anorexia can t lose weight after recovery

ive put on 10 to 15 pounds every year since i recovered from my eating disorder 6 years ago. im now up to 185 pound at 5'6. every time i try to lose weight i lose about 5 pounds and then gain it all back and more. im very over weight and unhappy with it. but i just dont know how to lose weight without going back to my ED habbits, of either eating nothing, or eating everything in sight. its very frustating. any tips would help thanks

I was an anorexic athlete (yes an oxymoron), until my body finally gave out under the pressure of eating very little and training on a professional schedule. After that, my anorexia went through the worst stage it's ever been in. I couldn't exercise because I was injured, yet I went from a toned 142 at 5'7" to 104 pounds. The doctor that I was going to for my athletic injury finally officially addressed my anorexia and started a recovery system which included gaining 15 pounds before they could even do the surgery to fix my injury. After that, my weight steadily rose until after 5 months I had gained all the weight back. It didn't stop there; since then I have gained 20 more pounds. No matter what I do I can't lose the weight. I'm on a very strict diet, I exercise 6 days a week for at least an hour(this includes weights and cardio), and I eat no more than 1,300 calories a day. At this point, I'm in a size 6, and I just sit and stare at the zeros in my closet. I would do anything to just get back down to a size two. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Hi everyone! For the past year I have been recovering from an eating disorder that I have had for 2 years. I am a very tall girl (5'10) and got down to an extremely tiny 105 lbs from hardly eating and over exercising.  This year I have been in recovery but gained 20 lbs within a few weeks of eating just a tad bit more....I have spent this year trying to lose it the healthy way (1200 calories a day plus exercise and 1 cheat day a week) but the weight is hardly coming off. I am almost down to what I want to be...but it takes forever for me to lose weight.  Its extremely frustrating and i'm tired of hoping that maybe I'll wake up and this weight will magically disappear. Has anyone recovered from an eating disorder and successfully lost weight the healthy way? Please help me!

Thank you guys so much. im also a recovering bulimic/anorexic, and keep relapsing. its almost been a year, and i keep losing twenty pounds, then gaining it back, then losing more and gaining it back. its so frustrating because im trying to be healthy but eating healthy and exercising just put so much weight back on, more then i lost. i guess its normal, which i didnt think it was. i keep trying to lose the weight the healthy way but its just not working. does it just take time? will i ever get back to where i was predisorder? 

when eating alot does anyone else's body hurt? like ache swear it's like i can feel the fat going on my body! oh yeah and i can't lose weight either

I am recovering from bulimia, and these posts make me so sad. All of you women (and men) need to know that your body needs at least 3000 calories/day to recover. We've destroyed muscles, bone, digestive tissue, teeth, hair, etc. your body needs calories, and lots of them, to recover. 1200 calories per day is starvation, especially on a body that's already severely stressed from an ED. Yes, you will gain weight in recovery. Yes, it sucks. But it is much better to gain and recover fully and let your body deal with the excess once it's healed. I've gained about 20 lbs (and I was normal weight to begin with, so you can imagine how huge I feel) but its leveled off. I aim to eat about 3000 cal/day and I don't gain. I know my body is using the calories to heal inside which is what you want- to help your metabolism return to normal.

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. I hope these words help someone, I know how terrible an ED can be.

Don't let your weight be the only thing you think about. A lot of men enjoy being overweight and some women love overweight men.

i know it's been five years, but this sounds exactly like me..have things gotten any better?

Hi guys! Just thought Id give you what I know and believe when it comes to weight gain.

 

When we starve, our muscles and tissue and everything is severely damaged. When we start eating again, our metabolisms are slow and our body is scared we won't give it enough food for any length of time, so very quickly, it begins trying to repair our bodies. What we lost wasn't all fat, a lot of it was our muscles and organs being broken down. 

Think about when you twist your ankle really badly and it swells up with fluid. When our muscles are trying to repair, this is exactly what happens to them too. They sometimes become stiff and achy. They are trying to heal us and restore he glucose in cells and the glycogen in your muscles.

Everyone is talking of putting on more weight very very quickly. This is mostly the water and everything trying to repair itself and unfortunately there isn't much you can do to get rid of it but wait. People have mentioned the weight dropping off itself after a while - it will if you keep eating. You need to be patient. Starving at this stage could just make things worse and your body will cling onto everything it can. A lot of the initial weight is water, then it turns to tissue and the remaining water eventually drops off. I don't know if anyone has noticed weight gathering around their stomach that wasn't there before, but that's to protect your vital organs and it WILL redistribute if you give it time.

I started a recovery attempt and tried to back out - cut my calories a bit and gained a few pounds, went back to restricting to 100 cals a day and i put all my weight back on, it was the most awful experience of my life. What I found was, the more I ate, the more my body stopped panicking and the weight gain slowed down A LOT. I've been weight stable (I think, I haven't weighed myself) for about 4 months and the swelling is going down around my joints and almost all the water retention is gone. It's scary because it's naturally the option that seems the opposite to how we would react, but that's just the way it is. 

The water retention is worse in bulimics and people who over exercised as they did more damage to their muscles. Time really is the key to this and dependably eating enough. Just wait and all the excess will come off by itself when your body trusts you again.

