Gaining

I have gained around thirty pounds in the last five years or so. I just increased my caloric intake, larger desserts, larger servings, etc.

I didn't want to get stretch marks, so I gained slowly.

It only takes a few changes to start gaining.

I don't want to have stretch marks either... Thanks for the advice!

Make your living space require the least movement to get around. Rearrange your furniture to minimize how much you need to move. While you're redecorating add a couple snack bowls to your decor. Doesn't matter what you fill them with, just make snacks easy to access.

Neither change will be huge impacts, but they'll definitely add to passive gains.

Others have talked here about limiting your physical activity, which helped me a lot, but another easy thing to do:

Drink pop. Root beer, Pepsi, ginger ale, whatever. If you don't like pop, drink juice. Juice is LOADED with sugar and calories.

This is really good advice and requires no effort or money so it’s super easy to add into your routine. It’s honestly one of the biggest factors in my gaining. I started wearing loose clothes more often, or sometimes wearing nothing or just a crop top so my belly hangs out while at home. Over quarantine I spent pretty much all my time in that state and I’d gained a lot before I even realised it. It still works now that I recognise it. Tight clothes can be hot occasionally but wearing baggy/no clothes at home just makes me eat so much more.

Also have snacks nearby and buy them in larger quantities, or buy things that come whole rather than individually packaged. I’ll eat a whole cheesecake easily but usually won’t eat more than 2 single-serving mini cheesecakes, for example. Not sure why but it works 😊 also have a mixture of salty and sweet snacks, alternating kinda balances each flavour out and helps you wanna eat more ☺️

Eat right before bed. Heck, eat IN bed if you can. Keep some kind of snack near as well, if your intake goes up enough you might want it at 3 in the morning sometime.