Posts by pearsnapples

skippinggirlvinegar- 

First off, congrats for being weight restored! How many calories do you eat now to maintain?

I have undergone refeeding twice. The first time I averaged about 8000-10 000 calories a day (some people ask themselves how that is even possible, but it was all unhealthy saturated and trans fats, sweets, cakes, and basically all the stuff i missed out on when I was restricting because I now sort of had the excuse to eat it all).

After 3 months of that, I only gained about 10 pounds. I will never understand how that happened. Most people I know will eat that much food for only a few days and they will already put weight on.

swimfan93-

I have heard about hypermetabolism before, but why is it that it hasn't normalized for me yet? How do you know when it is normalized?

I appreciate the support you guys :) thank you

It is tough though.. especially now in summer when eating makes me so hot and the bloated stomach makes me want to hide at home :( 

Quite sad, but it is my fault, so I must put up with the consequences of my acts.

One extra question for those that are refeeding:

Has it happened to you that if for one day you dont eat as many calories (for whatever reason) it is like a huuuge setback? If that happens to me its like undoing all the hard work i've put in the past 2 weeks!

Thanks again :)

Original Post by swimfan93:

I would gradually reduce your intake, because just suddenly dropping a few 1000 calories would make you lose lots of weight, putting you right back where you started.  When I've decreased to maitenance, I found it easier to cut back things I wouldn't notice so much.  For example, switching from full-fat dairy products to either low or non-fat.  Or maybe switch the mayo for mustard.  Ice cream for yogurt.  These kinds of things.  It is crucial to be monitoring your weight closely during this period, to make sure your weight is stable.  If it is, you can also slowly start doing physical activity if you like.  Start with small things, like maybe take a yoga class, or go on a 30 minute walk.  Don't rush recovery.  Just take it slow, and be on guard to keep the ED from returning.  Congratulations on completing your weight restoration, you really should be proud of yourself!

There is NO way I am going back to where i started, after all the pain I've gone through! Gradual it is then!

It good that you mention not to rush things, because i had the theory in mind that I would be perfect and healthy by october when I start uni, but I guess those things cant be predicted and i'll just have to go with the flow for now :(

thanks!!!

Original Post by chrissy1988:

Original Post by pearsnapples:

So I have been eating around 5000-7000 calories daily in order to gain weight. This morning I weighed in 2kg above my goal weight, so I figured I would be at my goal more or less, taking into account food weight and all that.

So I got to thinking, what now? I don't think I could go straight into maintainance calories without setting myself up for some heavy-time bingeing, so I'm a bit lost? Should I stop with the full-fat milk now? and the supplements and all the calorie-dense foods? What is the next step after being weight-restored?

 

Thank you very much for your help :)

i'd say that now would be the time to make the small changes that will decrease your cals, so switching to low fat/skim dairy. maybe cutting out a snack or 2, smaller portion sizes, but keep all of your meals there so that you dont set yourself up for binging. as you adjust, slowly cut back until you're at maintenance range. maybe eat less nuts and the calorie dense things, but don't cut them out altogether. definitely stop the supplements for an easy reduction in calories. what is a typical day like for you right now? that would make it easier to make recommendations.

Thanks for the reply chrissy :)

well, i'll tell you what I had today for example:

BF: Bagle with cream cheese and a chocolate supplement milkshake with full-fat milk, baby cereal and almonds (around 900 cal altogether)

S: Toast with olive oil, and granola with greek yoghurt and honey (600 cal)

L: Chicken breast with avocado and grilled cheese, wild rice with tomato sauce and more cheese. Desert was (i go a little overboeard with dessert always, for some reason I can't stop myself) cottage cheese with maple syrup, 2 bannanas, 150g of hazle-nuts with 125g of raisins, 2 yoghurts and a large piece of pumpkin pie (lost track of calories there)

S: bag of pop corn, 2 PB&J sandwiches, 3 full glasses of milk and then just finished the PB jar which was almost full (around 2500 calories there)

D: Haagen-Dazs milkshake with full-fat milk, baby cereal, a few digestive biscuits, ice cream and supplement shake (lost track of calories there too)

I know it may not be the most balances of menus, I started off better, but once I could not cope with the fullness all the time, I turned to PB, biscuits, dried nuts and baby cereal, my saviors. I must note though, I still look like I am 7 months pregnant, but oh well, keep eating right and it will redistribute, right?

Thanks so much!

Hi! Im quite excited to be posting here :)

My name is Tati by the way!

Height: 5 foot 4 inches (160cm)

HW: 125

LW: 84

CW: 93

GW: 110

How are you guys coping??

Thank you guys so so much, really, thank you.

