Need to gain weight

So I am 22 months out after surgery and am currently 181 lbs down 245lbs since my heaviest and 215lbs down since my surgery.  I am 6'4".  I am too skinny, I know I never thought I would say that and it seems like a very weird concept but I need to gain weight.  I just don't have a clue how to do it so that I am gaining muscle not fat.  I work out 5 days a week doing crossfit and get a great mixture of weight lifting, cardio, and gymnastics. So I am set there.  But as far as eating goes I don't know what to do.  Can't eat sugar, breads, or pastas.  Eat 99.9% protein.  I am eating about the size of a baseball 3-4 times a day.  Breakfast usually consists of a banana, yogurt with 2 spoonfuls of peanut butter, and a handful of almonds.  Lunch is either about 4 oz of lunch and 4 oz of cheese, or 6 oz of chicken. I snack on almonds and mixed nuts throughout the day.    Supper is usually some form of chicken or steak or burgers not exceeding 6 oz.  I just can't eat any more than that.  I am also on Adderall now for my ADHD so that acts as an appetite suppressant as a side effect of it.  Any suggestions?  I am also fearful of eating because I never want to be fat again.  

Add some protein shakes through the day. Drinking cals is a good way to slow the loss and add more muscle without eating more.

Some ideas in no special order...corn, potatoes, fruit (unless you dump on it), special cereals of some kind like oatmeal, nuts with a higher fat content or fried nuts, chips, a special crusted pizza (depends on the pasta you are talking about), chicken corn dogs, go with 2% milk rather than 1% or non fat...

 I have had more than enough protein shakes in my life.  I would really rather not have them again.  As far as the rest of the stuff....I said I want to gain muscle, not fat.  Potatoes have the same effect on me as breads and pastas so I will not eat those.  I don't test my limits to see what I can get away with.  The closest I get is with yogurt.  I will not be eating anything fried ever again in my life.  No pizza, no breads, no pastas and as little to no sugar as possible.  I can eat a small amount of fruit but after 30g of sugar your body doesn't know the difference between a bowl of fruit and a candy bar.  Except for the cheese I pretty much am eating paleo.  I don't want to eat processed food.  I am working on getting as toned as I can.  Its been almost 2 years since surgery, I want my extra skin on my abs to be as much gone as possible.  Plastics will not be an option nor would I want it to be.  

 I fully understand and appreciate your aversion to sugar, other carbs, and fried food.  We've worked so hard to get the weight off, I know I NEVER want to put it on again.  However, that being said, I don't want to be too skinny.  I'm 6'1" and I think 195 is a perfect weight for me.  

Even though I'm increasing my exercise (training for a Marathon) I've been able to maintain my weight right at 194.  I've also been doing some cross training and do abs/core work almost daily trying to firm up that extra gut skin.  Like you, plastics isn't an option for me.

So, I look to add additional calories, but in the form of additional protein.  I add a scoup of protein powder, which not only adds protein but also calories, to my yogurt in the morning.  I also add about 1/2 cup of a high protein cereal (special K, kashi, Ezekiel).  Again I'm adding some calories, fiber, and protein.  I take in this high protein breakfast about 1/2 hour after I've completed my morning run or workout.  The protein helps add muscle.  With the extra workouts and running I am doing, I can handle the additional calories.  

I've also began making some high protein, No Sugar (splenda) cookies with Oatmeal and nuts, to have as an evening snack, especially on nights before a long run...a little carbo load. 

My wife and I have also started baking our own whole grain bread, with nuts and dried fruit.  I also add a couple of scoops of unflavored Unjury to give it some added protein.  We have a double bread machine so we get two nice loaves per batch.  Once cooled, I use an electric knife and slice the bread very thin.  I cut one piece in half to make a sandwich.

Hope this helps!  Mike

I felt the same way about the shakes but sometimes you have to do things you don't like to get the results you want. If you want to stop the weight loss and add muscle without fat it's just about your only solution. I added 5 to 6 shakes (40-50g ea of protein) and was able to add 25 pounds of muscle with 0 fat. I lift six days a week and run 20 to 25 miles a week. The other reason shakes are a good option is because you don't get used to eating a bunch more food and they are easy to back off of when you slow down your workouts.

Misread...Thought you were wasting away and needed to gain weight.  Yeah, I would say protein shakes (whey protein isolate) is the best way to gain muscle mass.  It is what most athletes use for bodybuilding. Plain nuts would be a good choice too.  You may want to see what body builders are doing...

 I have a cousin who is a body builder.  With clothes on, he just looks like a very solidly built young man.  But, if you see him in a T shirt andd gym shorts, you see a different person.  He's been working on having his healthy body for years.  For protein, he primarily eats lean white meat ( poultry ) and fish.  He'll have protein shakes, but they are always with whole milk.  He snacks on whole grains, nuts, and cheeses.  He's not a runner although he does run in ameteur sports.  His twin brother is his polar opposite 9they are not identical) but I'm just saying thatTHEIRshared environment had little to do with their weights."

Why are you afraid that you are going to gain weight if you eat a healthy and nutritious diet?  Did you gain weight in you past by following such a diet?  I'd be willing to bet that you may have followed a diet like that in addition to the foods that you never were able to admit that you were eating.  Or, maybe you had additional fatty or high-carb foods that you didn't count as long as you didn't acknowlede them.  You may need to have an outsider--some sort of therapist or even a nutrtionist tell you what was wrong with your previous diet and how a proper nutritious diet need not cause weight gain.  Either way, it would probably make sense to meet with a nutritionist or dietician.  If you have your primary doctor set it up, you can probably only have to pay a co-pay rather than the full cost of seeing one.  Anoter good source of info on this transition would be your health in co.  They usually have a customer support phone number and may be able to direct you to either a group or individual therapy for this problem.

Don't get scared of the word "therapy/"  Going to a therapist whether as an individual or in a group is like going to a private instructor.  You are being instructed how to eat nutrious meals without gaining excess weight.  This is their area of expertise.  

If you still need help, look to the specialized Forums within ObesityHelp.com  There are a lot of resources here that we tend to overlook.  If you look in the Exercise and Fitness Forum and see posts by men who started out as being morbidly obese and are now at goal weight., you may want to look up their indivial profiles or blogs to see how they ran or are running their post-op program.  Most men would be thrilled to mentor you for a while as you get used to this new way of life.  And, since they are now living more complete lives, they should be able to eventually tell you that they feel you can handle these situations on your own.  Hopefully, byt then you'll be a regular contributor to other forums whether it be, Men, Exercise, Diet and nurtition so that you can pass on the knowledge you have learned.  Bob

I had the same problem and solved it.  Do the same thing that I did - Make a special appointment with your NUT and bring in a food and exercise diary.  The NUT is a specialist in nutrition and will be able to give you better advice than any of us.