6ft 58kg. Weight Gain Help

Nutrition
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Hello everyone.

Im here looking to seek help, hopefully from people who know what they are talking about, or those who are going through, or have been through the same situation as me.

Im a 27 year old guy, 6ft, i currently weigh 58kg, and it continues to drop slowly day by day it seems.

About 2 years ago i was roughly 60-61kgs

A little bit about myself,

Work wise; i dont really do much physically, most i do is walking around alot. I think i average about 15k steps a day.
Im a gamer at heart, so i you could expect, i come home from work, and then also on weekends, i just sit infront on my computer screen for hours on end.

I do smoke, probably about 10-15 a day.
I dont drink

In terms of my diet. I have none.
I dont eat breakfast, i just physicality dont get an appetite in the morningsā€¦ cup of tea and a ciggy when i wake up has pretty much been it for as long as i can remember.

Sugar.
Yes, and unfortunately alot of it. Especially the weekendsā€¦ Energy drinks, Chocolate, sweets, you name itā€¦ like i saidā€¦ typical gamers dietā€¦

But this is not to say i dont eatā€¦
Bacon sandwich for break at work, and some days a egg sandwich for lunch
Takeaways out the yingyang
I do still live at home, and do get cooked meals, which i eat all of.

Im here asking for help from you guys today because i do, somewhat, believe i am lying to myself when i tell myself that i do eat enough so why is this still happening.

I tried eatting and eatting and eatting untill i physically couldnt fit another bite because i could feel my stomach in my throat! Gained 2kgs in 1 weekā€¦ skipped 1 dayā€¦ lost it all over nightā€¦

Weight gain shakesā€¦ tried them, not as constantly. Mostly because it felt like they were feeling my up well before i could actually get some physical food down meā€¦

Medical wiseā€¦ ive had blood tests, all fine, nothing wrong.
Dont think i have a high metabolism but cant confirm.
Same with a hyperactivity thyroid, i dont know
No cancers or anything like that.

Im just shrinkingā€¦ little by littleā€¦ i just know being about to see your heart pumping through the middle of your rib cage, and being about to put you thumb and middle finger around you shins and forearm is a sign that something dramatic has to change asap.

ā€œWait till you hit 30, then all the wait will come at onceā€

I dont see myself hitting 30 at this rate

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Have you tracked what you eat every day? I have a hunch that youā€™re eating much less than you think.

Moreover, 15k steps per day would be roughly 7-8 miles a day. Thats roughly 800 calories of activity which is a lot higher than most people do.

Again, get the data. Log what youā€™re eating and, if you want to gain weight, you want to be eating more calories than you are expending.

The write up of how to gain weight on the r/gainit subreddit is pretty solid advice for you

https://www.reddit.com/r/gainit/wiki/index

Maybe add in breakfast and cut the smokes as well if you can. Good for health

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You donā€™t eat breakfast. You smoke. You walk 15K steps a day. Thatā€™s probably where to start. As mentioned above, track your calories and add your steps. Once you have all that down, youā€™ll probably have a better starting point.

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This is true 99% of the time. People that say they canā€™t gain weight simply donā€™t eat enough, and people that canā€™t lose weight eat too much.

I used to be super skinny and unhealthy. And guess what, I was a gamer too and had a horrible diet and smoked cigarettes.

Nicotine is an appetite suppressant. And at the very least, sometimes when you are hungry you just have a cigarette instead.

My guess is that you eat very sporadically. You get hungry and stuff yourself, so you think you ate a lot, and at that one sitting maybe you did. But if you donā€™t eat again and again that way, you are always going to be at a caloric deficit.

I have been there my friend. First off, you need to start the day with a meal. Havenā€™t you eaten a good breakfast and then been ravenous the entire day? Thats what you are going for. Right now your body has cut your energy level down because it isnā€™t getting the proper calories, so your metabolism is probably depressed. So you are doing the opposite of good body comp changing. You are probably losing muscle and adding fat. Remember, your bodyā€™s main goal is to keep you alive, it doesnā€™t care how fast you are on a bike. So that means it will eat its own muscle to reduce the amount of calories you need.

So, it sounds simple because it isā€¦ but eat more. Get out of the cycle you are in where you smoke first thing in the morning. Get up and eat some food. You really should quit smoking as well, that will help a lot. Good luck!

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Very well. I will do all that. Ill fully commit to stop smoking, and make sure i have breakfast in the morning.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. You really do make a difference :cupid:

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Feel free to come around here and ask for help/advice/support. Everyone here is super supportive and wants you to achieve your goals!

