I like to see women getting closer to the body they want, whether that means losing weight, getting fatter or gaining muscle. They get happier and more confident, which is always attractive.

The exception is when people with skewed perspectives do extreme and dangerous things to their bodies, for example anorexics.

I got the same marks in high school, LL. It was simply from growing upwards very quickly. At the time it looked like I'd been whipped, but now they're like faint scars.

Vitamin B1 tablets (1 a day, at least 50mg) for increased appetite and better use of the food you eat.

Chocolate is as calorie-dense as anything you can eat, but you can make do-it-yourself weight gain shakes with anything from melted icecream to unsalted peanut butter to instant cake mix.

Have big, late meals so you store the weight while you're sleeping instead of burning it off.

And enjoy yourself. Don't let eating become a chore.

Welcome to the site and the community.

Your metabolism is obviously fast from being active. If you want to slow it down, try SKIPPING meals and waiting until you're hungry before you eat. That way, your body may get the impression that food is scarce, and store more for later. Being active at the same time might actually help with that.

Forget store-bought shakes. Make your own, out of anything you like - instant cake mix (drink a whole cake!), cream, ice cream, unsalted peanut butter, non-dairy creamer, full-cream milk, fruit...the possibilities are endless.

Let us know what you try, and how you go. Best of luck. Eat hearty.

Gotta say I go for the blank slate. The change is most pronounced from pound to pound. With really skinny girls (bones and everything, Neko) there's also the fact that they immediately look so much healthier.

Well, there have been some who left a message along the lines of, "I'm losing/maintaining my weight now, my priorities have changed, but thanks for all the support." That's not what I'm talking about.

I mean the women who suddenly dismantle their entire online presence in one go, removing any contact details and cutting themselves off entirely. Zoe of growingmybelly.webs.com was the most recent one. It's the immediacy of the departure, and the lack of a formal or informal goodbye, that worries me in these cases.

I've been enjoying ladies' weight gain journeys online for a few years now, and I love to offer praise, encouragement and advice as they go.

Sadly, I've had to learn to expect disappointment. So often, when a woman comes here or starts her own site/blog to share her journey with the world, she gets a few weeks in at the most (enough to baaaarely see a difference in the pictures, if any) and then simply vanishes without a word. The account or the blog dies on the vine. Recent examples are gainingkatie.blogspot.com and growingmybelly.webs.com, both of which had accounts on FF.

I'd like to think that they simply find something else to do with their time, but the abruptness of their disappearance always worries me. Is it because their family or friends have found them out? Are they overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response from, let's face it, people like me? Or worse, are they scared away by people who contact them merely to offend them, or illegitimately obtain their personal details?

I'm sure you all remember vanishing acts like this. I wonder, has anyone been in contact with such a person after the fact, and know why it tends to happen? Better yet, has someone here vanished for reasons like the above and then had the courage to return?

I just hope that if we can know more about cases like these, we can do something to help.

- Soylent

Try concentrating calories, for example with DIY shakes. Use instant cake mix, melted icecream, non-dairy creamer, anything you like. You can manage thousands of calories in one drink if you get the right mix.