could I be building muscle just because I'm consuming protein? My normal diet consists of over 100 grams a day.

Wistful, I also consumer over 100g protein per day and I TOTALLY understand what you mean, however with every pound you do gain, at least a part of it will be fat, perhaps just not enough though- like others suggested, definitely take the weight training/exercise on the light side as not to bulk up, so that way when your calories are over maintenance some of it will come on as fat- and don't worry at all about flab- because you probably won't even see the fat. Just make sure that even though you get 100+g protein per day that you are getting approx 30% of your calories from fat and the rest from good quality carbohydrates :). Also I wouldn't recommend cardio, because that would just burn more fat...thus counterproductive

Thank you very much... finskafisk! Aha! Is there a story behind that name? It's catchy sounding. =)

I think that I'm still going to try for the recommened 30 minutes a day (psht, like I even do that) but perhaps just walking. I think I might have to start dishing out money for supplement drinks. =( Which sucks.. because I can barely afford what I eat now!

Thanks :)...Finskafisk translates as "Finnish Fish" in Swedish (because I'm part Finnish/Swedish...lol)...

Though you don't technically need the exercise, 30 mins of walking is a good habit to have just to get some stretching and also just to get some circulation going- I do recommend supplement drinks like Boost or Ensure (even the plus versions) which you can have as a snack or drink each night before bed (it helps :D).

Another idea which previous dietitians have given me during my weight gain periods is to have one treat per day or rather 'high energy' snack or food (on top of your regular intake)- this can be anything from a piece of cake, a doughnut, a candy bar, bag of crisps, etc...I somehow have a feeling that you don't have to worry too much about too much saturated fat/sugar and it really does help with short term weight gain without being too unhealthy (though for maintenance maybe 1x a week is a better idea :p).

Ohhhh by the way, thought I would share that at Starbucks I tried a new drink today called Vivanno- I highly recommend it, its like a smoothie- two flavours either banana chocolate or orange mango banana and they are basically made with a whole banana, protein powder, milk and come out to 250-270 calories with 21g of protein (so about the equivalent of an ensure)- highly recommend it as a snack if you're ever at starbucks- it's healthy, low in sugar/saturated fat- high in calcium/protein/fibre/potassium/vitamins :)

Original Post by wistfulxthinking:

Jeeze, maybe I should stop offering to carry the grocery bags and start running around in circles instead! =P

*I think anyone in the Weight Loss forums would be hating us right now. Aha!

But yeah, I really don't do much strength training. Could I be building muscle just because I'm consuming protein? My normal diet consists of over 100 grams a day.

 *ahahah I know!

If you're not doing much exercise, yeah, it could be the extra protein; your body could just be re-growing the muscle it lost, or you're genetically prone to gaining lots of muscle [or both]. And like finskafisk said, you probably won't even see the fat--at least some of it may be internal fat, if you have a history of anorexia anyway. You don't want to get to 100 [I don't think; I think 105 should be the lowest], but you're right, you don't wanna be 120 and all jiggle either. Right now I'm around 115-120 and your height and just recently gained a lot of weight [I was supposed to, but it really happened inexplicably] and did a lot of strength training, and gained muscle AND fat.. then I lost some weight while still doing strength training and now I've got good proportions of muscle and fat and I'm pretty happy with my figure--in fact, I think I look better now than I did last year at 100! All I'm saying is don't be afraid of gaining muscle and fat because it'll even out.. or something.. yeah :p

I only read your post and didn't really skim the others but-

I'm pretty much the same- 5'5'' with a tiny bone structure and really small wrists; and at 108 I'm being forced to get to 115. I really don't think 115 is necessary for me, but 100 is definitely nottttt okay. 

I really don't think that's healthy regardless of your frame size. I'm an inch taller than you, and I just measured my wrists and they're 5.5" also but my healthy weight is around 115.