Will my metabolism ever recover?

kerich1117

kerich1117

New member
I used to have an eating disorder (never severe, mostly in the mild to occasionally moderate range). I know that messes with your metabolism, but will it ever recover with healthy eating? I'm 21 by the way and am currently 5'7.5" and 134 pounds. I would like to get back down to 125-127 but don't want to do any permanent damage.
 
If you're 5'7.5'', why do you feel the need to be down to 125 lbs? I would think that 134 is a very reasonable weight for that height, unless you are a *really* petite 5'7.5''.

I would be less concerned with metabolism damage from the eating disorder, and more concerned with a potentially distorted body image.
 
I suffered with severe anorexia about 2 years ago and in 2007 i decided to get healthy and make myself more fit. Originally i was gaining weight like mad when eating 1000calories a day...but i kept eating the same and exercised a bit more and my weight eventually leveled out and i am back to my original weight. My metabolism seems pretty fast now, my hair and nails grow really fast and my weight is good. You will have to work for a little while but it will recover fairly quickly. The best thing to do is exercise and eat small meals about 6-8 times a day until you feel that your metabolism is recovered.

Also, your BMI is fairly low still. You aren't underweight but not far off!!
 
I have a question that sort of relates to this.

For about a half year I was restricting my calories to 700, but around October or so the doctor had me steadily increase my calories and I'm at about 1500 now.

Anyway, when I went on the starvation diet I was 141 and came out about 110, but recently something very odd happened; I gained 8 pounds in 2-3 weeks. I hadn't been regaining my weight until that point. Will I continue to gain weight if I keep at this amount of calories, even if I do exercise (before my starvation diet I never exercised and ate an excess amount of calories and fat, well above maintenence)? I'm really scared that I'm going to start gaining again. My doctor is telling me that it's going to be okay, but I don't know if I can trust her. When I was 110 she told me it was going to be okay, I wouldn't gain any weight. Yet here I am, and here she is telling it to me again.

How can I prevent myself from gaining back the weight?
 
maverick said:
If you're 5'7.5'', why do you feel the need to be down to 125 lbs? I would think that 134 is a very reasonable weight for that height, unless you are a *really* petite 5'7.5''.

I would be less concerned with metabolism damage from the eating disorder, and more concerned with a potentially distorted body image.
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I want 125 because that is what I was this summer and I want to be able to fit comfortably in those clothes again. I was in shape and was definitely not starving myself. I am small boned so the extra 10ish pounds look awkward.

I am trying not to think about calories and just concentrate on eating healthy but I gain weight so darn easily. I already work out a lot so it would be pretty difficult, though i suppose I could always boost the intensity.
 
11firecrackers said:
I have a question that sort of relates to this.

For about a half year I was restricting my calories to 700, but around October or so the doctor had me steadily increase my calories and I'm at about 1500 now.

Anyway, when I went on the starvation diet I was 141 and came out about 110, but recently something very odd happened; I gained 8 pounds in 2-3 weeks. I hadn't been regaining my weight until that point. Will I continue to gain weight if I keep at this amount of calories, even if I do exercise (before my starvation diet I never exercised and ate an excess amount of calories and fat, well above maintenence)? I'm really scared that I'm going to start gaining again. My doctor is telling me that it's going to be okay, but I don't know if I can trust her. When I was 110 she told me it was going to be okay, I wouldn't gain any weight. Yet here I am, and here she is telling it to me again.

How can I prevent myself from gaining back the weight?
Click to expand...

Are you saying you ate 700 calories for an entire 6 months and now you're [thankfully] eating 1500 and you're surprised that you're gaining weight?

How do I say this nicely :)? When you starve yourself then the only way to maintain the weight you arrive at after the starvation is to keep on starving. We all know that's just not possible, that at some point we will die from lack of nutrition or we will succumb to the normal desire to eat. At some point we will start eating again but now the body will retain every spare calorie in the hopes of regaining some fat. Your body obviously does not want to be rail thin.

You've taught your body how to survive on 700 calories a day, by the body slowing the metabolism way down, and now the metabolism is in no hurry to speed up until it has some proof that you will be eating again. Until the body gets such proof (and to the body, only time will tell that it can trust you again) the body has decided to store, rather than burn, the excess calories. The body figures that it'll stay at this slow metabolism for a while and allow you to put on some weight, rather than speeding the metabolism up and burning everything you eat as is normal.

This is why starvation diets never work in the long run.

START OVER

Fix your metabolism. Eat what your doctor tells you. Exercise regularly but not excessively. Eventually you may have a chance of fixing the damage you've done. But only if you put health first and body fat %/looks second. Then maybe in a few months or years you have a chance of normalizing your weight.
 
Blancita said:
Are you saying you ate 700 calories for an entire 6 months and now you're [thankfully] eating 1500 and you're surprised that you're gaining weight?

How do I say this nicely :)? When you starve yourself then the only way to maintain the weight you arrive at after the starvation is to keep on starving. We all know that's just not possible, that at some point we will die from lack of nutrition or we will succumb to the normal desire to eat. At some point we will start eating again but now the body will retain every spare calorie in the hopes of regaining some fat. Your body obviously does not want to be rail thin.

You've taught your body how to survive on 700 calories a day, by the body slowing the metabolism way down, and now the metabolism is in no hurry to speed up until it has some proof that you will be eating again. Until the body gets such proof (and to the body, only time will tell that it can trust you again) the body has decided to store, rather than burn, the excess calories. The body figures that it'll stay at this slow metabolism for a while and allow you to put on some weight, rather than speeding the metabolism up and burning everything you eat as is normal.

This is why starvation diets never work in the long run.