Best of luck to you

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We cannot give you medical advice or give you concrete answers, but Iā€™d do three things:

  1. Continue all avenues in the medical system. Someone in his late 20s should not lose weight like that, and the fact that you are posting this here means something is off. From your answers I get the vibe that you tried some, but your doctors did not take you seriously. Being taken seriously in the medical system takes some persuasion, especially when doctors cannot immediately find out what is wrong. Ruling out metabolism-related illnesses seems like itā€™d be one of the first things doctors should actually confirm (again, I am not a medical doctor, but that just seems prudent). You wrote ā€œno cancers.ā€ How do you know that? If doctors havenā€™t even checked your thyroid function, what have they done to check for cancers? I donā€™t want to scare you, but that seems another avenue doctors should explore. What about mental illnesses like depression?
  2. Are you sure you are eating enough? For example, you wrote that you smoke. It is well-known that nicotine suppresses oneā€™s appetite. How are you food habits? From what you write, it seems ā€œnot very goodā€ might be an apt description. Starting to eat breakfast, though, is probably a good way to start, though.
  3. Just in case I want to comment on a stigma that is completely false and non-sensical, that nerds are bad at sports and have to be either thin or fat. Iā€™m a nerd and while I have the whole T-rex arms cyclist thing going on, Iā€™m fit. Lots of my friends who are fellow nerds are very fit, too. Donā€™t pigeonhole yourself into an image that doesnā€™t really fit.

You wrote that you donā€™t want to enter your 30s the way you are now. Start with small changes and build healthier habits. Pick a sport you like (you posted on a cycling-specific forum, so we have some ideas that involve two wheels). Depending on whether you also feel you need a breath of fresh air when it comes to your social circle, you could pick the sport accordingly. E. g. running is cheap and easy to do, but it is a lonely activity. If you want to meet others instead, try something like judo, volleyball or anything that requires a partner or a group.

I smoked for three years during high school, and I quit once I decided I wanted to do sports. Quitting is another ā€œeasyā€ get.

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Iā€™m so glad to read this being a bowel (colon) cancer survivor. It can scarily hit you when you are young; I might have been in my late 30s when it started to manifest and Iā€™ve heard of it in folk a lot younger; yet screening only tends to start in folks 50ā€™s :open_mouth: FWIW I am just under 60kg at 5 foot 9 and if I wasnā€™t missing 2-3kg of my bowel it would way too light

Iā€™m no dietician expert but that sounds to me to be your anti solution. Get in the habit of having a breakfast and get out of cigarette habit and youā€™ll likely naturally build yourself up.

Worst case there are tasteless prescribed medical drinks, to build you up and I had to take them after a bout of pancreatitis in my early 20s but they are rank :-1: Thankfully I never had to take them during chemo. A natural solution is definitely best! Good luck!

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I quit smoking about 20 years ago, but I can still remember smoking when I was hungry. It absolutely depresses appetite. I think youā€™d be surprised how many of us used to smoke in our teens and 20s. Good luck! Itā€™s hard to quit. In your case, since you want to gain weight, you have an advantage over many who try to quit but go back to smoking because they start to gain weight.

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yep, quit smoking, instant weight gain was my experience. I smoked until I found biking at the OPā€™s age. Quit when I realized biking was for me and that cardio and endurance sports and smoking donā€™t mix too well.

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As I can see you need a full lifestyle change.

Smoking is one of the bigest problem, but not the only.
The quality and amount of your meals matters the same.
You should try to eat 5-6 times a day enough to not feel the hunger. Never skip breakfast!
Eat ch-protein 3:1 ratio.
Make a sandwich from whole grain bread or bun with coldmeats. Spice it if needed with mayo or mustard. You can put into seasonal vegetables. Eat fruits. Try a lot and find your fav.
Eat adequate lunch! Fine pork meat, chiken, or any type of meat with rice and vegatables.
If you have time and skill to make it by yourself, go and do it. There are lots of free receipts on IG or on any social media.
The next important thing: not ā€œtorturedā€ muscles are athroping. Itā€™s sad but true.
Not saying to run to the gym and lift hundreds of lbs. You can start with two 2gallon waterballoons in each hand and make squats. Here we arrived to the eternal truth: No Pain - No Gain. Be persistent! You can do it! :slight_smile: After you gained some stamina, you can experiment with other bodyweight workouts.
The third and the most important thing is the REST!
Sleep well at least 7 hs(or more!) Your muscles will recovering during sleeping.
Eat before bed time to fuel this process.

These are my basic advises.
Be persistent it will be a long process, 3-4 months to see some change. Stop smoking imediatelly! I did it for 4,5 years, I quit from a day to another. This is the only way to leave it forever.
Good luck

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Find a shake recipe that you enjoy and try it for breakfast (regardless of whether you feel hungry) and maybe again before sleep.

Something like: 2 cups whole milk, 2-4 tbsp peanut butter, a banana, a scoop of chocolate protein powder.

This would be somewhere around 800-1000 calories based on how much peanut butter you put in. Do that twice a day for a few weeks in addition to trying to eat larger meals, and I think the weight loss will stop.

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I know lots of people have answered you already, but the key thing for me is calorie tracking. I am a natural Endomorph myself and was always convinced I ate A LOT of food.

I started calorie tracking a few months ago and found out that in fact I was regularly not getting enough calories in, particularly as I exercise a lot.

Iā€™ve been using an app called ā€˜Calorie Counterā€™ by Nutra Check (not an ad, no affiliation etc) for a few months. I exercise a lot so selected a high protein diet as recommended by my coach and was really surprised to see how hard it is to get enough protein and calories in by just eating normally.

I am still light (198cm, 81kg), but now have a v healthy covering of muscle and have had a 10% ftp bump since making the effort to get enough food in despite my training load going down.

TL;DR - Count calories and make sure you are getting enough protein, making sure you account for any exercise youā€™re taking (including walking around at work).

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