Am I on the verge of becoming anorexic???

[kmp9]

I'm a 24yr old 5'5" female and 2 and a half weeks ago I wieghed in at 201lbs. I then decied I was gonna take action to start loosing wieght. The 1st few days I did really good and was eating healthy with 3 meals,1 snack and some cardio. I lost a few pounds. 6 days later I notice that I lost 10 pounds!  on the 7th day my husband and i went out to eat and to the movies and overnight I gained 5 pounds and was sooooo upset about this. I am now 188lbs. 13 pounds lighter from 2 weeks ago.......but I'm afraid of where my habbits might lead me.

i'm down to eating twice a day. I find myself taking a nap in the middle of the day so it'll be easier for me to skip lunch. any breakfast went from a healthy egg, bacon and toast, to a half cup of oatmeal (made with water)......to now, a half cup of dry cherrios.  my dinner went from grilled chicken and veggies, to a cup of beans, cheese, lettuce and hot sauce, to cooked cabbage and onions in a bowl that together add up to a cup.  I've been counting my calories online and I pretty much adverage anywhere from 200-300 cals a day.....if that.

I feel like, I know this is unhealthy, but am so afraid of gaining all my weight back if i eat more than what i "feel" my body is satisfied with. I  texted my husband right now that I think I might be on my way to becoming anorexic in the long run.......his response was, "lol......ur cute".....I think this is more serious than he thinks.......am I wrong? If I am doing damage physically and mentally....how do i get out of it? I already feel hooked.........help.....

[laurapeaches]

Ok-here is the best BEST thing that made me loose weight. I was 8 stone at 5'4, but I hated it, so so much. I did the anorexia thing, I dropped a stone, but when I got better it all went on again. The BEST was to keep the weight off, is to excercise, the best way is-star jumps, half an hour every day, then work it up to half an hour one day, an hour the next. I did this lierally for a whole summer-4 years later, I'm still very slim and I have never seen the 8 stone mark. Infact right now I'm 6 stone 11 pounds. I have been thinner then this before at 6 stone 7 pounds, which I loved being, but I know I looked discusting and worried everyone.
My eating problems yo yo... and I WISH i never went near anorexia.... please please please go down the excercise and healthy eating route, it made me loose MORE weight then when I was anorexic, made me feel great, AND had made me skinny! the anoriexia ruined me as a person and I changed...
now, I have learnt to enjoy food more, but sometimes I do plummet back to my old ways and I get so frigging low worrying about calories, fat, and a craving to be thin... please don't do it.. trust me on this from someone who has been and still suffers from anorexia in one way or another.... don't go there... do it the heathy way and it'l keep you thinner, and for longer! ;)

[MissLizzy]

The definition of a starvation diet is 900 calories/day.  This is when you are putting your diet into jeopardy.  Shoot for approximately 1200 calories, drink more water, and focus on lean proteins, whole grains, and vegetables.  I LOVE vegetables because you can eat larger amounts and be satisfied w/o overdoing the calories.  I have a few tricks to keep myself healthy.  I LOVE cranberry juice (and it is also VERY VERY good for you).  All juices are high in sugar, so I buy Ocean Spray Light or no sugar added juice, and mix 1/3 juice to 2/3 water.  To increase energy I would suggest starting the day with a brisk walk, to wake yourself up.  Take the stairs more, when you go shopping park further from the stores, cut out any and all soft drinks, and avoid simple carbs.  When you eat simple carbs your body will convert it to sugar much quicker, resulting in a sudden spike in blood sugar which will leave you fatigued and hungry.

Here are some foods that will keep you HEALTHY that are lower in calories.
Hardboiled egg: approx 80 calories.
Apple: 80
Salmon steak: 4oz approx 100-200 calories and 29 grams of protein!! (very filling)
Shrimp sauteed with vegetables in a small amount of olive oil over 1 cup of brown rice.
Whole wheat tortilla wrap with 1/2 tomato, balsamic and 3oz low-sodium deli turkey.
Soy crisps are high in protein, very filling, and similiar to rice cakes but with more nutrition.
If you drink coffee, try switching to a light soymilk.

