"wash-out phase"

When you first start to eat normally, you are likely to experience a number of physical and emotional difficulties because your system is not use to it. we use the term washout phase to describe this difficult time when there are no obvious benefits to the recovery process. It is typical during this phase to experience an increase in gastrointestinal discomfort and pain (bloating, gas, constipation, reflux,), to feel more preoccupied with food, more dissatisfied with your body image, more anxious, more depressed, and to feel strong urges to restrict/binge/over-exercise. You are likely to feel a lot worse before you feel better.

Some say it’s like hitting a brick wall, and many report that its much easier to engage in symptoms than to experience the intense distress associated with normalized eating. you might believe you were better off when you were active in your eating disorder, and you might be tempted to relapse in this point. Unfortunately, there is no way around this phase. In order to get to the other side, you will need to continue with the eating, despite the discomfort. Eventually you will start to get better. You might feel “flabbier” or that you have gained a hundred pounds but you have to continue eating and try at all costs to not restrict. At this point when you’re feeding your body nutrients you must not listen to ED and restricting food again, because it puts you at greater risk for starvation mode. your body will hold onto the nutrients you have fed it to make new reserves to be prepared for the next "famine". its best to avoid this completly and continue eating and following your meal plan so your body can release itself from this cycle and begin to normalize again. Your going to have to "bite the bullet" as some say, and do all you have to do to ignore possible triggers.

does bite the bullet mean just eat 3 meals a day? im confused...

Original Post by malibu2008:

does bite the bullet mean just eat 3 meals a day? im confused...

 bite the bullet means that you have to do what you have to do to recover,whatever it takes.

hi meesh!

you always have these insightful next step ideas!  so, 1 confusion, when you say, "At this point when you’re feeding your body nutrients to restricting it food, puts it at greater risk for starvation mode. It always has to be prepared for the next “famine.” Your going to have to bite the bullet"-what do you mean?  you say feeding your body nutrients to rstricting?  do you mean if you give in to those feelings to restrict after eating mire, that then the body will begin to hold cal and fat bc its scared of another starvation, thus slowing the metabolism again?  bite the bullet, as in keep eating "a lt" despite feeling bloated and "fat"?

thanks, take care!

it means try not to relapse

try not to listen to ED

your feeding your body, giving it nutrients.and then something happens, i dont know you become dissatisfied or you start to struggle with recovery and you begin to restrict. your body has more chances of holding onto calories/nutrients than before because it feels like its in a "famine" and its going to hold onto everything to make reserves for the future.

basically your body thinks its back into caveman days and its preparing for another famine, it needs to hold onto and make reserves to make sure it pro-longs its chances of survival. seeing as we have food in plenty these days and we are not living in 'caveman days' then we can avoid this risk by "biting the bullet" (its an expression) and eat and feed your body to get it out of this cycle.

thanks, meesh, thats what i figured you meant, to not revert to restriction and to trudge through any discomfort.  ugh, how long till the cycle ends after continuously eating more, how long until your metabolsim recovers, once youre a healthy weight?

Your description is helpful. It's the closest thing to withdrawal symptoms I ever care to experience. For me it runs from a feeling of general malaise and fatigue to that "washed out" feeling one gets when you're coming down with the flu. For me it's my body purging itself of sugar and carb over-load. Several years ago I did Adkins religiously starting with the two week induction mode. My face broke out wildly, hot flashes intensified HUGELY, and my lower tract all but shut down. MISERY!!! However, once through the purge of sugar, I felt better than I've felt in yonks. I fell off a 5 year wagon a bit and now am back on counting calories and leaving those nasty sugars and white food out of my diet. I experienced about a week of the same lack of energy but now am bouncing around happily, and sleeping much better, too. It's amazing how sugar and a high carbohydrate diet intensifies hot flashes for me. That alone can motivate me to stay on track. I guess you actually ARE what you eat.

hmm, i eat practically all sugar and carbs..?

im battin down the hatch... ready for water weight... i reallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly hope i can keep this gung ho determination...

how do you guys get thru the days when you feel like your cheeck are swelled up and you swear ur belly grew 92386394 inches in water overnight?? and tips or experiences>><<

Original Post by malibu2008:

im battin down the hatch... ready for water weight... i reallllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly hope i can keep this gung ho determination...

