Anorexia and Hairloss

Okay, Im 19 year old college student and I am trying to recover from anorexia, and its like my hair just wont stop falling out. Its probably been a month of this, and it only seems to be getting worse. I am eating about 1800 calories a day and for 5'5" thats what they recommend. I am just sooo scared that I am going to be bald. I am using special shampoo and B Vitiamin complexes and multi vitiamins but like I said I am still losing so much.

Does anyone know how to deal with this..

Please help :( I really dont know where to turn.

1,800 is nowhere near enough for all the recovery your body has to do!

Hair loss in my recovery continued for about 2-3 months after I'd started refeeding at a level between 2,500 and 3,200 kcal/day consistently.

Think about it... if your body is being fed only enough for a healthy, normal weight female, is its first priority really gonna be to repair your non-essential hair cells or your essential heart, brain, and organ cells? My skin is still painfully dry and awful from malnourishment and my hair isn't anything like it used to be and I've been in recovery for almost a year now.

That seems like so much, but I want my hair to stop falling out. Its still a struggle day to day. I want to gain weight and get my period back, and my hair to stop falling out but then other days I am terrified that I will be fat. Why does it have to be so back and forth? How did you beat ED?

Where did you get the number 1800 from?  For your age and being in recovery 2500 sounds more like it to me.  Also are you taking supplements?  What does your doctor recommend?  If it's just wait and see how you feel, you don't feel good yet, your hair is falling out!

ED is one day at a time, one step at a time.  Some days you'll have to struggle harder than others, but it will be worth it in the long run.  You will not be fat gaining to a normal weight.  Fat is a word used by hurtful people with a limited vocabulary.

Well in my nutrition class they said 1800-2400 calories if you arent very actice, and I am not very active I do a lot of sitting around because thats what it takes to study and do all my homework. Yuck.. And when I registered on the site it recommended 1500 daily for maintaince.. So i feel like 2500 seems like a lot.. I am taking multivitamins, and a B-vitamin complex and a Calcuim- Vitamin-D complex..

Today I am on track for 2500, i have had about 1200 so far, but I just get this feeling that I should not eat any more that thats just way toooo much, and maybe thats just ed again..

I wish there was a quick fix.. Im glad that all of you have responded so quickly to my post, I am hoping that having support from girls that have been there or are there will help me to beat ed.. I think one of the scariest things for me is that I dont always want to beat ed... I want to be thin.. Then I start realizing I am not healthy, and I want to beat him.. Its weird...

It doesnt make a whole lot of sense, I know... It doesnt even make sense to me...

The key here is recovering from an eating disorder.  If you had never had one to begin with than 1800-2400 would be about right.  The CC tools are geared for adults who do not have history of disordered eating.  For teen tools use kidsnutrition.org and even those will be low as they do not take into account your history of anorexia.

Do not listen to the little voice telling you that 1200 or 1500 or 1800 is enough, it is not enough.  A minimum of 2000 with recovery and most likely 2500 unless either your nutritionist or your doctor has given you a different number.  If you're not sure how much to eat, you should consult your doctor and nutritionist, but err on the side of too much rather than too little.

Original Post by brittfett:

Well in my nutrition class they said 1800-2400 calories if you arent very actice, and I am not very active I do a lot of sitting around because thats what it takes to study and do all my homework. Yuck.. And when I registered on the site it recommended 1500 daily for maintaince..

1500 daily for maintenance would be if you were sedentary and over 21. For under 21 you have to use a different calculator, which gives 1500 as the lowest you can go for weight loss, not maintenance.

In addition, don't put yourself down as sedentary. Unless you are actually on bed rest, you require more calories. Your nutrition class said 1800-2400 was the amount you needed to maintain weight. Don't automatically think you must stick to the minimum amount of 1800 - that's just disordered thinking right there.

Furthermore, don't eat like you want to maintain if you need to gain weight. You should be on 2500+ to gain weight.

Multivitamins won't give you what your body needs most - calories. You simply can't replace the benefits of food with tablets.

Original Post by brittfett:

That seems like so much, but I want my hair to stop falling out. Its still a struggle day to day. I want to gain weight and get my period back, and my hair to stop falling out but then other days I am terrified that I will be fat. Why does it have to be so back and forth? How did you beat ED?

Wanting my hair to stop falling out was a huge motivation, I'm not gonna lie.

I'm also not going to lie and say that I've "beaten" the disease... I really don't like the idea of personifying it, because it is a mental health issue and I have no control over it - it is a chemical imbalance triggered by environmental and biological cues. I think that, as with any chronic illness, mental or physical, sometimes the best you can say is that you are managing it / treating it as dictated by a team of medical professionals.

"Management" as defined for me is knowing how to counteract the disordered thought processes, knowing what are trigger foods & situations for my own personal case that will lead to more disordered thoughts / behaviors, and knowing how to live my life around the illness and use positive coping strategies instead of self-harming ones.

"Treatment" as defined for me is continuing to eat enough, period.

I was fortunate in that I didn't acquire the sickness until late college. So, I had lived at a normal, healthy weight with (semi-)normal food intake and exercise habits (I feel like the vast majority of teenagers/women have issues with food, anymore) for a full-grown woman for quite awhile. One thing I keep telling myself is that I was never even remotely "fat" when I was at a normal weight. Another big motivator for me is the huge decrease in energy and ability to live life that I'm dealing with right now - what kind of person has to wear 2 sweatshirts and 2 pairs of pants in order to be comfortable in a normal-temperature climate-controlled environment? What kind of a person, because of this always-cold phenomenon, actually dreads and avoids going anywhere or doing anything that requires any other kind of dress code? That is no life at all.

Yeah I cant say as I much enjoy being cold all the time, even when its quite nice out. I am doing better with the eating or I have been, even at 1800-2400 calories I have been gaining a little weight and am not back up to 110 as of yesterday.. I just hate the guilt that I feel when I eat that much.. I really do appreciate all the information all of you are presenting to me, its just going to take a lot of hearing the information over and over to keep me going.

It is much nicer to have a little more energy I must say, and I dont miss wearing 3-4 layers just to keep warm. According to my doctor to be at a health bmi i need to get to 112-115, and I am close. But sometimes simply maintaining is all I can do. I just try to focas on eating healthy but more of it.

Its funny how treatment is put in such simple terms, I wish it were that easy, and I can only think that someday it will be.

i had exactly the same thing when i was in hospital ...... it get much much worst before it gets better and dont worry you wont be bald!!! also milk and dairy products help alot!! 

Well I dont like milk, but I can definately do yogurt! Thanks