Anyone else unable to gain weight?

[ElectricAlice]

Hi guys. I weighed myself the other day, about 2 days ago and I was about 7 stone and 3 pounds. And I just weighed myself now and I'm back to 7 stone.

I have pretty much always been around about 7 stone for as long as I can remember (apart from growing obviously), but it's starting to really frustrate me because now I'm thinking of all the reasons why I can't gain weight (HIV, cancer, etc). I can literally eat all day, every day and not do any exercise and I won't seem to gain anything! I have a health diet and I guess I don't actually eat all day every day. I usually have lunch, then dinner and then snack later on at night too. But I'll always have my meals in the day.

I mean can anxiety cause this? I know my appetite decreases when I have anxiety, but right now my appetite seems fine and I'm eating a usual amount. I don't know what's going on anymore :(

It's not like I'm loosing drastic amounts, I just can't put any on.

My dad has the same thing basically all his life. I know I have a high metabolism but it just seems ridiculous :(

Anyone else have this problem?

[Trevstan]

What i have learned is anxiety increases the calorie's needed as your body is working harder.

Hence why i have been losing weight, not eating enough to even cover how much i should be eating just to keep my weight i should be eating 2800 cal's.

It's like your body is working out 24/7.

that's what everyone told me in my thread :).

[recoil]

ive battled with my weight most my life even before i started with the anxitey panic attacks kicked in. had problems for years with eating go through phases where i eat like a pig to going days with out eating much at all .over the years my weight has gone to its highest of 9 stone to the lowest around 4 stone .even when im eating properly its so hard to keep the weight on the slightest thing can upset it. it has caused problems over time i now have bad joints and things. ive now been around the 8 stone mark for a while now .and my eatings been quite good despite coming off the antidepresents a few months ago.

[Anxious_gal]

MEEEE even though I am eating better, buying high calorie food, eating more take out food too.
Just seems anything I gain a few pounds I'll have a bad week anxiety wise and lose it again.
It's killed my confidence, I really don't like how I look even though now I only weigh a stone less than before, my face looks too slim and narrow : ( now.

I know I can gain weight, I do think anxiety can make your heart race and stuff which makes you lose weight.
they are people that cannot gain any fat though, I would calculate how many calories you eat per day, I found that if I don't pay attention I eat less that I should be eating : )

[Anxious_gal]

It;s nice to be able to complain here about not being able to gain weight, I only ever here all my friends complain about not being able to loose it, so I guess I can feel left out a bit as I would feel rude complaining of the opposite problem or seem like I am boasting...

[Eyedea]

I have the exact same problem. It sucks. i can't gain anything.. it almost feels like i'm slowly losing weight. i hope its just anxiety. hope you can gain weight soon. well if your trying to gain weight that is.

[kah]

Yep me too. I very rarely lose my appetite, even when my HA is bad but still can't manage to put on much weight. I occasionally manage to put on a couple of pounds but the slighest bit of anxiety and it's straight back off again plus more. It's very frustrating but I no longer worry that there's something behind it (like cancer) because I've gradually learnt to see the pattern when my anxiety gets bad.

The thing I hate most is that people don't hesitate to come up to someone who is underweight and say rude things like 'blimey you look really skinny, have you lost weight' or someone once even said to me 'you look awful, you need a good meal'!! Why is it people think it's ok to say that, they'd never go up to an overweight person and say hurtful things like that! Sorry rant over :mad:

Kerri-anne xxx

[ElectricAlice]

Yeah I completely agree with you guys. It is nice to have somewhere to moan about it! Because usually people are just like 'ohh you're soooo lucky!'. Which I guess is fair enough if theyre trying to loose weight.

I've always been really thin and I've always felt a pressure to eat in front of people to prove that I don't have an eating disorder!

I'm pretty sure it's just my metabolism, because it does run in te family and I've had the problem since I was young. But now my HA is starting to get it's horrid teeth into it and I just don't want to become obsessional about gaining weight. I like my figure I guess, I wish my arms weren't as thin.

And I do feel bad complaining. But it is really hard! And I totally agree with you about how people feel the need to tell you about it. 'oh your so thin, you've lost weight, eat some more' and then you feel like you have to explain yourself, or stuff yourself sick just to prove you have a high metabolism.

But yeah someone would never go up to someone and be like 'your so fat, loose some weight' well if they did that'd be horrible. Both ways isn't very nice.

And also the media annoys me, because there's so much stigma around being thin. Like all these reports about 'too thin' and people don't seem to understand the difficulties of being underweight.

Like I know its probably harder on the other side; trying to loose weight. Especially if your not happy with your figure. I just wish there was more help and advice for people trying to gain weight.

I feel like I've got a knot in my stomach when I feel really bad. So I just can't eat.

[MandySlade]

I was always that way. Always. I wanted to gain and never could. People always told me through the years "well when you hit 20.." or "when you hit 25..." It turns out the magic number was 30. Right around age 31 I suddenly began putting on weight although my diet hadnt changed at all. I put on about 15 lbs in ONE year and I've had it ever since. I'm a normal healthy weight now, no longer "under".. but I was under my entire life up till then. The only other possible contribution is that I started taking a daily multivitamin around the same time. It could be that either increased bone density or increased ability to absorb nutrients helped to put some lbs on me. So, I say take a multivitamin and turn 30 (if you have not already) ;)