Gi Jane, as always awsome advice, I feel healthier already!

Waycat, i'll keep you posted if you'd like, but this is also an uphill battle for me. My stomach is so tiny right now I feel physical pain from all the food, it's killing me!

I do realise for health reasons I need to put on weight, even though I like to consider myself to be this thin. But if we don't put the weight on now, it will catch up with us in the future, and that's not good.

I should have listened to Gi Jane's advice on gaining weight sooner though. Oh well, better late than never.

So far today I've consumed around 3700 calories (ups, I know, a tad too much! But who knew granola had so many calories?! lol). Im looking forward to a 600 or 700 calorie dinner, and tomorow I'll start with 2500-3000 calories a day, and see how it goes on from there.

The scale this morning read a gain of 6 pounds! But I guess most of that is water weight and actua food in my gut, so there.

Thanks again for the advice, I hope this works:)

By the way, does any one have any idea when the weight will actually be noticeable??

Those are really nice ideas! I'm going to make that milkshake thing right now and tell you how it went!!

By the way, I'm sorry for sounding ignorant, but how would you make iced tea? :) thank you

Original Post by xjennie:

Hi all, well today I was sent my medical form for university (starting in Septemeber btw).  I'm currently underweight with a bmi of 15.6 but have been gaining (it was about 14.5). 

I have been accepted on a course to be a primary school teacher which is my absolutely dream job but am worried that when i have to write down my weight, they will be concerned and call me in for questioning (on the form, it says they might do this.)

Do you think there is any way that they can reject me from the course because I'm not in the healthy range?  I'm desperate to get up to a bmi of 18.5 but have always been very small built (whole family is technically underweight although we eat quite a lot) but did have a slight eating disorder in the summer as I would only eat low calorie foods, but still in bulk.  Should I tell them I'm gaining?  Will this increase my chances of still being allowed to be on the course?  There's no way I have the eating disorder anymore so I'm not going to mention it.

If you have any knowledge about this or have been in the same position please help me!  Or just any opinions would be good. Thank you!!

Hi xjennie :)

I'm sorry to say this, but yes it can happen. It happened to me.

Right now I am at my healthy weight, but last year when I was making my uni applications I was quite underweight (due to illness and medical complications). I got rejected from one of my universities because of my weight. They sent a letter explaining it all. 

I couldn't believe it. I still can't.

Sorry I can't offer any advice though :(

You guys, hi!

Ok let's go in order, lol,

pompey- thanks to you guys for posting in it! argh, i don't know what it's like to binge on pizza, never done that before. But it must be better than bingeing on all sugary-stuff right?

I'm sorry to tell you that I've done that once too - call in sick. At the beginning though I did feel disgusting and full and bloated and lethargic after one of my sugary binges, but since they are becoming healthier (not in calories though!) lately, I don't feel so sick afterwards. Conclusion? Sugar and I are incompatible hahaha

mechelle67- Your words are always so nice :) It's nice you can talk to your co-workers about it! Things here are a little bit different, so consider yourself lucky!

personaltrainer87- Exact same thing happens here! I've got the typical Spanish build body with a small waist and larger bust and hips. When I drop 1kg below by weight, everyone notices, same goes for going above! You hit it spot on; before one of my excuses used to be "oh, I need to put on some weight, just finish bingeing". But whether it was an excuse or a real intention, I think we ALL know that that is NOT the right way to put on weight, even though our minds tell us otherwise during our binge episode.

I'm also in exam period right now :S

I find it that when I binge, i absolutely cannot, CANNOT study afterwards. I just fall asleep. So I try to use that as motivation to not binge- my exams are a few days away and I cannot afford that! But I do that too, I give myself little treats from time to time when studying. Our brains need fuel, did you know that our brain activity increases by up to 56% when studying, burning almost 100 extra calories an hour? I read that in a study some time back 

"I also had a large handful of brazil nuts, which I dipped in raw honey."

That sounds delicious!

And well done for not bingeing as well!!

musicalfishmich- my goodness, well done!! How did you beat that? finding something else to do? Or talking to yourself about it? (haha)

Update to all- I am going off to Uni in a different country next year. My halls are going to be full of hungry college students with crappy food all over the place. I thought that if I stood a mere chance of survival and of appearing a little bit normal to them (ie. not stuffing down all their food), I have to learn to discipline myself NOW.

So yesterday I wen't out for food with my sister (my parents are away for a couple of weeks). We bought trigger foods (my sister hasn't got any problem with food, and since these binge foods have been out of the house for the last couple of months, I thought she had done enough for me, and now it was time to grow up and stand up to the urges if they came- she had done enough for me, let's make her proud too!).

