Everyone says to maintain your weight, you have to eat your BMR.
I'm 5'2 and 18 years old, very petite frame except for my huge thighs (I weigh 116) and I know FOR SURE if I ate my BMR (around 1400) I would gain so much weight. In order to maintain 116 I have to eat under 1200 calories and exercise a lot to burn off those calories. Am I gonna have to do this forever? I was on a huge diet and now Im ok with my weight but I still have to REALLY watch what I eat and I cant enjoy anything...
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So I'm guessing to lose weight you've been eating far below 1200?
You should never have been eating less than 1500 with your stats. If you are even just lightly active, you would have been burning 2000 calories and could have lost weight eating 1500.
But, if your "huge diet" was a starvation diet, you likely have damaged your metabolism. The good news is that you can repair a damaged metabolism. The bad news is that you will probably gain some weight back while you work on recovery.
Without knowing how much you have been eating and how long you've been doing it for, I don't feel comfortable recommending how much to eat (and I don't have enough knowledge to know for sure at what point someone is at risk of refeeding syndrome). But I would suggest posting in Health and Support for help on getting your calories up and dealing with the effects, since those people have a lot more experience with it.
First of all, a healthy teen with your measurements should probably be maintaining around 2000-2200 calories a day without exercise.
BMR isn't the number that you're supposed to maintain on, but the number that you should NEVER go below.
Recovering from an ED I've been where you are now. It sounds like you've been on a starvation diet and that your metabolism has slowed drastically. The only way to fix this problem is to eat more. I would suggest 2500-3000 calories a day. I know this sounds like a lot but it will allow your body to repair some of the damaged that you've done. I wan't to be completely honest with you, you'll most likely gain on this. BUT don't let this scare you.
Yes, if you don't do anything to fix this then you'll never be able to maintain on an appropriate amount of calories + you'll do some series damage to your body. Fix this before it gets worse! Do it for your own health.
Feel free to message me if your ever want to talk or need any advice :)
If you have to restrict your eating to maintain your current body weight, it means that the weight is not NATURAL for you. Nobody should eat so little (below 1,600) just to maintain. I think you know, and that's why you're feeling like you're stuck now, between liking your weight but you can't go on eating so little.
Eating is such a celebration and a social activity that if you go on eating 1,000 calories a day, you would really miss out! You have to start fixing your metabolism now. You're just going to suppress your appetite and metabolism if you continue eating the way you do.
Eat more, move more, and you will be fine.
Just increase your calories slowly. 2-300 every couple of days. You will gain weight but it will go back down and even out. (water weight and yes some fat, but your body will trust you again)
