During my weight-gaining journey, I am encountering an annoying and frequently recurring problem...

Why is it that I binge? I have 2800-4000 calories a day to gain weight, but apart from those I keep binging- if its not in the morning, its in the afternoon. If its not in the afternoon its late at night. Why? I'm not restricting, so where does this urgent craze for food come from? I don't get it.

Your body has been routinely starved of nutrition for a long, long time to be as badly underweight as yours is.   You have restricted it almost to the point of death.   The natural reaction for a body in that state is to demand energy and nutrition.... food.  It's not a 'binge', exactly, more 'self-preservation'.   Your body is trying to stay alive.

'Urgent craze for food' is just another way of saying.... extremely, and desperately hungry.  Quite normal in the circumstances. 

Thank you gi-jane. I am happy to report, by the way, that I weighed in this morning at 85 pounds. How much is water weight/food weight/real weight, I do not know, all I know is that I am now 6 pounds healthier.

As for the binging- should I just let it happen then? What should I do about it?

Thank you

Make sure you're getting a wide range of good foods via regular meals and then, if you're still hungry, eat some more.  NB..   Because your health is quite frail and your digestion unused to large amounts of food it wouldn't be good to eat to the point of extreme discomfort, nausea or abdominal pain..... Try to eat 'little and often' to prevent that happening.   Energy-dense, nutrition-dense foods.   Should you find you feel unwell, do see your doctor immediately.

6lbs heavier is a great start.  If you keep going with 3000+ each day you should see steady gains  of 1 or 2lbs each week from now on.  Judge it on a week-to-week basis to make sure that you're not just seeing gains/drops caused by fluid retention.

The urge to eat everything in sight is very common in the beginning of recovery, but I can assure you that it will subside. As long as you eat a reasonable amount of calories, say 3000+ as Jane suggested, and you're consistent about it, the hunger will eventually go away. (Living proof right here!!!!!) Good luck!!! :-)

Thanks for the tips!

About the abdominal pain, that is something I have been noticing recently, down near the fallopian tubes- as if it were appendicitis or something. Is that normal or should I worry?

thank you

Should you worry..... yes.   Abdominal pain should never be taken lightly, especially when you're in poor health already.  There are miles of guts going on in your belly, your kidneys, your liver, all the reproductive organs, appendix... there is so much squashed in there all trying to do a job that it could be something serious or nothing at all.   This is why you need a doctor (or IP treatment) and not a message board when you're trying to recover from a serious eating disorder.

How many times do I have to type it? I do not come from an eating disorder.

Watch supersize v superskinny.

There are people built this way, or people that through different life circumstances find themselves underweight, not particularly because they chose to be so.

Thank you

this is very normal . all you can do is be consistant , keep getting the nurishment in , as you restore your weight from a more less starved state this should subside .

dont mean to be funny im just interested why do you think you are so underweight if you dont have a ed?

do you feel guilty when you eat bjust wondered h x

Original Post by waikkiki:

Watch supersize v superskinny.

 I have...  And most of the underweight people on that programme still managed to reach BMIs in the upper teens through mild personal neglect, forgetting to eat or giving food low priority.   Few people 'find themselves' at a BMI of 13 accidentally and absolutely no-one is built that way naturally.

Go to see a doctor....

hank you so much for the reply. Actually what I'm doing is getting around 3500 calories in minimum, and if I can go over that I do, but I don't count those anymore. Just recently that has been turning into binges.

I have a viral infection which is latent unless I get stressed or feel under pressure (like when I'm in exams or depressed); it causes me to lose a lot of weight very quickly, which is really hard to gain back. That, combined with my hypoglycemia, well, let's just say its not a very good combo! I was diagnosed a couple of years ago when I started losing my then very-loved womanly curves. It's been tough and quite difficult, but I'm learning to cope with it day by day. 

It has no cure for now, so i just have to deal with the symptoms when they appear.

Sadly, that means lack of confidence due to me having to adapt to a body that is underweight, and which simply is not me. I don't know if it is just like this here in Spain, but doctors here are completely incompetent, and when I once dropped to 82 pounds, I went to see a doctor urgently, who told me it wasn't that bad, that I had nothing to worry about. Yeah right. I pretty much gave up on doctors a year ago, and started looking for advice elsewhere, like here!

About feeling guilty, not at all. i love to eat, and cook, as does my mum, and I enjoy every minute of it. Only when I have to gain weight that I have to eat so much food and feel so bloated, full, in pain and uttlerly disproportional that I hate eating- just because I see it as an obligation and not because I truly want to. Either way, I think there are people that have worse things happen to them in their lives, so I don't like complaining. Just have to cope, one way or another!

Sorry for the long post by the way, I never thought I would end up explaining my condition on a post!

Steph

gi-jane

My BMI has never reached 13, where did you get that from??

well i hope you manage to sort things out , sounds like you are doing well and like i said the binging should subside. some doctors arnt brillant here either  and can pass off weight loss ,try and find another doctor who you feel comfortable with h x