Question - Eating Disorder Recovery Message Board

Carey11 · 05-10-2005, 01:05 PM

Hey
I have been anorexic for 6 years and i am presently recovering from a bad bout with my ED. I lost a lot of weight while i was away at school and i was just released from the hospital a month ago after gaining like 30-35 lbs inpatient. I had to finish up some weight gain outside of the hospital but now i am working on maintainence. I have a really great experienced nutritionist i am working with but my metabolism is so screwed up that i maintain on about 1200 calories when i do about 1 hour 30 min cardio plus resistance training 6 days a week. My nutritionist says this isn't normal and that it is too low of a number of calories so she is trying to get me to eat more (what she says is a normal amount) but i am so scared that i am going to go over my goal weight if i eat what she tells me too. but at the same time i know that being on a permanent diet for the rest of my life to maintain my weight doesn't mean recover. plus part of me (i think) wants to be more normal so i kinda want to do what she tells me to but at the same time i am so scared. i don't know, i guess i am just venting but i was wondering if anyone had a similar sort of experience ever before and if so how they dealt with it.
thanks for all the help guys!

lizzy76 · 05-10-2005, 06:37 PM

I'm a recovering anorexic - 9 months now! But I've been in and out of hospitals and inpatient/residential treatment for awhile now. How long were you in the hospital? Did you reach your target weight range while there? Were you on a higher amount of calories for weight gain while you were there?

The reason I'm asking is because I've seen other women's and my own metabolism do some pretty weird stuff during this process. You're right though - that calorie amount seems pretty low for maintenance. On that amount I would guess that you're getting the bare minimum of protein, dairy, etc and you're getting in A LOT of exercise. It sounds like you trust your dietician overall and maybe you can try and work out a plan that will slowly increase your calories and decrease your exercise a little. If you're not getting in enough protein and over exercising at the same time your body will start to eat away your muscles, thus slowing your metabolism. Everything is good in moderation and I'm sure you can find a balance with all of this. Good luck ~

Liz

Carey11 · 05-11-2005, 09:15 AM

Hey
Thanks for the feed back. Yea i know that metabolisms can do some weird stuff when it comes to weight gain/loss etc. It is just weird and frustrating for me cause i have been in and out of the hospital many times in the past and it always seems to be the same story for me. This past time i went into the hospital and had like 35 pounds to gain until my goal weight. I gained 25 of it while i was inpatient and finished the rest at home with the help of my nutritionist. The weird thing with me is (and it is always this way) when i have to gain the weight my body puts the first ten pounds on pretty easy but after that i have to eat a ridiculous number of calories to make it the rest of the way (i was on 4800 at one point this time) and i was on bed rest for a ton of the time i was inpatient cause my body just wouldn't gain weight! so you would assume that i have a pretty fast metabolism, but ever time when it comes to maintainence i usually don't have to eat anymore than 1200 calories to maintain. i have even had times when, post hospitalization, i eat like 600 calories a day and still gain weight (i know that is physically impossible but it happened, and it was not water weight or my period or muscle or anything like that). so basically i kinda feel like maybe i just don't need a lot of calories to maintain. i don't know it is all very confusing and frustrating cause it isn't any exact science you know? every one is different and ever circumstance is different which makes it so hard!
anyway, thanks for the feed back and congrats on sticking on the road to recovery, it is a long long road but least we are on it!
keep fighting!