Low weight/BMI - how best to correct and how big a problem?

[KaraK]

Long story short.. I've always been a bit on the skinny side, typically my weight is between 9 stone if I'm being a lazy git and about 8.5 if I'm actually doing that exercise thing, a couple of years of a sedentary life style and eating nothing but pure crap once saw me reach the heady figures of 10.5 stone but I don't think I've ever been above that. Currently however I'm finding myself tipping the scales at 7 stone flat and as a 5'8" 33 year-old male I'm thinking that might be something of a problem.

Thought I'd canvass PH opinion on what the best thing to do is as googling around generally throws up a ton of information for anorexic teenage girls which I'm pretty sure I don't qualify as so trying to work out what would be the best way to put some weight back on and what sort of potential problems I should be on the lookout for in the meantime and whether there is anything I can do to mitigate any ill-effects?

And yes, yes I know.. worst "I'm not a fat bd" post ever

[KaraK]

Zod said:

Are you sure you are not ill?

Not sure I suppose.. but I've got a pretty good idea that it's stress related as the weight loss is a recent thing that correlates with some pretty crappy stuff work-wise. And as they say if it looks like a duck etc etc

LordGrover said:

Eat more, move less.
IANAD

Love seeing the standard PH advice in reverse!

More seriously though I'm actually moving very, very little. My days tend to consist of driving to work, sitting at my desk for ~ 8hrs then driving home and lounging on the sofa for the evening. I'm certainly not doing any exercise! In terms of eating more I am trying - lack of appetite is a problem though as is feeling "full" relatively easily. I am taking advantage of any times I do have an appetite and trying to ensure that I eat a large quantity of decent-ish food at those times

[KaraK]

BenM77 said:

Eat more, move more


I agree with Asterix. Get yourself to a gym or do some weights at home. Eat more food at every meal time and slowly but surely your capacity will increase.

What do you eat in a day to stay so small?

Might try and work some sort of exercise in if possible.. I've never been a weights person to be honest though!

In terms of what I eat in a day it varies a bit but to give you a picture of the last few days:

• Friday - I had no appetite during the day - managed a burger & chips from the chippy in the evening and then had most of a chocolate bar later.

• Saturday - Had a pretty decent sized meal of quality pizza & nachos, again most of a bar of chocolate later on.

• Sunday - Croissant for breakfast/lunch and then decent sized plate of chilli and rice for tea.

Haven't eaten anything yet today... will probably try and get something substantial tonight.

[KaraK]

Asterix said:

So pretty much one meal a day with the odd snack.

And you don't exercise/lift.

And you wonder why you're a tad skinny?

Sorry mate but there's only one way to rectify it - train/exercise and eat at least three decent meals a day. Snack all you want as well.

Yep.. not eating anywhere near enough at the moment. In fairly recent memory I'd happily be eating 3000+ calories a day and I was knocking around the 9.5 stone mark, I'm pretty confident my appetite will return on it's own if I can remove the stressors (was away on holiday for a few days a couple of weeks back and ate everything in sight) but I'm aware that I could probably be doing something in the meantime to manage me through really

[KaraK]

BoRED S2upid said:

What are you drinking? Coffee? Energy drinks? Do you smoke?

Erm..yes yes and yes

[KaraK]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Funny you should mention distance running as it was the major thing I used to do for fitness, doubt I'd ever be anything resembling competitive due to the twin combo of a dodgy knee and being a truly lazy arse but I do enjoy covering the miles

[KaraK]

Sorry for the thread resurrection but thought I'd just update... After my last post I made a concerted effort to eat more and specifically to make sure I upped my calorific intake. Not always the healthiest options to be honest but with my appetite still being AWOL I figured I'd take eating anything as a bit of a victory. The weight did indeed start to come back on and I clawed it back up to about 8st over a month or so. Had last week off work and despite not being majorly active I was finding myself continually famished - I'd eat everything in sight and then 2-3 hours later find myself hungry again. Some days I was probably consuming 4-5000 calories a day! Not sure what numerical difference this made to my weight as I didn't check but after not seeing me for a week I had people comment that I was looking "well" and my face had filled out a bit more again. To be honest despite spending a substantial amount of my time off recovering from a nasty cold bug that is doing the rounds I felt pretty great! Over the last weekend I was even starting to contemplate strapping on my trainers and going for a run!

Unfortunately I'm back at work now and my appetite has once again skipped town - I suppose in a way this is a good and bad news, good in that it suggests that I don't have some underlying serious health condition that is killing my appetite (this episode has been yet another reminder not to google your symptoms ) rather that it is a response to the stress etc resulting from work. The bad news obviously is that I can't just not go to work.

I'll probably be trying to get in to my GP soon and see if they have any ideas as to how best to manage this.

Many thanks to all who have posted with help/humour

[KaraK]

davepoth said:

Flibble said:

Time to start looking for a new job I'd think? It's really not worth staying in a job that appears to be literally killing you...

It does sound a bit like that, doesn't it?

My thoughts exactly..so the job hunt is under way. In the meantime I'll just have to do what I can to mitigate the impact being in this job has.