another conundrum

Yeah, this is another calculation question post.

I'm a 5'9" female, about 140 pounds, looking to maintain. I do about 3-4 hours of cardio a week, 2-3 weights sessions (pretty vigorous), and tend to walk alot/be active in general.

I always get different calculations, but I'm wondering if anyone else is kinda in my shoes.

See, I've been playing around with maintainence for a while. I've been having problems with "binging"- and I'm still trying to figure out whether it's primarily emotional or if my body needs more.

I know I have a higher muscle mass, so I need more calories. Nowadays, I generally feel quite famished if I get anywhere below 1800. I notice I feel good/ less desperate mentally and physically if somehow I get in between 2300-2500 calories a day. Any other females maintaining on this level?

Next part might be triggering if you're recovering from an eating disorder. I'll space it out in case you want to leave......






I haven't really been able to test whether I gained...scales all say different things and are particularly triggering for me. (I'm recovering from an ED) My clothes generally fit the same, but they're all relatively old, big on me, and stretch easily... I think. I dunno, I just haven't been clothes shopping recently and my body dysmorphia doesn't make it easy for me to determine whether I feel bigger or not. I don't think I've gained weight. Bah, anyway.

My eating disorder is an EDNos, bulimia subtype: Exercise bulimia. I really want to achieve my summer goal of decreasing my activity level a little bit so that I can restore my periods. The only thing that I'm kinda scared about is that I really like/feel good eating at this level...and I don't really want to gain much more weight if I decrease my activity level. I feel comfy at this weight.

Bagh. Sorry for this long rant. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

The calculator I use to work out calorie intakes tells me that a very active person your size and aged under 30 (?) needs about 2400-2600 cals a day to maintain their weight.  If you were to reduce your activity to half an hour of something gentle a day then this number would drop to 2000-2100.  So you're not bingeing by the sound of it, you've simply rediscovered your appetite.

If your periods have stopped that's pretty serious.  If they stop long-term you can end up permanently infertile... plus there's all the associated problems with brittle bones.   But I expect you know all that.   Overexercising can lead to amenorrhea but so will a low body-fat % a poor diet or lack of fat in the diet.  Some illnesses will cause periods to stop, too.    Are you in conversation with doctors or other health professionals about the situation?....

Yeah, I'm currently recovering from this EDNos- exercise bulimia. I was kinda underweight for 2 years after I lost a bunch of weight from being overweight...but I lost my period regularity when I started exercising too much and was at a higher weight. Recently I've been really working to moderate that planned gym exercise to the levels I posted above...it used to be ridiculously alot more I'm kinda sad to say.  I've been talking with my doctors for a long time about this and it's been almost 2 years since I've actually had a period.

However, I've noticed since I've been eating more calories/fats and moderating my exercise/resting more, my body's redistributing, and about the same time every month I at least get symptoms like my body really might be trying to work itself back into something. I'm really trying to nurture it, but it's just really hard when ED sometimes hangs on so hard. The last thing I want to do is chase it away, though, haha. Whoda thunk I'd ever be saying that. Anyway, right now I'm working to get on a form of birth control that agrees with my system (I'm pretty sensitive to medication side effects...the last b/c I was on I had such abdominal pain that I couldn't even walk).

But thanks so much for the support/info.

Also, would you happen to have any recommendations on activity levels for period restoration? My doctors and I seem pretty happy about where my weight is now. I feel I can cognitively maintain it without getting too "spooked" and they feel its probably a healthy BMI for me.

Thanks again!