I'm 5 foot 7, and I weight roughly 115 lbs. I have little fat/muscle on my arms, or anywhere, and I'm tired of it. I'm not looking to bulk up. I'm not looking to be all muscle bounded or anything, yet anyway. For now, I'd just like to look normal. I'd just like to weigh more then the skinniest of girls. If I can get to a normal spot, then I can focus on toning up, but don't think I'm completely ignoring excercising. I am going to get a bike soon and ride it daily for my excersize. I figure this will keep me from becoming fat, which I honestly don't see myself doing since I have a really high metabolism.

So my past diet would include an orange juice in the morning, cereal, and throughout the day it'd be ONLY Coke and junk food (bite size stuff, like goldfish crackers, chocolate donuts, ritz bitz). I have told my parents not to get me any of that now, and they have gotten me a lot of things very high in protein. Today I ate my weight in grams of protein, which is what I was told to do. I had two turkey sandwiches, some chicken alfredo, macorni and cheese, and a few of those string cheese things. I have completely cut out Coke from my diet, and I am only drinking water, and orange juice (mostly water).

As for eating, I have been grazing like I was also told to do. I have never liked the whole 3-meal a day thing, so this was easy for me. I have been very filled the past 2 days and I eat whenever I think I can stuff a whole something in.

I have done this the past 2 days, and I have seen no weight increase, but of course, it is too early to tell. If I keep on this, will I have any weight increases?

Just so you know, I am sort of a picky eater. I am open to pretty much all types of meat, but the problem is that I can't cook, so I really depend on stuff I can pop in the microwave/oven and not have to really prepare. I am open to certain types of fruit, and I really dislike all vegetables. Does ketchup count? I really like ketchup.

So. Suggestions?

Take in more calories than you burn off, and lift weights...

Take my word for it...put on muscle and eat healthy, becuase at the start or during some point of your college years/age, your metabolism will slow down and you'll gain weight.

How do I know how many calories I burn off?

And I don't lift alot right now. I have a 10 lb weight dumbbell. With them I can do 20 reps, but by the 17th I'm pretty straining to get it up. Is this enough for now?

I'm just kind of hesitant to go to a gym, because it costs money, and I'm shy of how skinny I am.

Pretty much all you need to know is to take in a lot of calories. The science to it is take in more than you burn, but gaining weight is a slow enough process that you can judge whether or not you're eating enough by your gains.

Just eat a lot. It sounds like you're on the right track. Just keep at it, and you'll gain some weight.

It sounds like your "lifting" is what, bicep curls? You need to incorporate a lot more exercises. Not having access to a gym you might try http://trainforstrength.com/workout1.shtml

If and when that gets easy move on to the second workout.

But this is going to take time, especially if you're having trouble with the ten pound dumbell. Don't give up if you're not gaining like crazy. And I realize you don't want to gain like crazy, you only want to get normal, but even that is more work than it seems like. I'm in the same boat.

You're not eating enough and twenty curls(?) with 10lbs is pretty bad.

You can buy a 1" barbell for like $20 and plates as you need them for about $0.60/lbs. After you've done that, google "Squat and milk".

eat peanut butter non stop for 2 weeks and post about what happens

I'm not eating enough?! Are you sure? I mean, it probably doesn't sound enough to you, but I was completely filled all day yesterday. I don't have a very large capacity for food right now, since my previous eating habits just included grazing on junk food, and I would never once get full.



Is this a serious suggestion? Wouldn't that much peanut butter be bad?

Well, no, you're not eating enough, but you're definitely on the right track.

One thing you might try is drinking some milk, too, like the Revmeister said. It's got a buttload of protein. Drink it periodically throughout the day for the slow-absorbing protein or whatever. Water is good for you, but it won't help you bulk up at all.

And peanut butter would be good. Not to eat nothing but it, but something like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on wheat bread would be great. There's a lot of protein in it, and about the only thing that could be bad for you in it is the buttloads of fat (assuming you're eating decent peanut butter, not like Skippy). But you're skinny enough that it won't matter. It'll even help, to an extent.

Depending on how much alfredo and mac and cheese you had, I'm guessing you had around 2000 calories. I can put that much food away in a single meal and I still don't gain weight.

Eating nothing but peanut butter would be silly but it's not gonna hurt you to eat it.

I just like the idea *shrugs*. One time, I ate nothing but pie for a couple weeks. Like one pie every 2 days. Nothing really happened.

Okay, well, I woke up at 1 today (didn't want to go to school), and for the next 4 hours I ate as much as I could. So far I've had 2 cans of pasta, a PB&J, one of those lunchable things, a string cheese, and 4 cups of milk. A bunch of orange juice too, but I don't think that's very benificial to weight gain.

I still have half the day, but all the things I've eaten so far are my weight in grams of protein. I will probably try to top it off with this protein chocolate milkshake that has like 50g of protein, but I will need to have a lot of my food in me digest before that happens...

I figure I'll do this a month, then look at my weight. If I weigh myself every day, it gets really discouraging. I just looked at the scale with ALL this food in me and not having pooped recently, and it was only 111 lbs. If I continue like I am, shouldn't I have SOME weight increase by the end of March?

Maybe a couple of pounds.

One thing to make sure of, though, is that you stay active. Otherwise you'll put on fat. When people are bulking they usually eat a buttload, like as much as they can, and work out really intensely two days a week or so. Then after a while they've put on a bunch of muscle and fat, and then they cut by doing a bunch of cardio, leaving just the muscle. Most of the muscle.

You're right about the OJ. Fruits and vegetables are good for you, but they don't have much in the way of calories or protein. They're better for the cutting stage, if you were to do that.

And I'm not sure how true it is, but I've heard that the body can't process more than about forty grams of protein at a time. So you might only do part of the protein shake at a time, or something.

Weight fluctuates pretty decently. I might be 150 today and 145 tomorrow. But I very rarely see how much I weigh, because I just don't really care. I can tell that I'm still skinny by looking down at my arms, my chest, etc. Just don't get discouraged too soon. At least try it for a couple of weeks before you make up your mind whether to quit, tone it down, crank it up, or just keep going the same.

I'm not so sure that you're counting the protein right, though. I eat a fair amount more than you, and I've pretty much never managed a gram per pound in a day. I'm still slowly gaining weight, though.

Would it be better just to go to a nutrionist or something? I'm discouraged just at the fact that I am not getting a professional opinion here.

Orange juice is going to have as much calories as Coke will. Carbohydrates are going to be your friend.

You do seem to be stressing over protein alot. Why do you need to have other food before your shake?

Weigh yourself once a week. If you're not getting results you like, eat more.

I'd wait awhile before you spend money on a nutritionist. My opinion may not be professional but I do spend large amounts of my free time looking over things like this and have even considered getting into the field.

Also, it's not rocket science. You don't really need a professional opinion unless you're going to be a bodybuilder or something.

Trust me, eat a lot and work out, and you will gain weight.

Why not?

And how exactly should I count grams of protein? Till now I just look at how many grams it says on the package. For instance, in the cans of pasta, it says 22 grams for the whole thing, so I've just been adding these up. Is there another way?

I wouldn't worry about how much you're getting at all, so long as you're eating three or more servings of meats and all your milk. Calories on the whole is what's more important.

Another thing is that not all proteins are complete. The ones in pastas, for example, aren't.

I'll recommend that you go to Barnes and Noble(*snickers*) and read the book Scrawny to Brawny by Dr. John Berardi if you're really worried. I'm a big fan of his works.

eat shit before you go to bed