Concerns, questions, advice please?

Okay so I have a few questions.

My psychiatrist asked me about my period and was suprised when I told her it hadn't stopped. I am on birth control (the pill), so could this have something to do with why my periods didn't stop, or could it be because my weight hasn't been too low? My lowest was around 92lb at 5ft1.

I was also wondering about my bmi and healthy weight. I haven't actually been been diagnosed with having anorexia, but have been told I mirror it and need to put on some lbs. They haven't said how much so I was wondering I know they tell recovering anorexics to get to a bmi of 20, would that be the same for me even though I haven't been diagnosed with anorexia? I'm not 100% sure of my weight at the minute as I have been eating a hell of a lot so my weight has been going up and down, but when I weighed myself 4days ago I was at 6st 9lb.

My third question was that I am very obsessed with calorie, fat, sugar, saturated intake and would like to overcome this so do you think it is best for me to NOT look at labels and not count calories? Or is it vital for me to do this as I may end up going way under/over.

Thanks a lot.

Periods don't always stop when weight is low.  It's therefore not safe to say 'I have a period therefore I am a healthy weight'.   If your psychiatrist is surprised it's because you are not typical.    Yes, a BMI of 20 is regarded as the lowest 'normal healthy weight' - a BMI of 18.5 is where 'clinically underweight' begins.   By attaining BMI 20 you give yourself a little insurance against, say, a short illness plunging you back into the underweight category.  For someone 5'1" a BMI of 20 is about 7st 8lbs.... you've a stone to go.

To gain weight successfully you need to eat more... goes without saying.  If you have a tendency to undereat then you have to make sure you're eating enough.  Knowing your calorie intake is therefore important.  If you have a tendency to disordered eating patterns, food phobias and find calorie-counting or reading labels stressful there is a way to manage your food-day with a system of portion-control and food-groups.    However, you'd probably need to work something through with a dietician for it to be effective.   Do you have access to dietician services?  Alternatively, is there someone else you could call on to do the calorie-counting for you?

you probably are only getting your period because you are on birth control pills.  Not everyone looses their period when they are really underweight and not everyone who looses their period looses it due to malnourishment.  Gain until you get to a BMI of 20 and then your body will adjust itself from there.  There is nothing wrong with a bmi of 20...it is extremely healthy in fact. 

i would suggest you ask a parent or someone to buy all the food in the house and just tell them the things you want.  after they buy it have them put it in individual containers or take off the labels and mark them with sharpie so you know what they are...this way you are not tempted to count up the trans fats or anything.

just because you haven't been 'officially' diagnosed doesn't mean you don't have AN.  Your last paragraph would indicate that you do, and if you 'mirror' AN, how is that any different?  Even if it isn't full AN, you could be ED-not otherwise specified, which is just as bad.  Diagnoses are often really only good for insurance issues or for research purposes.

If you are on the pill, that could be why you are getting your period.  So you can't really consider that.

I would suggest maybe working with a nutritionist for your weight gain.  Not looking at labels can be a very good thing for recovery...it helps you from obsessing about the numbers.

Not everyone looses there period or like for myself I got it back at times at a very underweight state where I had to remind myself I still needed to gain for overall health. For me with the obsessing on calories etc I am working on following an exchange plan that adds up to my calorie needs but tries to get me to not count. Regardless what you want to call it anorexia,ednos,disorder eating it can damage your body.