confused.. want to recover :(

heyy guys! i'm actually pretty new to CC but i've been reading some of the posts and actually left a few.. it's my first time starting a topic though!

i've been restrictingg severely for the last 10 months.. eating around 400-600 calories every day.. id eat a tinyy breakfast, almost no lunch (or some veggies), and a fairly small dinner consisting of 6 egg whites and vegetables (for protein). i'm 5'7 and i never really weighed myself before the ED but knew i was somewhere around 118-120 pounds.. and now i'm 97 lb. i used to be a size 2 and now a size 0 falls off of me without a belt.. my hair has been falling out like crazyy.. and i'm not as social as i once was (make excuses for not going outt, skip parties, not go to lunch, etc) and i know this isn't right.

in the middle of my ed, in like june i did gain aroundd 8 pounds (eating peanut butter!!!!) and everyone said i looked better.. but once summer break came along i lost all the weigh back and dropped even lower. and i think now 'm at my lowest weight

 i really really want to recover.. and i've triedd. but i keep finding myself making excuses like "ohh i'll just start tomorrow" or "i'll probbbly eat a lot at the party so it's okaay if i don't eat as much today" ahh this is so frustrating.. another thing is that i'm a vegetarian, but i'm wondering if i should incorporate meat into my diet again? or maybe just chicken or other lean meat?

another thing i'm really worried about is the rate of weight gain.. here it says my maintanance is 1600 but i know my metabolism is screwed up b/c i have almost no muscle. how many calories should i raise it to? and i'm afriad that if i do eat 1600 a day, i would gain like 10 poundsin a week or something. i want to steadily gain around 10 lbs. like 1 a week.. is this possible?

ahh i'm sorry for this long rambling post, but i'm really so confused and lost and frustrated.. i want to get this out of my life forever, but i know it's going ot be hard..:(

hey there,

i'm new to cc too. 

I've never really had trouble with restricting, but more with the opposite, so i'm not sure i'll be much help.  (and i'm by no means an expert, so take what i say with a grain of salt....)

I would say, though, that maybe you should gradually start adding more calories back into your diet.  I would be afraid that if you did suddenly jump up to 3x's what you were eating, the gain may cause you to only regress.  Maybe try adding 100 extra calories a week.  

Say, for this week, make yourself eat 1000 cals a day, then next week, 1100.

I would also maybe try to start walking or doing something to help build some muscle (although, i would imagine nothing too strenious at first!  you're too frail!)

I hope you find some support here and make it through.

At least you realize it's a problem and that has to be the first step into fixing it!!

best wishes on your journey.

 

I've had eating problems for a long time so i know how it is for you, you are very thin for your height and i think if you gained ten pounds you'd look perfect :)

anyways here's what i would do (it's just a suggestion but here goes)

Whatever you're eating a day (say it's 600) calories...now you said you wanted to gain slowly and as to not shock your metabolism into hoarding all you eat i'd say raise your calories by 50 a day till you reach 1,200. Carry on eating this many and see where you maintain. 

You need to build muscle so start with some light weights, squats and maybe some situps. Just do maybe 10 reps of each, start slowly. I think it's really important to do some conditioning whilst raising your calories...you don't want to put it all back on as fat

This was the best thing i could think to do...i hope it's been helpful somewhat

Good luck, you're super brave :) 

Original Post by greenwiress:

I've had eating problems for a long time so i know how it is for you, you are very thin for your height and i think if you gained ten pounds you'd look perfect :)

NO, 10 LBS would not make you look perfect. 40 lbs would be much more in line with her height  That would give you a BMI of 22.4, but 10 lbs would be a start, and then another 10 and another and another..  at your current BMI of 15.2 you are classed as severely underweight and should be under medical care.

40 pounds..? that'd make her 157. which would be uhhh too much for a 5'7 girl. 117 is reasonable for her to want to be. it's a natural weight for her to be since that was her weight pre-ed. i'm 5'9 1/2 and maintaining 110 and i'm perfectly healthy. it's fine to be under 18.5 bmi as long as you don't have unhealthy habits.

 edit/ i forgot to say--i agree with the people a few posts above. gradually increase your calorie intake and you won't gain too fast. make sure you're getting plenty of protein and good fats (break out that pb jar again, lol). as far as the vegetarian thing goes, it is easy to get alot of protein without going back to eating meat. check out the morningstar farms or yves fake meat products, they're DELICIOUS and super easy to incorporate into meals for another 20g protein (more or less)

Dang, you sound a lot like me. I'm tall (6'0") and used to eat 600 calories as well. Vegetarian, too. And yes, don't worry, you can surely recover by still following a vegetarian diet! :)

The previous posters gave you some good advice about gradually adding calories; however, I like greenwiress's numbers best: increasing by 50 calories a day. Increasing by 100 calories a week is not fast enough. The faster you physically recover, the less damage (possibly permanent) you do to your body. So 50 calories a day is a good goal.

