The FastDay Forum

I can't remember if I posted this a long time ago or not, but my 15 yr old came from a visit to the school nurse (he goes there at time) and he is back at being way under weight. I very seldom see him without clothes but he came down na´bare chested yesterday and oy vey - he is thin. Thin with some muscles on. I did manage to put some fat on him when this happened last year and during pool season he wasn't this skinny. I think he weights 50kg and is 176cm tall. The problem isn't that he don't eat, cause he does. Not a lot at a time, but many times. So now I'm to make him smoothies with a banana, egg yolk yoghurt and ice cream. Found vanilla yoghurt with 4.5% fat but no high fat high protein ice cream.
I do cook 95% of our dinners and even though I have made the HB meals on weekdays since I got their cookbooks, I eat my normal 1/4 portion and the guys polishes of the rest 3/4.

So - any ideas on how to fatten the calf? Here I have to confess that there isn't much fish going on since I silly don't like it, so salmon is out of the question. But maybe other ways of doing high protein shakes?

Last time he was this skinny, he said it was all my fault cause I cooked too health meals

My boys were tall and stringy thin at that age, "skinny ballinky long legs big banana feet" they used to say. Lived on cheese and onion pasties, soreen fruit loaf, toast and chocolate! Now strapping men of 6ft 1" and 3" and weigh around 15st. Their stomachs were bottomless pits after school too :0)

I've got two very slim boys and one slightly chunkier. The oldest is only just over 163cm (I think) but it is only in the last year or so (he is now 22) that he has weighed over 57kg. This is only because he has started doing lots of exercise other than running and he has built up muscle. He eats well but only when he is hungry and exercises like a fanatic. The youngest one (17) is taller but also skinny and eats tons (mostly rubbish) and doesn't do a lot of exercise. At 15 they were both very skinny; couldn't get school uniform to fit properly. So long as they are healthy does it matter?

[carorees]

Has he got plenty of energy? Not complaining of being hungry? Feel ok in himself? If so, I wouldn't worry at all. Certainly wouldn't change his diet to high carb just to make him gain fat! He needs to gain muscles not fat so good protein, fat, veggies, exercise and time is all that's needed. As boys go through puberty they start by growing upwards and finish by growing bulkier. If he's naturally slim you can't force him to be otherwise.

There is NO reason to fatten up a healthy boy who is skinny at that age. As long as they aren't suffering from some defined disorder, it's well within the range of normalcy.

My mom and my brother were both painfully skinny as teens, and constantly urged to eat. The result was that when they hit their early 30s and their metabolisms slowed, they had so internalized the idea that they had to eat to be healthy that they both piled on fat and found it impossible to diet. My mom was fat until her 80s and my brother has had weight problems ever since and now finds it impossible to control his diabetes.

Ironically, it was chubbier me, who was notably NOT urged to eat the fattening foods offered to my skinny brother who has been normal weight as an adult (though not without a lot of struggle.)

Thanks all for your replies. You can't force them to eat when they are not hungry, - My son eats a lot, spread over times and has started to eat breakfast (a first in a long time) with yoghurt and cereal. We will continue with the shakes, maybe some added protein powder which his friends do to help with muscle building. I wish he had the drive to go to the gym more and not just when his friends does, but he say he does some exercise (except for moving the gaming mouse LOL) at home so I will buy him some bell bars (you know the things you hold with your hands and work out your arm muscles with).
In my opinion the school nurse is prone to frighten both kids and family

My son is 18 and is tall and skinny. I'd much rather he was like that than how I was at that age - already overweight.

He has always eaten like a horse but has been on a diet recently (I think there's a young lady involved somewhere) and must have lost a stone or so over the past four weeks. There's nothing on him but when he eats he eats well and he's healthy so I'm not fretting. I keep encouraging him to go to the gym or do some weights to bulk up a bit and as much as he seems to want to, he never does anything about it. The playstation seems to have more appeal for some strange reason.

I certainly wouldn't bother trying to fatten him up. He is what he is and as long as he's happy and healthy that's all that really matters.

[carorees]

Eating protein will not build muscle unless it is accompanied by suitable exercise. If the body needs to use the protein to build muscle due to the exercise it will, otherwise it will just convert the protein to glucose and use it in the same way as carbs. So unless you think he is not getting enough protein in his normal diet then I wouldn't bother with the shakes and save yourself some money!

I was a naturally scrawny child and teenager and my mother made my life a misery by continually trying to fatten me up which is why I now hate to see mothers, and yes it is usually mothers, try to force their children to eat more than they want. If they are healthy and eating then leave them alone, life will fatten them up eventually anyway, it did me!

Ballerina x

Well, I haven't made the son myself LOL but we do believe in jumping genes in our family, so I was skinny (177cm/58kg) until I was 25 and was prescribed the anti depressants of that time - tri cyclic ones. No one told me that my appetite was going to sky rocket, but it did and in 3 months I had gained 14kg and life was never the same again. I firmly believe that my metabolism changed there and then and today I struggle to loose all that extra amount of weight I put on over the years....
I would never dream of trying to force anything on son if he don't want it, but he is so incredible skinny - you can see all ribs, pelvis etc in black and white....He does have energy, at least to game 12 hrs when they are having LAN parties LOL and today he said that if his friends wasn't going to the gym on Wednesday, he would go himself. Hurray!

This reminds me of my friend in a situation with her son a few years ago they said he was too short. No one in their family is tall except one son ( she has 4 boys) who is about 5 ft 7. The Mum, Dad and grandparents are all under 5ft 6. I don't quite know what they expected her to do about it. Stretch him! Wish the schools would have better sense sometimes.

My son is full grown - 22 years old, and technically underweight, with a BMI of 18.4. He eats plenty, and usually healthily. His dad was exactly the same, perhaps even thinner. Son could use some sessions in the gym to build muscle, but he knows that, and he's too old to be told what to do
The BMI scale is just a reference tool, really, and just as a person can have a BMI in the overweight category and not be overweight, the converse can be true.

I don't know if son got some kind of epiphany moment after his visit to the school nurse, but after having his shake yesterday he lifted his shirt, pointed at his concave tummy (hope I go that right) and said "so when is this going to be filled out?" It will take many work outs and shakes I said
Later he told me that they (he and friends) would go to the gym efter school today, even if they have sports the last lesson and that he will go tomorrow too even if the others aren't so that will make at least 3 work outs this week
Must have something to do with that he has started to really care about his looks, with a new hair do and (quite expensive) new more grown up clothes. Apart from that, living with a teenager is such a nuisance at times - gahhhhh