Plateauing

I feel like Im at a plateau in my recovery and weight gain. I have been maintaining around 105/6 for about two weeks now. I am certainly healthier than I was, eating more, eating variety, doing more with my life, not thinking about food as much. But I know (underneath it all) that I still have more to do. That I cant stop here, because if I do, I will half be living underweight and half with an ed and will probabaly slip backwards after a while.(relapase)

Has anyone else been at a plateau, What did you do to move forward?Did you force answers or wait? My counselor said sometimes you need to rest before moving onwards to the next stage. Im not stuck, just plateuaed

Changes are occuring which could be contributing to this. College is starting, My sister is back at school, summer is over, my counselor has moved to France and Im starting a new one on Tuesday, Ive had to buy a new wardrobe as none of my clothes fit.

I would worry about stopping that maybe you wouldnt start again? While your in the process its probably best to keep going and see it through till the end.

Its great your eating more of a variety of foods now, just bump up your calories further to get out of your plateau and gaining again.

You stated that you are facing a lot with school,etc. Are you working on healthy ways to cope with this and get support? Have you started to eat less? I ask because you mentioned these issues and it may be contributing. How much are you eating? At stages in recovery one has to increase calories as the metabolism speeds up. I am not a fan of breaks because there is never an easy time and it make the mid think it is ok to just be better when it is not. Of course follow your teams advice as everyone is different but make sure you are honest as well.

im pleased with all the progress you have made , and im glad you can see that you have come to a rest. i have been there several times i dont think its helpful its just more time for the illness to creep back in like abbi said there is never a right time . you are on a journey and you need to continute to battle on. I can see you have alot of changes , these are always hard to deal with but part of recovery is finding new ways to cope . perhaps youll feel better once you start seeing your new counselor. try and think of things you could add to your diet to push things forward. clear out those clothes, the bad reminders ,dont be held back . you ve come so far i can understand you are frightened but please keep going , dont let this ed rule your life, theres a new happy healthy life waiting for you but you need to overcome this hurdle first all my love h x

how tall are you? I am also around 105. I had gotten up to 108, and my first week back at college dropped to 103.5. Now this past week I gained about a pound and a half.

Now I am struggling more than ever to even keep my weight up. I am more active just from walking around school and working at a job where I stand for hours on end. And I am way more exhausted than any 21-year-old woman should be.

Please keep eating more. I stopped counting and thinking about it, and LOST weight. Now, I am logging my calories for the next week and setting a minimum at 2600.

Everyone's body is different, but if you are still underweight, push yourself to gain more. It is SO hard, and I am struggling immensely, but I am sitting here with my waffles and yogurt and chocolate milk and telling myself that this is what my body NEEDS. 

We only get one life, and we want to be able to have the energy to live it! Let's both try to gain together! I am aiming for at least 120!!! I am around 5'6.5"

whats your calorie intake been like?

Hey guys, everyone, thanks so much for the help. Ive not been posting on here as much becasue I guess Im afraid to open up about my food and calorie intake. 

Alot has been happening with college and a new counselor. I dealt with stress by using ed, so yea I guess I do need to use new ways of dealing with (like actually doing the coursework and doing activities to take mind off stress).

I need to buy new clothes too, old ones are getting me down.

My external circumstances mirror my stage in weight gain. I am waiting to go back to college, waiting to see a new counselor, waiting to see old friends again, and my recovery is?-waiting

I am annoyed with my distribution (stomach is way bigger than ass!),and I want to look more porportioned, so that means-gaining more. 

I dont want to stay in this position and I am afraid of slipping back once I get to college becasue its so damn hard to get back on the horse again =, and with college on my mind, it will be even harder. At least during the summer, I had time and energy to focus onto recovery. 

Im 5ft5 and 106 at the moment.

COCO: id be delighted to join you on gaining the last hurdle! I think once I get going again, I will reach my target weight without another plateau like this again. 

FIDGET: Not too sure what my intake is at the moment, I will log todays menu tonight, and add up then.

Feels good to have expressed myself, becasue at least now I can start doing something about the problem. Thanks all again for great advice, action steps to match this would be much appreciated!!

Original Post by drivenlass:

Has anyone else been at a plateau, What did you do to move forward?Did you force answers or wait? My counselor said sometimes you need to rest before moving onwards to the next stage.

 Yes, I've been at a plateau when losing weight rather than gaining - but it amounts to the same thing really.  By which I mean it's very comfortable to have a rest when you're still a long way from your goal.... takes a lot of effort to gain or lose weight, of course.  And it can be useful to take stock from time time..  BUT you have to be careful that your 'overnight camp' doesn't turn into a 'permanent settlement'.  It can all get too cosy as you sit there congratulating yourself on your progress and you can quickly forget what it was you were supposed to be doing.  And if you forget where you're meant to be headed 'life' has a way of neatly filling the gaps with distractions and opportunities to procrastinate..... as you're finding.

I've always found the only way to move forward is to simply pick up one foot and place it in front of the other.  In dietary terms to go from 'thinking about it' to 'doing it'..... My personal preference is to map out an eating plan for the following day and then stick to it... and repeat... and repeat.... and repeat... until the planning becomes almost unnecessary and the whole process gets back to being automatic.  You can call that 'forcing answers' if you like but I think it's more a case of getting sleeves rolled up and knuckling down to the job in hand.  Good luck

If you are not actively trying to gain(when you were before), I don't know if that's a plateau, or just not gaining because you're not trying. If you are eating the same about of calories as you were gaining on, it just means you need to up your calories.