Okay I know this is the complete opposite side of the spectrum but this IS a support forum for the Atkins WOL, and that is the WOL I chose to follow...I am also underweight and have some form of an eating disorder (call it what you want)..BTW moderaters-I think we need an eating disorder section on here. I have been searching all night for info on how fast the weight will come back on, etc etc...This is some of the info Ive gotten...


Even though I am now feeding myself more calories...since Im below an ideal weight I am still in *starvation* mode? Has my metabolism slowed and how do I go about fixing that?



Okay can someone explain to me how it *spreads out* cuz that really doesnt have me looking forward to having to gain the weight back. Though I have decided that I am going to gain weight because I DONT want any of this *fur* type stuff they say starts to grow on you..Ew...Here is the website where I got all that info from..http://www.geocities.com/spacey_christina/ Thanks in advance for all the help

humm. . .the fur grow? My mother is 90lbs soaking wet at 5'7" she qualifies as excessively underweight. . .and she has wicked long fine blond fur all over her face. . .it's weird (she's a brunette). . .I thought it was regular peache fuzz fur that was more exposed. . .but it is thicker and way longer than regular peach fuzz. redawn

Check out that thread about how we lose weight in the best of forum and how fat moves. The same applies to when you gain weight. It will probably go to your ab first as temperary storage, then it will circulate through your body until it finds a happy home.

About the only way to actually add more fat cells though is to get pregnant, but you can fill the ones you have left

Set poitn I think is more for losing. During high school I was in the 140's. On this WOE it took me forever to drop below 142. That was a weight my body had been at before, it was comfortable there, and didn't see any reason to go lower. Unless you spent most of your life at 103, I don't htink it can count as a set point.

As for starvation mode, yes it couldbe possible you put your body there, especially as few calories as you were consuming when you were trying to lose weight. Just eat small frequent meals like you currently are to get metabolism goin, plenty of calories so your body belives you there is energy coming in, and exercise, which you are already doing.

It will take time. It took time for your body to get to this low weight, and it will take even longer for it to get back up there, esp if you fight it on the way.

I agree teh fuzz can be nasty. Just think of all the other fun though if body fat keeps dropping. There's the hair loss, rapid tooth decay, osteoporosis as bones deteriorate, organ damage, circulation problems.. Ok I'll stop

I had an eating disorder, too, for many years. I was never officially diagnosed, but it eventually became too exhausting for me and I couldn't keep doing it. I knew that I had come to a crossroads of sorts: continue the same way of life I was used too (starving, binging, purging, etc.) and probably eventually die of it or something related, or make a change and accept the "fat" consequences. I chose the second option, mostly because I had begun a career path I really enjoyed and I was engaged to a man I really loved and I didn't want to miss out on anything.

I "recovered" myself on my own with no help (I'm a control freak). I began eating regularly and well, and as a result I began gaining weight regularly. A few months ago I became very depressed about my appearance and was about to resume my "normal" weight loss routine of starvation when I realized how far I'd come already, and how much better I felt in general (no headaches, dizzyness, irritability). I honestly DID NOT WANT to go back to that WOL. But I knew I needed to lose weight or I would continue gaining until I was unhealthily overweight (not a much better situation).

After my years of abusing my body and metabolism, eating more than 1200 calories a day caused me to gain weight. I felt really stuck. I tried the Atkins diet a few years ago but couldn't get past the first few days of sickness. My diet consisted primarily of candy, crackers, bread, and Diet Coke, and the transistion was ROUGH. A few months ago I decided to try it again, and see it through, because I really felt like I had no other option. The idea of severely restricting my food intake or counting calories just made me sick to my stomach, and I know that if I were to return to that WOL I'd be risking all my progress and sink back into the dark ED hole. So Atkins was my "last chance" and it HAS WORKED AMAZINGLY! I've only lost 12 pounds so far, but I'm more excited that, for the first time in my life, I fell I have some sort of control over my eating and my weight. I don't think about food constantly the way I used to, and I'm never hungry (a very weird sensation for a former anorexic/bulimic), and I feel awesome. I don't have the anxiety I used to always feel around food, and I can actually go to the grocery store and buy more than rice cakes and cottage cheese with panicking.

In general, my lifestyle has changed drastically. I still freak out sometimes and think everything would be better if I weighed 100 pounds, but I've attained a sense of well-being that has become more important to me than my weight. I'm more patient with my weight loss, and don't mind if I only lose half a pound a week, because I know I'm in this for the long haul.

El Corazon, I have no advice for you becase I know how you feel, and I know that when you have an ED you really have to come to your own crossroads and make your own decisions. I'm sure you've read a hundred articles about what the ED is doing to your body, and you've had a million people tell you to stop, but I know you have to make that decision on your own. Good luck!!