how do you guys get thru the days when you feel like your cheeck are swelled up and you swear ur belly grew 92386394 inches in water overnight?? and tips or experiences>><<

 when i first started to shape up and eat about two years ago and now again too but not so badly  i went up 3 sizes in pants of bloat. i had a basket ball belly and i looked like i was pregnant. really nothing you can do. took me about a month and a half and i was back to my normal pants and lost the water weight and looked much healthier.hah even right now i feel like i gained 20 pounds but i know its not real. yes i swelled up, but its water weight. its my bodys was of reacting to food again.ust use hot presses on your stomach at night to ease the pain. and drink green tea.and peppermint tea. drink coffee when you feel REALLY constipated this should speed things up. =] when you feel like your struggling ask someone to spend the day with you. try not to challenge yourself or overwhelm yourself with fear food just take it easy. on days that you are more up beat. shoot for those challenges. buy your self some elastic pants, ugh i knoow you might not like it but you might have to, as soon as i get home i always put on sweats.cover your mirrors if you have to too. when you dont feel to hungry make yourself a milkshake or a smoothie. though its better to get used to real food. just relax for the next few weeks

I completely agree w/everything MEESH has said.  during my 1st try at recovery i also relied on elastic sweat pants.  i always looked pregnant and 1 time as i was buying a bagel-a former fear food of mine, the guy at thecounter asked when i was due!  i almost died, literally, at the counter, could have fallen over.  but i went home, sat outside, cried a little, thought about, and ate the bagel!  the bloating subsided, just buy lots of loose clothing for the meantime. 

MALIBU-i saw on another post of yours you asked how fast ppl increase their cals, i went from 1500ish to 1950-2000 over night and it was fine, go for it!!!

MEESH-thanks for everything!

wowww meesh this just made my day better. I'm totally bloated right now and wondering if anyone else feels like I do right now, and you practically just answered all my questions. I'm not the only one that goes through this! I will keep on eating 2500+, regardless of it. No more ED mindset.

MEESH!

Oh thank goodness for you...haha. you replied to my post about recovering from bulimia and you really helped with this wash out phase explanation. i definitely feel bloated and i'm having a ton of digestive problems...does it really take like 3 months to get over this though?...= \...it sucks. i'm going to take your advice though - you seem like you know a lot about this and i'm gonna stick it out. hopefully it doesn't take too long, but whatever happens happens. do you have any suggestions for a meal plan?

oh wow this was definitely the post i needed to read as I was looking at all the weight gain topics. I was justttt reflecting on how crappy I'm feeling and that putting on muscle as my way of gaining weight was a big mistake. I was just thinking about how I felt and looked in the past; and wanting to go back to that- but after reading this I'll think twice. I feel gross at the moment, but as you said, just bite the bullet for now. Thanks for the motivating words!

Original Post by kbaby24:

MEESH!

Oh thank goodness for you...haha. you replied to my post about recovering from bulimia and you really helped with this wash out phase explanation. i definitely feel bloated and i'm having a ton of digestive problems...does it really take like 3 months to get over this though?...= \...it sucks. i'm going to take your advice though - you seem like you know a lot about this and i'm gonna stick it out. hopefully it doesn't take too long, but whatever happens happens. do you have any suggestions for a meal plan?

Because you are dealing with bulimia, a highly addictive disorder, you need to make sure you have coping mechanisms to deal with the eating and keeping the food in. also in most cases, if not all, bulimics have underlying mood disorders I highly recommend you make an appointment with a psychiatrist to make a psychiatric evaluation. I know it may sound crazy- you might resent it but it was the most helpful thing in my recovery, and it may help you too. In the mean time to stabilize yourself you Exercising is good as long as you eat the calories for it and it’s in a healthful way. It gives you endorphins. =] also get vitamin D lots of it. Drink juices fortified with it, hell I drink a teaspoon of cod liver oil a day for vitamin D ( eww I know but its okay) and get some sunshine. Go sunbathing for at least 30 minutes.

Bulimics also have abnormal amino acid ratios due to constant purging, specifically the amino acid l-tryptophan. You need to eat a lot of protein to get it back into balance. Your protein should come from a variety of sources. Eggs, meat ,dairy ,beans ,grains ,nuts..etc. try to incorporate a protein at every snack/meal and try to have “mini-meals” eat 5-6 times a day have a carbohydrate a protein and a fruit/vegetable at every mini meal. For three of your mini meals incorporate a fat.

May I also know your stats though? Have your focus be on halting the urges to purge and find new coping mechanisms. After about three months or so of stability, if you still feel dissatisfied with your body image and would like to go about losing weight. Do so in a healthy manner. But if you begin to notice old thoughts coming back then stop. And continue to work on being stable.

