Expert: Joanne - 1/15/2007

Question
  I am an 18 year old male who is extremely underweight. I am 5 feet 11 inches and was 60kg’s but now only 55 kilograms. The thing is I was just 45 kilograms 2 years ago and people who used to visit me thought I was going to die. In order to solve this problem I went to a nutritional store and found weight gain pills call GINSENG KIANPI PILL, I don’t know if you have heard of it but I took it for about 1 and a half years (2 before going to sleep) and I felt so hungry that I would eat anything that came my way.  That’s how I gained 15 kg’s. But the problem is once I stopped taking it my appetite completely finished I just couldn’t eat anymore. I would go without food for even 13 hours, I just couldn’t eat.
           I still have the same problem it’s been about 6 months and I feel the same way, since I have a very fast metabolism and burn calories really fast and am an ectomorph I lost 6 kgs in 4 weeks and now look the same anorexic I used to look. The situation is worsening day by day, sometimes I force myself to eat and I even puked forcing myself to eat but it’s like I eat 2 pieces of bread and I feel I am full. Please advise me I worked so hard in gaining 16 kgs and have already lost so much. I need your help please tell me what to do. I can’t take those pills anymore because I know if I stop taking them I will lose all my hunger. Please tell me what to do, this an urgent situation, I hate being skinny and will do anything to gain weight.
   I am currently relying on liquids (ENSURE AND MILK) to meet my caloric needs for a day so i dont further lose weight....can you help me ?

With the sincerest of regards,
           Asad Ali


Answer
I think that to begin with, you need to go to your Dr to make sure that there is nothing physically wrong that would suppress your appetite.  There is a chance that this may be caused psychologically, so maybe it would help to speak with a therapist.  The mind is a very powerful thing and can cause things to happen that you wouldn't even relate to being psychological.  After that, you maybe need an appointment with a nutritionist.

In order to gain weight, the best thing to do is to eat as much protein as possible and start building  muscle, so will most likely require lifting some weights, etc.  But you will need to begin this slowly as you may not have a great muscle mass at such a low weight.  

(1) Eat six small meals per day.
(2) Eat 1 - 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, you would want to eat 150 - 225 grams of protein per day.
(3) Keep protein intake to no more than 25% of your total daily intake or calories.
4) Have a protein or weight gain shake 90 minutes before bedtime.
(5) Calories directly from carbohydrates should make up approximately 50 - 60% of your total daily intake.
(6) Keep your fat intake to no more than 20% of your total daily caloric intake.

Unfortunately, I can not find much on the pills, other than that they can increase appetite, and there have also been a couple of bodybuilders given them, but they are asking whether or not they can cause cancer after doing some research on the net themselves, but I can not find this site - everything justs wants to direct me to somewhere I can buy them rather than give me information on them!

Anyway, get that appointment with a medical professional and get everything checked out!

Hope this has been of some help
Holly