Hello, I'm new to this whole forum thing, but I have some concerns and
questions regarding weight gain and lean body mass.

Scenario: A 5'11" male, 23 years of age, dropped 40lbs to a weight of
120lbs and is trying to gain weight back through healthy eating and
weight training. (Okay, it's me). The weight gain regimen has been
followed for five months now and seems to be going quite well; work
out intensity is being increased every day, and body is looking more
defined weekly. I'd say results are really showing, especially since I
essentially started from scratch, i.e. having extremely meager muscle
mass.

A lot of lean mass was lost during the weight loss period, obviously,
in addition to a lot of fat; I'm at about 8% body fat now, maybe
slightly higher. I'm eating a lot more, but I have a problem with
cravings. I'm thinking that my body is still in starvation mode and
that my cravings are simply a sign that my body needs whatever it
craves. I don't know if I should submit to the cravings or to ignore
them and eat something else. Usually I crave ice cream, and I'm not
satisfied until I eat it. If I eat something else, my mind still tells
me that it wants ice cream. Now, since I still need to gain much more
lean body mass to raise my metabolism back to its original state, I
don't want to submit to cravings and swell up in the stomach. I'm on a
low fat, high protein diet, and I'm doing rather well, but lately,
I've been eating a lot of fattening things like cake and pie, in
addition to the laid out meal plans I've given myself. Basically, I'm
eating the way I used to (I didn't care what I ate, chips, cake, ice
cream, etc. were all normal every-day foods). I eliminated these foods
two years ago in an attempt to lose a little weight and eat healthier,
but I guess I got a little obsessive and ended up doing more harm than
good. Now that all these foods are being re-intorduced into my body,
I've been craving them like crazy and end up eating a lot of them when
I finally submit to the craving. I would literally like to have my
cake and eat it too, but I don't want to bloat up because I know my
metabolism can't handle these foods the way it used to. I've tried
eating a little of these "binge foods" every now and then, a little at
a time, but what ends up happening is that the fork or spoon keeps
finding my mouth, and I end up eating too much of the foods I want to
avoid. I guess this is a common problem, but I always factor in my
current body weight (along with lean and fat mass ratios) and realize
that my body is not what it used to be. As a result, I really feel bad
about binging, but my mind doesn't think about what kind of food it
wants to eat later on.