IF YOU NEED TO GAIN WEIGHT

All kinds of chronic infections and other illnesses can result in loss of weight. Finding the cause is your doctor’s concern. It is your responsibility to watch your weight and that of your children. If you notice a definite loss of weight, report it to your doctor or to a hospital clinic. They, and not you, will be able to track down the cause and prescribe the treatment.

How to tell if you are underweight

Usually, you need the help of a doctor, even more than the overweight person does, in deciding whether or not you are actually underweight. If you are 10 to 15 pounds below the figures given in the table in the encyclopaedia entry on obesity, and if the bones stick out all over your body or the muscles do not cover the back, thighs, and buttocks with resilient protection or your face is thin and drawn, you are very likely to be underweight. But the figures in this table cannot always answer your question. Let your doctor decide.

What to do about it

If your extreme thinness is not due to ill health, it is due to a failure to eat enough of the right food.

Having decided your diet is inadequate, your doctor will try to discover whether you have a psychological resistance to eating. Although such attitudes may be deep-seated, I have had quite a few patients whose appestats were low because they had been told it was wrong or greedy or wasteful to eat unless they were really hungry, or that it was fashionable to look excessively thin.

Just as your doctor can work out ways for your obese friend to consume fewer calories, he will help you to take in—and really want—additional ones.

Gaining weight without medical supervision

As in the case of those who are moderately overweight, people who are somewhat underweight can work on their own towards a more sensible weight if they have been given a clean bill of health by their physicians. But be sure to consult your doctor if, for example, cutting down on bulky, low calorie vegetables makes you constipated. Do not take laxatives or mineral oil, which may deprive you of some of the vitamins you need.