So for the first time in 2 months there are nuts, raisins, chips and crackers, a small packet of biscuits, onion bread (i looooooove this stuuf!), PB, my favourite cereal, some ice-cream (it is extremely hot here in Spain right now!) and chocolate milk. Its been 1 day and I have not binged. Too soon to call victory, but I want my parents to come back home in a week and a half, and see the house full of these normal foods, knowing that I wont go out running in the other direction.

I think (I hope) I can control the urges. I mentioned in my first post that it was unrealistic to eliminate all binge foods from ones house. Yes, they stop you from having the binge, put part of recovery is being able to say NO to a binge, not not-having-a-binge-because-there-is-no-other- option. Right?

Anyways, I am really proud of all you guys :) really, you guys motivate me too. I am so thankful there are people like you around that make everyday a bit less like a battle and a bit more like a learning experience. Thank you.

I am so sorry you guys... I blew it. Day #12 and I blew it 

I was dubious about whether I should post this or not, seeing all the positive energy (which I am SO glad about, you are all great, thanks for the nice comments!), but in the end I decided I should, just to let you guys know that I am not going to give up. Tomorrow is a new day. Today was a slip. A horrible one though...

I felt under pressure today. I hate it when people talk about my weight, and today various people thought it would be OK to come out and say I look too thin, that I should put on some weight. At first I was frustrated. I knew that putting on weight would possibly be a trigger for bingeing. Why could I just not stay at a normal weight?!

So I said, ok, lets have pizza today. And lunch was fine... but a couple of hours later it all started. Im not going to post what I ate, I dont want to make this a "omg I ate this and that and that..!!" thread. But I will say this.

People slip. They fall. They trip.

The only thing left to do is get back up, scrape the dust off your knees and keep moving forward.

Whats the point of lying on the floor saying "oh my, I fell. Lets feel bad about that!" 

No. I'm going to get up, heal my wound. Heal my health.

Tomorrow is a new day people!

Thank you 

PS. Here's a nice video..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MslbhDZoniY&am p;feature=related

I think you guys have hit a very important point here, and that is MIND OVER MATTER. 

If we can't control the food we put into our mouths, how can we control other issues in our lives?

Today is officially my binge-free day #10. This is the longest I've gone in the past 7 months without bingeing. Yesterday my family and I went out for Japanese. I ordered delicious makis, but when I started my bowl of white rice I felt like bingeing. I started to eat quite quickly, out of control, pouring soy sauce all over my food without thinkin about it, and then started thinking about getting some ice cream at haagen dazs on my way out. 

I stopped. I put the chopsticks down. I had a sip of my sake. "It's not worth it. Why not just enjoy what you are eating now and not feel guilty? Do you want to gobble down all that food, without even tasting it, to ruin 9 days of hard work and feel horrible about it? Wow.. 9 days? 9 days!"

I picked up my chopsticks and finished the rice. End of meal.

Hi everyone!

It really makes me happy to see that this helped :)

Thank you for all the nice comments, as you yourselves said, we can't overcome this problem overnight, but by finding the correct support and making little changes, we will get there little by little. One day you will wake up and realise "I don't binge anymore, just overindulge and stop when I feel satisfied" (hope that day was tomorrow huh?)

lizzievarley- thanks for that advice too! 

Adding to that, yes, exercise does make one feel more positive and cheerful about life, so I encourage you to do some even if its just a walk around your neighborhood (wish I could but I have a broken leg unfortunately!)

bobo1- tell me about it! I binge on apples, apricots, broccoli.. hahaha good progress from what I binged on before, but odd progress nevertheless!

mechelle67- I'm really glad you feel positive today after last night's binge, that's one step closer! As for your holidays, where are you going? With family? Hotel? Another country? How long? (hope you have a great time btw!)

I behave in EXACTLY the same way. IDENTICAL!

thanks gi-jane!

but just out  of curiosity, which is the best method toadopt? for future uppers??

Original Post by frokusblakah:

Original Post by pearsnapples:

I love pineapple too btw :)

Hooray for pineapples!  I once used a whole one as a club.  ;o

Hahahaha, wtf?! Amazing how something so tasty can be given different uses, like clubs, lol!

I've pigged out on apples before, like 1400 calorie binges on apples hahaha, and they make me go to the bathroom quite regularly actually!

As for micro-waving them, I cut them into slices about 5mm thick and scatter them on a plate. Then sprinkle them with some splenda and cinnamon. Microwave for about 1 minute if the apple is golden, 1 minute 30 secs if the apple is red and 2 minutes if the apple is green at max power. They taste soooo good, honstly, delicious.

go try it and tell me if you like it!