EDs and trying to maintain a healthy diet.

Hey all,

I'll cut a long story short and just give you the basics :-).

I'm basically a recovering bulimic, yet I still have a massive fixation on my apearance and weight. Everything's been fine - I'd have relapses but nothing as bad as what I was. However, I've been at uni for the past two months now, and I've recently started to have this intense fear of eating ANYTHING. Like...with the average calories being 2000 a day for women, I've found myself scared, even of eating 500 calories.

So that's a problem within itself, and I'm going to counselling to nip that in the bud before I get worse.

However.

I've been told that changing my diet would improve my mood (I tend to go from poles to poles) and my counsellor recognised that this may be a problem given my newfound fear of eating more than 1/4 of what I'm meant to be consuming in a day. Also, I've found that despite all this, I'm still gaining weight. I'm not quite sure why, but I am. My weight is going up and down and down and up, and this is even with barely eating.

I know that I need to have a proper, three-meal a day diet, with the majority (if not all) of my nutritional requirements. This'll perhaps sort my weight out (I want to lose it!), but my question is this:

How on Earth do I regulate my diet when I'm this scared of consuming even tiny amounts of calories?

Reply 1

SoundDevastation

13

if youre going to have a low cal diet, make sure you get a balanced low-cal diet i guess.. aswell as fruit and vegetables, try and eat rice cakes, ryvita, porridge, soya milk (less cals than normal milk and it gives you calcium, vitamins, omega 3 etc), nuts, beans, lentils... with those kind of foods you can make 3 meals a day without having a fit over the cals. aim for 600 maybe, then increase the nuts and beans to 700, 800... slowly build up, keeping a good base of vegetables and wholegrains.

thats my advice anyway! :p:

Reply 2

Saffie

11

your weight's going up and down because your body is going into starvation mode and holding on to more food. Your messing with your metabolism.

Basically you just need to eat regularly so your body doesn't go into starvation mode, i.e. eating something speeds up your metabolism- eating breakfast is a very good idea- your metabolism slows down over night. Snacking is a very good idea- obviously just on healthy food though so you don't feel guilty.

Reply 3

suicidal_dream

1

your weight will go up, thats what happens.
it happened to me too. its like ...your body is like 'oh my she's eating again.. cant let it go incase she stops eating'

so it holds onto it, you put on weight...and with many people with an ED, the extra weight makes them purge/starve again.

i know its difficult, but try not to obsess about the weight gain - its just to get you to your 'proper' weight.

eat proper food - not junk. eat properly and regularly.

im a recovered anorexic myself so i know what its like.

Reply 4

Sikthchick

10

I know someone with an ED and shes just started uni and is having similar fears. She hasn't even thought about recovery yet and her doctor has advised her not to go to uni this year as her condition could worsen... anyway i digress.

The fact that you are in recovery and have noticed this change in attitude is a big step so don't feel bad.

Maybe try increasing your intake of food over a period of time. Eat until you are full, don't think of it in terms of 'if i eat this I'll get fat', ditch the scales, if you find yourself worrying over your shape or weight try and occupy yourself with somethign more worthwile.

Eat healthily, if you binge on junk food your going to feel more bloated and make yourself feel worse.

Set time aside each day to prepare each meal, that way it won't seem like a chore. Try new recipes, eat with friends so that way your not tempted to skip meals.

I think it's definately a good idea to speak to your counsellor about this and perhaps the advice they give you will be more appropriate than what is suggested on here.

I wish you luck and hope that you feel better soon x

Reply 5

linkdapink

15

What about eating small amounts 6 times a day? This way, it'll be very hard for your body to go into starvation mode, and if you eat a 6th of the calories you want to be eating for the day each time, then that wont seem like a lot and you probably wont feel like you're eating loads and pigging out etc

Reply 6

Anonymous #2

Anonymous

Hey all,

I'll cut a long story short and just give you the basics :-).

I'm basically a recovering bulimic, yet I still have a massive fixation on my apearance and weight. Everything's been fine - I'd have relapses but nothing as bad as what I was. However, I've been at uni for the past two months now, and I've recently started to have this intense fear of eating ANYTHING. Like...with the average calories being 2000 a day for women, I've found myself scared, even of eating 500 calories.

So that's a problem within itself, and I'm going to counselling to nip that in the bud before I get worse.

However.

I've been told that changing my diet would improve my mood (I tend to go from poles to poles) and my counsellor recognised that this may be a problem given my newfound fear of eating more than 1/4 of what I'm meant to be consuming in a day. Also, I've found that despite all this, I'm still gaining weight. I'm not quite sure why, but I am. My weight is going up and down and down and up, and this is even with barely eating.

I know that I need to have a proper, three-meal a day diet, with the majority (if not all) of my nutritional requirements. This'll perhaps sort my weight out (I want to lose it!), but my question is this:

How on Earth do I regulate my diet when I'm this scared of consuming even tiny amounts of calories?

Ok i apologise if this is the worst advice ever - I am in almost exactly the same situation so am equally as lost.

This is not actually my advice but the plan I am working on with my doctor....

Do you have any foods that you feel comfortable eating in small quantities? If you do try to increase the quantities you eat of these slowly I mean don't rush it because it will most likely fail that way - try and restablish new comfort boundaries in this way - then try adding one tiny piece of a new food into the dish - work on eating that and then working on increasing quantities. Seriously don't rush anything and if you start feeling overly uncomfortable then let yourself plateau for a while before working on rebuilding on everything. Give it time - it will most likely be more successful that way than anything rushed.

I am sorry if that is the worst advice ever. As i say I am working through almost exactly the same situation so I thoroughly sympathise. I am totally lost and probably aren't in a position to give advice but thought I read your post and sooo understood your position that I wanted to help by repeating the advice that I am working on achieving

EDs and trying to maintain a healthy diet.

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