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Weakness and hunger after weight loss

by shinyhealth, Jun 14, 2009 11:55AM
About 1.5 years ago I decided to lose some weight, I was 255 at the time, I am 5'9.5” 22yo male.  Before this I payed no attention to what I ate and no attention to my weight.   I did this first by just eating less, I never counted calories and just ate what seemed like a decent amount.  I did this for about a year and got down to around 165lb.  At this point I decided to start lifting some weights, just to build some muscle.  During this time though of learning about weight lifting and nutrition I was flooded with information, and seemingly some of it which I now know was not very accurate.  For awhile I was lifting weight and eating under 2000cal a day perhaps significantly under but I am not sure as I was not really counting calories at the time (I work a rather physical job as well.)  Everything was going well for a couple months then I began to lose A LOT of strength very quickly, over only a few weeks.  The weights I could lift went down by about half and I began to feel weak all the time (I also lost my libido almost completely).  Well when this began to happen I decided to stop lifting until I felt better.  Well after a couple weeks I still felt really weak and decided to do some research.  I found out that the amount of calories I was eating may be too low.  My weight had dropped to about 150, which was what my goal was.  So since I was at my goal weight I decided to start uping the calories I was eating, I also began to track them rather accurately.  Well for a couple weeks I ate 2000.. still lost.. then 2250..  still lost... then 2500.. still lost... finally I seem to be around maintenance at 2750 (this is without weight training).  I have been eating at 2750 for about 3 month now( wide variety of foods, nothing is off limits).  However, I still feel weak all the time.  I am also constantly hungry.  While my stomach will be very full I am still consumer by the thought of eating and my mouth is ready to go.  The few days I have “let lose” and not counted calories I estimate I have eaten well over 7000.

Anyways here is my question.  Is it possible that while my weight never dropped to a unhealthy level my body still entered a severely malnourished state similar to anorexia?  Would this perhaps mean that I should give into my desire to eat a lot and go through recovery similar to an anorexic?

Side question, if its not the need for a full on recovery, could a widely accepted healthy weight for most people be too low for someone if its after 100lb of weight loss?  If I perhaps gain some back will my appetite return to normal?

I have no problem with gaining weight back.  I only did this in the first place to be healthier and currently feeling weak all the time seems to be the opposite of that to me.  I just want to know if my ideas are reasonable and are not just me trying to justify a gluttonous rampage as I do enjoy eating a lot .
I have gone to a doctor for blood tests and everything was normal.  

Thanks.
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