Although most of us find it hard to believe, there are girls who would like to weigh more. They dream of gaining weight as much as others want to lose weight. And it’s just as difficult for them to make this dream come true. What to do to have a little more body?
- Weight and figure are not only a question of nutrition. It is also influenced by our hormones and the stress to which we are subject
- Being underweight can be a symptom of many diseases. for example, hyperthyroidism or food intolerances. It can also be due to mental problems
- How to distinguish a thin person from a malnourished person? It is worth paying attention to a few details
- You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page
What do underweight and overweight people have in common? Both have a health problem – aesthetics is a “side effect”.
According to the World Health Organization, a BMI below 18,5 is underweight
To lose weight, you need to eat less (and healthier, without junk food and sweets) and use more energy from food during regular physical activity. This is the basic rule for people on the so-called reduction. Although gaining weight seems to be the opposite of losing weight, it is not enough to eat high-calorie meals and snacks and lie on the couch to avoid burning precious calories. It is not about gaining weight.
Why am I too skinny?
Weight and figure are not only a question of nutrition. A lot depends on the rate of metabolic changes, and these in turn depend on many factors – only some of them you can influence. You have little influence on how the endocrine system works, and how your body responds to stress (there are people who gain weight faster under the influence of strong emotions, but there are also people who lose weight quicklyeven when eating normally). The cause of underweight may also lie in conditions such as hyperthyroidism, abnormal levels of sex hormones, e.g. excess estrogen, malabsorption syndrome, inflammation of the intestines and accompanying diarrhea, as well as food allergies and intolerances.
You won’t change the genes in which you have a certain body type written. For the so-called “Slim by nature” include ectomorphs. Unlike endomorphs (they usually have a slow metabolism, they get fat quickly and find it difficult to get rid of the “surplus”), ectomorphs are rather small and thin. The distinctive features of their figure are narrow hips and shoulders, long, slim limbs and a flat stomach. Their muscles are poorly defined and invisible when they don’t exercise. While endomorphs have stocks around the buttocks, arms, thighs, and abdomen, an ectomorphic body composition analysis shows a low percentage of body fat because they usually have a very fast metabolism and find it difficult to gain weight. So they often struggle with underweight.
Often the problem with getting rid of underweight (just like overweight) lies in the mental sphere and eating disorders, such as orthorexia (excessive paying attention to what you eat and eliminating other ingredients from the diet, to anorexia or bulimia.
Underweight or Malnutrition?
Not all lean people suffer from nutrient deficiencies that may affect their functioning. Malnutrition does not always go hand in hand with underweight. It may also apply to people with too much weight, who not only eat too much, but also the so-called empty calories. However, in the case of people with too low BMI, it happens more often – when their problem results, for example, from disturbances in the absorption of nutrients or the use of a restrictive diet or mental eating disorders.
To the signals that bear witness to malnutritionin addition to excessive weight loss include:
- decreased physical and mental performance,
- constant fatigue, excessive sleepiness,
- cool skin,
- menstrual disorders,
- irritability and apathy.
Besides, depending on what nutrients are missing, it can happen muscle wasting (lack of B vitamins), bone weakness and osteoporosis (lack of calcium, vitamin D), anemia (iron deficiency), development of e.g. night blindness (vitamin A deficiency).
The secret is keeping your balance
Paradoxically, gaining weight is often helped by the same rules and products that cause weight gain. Eating fast food and sweets will not make your task easier – these are “fillers”, not building materials. At best, you’ll develop a jelly-like belly band, cellulite, and even fatty liver, or excess cholesterol and blood sugar.
The daily nutritious breakfast is important, preferably warm and very nutritious: porridge or millet on whole milk or plant milk with fruit and seeds, a filling omelette with lots of vegetables, sandwiches with avocado paste and homemade cold cuts.
However, underweight people can afford snacking, but it is important that they are healthy snacks, preferably nuts, seeds, dried fruit.
The Omron BF-511 body composition and weight analyzer will help you control your weight. Thanks to it, you will check the content of adipose tissue in your body and skeletal muscles.
We gain weight as we lose weight: slowly
Consistency and patience are necessary to gain weight. Every day, try to ensure that the number of calories provided with food exceed the daily caloric requirement – to calculate them, it is worth using the help of a dietitian or try to calculate them yourself. The healthiest weight gain in people with a fast metabolism is sometimes more difficult than losing weight in people with a slow metabolism. Safe and real weight gain is based on increases of 0,3-0,5 kg per week.
We encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the RESET podcast. This time we devote it to ecology. How to be eco and not go crazy? How can we care for our planet on a daily basis? What and how to eat? You will hear about this and many other topics related to ecology in the new episode of our podcast.