As for what to eat, be sure to get plenty of fats and protein. For fats, try nuts, seeds, olive oil, peanut butter, olives, or avocado. For protein, try milk, lentils, beans, whole wheat breads and pastas, dairy (cottage cheese, milk, yogurt, cheese) and eggs. If you have any questions, want more suggestions, or just need someone to talk to, you can always message me. Wish you the best of luck girl - keep strong.

Original Post by ewwxroflzz:

40 pounds..? that'd make her 157. which would be uhhh too much for a 5'7 girl. 117 is reasonable for her to want to be. it's a natural weight for her to be since that was her weight pre-ed. i'm 5'9 1/2 and maintaining 110 and i'm perfectly healthy. it's fine to be under 18.5 bmi as long as you don't have unhealthy habits.

She says "and now I am 97 lbs" so that would make her 137. Body Mass Index (BMI) says that at 22 yrs, 5' 7" and 137 lbs, she would have a BMI of 21.5, and it says that would be classed as at a healthy weight.  I disagree that under 18.5 BMI is healthy.  For one thing, it is no longer permitted on the runways for fashion models because it is recognized as being very unhealthy.

lol, sorry, bad math skills x( i still disagree about the weight though. i don't know how old she is, and i agree it's not okay for an adult to be under 18.5, but according to many teen bmi sites it's normal. hell, at my height and age, a 16.8 bmi is considered healthy still. plus she said before that she was naturally around 118-120 pounds, so 117 would not be unreasonable.

Original Post by ewwxroflzz:

lol, sorry, bad math skills x( i still disagree about the weight though. i don't know how old she is, and i agree it's not okay for an adult to be under 18.5, but according to many teen bmi sites it's normal. hell, at my height and age, a 16.8 bmi is considered healthy still. plus she said before that she was naturally around 118-120 pounds, so 117 would not be unreasonable.

Your own BMI is only 16.2 and you are recovering from anorxia (YOUR WORDS)  That is not a healthy BMI. What do you mean by "considered healthy?"  That you haven't had a stroke or aren't suffering heart palpations?

 The CC BMI tool on this site says about your weight/height   "Based upon your current Body Mass Index (BMI) of 16.2, you are currently classed as underweight.

A healthy BMI for your gender and age is between 20 and 24 ...."

It is nice to encourage people as you did in suggesting she increase her calories by 50 a day and I hope you are too, but please don't suggest to them an unhealthy goal.  Other teen sites that suggest an average of girls at those sites are 18.5 BMI only suggests to me that those with anorexia flock to those sites. It does not convince me they are healthy.

by healthy, i mean the doctor says i'm fine, i eat very healthy food, and i exercise (ballet, and btw ballet dancers are characteristically very thin). i'm sorry if you don't think i'm healthy, luckily the only person's opinion i need is the doctor's.

the cc tools here are for ADULTS. not teens. as far as teen bmi's go, go to this link (http://www.kidshealth.org/teen/food_fitness/d ieting/bmi.html) and you'll see that a 5'7 girl at 117 pounds is healthy.

I appreciate your encouragement for a healthy goal weight, fransen, but at 117 lbs cheergirlxo's BMI would be at 18.3, which is a speck below the underweight mark. Since she was naturally this weight before her ED, this would be an acceptable goal. Many people are naturally thin. But I would strongly suggest not to undershoot this goal by a pound.

ewwxroflzz I have to agree with fransen in that a 16.8 BMI is not healthy. This doesn't mean that you should gain fat, but I would suggest that you build some muscle. If you gained a few pounds of muscle, then you would barely see a difference in size, but it would put you closer to a healthy weight range. Sorry if it seemed like I pounced on you at all, but waving your low BMI at a recovering anorexic and deeming it as acceptable is not constructive.

sorry if i have to disagree, but i think that an 16.8 bmi CAN be healthy, if it's someone's natural weight. for instance, my friend at ballet is 5'6 and 104 pounds (16.8 bmi) she eats massive amounts of food and is just naturally small. i do agree that in my case it's not healthy, i was normally about 18-18.5 bmi before having a disorder, but i'm not trying to advertise my bmi as healthy and i never even said i was happy at this weight. on a side note, i am currently trying to build muscle and having difficulty but i'm seeing a doctor.