Look guys,  I am 23 days into recovery from bulimia.  I gained 15 pounds over the course of those 23 days.  I was underweight and I'm now considered a normal weight for my height. 

However, I was surprised as to how slow my weight gain was. I started out going from eating nearly nothing to 2000 calories a day.  After two weeks, my weight gain slowed down.  So my nutritionist added 500 extra calories to my diet and I put on 6 pounds the beginning of the third week and then increased my calories to more.  My weight gain is slowing down from the looks of it.  I currently eat anywhere ffrom 2,600 calories to 2,800-almost 3,000 calories.  In order to heal your body and get your body out of starvation mode, you have to eat A LOT of food. Eating a lot of food your body will realize- oh my gosh!  I'm getting allof this food!  I'm not starving anymore!  And your body will eventually learn to trust you. It is recommend for women that the min be 2,500 calories and for men and teens it be 3,000 calories.  Not 1300 calories not 15 or 16 or 17 or 18 or 2,000 calories.  your body needs a hell of a lot more calories than that.  This is why you guys are packing on weight and a lot of it.  The less amount of calories you eat, the more your body will say-Hey I'm still in starvation mode!  So your body will just keep storing food and keep storing and storing.  So up your caloric intake to AT LEAST 2,500 calories and see what happens.  Your body will love you.  You're going to gain some weight but it eventually stops and it will usually fall off later on anyway.  I've seen it with my own eyes and it happened to me the first time I recovered.  Cut out the junk food and heal your body with real nutrition because thats what your body needs or else it's still going to be starving for nutrition and you'll pack on more weight.  There is no way you'll be able to lose weight on a 1300 calorie diet when you have never even given your metabolism a chance to function on a higher caloric intake.  It's just not possible.  That is why the weight just comes back on.

 

I eat eleven times a day usually evry 90 minutes I am putting something in my mouth.

 

Luckily, once I am recovered my nutritionist is going to help me lose weight the healthy way to get back to my goal weight.  I'm still thin and I'm not even in the 130's yet at 5'6 so I'm not so much concerned.  My nutritionist tells me all the time that the weight gain is only temporary!  Don't worry!

So I'm telling you guys not to worry.  If you eat right, cut out junk food, limit carbs and up your caloric intake youll be on your way to weight loss after your metabolism kick starts and learns to run on a much higher level; thus, getting your body out of starvation mode.

 

But if you eat healthy and A LOT of calories.  your weight gain will stop sooner and you'll be able to function and lose weight later on on a much higher caloric intake.

 You have to get the right combinations of food and your body needs HEALTHY fat.  I have been eating over 480 calories of olive oil or coconut oil, six eggs every day and I take 6 fish oil pills, liquid vitamins, protein shakes, grade b syrup, enzymes and so much more all given and prescribed to me by my nutritionist.

 

But the truth is, you gotta give your body a chance to get out of starvation mode which it does NOT seem like any of you are doing.

You just gotta do it, it's the only way you're going to be able to get over the hump to weight loss.

THANK YOU for your positive message here! Thoough I am reading this 4 years after you wrote it, my daugther, who is struggling with all these issues on this message board, and I find your encouragement uplifting! Thank you!

THANK YOU for your positive message here! Thoough I am reading this 4 years after you wrote it, my daugther, who is struggling with all these issues on this message board, and I find your encouragement uplifting! Thank you!

hi, I'm wondering if I'm anorexic too. Ive been eating 600 cals per day for the past 3 months. I went from 50 kg to 41 kg. I'm 5'3. is it too late for me to eat normal again? I mean, is my metabolism now screwed up? and if I'm back to eating normal, will I be fatter than my normal weight?

Hi, I was wondering how your weight has been? You and I have similar height/weight ratio. I am 4'10, fluctuating between 113-117. I'd like to get down to 105 as well. It's only been one year since i began eating normal. I am in that recovery stage, but the weight around my middle (protecting my organs) has not redistributed yet. How are you doing?? 

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I am having the same situation as everyone else. I had two anorexic experience. The first anorexic experience was in year 5 but at that time, I didn't have too much losing weight because my parents were with me and they just thought I was being really abnormal with food and i had blood tests and had to have doctors' appointments and so forth. But it stunned my growth and I began eating normally again. But then I went to study in UK and I wanted to make the start perfect so I started to become anorexic again and this was the second one. I dropped 40 pounds. From 100 pounds to 60 pounds. One day the School Nurse wanted to see me and said I was severely underweight and they drafted a letter to my parents saying if I don't recover, they will not accept me into the school and send me back to HK. However, studying in UK is what I wanted to do. When I came home at Christmas, I was sent to the hospital for check-up and the doctor said my body has started deteriorating and every night i have straps on my heart to check on my heart beat and every other terrifying equipments. I decided to get better because I didn't want my parents to be upset and really want to go to that school again.... So i tried so hard and regained the weight in 5 months by eating food (I have to admit, some junk foods too) Now, I am overweight 130 pounds (i am so guilty saying this.) I feel guilty seeing my old friends from my old school. I tried to keep on diet, but I just don't want to be anorexic again because that memory haunts me. Can anyone suggest me what to do?