Sometimes the nutritional balance is so damaged due to constant purging that it affects the bulimics ability to think straight. Some shoplift food, lie more, begin to abuse drugs/alcohol, and engage in erratic behavior. So it’s absolutely critical that you feed your body the right balance of food and calories. As I have mentioned in your other thread. This may mean that some days you might have to eat more calories if you are hungry for them in order to prevent yourself from getting to hungry and bingeing .if you have any questions please feel free to message me.

also bulimics tend to gain a good amount of water weight when refeeding but once the water weight is gone they also lose a fair amount of real weight on top of that, because when you binge and purge you are still consuming anywhere from 15-50% of those calories from each binge. And because you are not bingeing anymore you are no longer taking in excess calories.

meeshmeesh, you seem so knowledgeable, so I have a bit of a question for you.

I've been dealing with my messed up eating for only about a year, part of the time I was severely restricting (100-500 cal/day), part of the time I was binging - no purging (1500+ cal/binge), and eventually got to the point where I would eat nothing all day, and then one huge "meal" at night. I also ended up getting the job I have now and started walking for 5 or more hours a day. Throughout the course of it all, the lowest I had gone was only about 12 lbs lower than my starting weight.

Anyways, I was just wondering if you have ever run across anything that relates to my situation. Do you think my metabolism has been affected, and do you think it would be beneficial to eat lots of calories the way that someone who is recovering from anorexia nervousa should do, or should I be doing things differently since I have a bit o a different situation? Thanks in advance if you know anything that could help steer me in the right direction!

Original Post by aimee-grump:

meeshmeesh, you seem so knowledgeable, so I have a bit of a question for you.

I've been dealing with my messed up eating for only about a year, part of the time I was severely restricting (100-500 cal/day), part of the time I was binging - no purging (1500+ cal/binge), and eventually got to the point where I would eat nothing all day, and then one huge "meal" at night. I also ended up getting the job I have now and started walking for 5 or more hours a day. Throughout the course of it all, the lowest I had gone was only about 12 lbs lower than my starting weight.

Anyways, I was just wondering if you have ever run across anything that relates to my situation. Do you think my metabolism has been affected, and do you think it would be beneficial to eat lots of calories the way that someone who is recovering from anorexia nervousa should do, or should I be doing things differently since I have a bit o a different situation? Thanks in advance if you know anything that could help steer me in the right direction!

 welll when it comes to refeeding and finding your calorie intake. your height and weight and age also play a role. so you still have the job where you walk 5 hours + a day?

Yep, still at this job until the end of the month, then I'm back to school where I don't exercise nearly as much. I'm 21, 5' 10.5", somewhere between 128 and 131 pounds. I do gain weight really easily, and on normal/binge days would usually keep about 3-5 extra pounds on for the rest of the week. I know I should probably talk to a doctor or nutritionist or something, but my family doctor around home has stuck her nose in my family's personal issues to a point that is boarderline malpractice, so I'm waiting to go back to school and talk to the doctors there (believe me, I have a list of stuff... I'm sure they're going to love me). Haha, I'm also in a food/nutrition program (go figure) so could probably hit up some lecturers about extra stuff because I'm such an interested and dedicated student.

But yeah... Just wondering if you'd have any insight into what kind of nutritional/caloric goals I should be aiming for while I wait to get a professional opinion.

that is an excellent idea, seeking a nutritionist/dietician to have weekly or bi-weekly check-ins is a much more stable plan for those recovering from eating disorders. 2500 calories in a minimum baseline and is what you should start out with. add in 250 calories every 2 days till you reach near 3600-4000. eat food with high nutritional value:nuts,avocados,whole grains, full fat dairy. let your body realize that food and nutrients are in abundance and it no longer needs to " hold onto" the calories you put in. also don’t be afraid to indulge in ice cream/pop-tarts.initally i believe people should weigh themselves after 2 and 1/2 - 3 weeks to let the water weight reside and see a true gain. but if you weigh yourself the first week and notice that you have lost weight then you need to add 500-750 calories on top of your calorie target. if you see a gain, then don’t fret about it most of it if not all will be water weight the first week. if you over-exercise then you need to cut back. You need to relax and give your body a break, it cannot be focused on burning what you eat during exercise, instead during the time that you are gaining weight it should be focused on using the nutrients/vitamins you feed it to revive your heart and circulatory system/gastrointestinal organs/glandular (endocrine) system/kidney function/and of course your hair/skin/and nails.i believe i covered most of it.i wish you the best of luck

.-meesh

meeesh...... i have increased my cals from 1,500-1,900 in the week..... how long should i wait to see if that has me gain weight?

spek most dont see a gain till they reach 2500, which as baseline minimum. you may need to increase to see a stable weight gain.