Restlessness holding body in starvation mode?

I was just wondering if someone is very restless and spends alot of their day standing and pacing about etc, so not exercising in the sense of hitting the gym but maybe just a constant restlessness and alot of going up and down stairs, can this cause their body to still be in a kind of starvation mode even though they are eating a good amount of calories throughout the day?

For example, I am very restless throughout the whole day and my current intake is around 1900-2000 calories, which I`m gaining about 1lb-1.5lbs a week on roughly. I`m a little concerned that I`m managing to gain this on that amount of calories and so I was wondering could the restlessness actually be causing my body to gain in this way? You would sort of think it would do the opposite but apparently not., so I thought maybe that may have something to do with it.

It makes it very difficult to contemplate then trying to rest more and increase my intake more as well.

If you were under eating for any reason prior to your weight gaining efforts, you will gain water weight when you start eating again. Also, prolonged under eating causes the metabolism to slow down/shut down, which makes it easy to gain weight on a very low caloric intake. Try increasing your calories to 3000/day and see what happens. Your metabolism may well kick back into gear and you'll end up losing some weight (thus needing to increase again until you're gaining again), or you'll gain at the same rate. It is severely unlikely that you'll gain MORE pounds per week despite increasing your calories, because you metabolism will start to repair itself when your body realises that you're feeding it well again.

In my own personal experience, weight gain can very well occur on low caloric intakes if your body has grown accustomed to very little food. It's not easy, but eating 3000+ calories is the only surefire way to pull your body out of the starvation hole.

My lifestyle is pretty active, as well. I am up on my feet all day long and rarely even sit down for a meal, I live on the second floor of my house and go up and down the stairs a LOT, I clean around the house every day (including sweeping, dishes, dusting, picking up random junk off of the floor...etc), and I never stay still. I have Bipolar Type 2 (Manic), which makes me severely "high" and restless. Staying still triggers a rushing sensation throughout my body and is barely tolerable. I'm currently working with a Psychiatrist on finding a medication to calm my Bipolar and just recently started taking my first one (however, it takes 4 or more weeks to kick in). Do you have any idea of what the source of your restlessness is? In most cases, it is curable. It's not at all healthy for you to run around like a maniac day in and day out (especially if you're underweight), so if you can tone down the activeness of your lifestyle, do so. Being active isn't bad if your body is healthy, but it is bad if you never take a break. Of course, exercise should be held off on until one is of a healthy BMI. Anyway, my point in saying this is to inform you that I (a 16-year-old, 130 lb, a little less than 5'5 female) require 2600 calories--sometimes even more--to MAINTAIN my weight without formal exercise added in. You are almost definitely under eating for your activity level, and if your metabolism is shot, slightly under eating is only going to damage it further. You are likely gaining weight because your body is clinging to what food you feed it. Only because you are eating more than you used to is your body able to store the food that you feed it now.

Bottom line: Eat more. It certainly won't harm you if you need to gain weight anyway, and it'll give your metabolism a good kick in the pants. :P Do confirm that it is okay with your doctor first, however, so that you don't risk refeeding syndrome.

Best to you....I hope that I helped somehow. :)

Essentially, yes, it can. Missmagill summed it up very well though.

Betty, what is your weight? Usually, on outpatient, people are suggested to gain at about 2lbs a week especially if their weight is very low. And you have been dragging this out for weeks. The longer you spend at too low an intake, the more danger you risk.

Betty: In my experience - for the most part,I needed just as many calories as I did in IP on bed rest as I did at home (I am a very anxious person as well and have a hard time staying still) What is making you gain weight is truly just the fact that you are not eating enough. I had been gaining about 1/2 lb a week on 2500 calories. I decided i wanted to speed up the process and really kick my metabolism back up. One would think increased by 1200+ calories would have promoted me to a 2lb/week gaining level. But it didn't - I was still gaining 1/2-1lb a week on average. Like lala said - increasing the calories also enabled my metabolism to boot up and start functioning properly. Having to start the gaining process again has been a bit scary for me - I've been afraid that I will gain on less than I did before. Thus far my weight has gone up a teeny bit, but its looking like I'll need to go back up to the calories I was at before. Your body is much more capable of adjusting than you give it credit for.

Thank you so much for your replies and advice guys, it really meant a lot and was very encouraging to here your own experiences. Sorry it took me so long to answer, I read your replies at work and thought Id answer back when I got home and then it slipped my mind!

Missmagill: thanks, a lot of what you said makes sense, my activity levels and restlessness are pretty much ED driven, I really find it a struggle to control which Im really going to have to work on because it just makes increasing my intake even harder while trying to control the activity levels.

Rebel: Its very reassuring to here that even after such a big calorie increase you didnt suddenly rocket with your weight. Thanks again for your reply here and other posts, they are always very helpful to read. I guess overall I just keep needing reassured at times.