obsessive/compulsive/over exercise - how did you stop?

hi everyone,

i have alreadt admitted to a few of you that i have a really bad exercise prob - sometimes around 6 1/2 hrs walking a day. i feel like i have to earn the  mass of calories i eat (round 2200-2500) and forget that my actual intention/need is to gain weight!

i really want to kick this damaging behaviour, as every step is getting me closer to the grave. i'm 5ft5.5inch +84lbs

so i was wondering, how did othersx who have suffered from this kick the habbit? did you do it gradually or 'all or nothing?'

how much exercise while reovering is ok/healthy? i feel i've lost sight of normal activity - i can barely sit down!

your experiences/advice would mean so much!

btw - how many cals would i need if i stopped over doing it? i maintain 84lbs on the above cals

thanks everyone

How much do you burn through walking? Six hours so probably like 1000 at LEAST. The first step is that you yourself needs to want to recover. No one can make you get better, although they can provide helpful tools. Exercising during recovery is perfectly fine. I did and I gained 20 pounds!!! The whole thing is that you MUST eat your calories back. I gained on at least 3000+whatever I burned. Try and not do as much cardio b/c that burns a lot of calories and that=more weight loss in general, esp. fat loss. I realized that exercise is supposed to be fun, not a chore. How about some (light) strength training? It can help you gain some muscle instead of all fat.(although you definitely need to gain fat as well as muscle) Say you were to burn around 200 calories after working out for 45 minutes. I would think to gain, you are going to (eventually) need 3000 calories at least. Plus the cals burned. An all or nothing mentality can be harmful and produce worse results than just cutting back. How about walking for an hour less each day/week? You can read my profile to learn more about my situation and all :) Hope I have helped amd feel free to ask me ANYTHING!

xxx

thank you so much for responding pschoj - i read your profile and we sound so much alike! i'm mad about sports - always have been, but it has gone over the top since ive been ill. the thing is - i walk so much i dont know where/how to begin to cut back. i dont even SIT DOWN unless it's to eat :o( i am so frightened on the outcome of eating quite alot and letting myself relax. i'd love to weight train instead, but have never done it in my life so dont/wouldnt know where or how to go about it. Any suggestions?

thanks so much

suzy

Hey suzyroo,

i used to be a compulsive exerciser. i hate to admit it, but my compulsions still have yet to dissapear. however, i am now able to ignore and disobey my compulive urges to over exercise. ive even gotten back into daily sports, things that i love- not things that i MUST do.

at first, i would suggest going to your family doctor. your stats are very alarming, and there may be some other damages that have been done to your body, internally speaking. its wise to get a physical to make sure that your heart has not been effected, in addition to your electrolytes.

you see, your body adapts to0 misery when you abuse it. i remember the day that i was admitted to the hosptial, i felt normal, since normal for me was abusing myself. it turns out that my heart was shrinking, my electrolytes were failing, and i would have died if id have waited just an hour longer to come into the hosptial.

but if your health is good, you still NEED to have a support system, ie: constant supervision. you need to have someone watching you at ALL times, in the bathroom, while your sleeping, watching tv, everywhere! your compulsions are going to try to get the best of you. have a parent be with you always. explain to them how much you want to recover, how much this lifestyle is harming you. they will be there.

as you gain weight healthily, your life will improve. you will even be able to exercise again, but healthily. your body is starved right now, which means your brain is starved. thus, your thoughts are distorted. but as you get better, your thoughts will improve, and youll be able to control your compulsions.

exercise is a great thing. but just like everything else in life, exercise is bad when you cant overboard. even too much of a good thing is bad!

get better, you will not regret it :) i wish you the best of luck!

I run/jog 12-18 miles per day.  Most of my days are scheduled around three work outs and when in the day I can physically move my legs to run.  It has reached the point where are start to feel sick and nervous when it is time to run again.  My legs and joints hurt.  I watch the calories tick away on the treadmill hoping that enough tick away to counter the few things I eat during the day.  I sacrifice time at work, time with my children, and time with friends and family to make sure I'm taking off the calories.  I wake up in the middle of the night to go running.  I am teaching myself to eat real food again but it has come at the price of running greater distances.  This is getting old, but I don't know how to stop.

I was just like you when i started recovary!  I had a scheduale and it was like if I didn't stick to it, something awful would happen - this included going on my dance mat on expert for 45 mins 4 days, the gym 3 days a week doing loads of running on the treadmill and just refusing to keep still. 

At 84lbs you are reeeally underweight babe so you need to kick this sillyness in now before you get even thinner.  If you love running (like moi), I don't see why a quick jog a few days a week for general upkeep of fitness would be of major harm as long as you eat more on these days .

