I am a 25-year-old woman and have been underweight since I was 3 years old. I have a small frame and look fairly healthy at my low weight, but still consider myself too thin. I think I'd look my best in the 'ideal' BMI range, and I'm only 5 lbs away from that now!

I'm about a year into this way of life, and I'm maintaining at 11 to 6 lbs heavier than my previous setpoint (I was between 95-100 lbs for about 10 years) without having to stuff myself, for t he first time ever. A lot of it is muscle, since I'm pretty lean I can see my new muscles clearly! I look 10x better IMO. I'm aiming for 5-20 more lbs, but I'm not in a big hurry. I do still have to put in some effort to overeat/have a schedule if I want to actively gain, and I hate doing it, so tend to keep those periods short and then try to maintain what I've put on until I can face the thought of counting calories and eating more than I prefer (it makes me nauseous).

Eating this way has also cured a ton of health issues for me, which is the reason I started.

I would recommend 'primal' rather than strict paleo for hardgainers. Plenty of carbs - by that I mean between 100-200 grams mostly from the most harmless sources like tubers and white rice, depending on activity. There is no reason for anyone with a normal metabolism to be scared of starch, and that goes double for those of us with super-efficient metabolisms.

You can tell your friend that I also do hardcore yoga (lots of weight bearing) and weight train, with free weights and lifting as heavy as I have the equipment for right now. Weight-bearing exercise is pretty important for me if I want to gain. And it's essential for almost every woman's health to build more lean mass.

I am currently on my journey to healthy weight gain by incorporating plenty of sweet potatoes and occasional white rice. So far I feel great, and slowly beginning to pack on some much needed weight.

OK, here’s my problem in a nutshell:

I'm about 2 months into Paleo. Current BMI is 22 and my body fat is 22%. In September I purposely put on extra weight for an experiment I was doing. When the experiment was over, I started Paleo and lost that extra weight and am now at the weight I've maintained for 6 years (prior to the experiment). I don't mind the number on the scale, but my body isn't becoming leaner. I see my abs showing through a LITTLE bit more than they ever have, but not nearly as much as I would prefer. Is this my optimal weight? Then how come I’m not happy with it?

My diet is simple. I’m pretty much strict Paleo-like Whole30. I sometimes cheat and if I do, it's on pseudo-Paleo foods like almond butter (this is another question I have, is almond butter considered “cheating?”). However, because I cheat on Paleo friendly foods, I cheat more often than 3 times a week like it was meant for 80/20. I don’t count calories and don’t measure portions. I do a lot of “eyeballing it”, does that make a difference? I keep the basics in mind though: there should always be more protein on my plate than fruits and vegetables.

I'm trying all kinds of things now like limiting my nut intake and IF to see if I see a difference. I've also purchased the Paleo Diet for Athletes (read both the Paleo Diet book and the cookbook) to better understand diet and exercise. I exercise about one day on and one day off in a whole month. I weight train for a half hr (moderate effort) and run for another half hour, about 10 min/mile.

Can anyone help me figure out what’s going wrong and what I should do to fix it to obtain a more satisfied figure?