Over all, if you are not happy with yourself or stressed you may be projecting it into your obsession over food and weight.  See a Dr or therapist and take care of it before you get too out of control.

[Kimidawn]

yeah I think most of us realize that food keeps us alive I was just saying that decreasing my calories never made me gain weight like people told me it would.  Sometimes, I wouldn't lose but I never gained by decreasing my calories.  Even now that I am eating a lot better I don't gain weight easily like I did before my whole I anorexic struggle.  I still only get about 800 calories a day and exercise like it was going out of style but I feel much better and I at a healthy weight for me now!

[shlee1016]

If you don't eat then yes, you will lose weight. I'm saying that ultimately this is going to backfire though. It's a temporary fix. You can't keep going forever without eating. You will die. This means if you want to live, you have to start eating sometime. The further you go in the direction you are going, the more difficult it will be to turn around. Please get help if you aren't already. Another thing is that when we don't eat, our metabolism slows. This is what I was saying with gaining weight more easily. I've been where you are, and if I ate just a small amount (on the offchance of me doing that), I gained weight. This is because your body tends to adjust to how much you take in and learns to live on it. It stores what little is taken in in attempt to survive. However, there is only so long it can go trying to do this. Make sense?

[anacyde]

Gaining 5 pounds overnight is not fat.

That said, the patterns you describe aren't healthy ones, and should be addressed with someone who treats eating disorders.  Help from a nutritionist would also be a good idea. Good luck to you.

[Kimidawn]

I so know what that is like I have been there

[Kimidawn]

All I know is that I keep losing weight and it's not hard at all.  I am NOT a dietitian and I don't pretend to know it all but I read a lot and I know what happened and keeps happening with me.  I lose weight because I exercise, drink water and DONT eat period

[PenelopeAnn]

As I went from healthy dieting and exercising into an eating disorder, I found that I would hit plateaus of weight loss. In order to break the plateau, I would have to up the ante, meaning I would have to restrict calories even more and exercise even more. Next thing you know, you're eating nothing and your body knows it. So does your mind. I would find myself not binging, but literally having to pull my head out of a bag of food because I had no control over how desperately and what lengths my body would go to to get the nutrition it craved. Now I am stuck in a vicious cycle where my body is so used to tiny amounts of food, that even though I want to eat healthy, I can't because it is so uncomfortable physically and mentally. I don't know what to say, because I started out doing it right, but somehow ended up doing exactly what I know I shouldn't. I guess my advice is to meet with a nutritionist and a personal trainer. Those who lose weight slowly are the ones that ultimately keep it off. Don't weigh yourself everyday, couple times a week or once a week. Go by how your clothes fit. Allow for water retention before your period. Always weigh yourself on the same scale, no clothes, after you urinate, before you eat or drink anything, at the same time in the morning. This is the only way to monitor accurate weight loss. You always weigh less in the am.

[shlee1016]

I have a question for you. Did you notice that you couldn't eat anymore than the calories you restricted yourself to without gaining weight, as you restricted. Here's an example. Let's say someone has reduced their caloric intake to 600 calories a day (definitely an anorexic behavior). Their body will get used to trying to survive (for the time being) on that number of calories because it learns that that's all it's going to get. It will save as much as this as possible. Will a person lose weight restricting to a low intake like that? Yes. There will come a point though where the body is fighting back so hard that the weight loss won't be quite as easy, and taking in more than the restricted amount of calories can cause weight gain due to the body's attempt to survive and the fact that it's used to such a low amount. Then it gets hard to increase intake again and it's a vicious cycle. Ultimately, the metabolism has slowed down because if one eats a normal amount, the weight on the scale will go up initially. I just asked my dietitian about the exercise/water question the other day actually. She's an RD specializing in eating disorders and is very knowledgeable. She pulled out an information sheet and explained to me that once a person is in this cycle, the metabolism is slowing faster than exercise can speed it up, causing an even worse effect really. Because the excessive exercise is burning (not as much as it would with someone who is eating a "normal" diet), causing the body to get used to surviving on an even lower amount (which ultimately slows metabolism). So this actually does more harm than good. I see what you're saying. I've been there. Do you see what I was referring to? Yes, it causes weight loss, but also makes it MUCH easier to gain which leads to the cycle you were stuck in.

