I'm very underweight ( 5'7 92 pounds)due to health issues I always have people ask me how do you stay so thin   or joke around and say I wish I had the problem of being to thin - it's not a joke to me I dont have a eating disorder I take alot of meds, pain pump and I just dont eat much I have never been a big eater . Being underweight can be just as bad as being overweight I hate when people make fun of people because of the way they look . Anyone else have a underweight problem ??

Robin, I personally have never had an underweight problem, I swing in the other direction I am afraid.  But I sympathize with you - my dad was sick with kidney disease, and he had several transplants.  In between transplants when he was on dialysis, his system would be so out of wack that nothing would taste good to him, and it was almost impossible for him to eat.  Nothing tasted right, not to mention that renal diets don't hardly let you eat anything anyway!  Poor guy. 

He got to be so thin that his skin was like paper.  And for him, I think being underweight was difficult because when people looked at him, they knew he was sick.  Without a doubt, he appeared to be ill.  And he hated that, he never wanted people to know.  I suppose with women, it is harder to tell, since so many women starve themselves on purpose trying to look good.

Hope you find some people here going through the same issue : )

Well, I don't but it is rude.  I'm sure you've used all those supplements and that stuff.

I'm supposed to be the one with my foot in my mouth :)  At my daughter's graduation, we met her SO's mother for the first time and I was fairly thin then.  This woman is thin but I guess she has some kind of food issues (we don't). 

Anyway, we were all at the Olive Garden for lunch and out of the blue she says something like "You're the thinnest one here (and maybe made a comment about what I was eating), what's your secret?"  Good grief!  I mean, honestly I could have had cancer or something and she wouldn't have known it. 

I said later I could have answered honestly and said, "Well, it helped a lot when my mom died, I've been under a tremendous amount of stress, and I'm also on an antiseizure medication for nerve pain!"  But I was nice and just said "Chocolate." 

I didn't really look good because I just looked gaunt, although it was nice having things go over my hips.  Too bad it doesn't come off just in certain places :)  Anyway, I can imagine having that happen a lot and it wouldn't be pleasant (can you tell I'm still irritated?)

Perhaps there's someone here with similar problems though.

Robin,

    I am not as underweight , nor having health issues; but I am having trouble maintaining my weight, and energy. It is the energy drain that was scaring me the most.

    I went on a low cholesterol diet and as a side affect lost a lot of weight fast.  I am not underweight but I am 5'5'' and went from 160 to 115 almost overnight, without intending to.  I felt depleted and the doctors are amazingly unhelpful. I am technically not underweight, so the fact my system is in shock does not bother them, and besides all these HBO doctors seem to know how to do is prescibe wonder drugs; but that is another story.

   I found help from the old fashion health food stores.  They taught me how to start eating sanely, not just cut out red meat, eat my veggies and swallow my Lipitor like a good girl. One product that really helped was a product called Spiru-tein, a high protein soy powder, I mix in a shake or a smoothie once a day.  It can be used to lose or gain weight, depending how you mix it.  I use it just to be sure my body does not become depleted.  My favorite treat is mixing it with low fat chocolate, soy milk, peanut butter and a frozen banana.  Another trick.  I started mixing ground flax seed or flax meal with my peanut butter and eating it on my toast instead of margarine every morning.

  I never ate a lot.  I just ate stupid. I am not a vegetarian.  I still eat poultry and fish.  Now I am enjoying learning cook with sprouts and fry tofu.  The vegan web sites are amazingly helpful.

  I too would like to hear from people trying to maintain or gain weight and hope other people join in here. The diets the doctors gave me to lower my cholesterol were never intended to work. They were just a piece of paper they handed me to read while they wrote a prescription.

Susan

I have had this problem (though not as severly) when my hyperthyroid acted up.  I am only 4' 10" and weigh somewhere between 85-90.  When I started to dip below 80 it got really scary.  I had IBS at the time and it seemed I could not keep anything in.

I found eating small meals several times a day got me back on track.  The thought of eating repulsed me for awhile.  But, I found I could eat a half a sandwich, a small bowl of cereal, etc. several times a day.  Once I got more in my system, I felt better and then I was able to eat more as a result of it.  Crackers and toast were great for my stomach.

Like Susan, I had no idea how to eat.  I became a vegetarian in my late 20s but I was as unhealthy a vegetarian as I was a carnivore.  I often forgot lunch at work and would live on tv dinners, breakfast bars, etc.  Somewhere in my mind, pototo chips and Reese's peanut butter cups were a good substitute. LOL

When things got bad, I turned to the McDougall diet (by chance I saw him on TV) and I learned balance.  Now my stomach is much better and I've got such variety in my diet that I really like to eat.  I never knew there were so many vegetables to choose from!

I'm still thin but not for lack of eating.  I am now a vegan.  I eat two bowls of cereal in the morning.  I eat veggies and grains at both lunch and dinner.  I eat Luna Bars, NuGo Bars, and Zbars during the day to get extra nutrition.  I'm a rice cake junkie as well.  I also love rye bread and rye crackers.

By the way, Robin, because of IBS and the nausea I had with it, a friend confided in me that when they first met me they thought I was anorexic!  So you aren't the only one. 

Hope this helps :)

Wow, Melody. I am still swinging  after a major round with hyperthyroid a couple years ago. I went from 140 to 90 pounds in 4 months---thinking at first that Atkins diet is really great, I don't know why everyone doesn't use it!!!

And Susan---I hope you have been tested for thyroid by now. Being Hyper does make you exhausted; my doc said your body thinks it is running a triple marathon.

  Then I thought it was stress/overwork, because I was on a special assignment working 14 hours a day for a couple months.

  It wasn't until I went for an eye exam when my doc said there was something wrong with my heart, and sent me straight to the cardiologist....they finally figured it out but it took a while becus I am old to be getting that. I could not even take a shower or climb the stairs in my house.

  They said I would gain my weight back, which made me very hesitant about buying clothes, but I am 5-5 and at  110-  (although just in the last month I can tell I have gained some more) and still have a muffin roll!!  The mags say that means you need to lose weight, but that is not the case, in my case.....

I am so sick of all the magazines full of weight-loss articles; don't they know not everyone is on a diet?

And it does get really tiresome dealing with all the personal remarks, too. And it's hard to find clothes that fit.

Betty, just wondering, because my eye doctor said something to me once that suprised me.  Do you have that blue ring around your iris called arcus?  Among other things, that can indicate high cholesterol.

 No blue ring here; that is a new one to me. My chloresterol has been very low for years, and just shot up when some other things were going out of whack. The docs think it is all thyroid-related, tho.

I've gained 4 pounds ! I'm happy it's a big step for me !