I don't know exactly where this question would go. At my highest i was 235lbs., looked slightly bloated, but could also notice my build. About 5 years ago I had surgery to fix a hiatal hernia, which is a hernia located at the bottom of the esophagus, right above the stomach. My appetite was good, my calorie intake was spot on, things were going well. The pain from the hernia was too much to handle and I had to get it repaired. Essentially what they did was wrap my stomach around it. This would prevent the hernia from moving, causing the pain I felt. The procedure also acted like a gastric band, so my stomach is smaller. Post surgery, I dropped down to 180 in a matter of two months. After recovery, I got back into training. However, I could not and still can not intake as much food as I use to because now the food has to travel a different route to reach the stomach, and I get filled up much faster since my stomach has been reduced in size. I now hover around 200 lbs. I know how essential calories are to gaining mass, but because of what I've been through, I can't take in that much because my body won't allow me. Protein shakes also create the same issue, they fill me too quickly that I struggle to finish off 18 oz. With that all said, what kind of workouts can I do to help increase size, and am I missing anything that would help my calorie intake? Is there anything that could possibly slower my rate of my metabolism? Naturally, I have a very high metabolism, so I've been a smaller person before getting into working out. I can't figure it out for the life of me, and currently I struggle to move up to a new weight. Not just body weight, but weights I use to workout.