Why is it......

Hey everyone!

First, a little background: I'm 5'5 1/2, 17 year old, female, 115 pounds (ish- don't have an accurate scale).

Typically, I eat around 1500 calories. I don't count them, as it's a trigger for my ED to resurface. When I don't exercise, I maintain on about 1000.

Why is it that my body maintains on so little?!

Because by undereating, you have supressed your metabolism. maintaining on 1,000 calories is not at all healthy in the long run. Maintaining a low weight on so few calories with a history of ED is verging on relapsing. i would suggest seeing your doctor or a qualified dietician (there are a LOT of unqualifieds out there, ding more harm than good) for some proper advice, and expect to increase your calories to about 2,000-2,500 a day. If you DO gain a little at first, that will stop once your metabolism is repaired - 115 is very low for your height in any case, and may not be a realistic weight for you to maintain. I realise you may disagree with that, but my ED did an awful lot of protesting about gaining to a healthy weight too!

Best of luck!

Hi mrswilsonscat!

I can totally see that. I guess the good thing is that I LOVE eating and can't ever see myself eating so few calories again as I did when I was anorexic. So, I'm okay with gaining weight!

The thing is, my dietician doesn't think I need to gain any more weight. I think I'm going to start upping my cals by 100 each day and see if it makes a difference.

Original Post by miranda013:

Hi mrswilsonscat!

I can totally see that. I guess the good thing is that I LOVE eating and can't ever see myself eating so few calories again as I did when I was anorexic. So, I'm okay with gaining weight!

The thing is, my dietician doesn't think I need to gain any more weight. I think I'm going to start upping my cals by 100 each day and see if it makes a difference.

Yay! I know what you mean. I never want to be that miserable creature measuring every mouthful, and calculating calories to the nearest 1/2 calorie again... yuck!

Sounds like a good plan - let us know how you get on :-)