Underweight Man

I am 23, male, and underweight. I am 5'8" and roughly 130 pounds.

I have been an undereater my entire life and I would guess that I averaged like 800-1200 calories a day for a large chunk of my life.

I am very skinny which I am self-conscious about. I am looking to gain weight by moving myself into a 2500-3000 calorie a day diet. I am not a great cook so I am asking for advice on what foods would be good for me.

Meals

Breakfast: I usually have 1 everything bagel with butter but I plan on changing it to... 1 everything bagel with peanut butter, 2 hardboiled eggs, and 1 glass of milk.

Lunch: I have no idea what to do here. I usually do 2 sandwiches which include, a bun, 50g cold cut chicken slices, spinach, and cheese. I need easy stuff for lunches as I don't have much time after work to prep lunches.

Dinner: One of my go to dinner meals is boneless chicken thighs, brown rice, and edamames. Is this a healthy and sufficient meal for my weight gaining goals? I plan to eat this a lot as I can buy the ingredients in bulk.

I just want to 'fill out' kind of. I want to try and be closer to 150-160 pounds, but stay healthy in the process.

Answer:

People curse carbs because they add pounds. When someone says they're bulking, you will see that they're eating bread, cookies, crackers, whole eggs (Boiled is the most beneficial, but scrambled is fine too), etc. - along with their normal diet. And they are constantly eating. Working out burns fat. The more fat you have, the faster the results will look. It's easier for a 200lbs. man to get to 160lbs. than someone at 130lbs. So eat away. Sculpters etch marble into a work out art. Not the other way around. I'm not saying go drink the fatty oils that get caught in the tray under your George Foreman grill. We know that's not good. But don't shy away from eating a boatload of mash potatoes and gravy. Build that weight, brother. Pumping iron helps too. But not everything works for everyone. Watch this video, it might help.

https://youtu.be/QU5n0Xm6uzI

Anyway I'd advise two main things to follow and follow these religiously (not for 3 weeks I'm talking 6 months minimum).

1. Eat what you are eating now but 1 hour before bed (not closer to bed time you'll get bad indigestion) have some form of drink or smoothie that is 800calories plus. this could be a bought protein shake or ideally id recommend making your own full of nuts, peanut butter and high calories.
2. Forget general exercise and hit squats hard (but make sure your practice properly first and get the right form - don't injure yourself). Working your legs hard will release hormones and get you growing especially squats.