Underweight

I have a BMI of 16. I eat regularly, I don't exercise, yet I am still losing weight. I had my thyroid tested and it is normal. Can someone please offer some suggestions on how I can gain? This has become a very personal battle since I recently miscarried a baby and I would really like to put on some pounds and get healthier before I try again.

Well, what do you normally eat?

use the burn meter calculator in the tools section. that will tell you how many calories you burn per day. to gain one pound a week, add 500 calories to that. since you want to conceive you'll probably want to be getting alot of good fats, so that extra 500 could come from peanut butter, nuts, olive oil, etc.

Breakfast is usually donuts, cereal, or otis spunkmeyer chocolate muffins. Snacks are usually cookies or granola bars. Lunch is anything from a turkey and swiss sandwich to taco bueno. Dinner is usually something I cook. Some of the common dinners are pot roast, spaghetti, fried rice, quesadillas, enchiladas, that sort of thing. Oh, and I drink at least 2-3 Dr. Pepper's a day.

Original Post by leah525:

Breakfast is usually donuts, cereal, or otis spunkmeyer chocolate muffins. Snacks are usually cookies or granola bars. Lunch is anything from a turkey and swiss sandwich to taco bueno. Dinner is usually something I cook. Some of the common dinners are pot roast, spaghetti, fried rice, quesadillas, enchiladas, that sort of thing. Oh, and I drink at least 2-3 Dr. Pepper's a day.

Are you eating the full portions of those things? Because 99% of the population would gain tons of weight if that's all they ate.

If you are really eating full portions of those foods, you need to be careful because it's possible your metabolism will slow down as you age, causing the pounds to pack on quickly.

I think I eat full portions. I eat until I am full. I guess I will just have to try to focus on eating more of better foods. Thanks for the help everyone.

If you can measure or estimate what you eat, then you can look up the items and get a ballpark idea of how many calories you're eating on a daily basis.  Also check and see how many calories you're burning off with your activities.

I know this sounds strange but have you considered you might have a parasite in your digestive tract? The only person I know who lost weight eating like that was my husband's cousin and they finally found a worm in his intestines eating 80% of what he ate. 

Not saying this is the problem but it could be.  

Breakfast is usually donuts, cereal, or otis spunkmeyer chocolate muffins. Snacks are usually cookies or granola bars. Lunch is anything from a turkey and swiss sandwich to taco bueno. Dinner is usually something I cook. Some of the common dinners are pot roast, spaghetti, fried rice, quesadillas, enchiladas, that sort of thing. Oh, and I drink at least 2-3 Dr. Pepper's a day.

if i ate all of that... either i would be very unhealthy and sick or obese...or even both ><

becareful and try to eat healthier...strenght train to build muscles. Muscles= gain weight.

If you are trying to have a baby, I really hope you will be eating healthier if and when you conceive. I apologize if I sound harsh, but I get irritated when babies don't get a healthy start in life because their mother didn't bother to eat properly.

I hope you will browse through the content of these sites to get an idea of how to eat healthy before and during pregnancy:

http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_ne wborn/pregnancy/preg_health.html

http://www.ific.org/publications/brochures/pr egnancybroch.cfm

http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/wha/wha_dietpr eg_crs.htm

Keep a food diary for a month and take it to your doctor.

Depression could be making you feel like you are eating more than you are so measure it.

Do you have any other symptoms?
Hairloss, strange rashes etc?