Also, I found that weight training and yoga really helped.  Weight training means some of the weight you gain will show as muscle - yay!  And yoga just clears your mind so all the buzzing, compulsive thoughts go away.

I'm about the same weight as you atm (up from like 79lbs) and I've been gaining fairly slowly on 2500 cals (only with cardio once a week and weights) so I don't think lessoning your cals due to lessoning your exercise level is really worth it.

hope this was helpful...in some way

I stopped overexercising when I went to the nutritionist for the first time. She told me I couldn't go anymore, so that was that. It was really hard, because it felt so good to exercise, etc. I've adjusted. It just takes time. Best of luck, it's different for everyone.

I got put in IP, on close observation, with a security person guarding my bed....stopped the over-exercising pretty quick!

:)

Hi. I pretty literaly spent my whole summer 2008 on my bike - living on diet coke and egg whites, cyclic from 2-4 hours a day. I was exhausted - I felt like throwing up as I kept cycling, I once remember even bursting into tears on the road! It was usually 13-37 kilometers a day. Do I even have to mention I lost a crapload of weight?

I never got as underweight as you though. I hope you can stop the compulsion before anything worse happens.

At your low weight - NO exercise is good, beneficial or healthy. The exercise you are doing now doesn't even burn calories, it causes your body to further eat away at itself and destroy more of your muscle and organ tissues. It doesn't matter if you eat back the calories at such a low weight - your body wants to hold onto the calories so instead it eats away itself even further.

I have been at your weight, and honestly because I didn't stop that horrible habit I ended up even lower and nearly lost my life last summer. Do.Not.Exercise. Until you have a doctor's permission or reach a BMI of 17/17.5 MINIMUM. Exercising so much at low weight can do serious and permament damage to your bones, heart, lungs and muscles. You can get fractures, tears, and possible go into cardiac arrest of have a lung collapse. How do I know this? I have gotten fractures, muscle tears and when I was 16, my heart stopped in my chest while I sleeping. I would have died if I hadn't been admitted to an IP that same die.

That being said - my history with my ED is a long one, and I found the idea of giving up exercise entirely cold turkey rather daunting. I set goals for myself. Instead of taking two 30 minute walks, I took one. Then I cut it down to 15min. Then I stopped entirely. That sort of thing. It helped me deal with the anxiety of stopping, and it made it easier for me to adjust. If you think you can handle ceasing entirely in one shot, go for it. But if you fear it may cause you to cut back on your calories, try the goal setting thing to cut it down to none for a bit until you are at a safer weight.

also important to note is that excessive exercise will make it much more difficult for your body to come out of "starvation mode," a low metabolic state in which it becomes very efficient and hoards calories.  even if you're eating a bit more, too much exercise will make it incredibly difficult for your body to trust that it is safe to rebound and restore your metabolism.  so basically, you have to rely on the exercise to burn the calories that your body would otherwise burn just through existing (if it weren't in starvation mode).  that's why people with the highest metabolic rebound are often those who are fed a lot of calories whilst being on bedrest (no physical activity beyond living and breathing).

i struggle with exercise compulsions, too...i've gone through periods of time where exercise has been a full-time (and overtime) job...ironically, it was only when i quit exercising so much that my weight took a serious nosedive (not that that was a good thing, for goodness' sake, but it proves my point).  i still fight the urges and thought processes every day ("well if i walked xx yesterday, then i need to walk xx + 30 today"..."i'll gain a million pounds if i don't burn off at least some of the calories i eat"...etc.).  it helps me to remind myself that, in the long run, my chances of fully restoring my metabolism are better if i stop driving myself into the ground.  

it sucks when your day revolves around getting to the gym, 7-hour walks, getting to the gym [again], and getting to the gym [one more time, just to be "safe].  it's not doing anything to help you (the healthy you, or the unhealthy you)...guaranteed.

good luck. <3

wow i understand your situation,  when my family sent me to a nutrisionalist and she told me i had to stop biking...i cried cause its my fav thing.  i love to be outside. hiking and biking, i find it very hard to sit still,  but i feel that since gaining weight i can bike longer and i am not as fearful of getting hurt because i have a bit of fat...ahhh... protecting my bones.  i was actually hit by a car, all happened in slow mo on sunday and if i would have been my thinest i bet it would have been serious. 

It is good to hear stories from others.  This is a viscous cycle.  Now that I eat a little more the work outs build more muscle and more weight.  If I don't work out as much the food is stored as fat right away.  I can see it in the mirror.  My day revolves around working out and avoiding heavy, real food.  When does it end?