START OVER

Fix your metabolism. Eat what your doctor tells you. Exercise regularly but not excessively. Eventually you may have a chance of fixing the damage you've done. But only if you put health first and body fat %/looks second. Then maybe in a few months or years you have a chance of normalizing your weight.
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Well I'm saying that I SUDDENLY gained weight. I hadn't been before. I was up to 1700 calories, gained weight over 2 weeks, and now my doctor has told me to go back down to 1500 and to exercise more to keep the weight off.

The only other explanation I can attempt to give for my sudden weight gain is the fact that it happened over Winter Break, and I did not go anywhere. Rather, I slept and sat around the house all day. I had not been gaining weight before, even though I was eating more.

Is it possible that my two weeks of doing nothing had a lot to do with the gain?

Also; I don't believe that I can start over. If I gain the weight back, it's all over for me. I don't know how to make that NOT sound superficial, but when you're 16 all that matters to you is how other kids look at you. I REFUSE to be 141 again, regardless of whether or not I can lose it again. I'd rather not feel like shit.

Oh, and I never got rail thin. I got down to 109 and my doctor said that it wasn't a bad number for my height at all. So it's not like a 5'2" 16 year old person couldn't HANDLE that weight. Now, if I had gone below 100, I could see myself gaining a lot of weight back. But I remained in the average range of my BMI.
 
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kerich1117 said:
I used to have an eating disorder (never severe, mostly in the mild to occasionally moderate range). I know that messes with your metabolism, but will it ever recover with healthy eating? I'm 21 by the way and am currently 5'7.5" and 134 pounds. I would like to get back down to 125-127 but don't want to do any permanent damage.
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How can an eating disorder not be severe?

Many people who suffer/suffered from Anorexia will never be able to fall pregnant, and develop allergies and intolerances to many foods.

Yes it is possible to reverse the damage.

You need to build up the muscle that you lost, having more muscle means your metabolism works faster. You won't put on much muscle eating in a defecit.

So probably the best thing to do it increase your calories to 2000, including lots of protein (1gram to every lb of body weight) and complex carbs and good fats. Start a resistance training program (full body workout every 2nd day). Do cardio if you want but that will just help waste away the muscle.

Dieting won't help repair your metabolism. When i went through inpatient treatmeant I was put on a 2000-2500 calorie a day diet, and after my weight stabalised I was in rehab building up muscle (This took about a year to get back to my previous muscle mass) Unless you put on muscle your BMR will stay the same.
 
11firecrackers said:
Well I'm saying that I SUDDENLY gained weight. I hadn't been before. I was up to 1700 calories, gained weight over 2 weeks, and now my doctor has told me to go back down to 1500 and to exercise more to keep the weight off.

The only other explanation I can attempt to give for my sudden weight gain is the fact that it happened over Winter Break, and I did not go anywhere. Rather, I slept and sat around the house all day. I had not been gaining weight before, even though I was eating more.

Is it possible that my two weeks of doing nothing had a lot to do with the gain?

Also; I don't believe that I can start over. If I gain the weight back, it's all over for me. I don't know how to make that NOT sound superficial, but when you're 16 all that matters to you is how other kids look at you. I REFUSE to be 141 again, regardless of whether or not I can lose it again. I'd rather not feel like shit.

Oh, and I never got rail thin. I got down to 109 and my doctor said that it wasn't a bad number for my height at all. So it's not like a 5'2" 16 year old person couldn't HANDLE that weight. Now, if I had gone below 100, I could see myself gaining a lot of weight back. But I remained in the average range of my BMI.
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Don't worry, that weight you gained will go away soon. I was on a 1100 cals diet for some time and it really damaged me. I can only imagine what a 700 cals one can have done to your body. Trust your doctor, she KNOWS what's best for you.
16 is very young and it's not your weight you have to cope with but your self esteem. I know that at that age it's not simple to like your body, it wasn't for me. But you have much more than your body to offer to your friends, you have your soul and your mind.
Try to love yourself a little more. Respect your body. Fat doesn't mean ugly or stupid or unworthy.
If you need help or just someone to talk with when you're feeling down feel free to pm me. I've lived a similar situation and I understand what you're going through.

Hugs
India
 
Fix your metabolism. Eat what your doctor tells you. Exercise regularly but not excessively. Eventually you may have a chance of fixing the damage you've done. But only if you put health first and body fat %/looks second. Then maybe in a few months or years you have a chance of normalizing your weight.[/QUOTE]

This is good advice. I know it is scary that your body has put on weight so quickly -- that is unlikely to continue. It is probably attempting to find some semblance of normality. I was anorexic when I was your age (I am 28 now) when I began to eat "normally" again my body initially put on about 10 lbs in a very short time. But guess what? I had my period again! I had enough energy to make it through the school day! I was no longer completely miserable all the time! Point being that my body needed those 10 lbs to start functioning regularly again. I did not gain much more after that. Alas, I gained alot of weight in college due to having a shot metabolism coupled with a routine of overeating and overexercising.

To echo Blancita's comment, get control of this now. As an adult, I seriously regret the damage I did to my body in my self loathing ten years. It took years to learn that my body responds better to eating healthy, nutritionally balanced foods and enough calories and doing exercise to make myself stronger (as opposed to punishing myself) to actually become a fit, satisfied person. Sorry to sound all after school special, just thought I'd relate my story.
 
oops -- that would be "self-loathing TEEN years" not ten years.

to the original poster, kerich1117 -- I would not necessarily boost the intensity of your workouts if you are already doing alot of cardio as you say. You might try adding strength training to your routine. But I would be careful not to restrict calories if you have had an eating disorder in the past.
 
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