Posts by kiki_725

anemali - I can not image how you feel at the moment. Eds are awful anyway without the added guilt you must feel around your children. All i can say is that if you do go to IP yes you will be away from your children for a while but you will also be back to a healthy weight so much faster than if you try to gain by yourself. I really do think you should go to IP, they would never suggest it if it wasn't 100% necessary.

I was on a waiting list of IP when i was younger and i couldnt see how my family would cope w/o me. I did/ do so much in the house i couldnt see it functioning without my help. These thoughts were warped by the ED. I went to uni and my family coped. If you go to IP it maybe hard for your family for a while but they will cope. They will cope as they will know that in a few months you will be home, if yo didnt go to IP and - god forbid - you die they would have to cope without you forever.

I dont want you to feel worse than i guess you already do but please please seriously consider it. Are there any friends/ family/ services you can ask too help out at home?

1. How many calories should I eat when not bike riding? As a teen you should be eating at lease 3000 cals. You may need to work you way up to this total by adding an extra 100 per day. You may also need more if the weight gain slows down.

2. How many calories should I eat when bike riding?

Your going to hate this but during recovery exercise is strictly off limit. By working out while underweight you are doing so much damage to your body. Its hard but you need to stop biking.

3. Will I see temporary weight gain? I heard that when trying to end anorexia, your body can hold on to up to 20 pounds of water.

Maybe, some people do gain water weight so dont. Some gain and dont lose this weight. Dont panic though and not let it cause you to restrict. 

4. Will my health improve? My skin is seeing the effect of everything, and so are my joints.

YES! You will finding biking easier after recovery, your sleep will improve, your skin, concentration, mood and hair will all improve! You will be warm again, you will be social again! There are so many good things to come from recovery!

 

Please read this - http://caloriecount.about.com/helping-starvat ion-mode-down-ft170153#3

Print it out and read it daily!!

And best of luck :) We are all here for you :)

Its never too late. Ok, so your past history isnt great BUT thats the past. We cant change that but we can change the future. We need to work from where we are now.

I feel that you need to focus on one problem and tackle it. tackling all your problems at once maybe too much for you (or anyone) to handle.

I really dont know what advice i can offer, do you have anyone you could live with who you could trust to help you? A friend/ relative anyone? As you said maybe a group home would be a good idea.

As you said you have two choices at the moment. Recover or Die.

Sorry i cant be much help but remember that you are special, you are worth it, you will get better. *Hugs*

Original Post by houseelf:

kiki hun - I gained that much in the beginning and it wasn't water weight either. My hunger didn't reduce until about two months in. Then it picked up again about 4 weeks ago (I have been doing this since January this year). Don't eat less. I thought you were on 3000 a day now? Do you see a dietician? Your body won't have reached its set point yet. It needs consitancy and one month won't be long enough for that. Allow for fluctuations as this will happen. One week my dad freaked as he gained 6 pounds. Two weeks later with no change to what he was doing, it went down again. The body is weird and we cannot control what it does or how it reacts to what we try and make it do. It may be that your metabolism is still supressed, so you do need the 2500+. Having not gained I upped my cals by about 500 and gained over two pounds in 6 days- in theory that shouldn't be the case, as 500 makes 1lb of fat in one week.

I am doing 3000 now - i gained 2kg on 2500 and 2.4 on 3000. Its just soo fast and the Ed is saying it wont slow and i will keep gaining and people say that if you weren't overweight before the ED you wont be after BUT i WAS overweight before the ed! I was really overweight! :(

I am waiting to see a dietitian (the joys of being and adult/ using the NHS) I have an appointment on the 1st of July.

Have you been to the Drs about you weight gain? There could be an underlying medical problem.

best of luck!

Original Post by gemzywemz:

I have some questions that are really bugging me and wondered if anyone could help....

1 ) 2,500 calories is the recommended amount for weight gain, but what I dont understand is that when I first started my diet ( the one I wish had never began! ) I wasnt eating that amount of calories, yet on some weeks I didnt loose weight, I GAINED....this was always when I had for example had a choc bar or something like that......but still wasnt touching 2,500 cals so why did my weight go up?

It could have been just the natural fluctation in weight we all experince. Never take one days weight as you actual weight - you should take the average of - for example - your weight over a month (measuring once a week at the same time)

2 ) If my weight is maintaining at say 1,300 calories, then surely I would gain weight if this was increased to even just 1,500 or 1,700? If not, how does this work?

Yes you will gain on 1500 and/ or 1700 as your body is crying out for food. Any food will be used to try to repair the damage BUT you will also stop gaining and may even lose as the metablosim increases a fraction.

I thank hedgren for the following

2) The math of why you need the calories

And here's the math to explain it all. If you eat 3000 calories every day and stay completely sedentary, then that's 21,000 calories that go into you for one week.

Sounds huge however we have to subtract the 7,000 needed for the actual fat and muscle rebuilding that has to happen each week (the fat stores are the only way you get your period back and reverse osteoporosis).

That leaves 14,000. But then there is the amount just to keep you breathing, heart beating -- that basal metabolic rate thing that just keeps you alive. Estimating, that swacks off another 6,800 or so calories.

To repair damaged heart, skin, nails, hair, kidneys, digestive system, brain areas, bone and blood formation systems...you are actually giving your body only 1,000 calories a day to go to that effort. That's if you dependably eat 3,000 calories each day.

The less you eat, the longer it takes to recover because the harder it is for your body to find any excess energy to repair the damage.

So 2500 a day is the minimum (only giving your body 500 calories a day for repair). 3500 is better, 4500 is excellent. Anorexics who embrace recovery can find themselves eating 9000 calories or more and as long as they eat a minimum of 2500 the very next day then they have just moved themselves faster to the finish line of full recovery.

There is not a cell in your body that is not in need of extra energy for repair at this point.'

3 ) If you eat 2,500 calories and just keep gaining and gaining does this mean that you have something wrong with your metabolism other than that of starvation mode?

You will not keep gaining and gaining. Your body will reach its 'happy' weight and you will maintain at this weight.

Please read this post by hedgren. It will explain a lot!

http://caloriecount.about.com/helping-starvat ion-mode-down-ft170153#3

You need healthy fats too so nuts and seeds are really good for snacking on in recovery (as are nut butters)

There are no 'banned' food but you should chose full fat when possible as it makes meeting targets easier and also helps your body restore its vital fat stores - needed for the return of periods.

Eat what you want when you want. As _adrienne_ said you may feel like it is a binge but its not. You starved your body of 10,000s of cals so it deserves food ;)

My mum said that to me the other day. I know how hard it is but you do want to get better right?  You sounded so sick before so you whouldnt worry what others think - as hard as it is. This is about YOU. Getting YOU better so you can be happy and healthy again.

I bet the nurse often eats teas which are 500cals. Its so easy to eat it and not know esp for people who dont count every last cal like us/ xx