I agree with your advice. A dietitian could really be useful, and yes even a therapist because disordered eating isn't about the food.

Did that all make sense? Thanks and I hope you are doing okay Kimidawn. I know it's hard. I'm in recovery and it's the most difficult thing I've ever had to do, and probably ever will have to do. If you ever need to talk, I'd be happy to.

Thanks and I hope everyone is well!!!

[Kimidawn]

I don't totally agree with shlee1016 because even though everyone told me the same thing, that if I ate less and less my metabolism would slow down and I would quit losing the weight, that didn't happen to me, the less I ate the more I exercised and drank water 9both of those things increase metabolism, and I lost a lot of weight really fast to the point of being so thin and weak that I couldn't hardly do anything and I was tired and cranky all the time.  I do agree with her that losing it that fast isn't normal and usually doesn't happen so you are weighing yourself way to much and scales fluctuate.  What you need to do is see a nutritionist and possibly a psychiatrist to help you learn healthier habits, exercise and eat the proper foods.  It is hard and I am not good at this myself because the more weight I lost the more I wanted to lose but eating disorders are horrible and you want to stop this before it gets out of hand.

[atikin]

Please try and get out of it now! I was the same, started cutting down my daily calorie intake to silly amounts. My weight seemed to go down so quickly but it's now so easy to gain it again. I wish I'd done it all the healthy way soo much- I would have felt I'd achieved it the right way, is the main reason why, as I felt I'd been really silly about my weightloss and how it became addictive, verging on obsessive even. But also because now I put weight so much easier now! I'm only 17 and realise NOW I'm way too young to be worrying so much about food consumption amounts etc- but hey 24 is still really young too! Enjoy it and do it healthily and you'll feel so much better! :) x

[shlee1016]

A lot of the weight you are losing and gaining is not actual fat. It's pretty much impossible to lose 10 actual pounds in 6 days. The only way that happened is if you ate 35000 calories less than usual over those ten days. I doubt that was the case? So a lot of it was water weight. Also, gaining five actual pounds in one day is not possible, unless you consumed 17,500 calories ON TOP OF what your body needs for maintenance. So what I'm saying is that you should not flip out over the fluctuations, and you will see the fluctuations if you are constantly weighing yourself. Cutting back to 2 or 300 calories a day will not get you anywhere. You might lose weight at first, but your metabolism will slow down so much that you will ultimately gain weight eating next to nothing. The smartest thing to do is eat smaller meals multiple times a day. Protein is very important to include. Doing these two things will speed up your metabolism. This may or may not have happened to you yet, but restricting leads to bingeing. Eventually, you will be so starved that you won't be able to control a binge. And then your metabolism will be so slowed that you will end up doing the opposite of what you want. I strongly would advise you to seek the help of a nutritionist. If that's not possible, eating every 3-4 hours (3 normal meals, 2-3 snacks) with high protein is your best bet. I know this from experience and from help from my own dietitian. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help or if I was unclear with anything. =)

[dolfnlvr]

Do you have medical insurance?  If so, the best possible thing you can do is schedule an appointment with your general practitioner and get a referral to a nutritionist.  Put some of the weight of the worry on someone who is trained to deal with healthy eating and managed weight loss.  Then all you have to do is follow directions and let go of some of the  stress that you are putting yourself under at this time.

Good luck.