reverseanorexic wrote:
The thing is I actually DO gain easily if I make myself eat heaps, but it takes sooo much self discipline that I don't really have. Is there anything out there that can shut off the I'M FULL STOP EATING signal from my stomach?
Yes. The feeling of fullness is produced through a combination of hormone signalling and good old fashioned eyesight (and probably some other things I don't know about!).
Hormone signalling is linked to your metabolism, so screwing this over by yo-yo dieting, lack of sleep, eating processed foods with plenty of delightful additives etc. can deal with this. This could, though, lead to health issues down the road.
Eyesight... now that's an interesting one. Basically hormone signalling is kinda slow, so the brain augments this by eyeballing how much you are eating and guessing at when you're full. There was a study years ago (sorry, I don't have the link) where they got students to eat soup and then stop when they were full. Half the group had to refill their soup bowls themselves, but the other half (unbeknownst to them) had their bowls automatically refilled by a hidden pipe. The former group got full after a bowl or two or soup, but the latter group ate something absurd like a gallon of soup before they felt full. All because the brain didn't realise how much they were consuming.
So it's perfectly possible to get around feelings of fullness, at least to an extent, by 'tricking' yourself. This is mindless eating - watching TV whilst eating, for example - anything that distracts you so that your brain doesn't clock how much you're consuming.
You could also boost your appetite through exercise. This is probably not going to help you gain a lot of weight, but it will make the process healthier.