Scared to Eat What I Need

I'm struggling between eating very low cal & exercising off everything i eat, and realizing that my body needs more than what i give it. I'm 5'5 (possibly 5'6), 115 lbs. I come from two large families; maternally they are overweight and paternally they are Scandinavian, so picture Viking sized. According to the fingers-around-the-wrist-thing I'm petite.

I have had issues in the past with my weight. I gained 20 lbs one summer when i was 8, and my family made fun of me, not other people. I was depressed a coupel years ago and lost all the weight, getting down to 110, 5'4. I started dating an amazing guy a year ago, and slowly i gained 15 lbs.

I'm uncomfortable with how the 124 lbs were sitting on me, so i joined a gym. My biggest issue is FOOD. My calorie counter thing says i should eat 1200 cals/day, but im scared that i will GAIN instead of lose, as i only burn ~300 cals at the gym. Anyways, what do you think? I want to be healthy, but it's scary!

how old are you? if you are working out then you need more than 1200, not less. you will be depriving yourself of nutrients and setting yourself up for failure if you restrict too much, sorry hun. also, how much weight are you trying to lose seeing how you're within a healthy weight range?

I'm 15. Itake a vitamin everyday to try to help with not hurting myself. I'm trying to get down to my original weight, 110, but i wouldnt mind going to 105 & then gaining some back as muscle. Im a healthy person, but the thought of eating over 800 calories scares me.

Eating 800 cals is not exactly what I call ''healthy''...

If you're under 21 you need min 1500 cals.

Original Post by bxca:

Im a healthy person, but the thought of eating over 800 calories scares me.

sorry love but this proves that you are not healthy at all, at least mentally you have some things to work through even if you are not underweight, you are exhibiting ED type thoughts which is a slippery slope when you are trying to lose weight. 105 for your height is excessively thin and i think focusing on health rather than weight is what is best for you. you definitely don't NEED to lose weight at all, so that amount is a bit excessive. also, you are growing still, your bones are becoming more dense, your womanly features and developing still, and you are coming into adulthood, expect fluctuations in your weight, it's normal!!

I think that you've taken some positive steps by admitting that your body needs more than you've been giving it.  You are absolutely right -- you want to be healthy.

So first of all, you need to eat at least 1500 calories per day to be healthy -- and you will lose weight doing it.  You are only burning 300/day at the job, but you're burning an additional 1800-2500 just being alive and developing, so you're already at a pretty significant deficit. 

Second of all, eating less will not make you burn faster or healthier.  I developed anorexia when I was 12 and didn't eat over a 1000 kcal/day until I was 24 -- by which time it was super easy for me to gain weight, because I had destroyed my metabolism and I hated the way I looked, because I had consumed all of my muscle by not eating enough.  When I joined CC I began eating 1.5-2 times what I used to, lost weight and I feel a lot better about my body, because I have muscle now. 

Please, if you feel tempted to do something unhealthy, talk to your doctor.  He or she will help you develop healthy nutritional goals.

by healthy i mean i eat healthy foods (whole grains, veggies, fruit, dairy), i exercise every day (even if i can only go for a walk&do a few yoga poses) & i dont drink/smoke/do drugs on a regular basis. sorry if that was kind of confusing.

the rest of the posts here have bet be to it, and are correct.

are u really petite or just underweight!?!? i doubt ur petite if ur family are all a large build

You need to realise the fact that loosing weight is not about starving yourself.  It’s about increasing your metabolism. Looking at your BMI your normal so you don’t need to loose weight.

You body will need a min of 1200 calories to function e.g. hart beating, breathing, sleeping etc..  That’s before you do any excises on top.  

Eating 800 calories a day and burning 300 at the gym is only leaving your body 500calories to function… 500/1200 NOT GOOD.

My advice to you (don’t be scared) is to eat around 1000 more healthy calories a day. 

Work out at the gym but aim more for resistance training than cardio, as your goal should be to tone up your body rather than just burn calories.

The more muscle you have the better your body will look and the more calories your body will need to function so you will be able to eat more without putting on weight.

Don’t look at the scales and think ‘I’m fat’ because muscle weighs more than fat. Not to mention that at 15 you have a lot more developing to do so a change in body shape and an increase in your weight are normal.

Don’t be scared about eating. Eating is good, be scared about not eating enough.

Good luck

You need to get some help. Talk to a counselor, parent or another trusted adult. You either have an eating disorder or are on the verge of having one.  Vitamins do not make up for not eating. You are very young and still growing and are damaging your body not eating enough.

passions_child - sorry, i meant "small", according to the fingers-around-wrist measuring. Maternally they are short, and simply eat too much, or they would be very slim people. Paternally they are all ~6 ft.+ (even the women) and develop muscle easily.

Thanks everyone for your comments and help. I'm going grocery shopping today , and my goal is to be comfortable with 800, then 1000, and 1200.

eating under 1200 will slow your matabolisum and make it easyer for you to put weight on as your body fights to store as much energy as it can as it thinks you are starving!

Original Post by webbermatt:

eating under 1200 will slow your matabolisum and make it easyer for you to put weight on as your body fights to store as much energy as it can as it thinks you are starving!

 

webbermatt is exactly right. If you restrict calories too much, your body will try to retain more fat because it thinks you need to survive a famine. It actually works against losing weight in the long run.

Also, your body will start to cannibalize itself in order to get the nutrients it needs and some of the first things to go are muscles which are what burn the most calories and build up your metabolism. This isn't a good way to lose weight :( I would suggest a healthy amount of eating and increasing your exercise. It's better for you and can be a lot more fun!

Even if you have stopped growing in height (and you very well may not have), at 15 you are still growing, and your body needs adequate nutrition, and you aren't giving it that.  You're scared of eating 1200 calories a day?  You should be.  You should be eating twice that.  1200 calories isn't even close to enough for you.  At 5'5 and 115 lbs, you are not even close to fat.  You were happy being 5'4 and 110 lbs?  Guess what?  You generally need at least another 5 lbs for each extra inch of height.

Your family did you a huge disservice by teasing you about your weight when you were 8 years old, and I know the scars from that run deep.  But please, don't let that define you and your self image.  You are exhibiting the signs of an eating disorder, and if you continue down this road, you are going to be faced with having to gain weight to gain your health back.  Many of the girls on this site who are recovering from eating disorders can tell you that it's just not worth it to mess with your health like that.  You are destroying your metabolism.  Someone posted this article yesterday.  If you want to look good and be strong and healthy, it has a lot of good advice.

http://www.fitnessland.com.au/news/pdf/Strong %20Women%20Dont%20Starve.pdf

Also, please take the EAT-26 test to help determine if you really do have an eating disorder.

http://eatingdisorders.about.com/od/riskfacto rs/a/eat26test.htm

You need to talk to people close to you about the way you feel.  You're very thin already and it's distressing that you're starving, over-exercising and trying to lose more weight when your body really needs to be able to grow and develop normally.  http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/bodycomp/bmiz2.html  this site is specifically for teens.  If you enter your stats you'll find that to maintain your weight when you're pretty active you need 2000-2500 cals a day, not 1200.

• Do you make yourself Sick because you feel uncomfortably full?
• Do you worry that you have lost Control over how much you eat?
• Have you recently lost more than One stone (14lbs or 6.5kgs) in a 3 month period?
• Do you believe yourself to be Fat when others say you are too thin?
• Would you say that Food dominates your life?

 If you can answer 'yes' to two or more of the above questions you should almost certainly see your doctor and get checked out for an eating disorder.  Chronic malnutrition and being underweight can have devastating consequences.

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