ED Recovery Club

Someone suggested to me that I start this. I'm trying to come back to healthiness because I've been dealing with Ana for a while now and it's really ... not a good thing.

So...Ana (nervosa and athletica), Mia, BED/COE, Ortho, Bigorexia, whatever it is you might have had or are trying to recover from...I was thinking a good support topic in the motivation forum would really keep us on our feet.

Now if I'm the only one, well, then, just ignore me... *whistles and looks around nervously*

:)

Hello... how do I post to the ED Recovery Club board?

surfurgerl,
You just did :) There is no "joining" or anything.
This forum is just an open discussion for anyone who wants to participate and could be benefited by the support of the other community members who are participating in the discussion.

So, feel free to introduce yourself and share your thoughts, questions, or experiences.

Welcome to Calorie Count :)

MCDerin,
Volunteer Moderator

Hi,

 Yes, I guess my post did go through.  I was thinking more of how to post a new topic... there are over 1,000 replies to that one message so I didn't know if that was the way to go or not.  I will post my story in another message.

 Amy

Hello everyone,

Glad to have found this message board.  How long should it take to recover from a starvation diet?  I have had a healthy lifestyle for 2 years now but continue to have a high percentage of fat and a very low percentage of muscle.

In the fall of 2004, I was finally off of an anti-depressant that had caused me to gain about 90 pounds (I'm 5-2 and weighed 201 lbs), and I began restricting calories a bit and exercising 4-5 days a week.  At first, I think it was a healthy approach.  But by Thanksgiving, I had lost 40 pounds and was seeing great results.  This is when I began to go overboard.  I began restricting calories even more, and exercising 6-7 days a week.  I continue to get skinnier and at my lowest weight, about a year later, I was only 109 pounds.  Of course I was happy at the time, but didn't realize that I was losing muscle along with the fat.  I did mostly cardio and no weights and was only eating 1000 calories a day for a long time.  For about a month, I had restricted it to only 800 calories. 

Eventually, thinking I had hit my goal weight and ideal body, I figured I would just maintain my current weight, so I began to eat a little bit more sensibly (1200-1500 cals/day and working out only 3-4 days a week.  However, by this point my metabolism had slowed down and I began to gain weight, even in a sensible lifestyle.  I didn't realize at the time the damage I was doing, but have become much more aware in the past 2 years.  My question is now, if I'm eating 1800 quality cals/day, working out 5-6 days per week, including strength straining, shouldn't I be losing fat and gaining muscle?  I'm still "lean" looking with clothes on, but very flabby without clothes. I feel like I'm making the right choices now, but still suffering the effects of my past mistakes.  I feel as if my immune system is weakened, my muscles are weak, I'm colder when other people are fine (and my thyroid is normal), and I'm really out of shape.  What can I do?

 Amy

 

thank you very much for posting this group.

i don't know if anyone else has my problem but there's so many posts that I don't think I'd stay sane if i tried to sort through them all ! Anyway, I've been in recovery for Ana since May, symptoms including restricting, over exercising, and purging. I was seriously underweight for a long time, and had to go into treatment inpatient, then went to OP, and now I'm out completely. In August or so I started going downhill really badly really quickly, and I was at my lowest weight the end of September. I was going to have to go away again to treatment for at LEAST 60 days, with no contact with ANYONE, and that scared the **** out of me. I knew my boyfriend would leave me, and my parents would have to skip Christmas and sell our house if I had to go away again. So I just ate all I could, to get my weight up myself, and now I've reached my goal weight. That was two months ago and I'm up 25 pounds...all on my own...but I'm so scared to be maintaining. Not only that, I started binging...because my body was so starved for so long. At first everyone said it was okay, that my body needed food and its just all refeeding, but it hasn't stopped and i'm so scared i'm going to go over my goal weight and just go into yet ANOTHER eating disorder. because of that I'm restricting, bingeing, and purging...a violent cycle which I can't seem to break. I'm just terrified that these binges are abnormal for recovering ana's...that's my biggest fear. Obviously an ana's biggest fear is if you eat, you'll get (you know the word I'm thinking). Is anyone else having this problem, or had this problem? Sorry for my rant but I'm terrified !!!