Hiya kiddo...

>>"Since Im below an ideal weight I am still in *starvation* mode?"

It's quite likely. You can often feel it: you'll be colder than everyone else and your extremities will be cold.

>>"BTW moderaters-I think we need an eating disorder section on here."

M'kay, I'm speaking for myself here, not as a mod... but IMHO, this isn't a good place for a person with an active ED. Gaining weight and increasing the calories is not recovery: the only way to recover is to STOP all forms of obsessing over food, weight, fitday, exercise, calories, etc, etc and get to the real issues, which rarely involve food and weight. The incessant talk of weight loss here is not conducive to recovery. There are good ED boards out there where there is no weight loss talk.

Part of the problem with an ED bored to is someone with a disorder often won't admit to it until they are on the road to recovery. The ones who need it the most (a good 20 pounds uhnderweight and panicing they are only losing a pound a week now) refuse to accept the fact they might have an eating disorder.

Most of the ones with ED on here are looking for crash diets to make them lose even faster, and leave disapointed when they find out that isn't what Atkins or other LC plans are. There are many on here who are recovering from ED I relize.

I want to offer some advice from someone who has been there - I struggled with anorexia nervosa and bulemia (if I wasn't starving myself I was binging and purging, even kept a pencil box full of laxatives under my bed) during my pre-teens and early teens. It is a DISEASE, you suffer from an illness just as someone with diabetes or parkinson's. I am glad to see that you accept that you do have a problem but PLEASE don't go the route I went. Even if you get back to a 'normal' weight, that doesn't mean that you are well. I gained the weight back but I didn't cure the disease, so now, here I am, over 200lbs and just as miserable as I was when I was 86lbs. Please, WANT to be healthy because you love yourself not because you don't want the lanugo (the fur). If you fight the disease for any other reason you will never beat it. Stop worrying about where the fat is going to 'spread out' and worry about where you are going to be two or three years down the road, b/c I can guarantee you this - if you don't beat it, it will beat you.

Hey everyone. Just checked back on this thread cuz I was taking a break from the boards- and prolly will continue to do so after this post just cuz I need a break. I didnt count/measure/track/preplan for 5 days...Had 5 days of complete bingeing. I swear if I knew how to make myself throw up I would have. How awful is that!!!! ALOT of stressful family stuff has been going on which hasnt helped. I was bingeing on all lower carb food but bingeing just the same. To the point of feeling like I was gonna throw up...so Id wait 15 min and then go eat more. I never actually got sick. 2x it was popcorn, just about an hr ago it was ALOT of salted mixed nuts along with tons of raw broccoli dipped in ranch dressing..lets see...rest of today it was about 8 SF oreo type cookies, 3 cups or so of cottage cheese, hell I dont even know what else. Been like that every friggin day. And I say to myself, today Im going to eat healthy, and balanced and eat til I am full and then I will stop. And what do you know I screw it up! Every day its been well over 2000 calories and well over 100 net carbs (I was estimating in my head-I guess thats not tons better than what I was doing before...at least I wasnt preplanning...). I go see a *special* doctor after the holidays to help. I am sick of the bingeing and if going to see a doc will help with that then I guess Im ready for it. Before I found this WOL I would do similar binges but with cake, icecream, etc. Its funny how now I have a box of SF choc in the fridge and havent even touched it. Tomorrow I have some foods planned out cuz I need to get things straight. I dont plan on doing it long maybe just til Christmas...then Ill try again and see how it goes. I CAN DO IT. I know I can..thank you for all your responses they were all very helpful and I see what youre all saying. Thanks!!

I think it's a great idea to go and get professional help because you really DO need it. Everyone here wishes you well but we lack the skill to help you......I have a dear friend here online who has this problem and no matter what I said it was not going to help her.........she is in therapy now and hopefully getting her life back. Best of luck to you, girl!

Alina

www.something-fishy.org

Thats a good website for recovery support if you have an ED. I have/had EDs for years and it isnt fun. I received professional help several times and it helps for a while but it seems to come back to me.

On this WOE I am doing much better, but the other day someone asked me if I had an eating disorder and it totally threw me. I seem to obsess just as much about eating the right foods now as I obsessed about not eating or purging... its just now I felt more comfortable discussing it.

I guess maybe its because I told them I was planning my meals in advance and using fitday to monitor what I ate and it seems unusual or obsessive. I am not sure that an eating disorder like that ever really leaves a person completely but I know that I am happy now, I am feeling better about myself and what I am doing and I have never felt that.


As far as a set point, I dot know if my body has one. I have never been a weight for over a few months let alone years.

At your weight if you are eating over 1000-1100 calories a day you probably arent in starvation mode.

If you want to be certain go get your resting metabloic rate tested. There is this machine that you breathe into and it can tell you what your rmr is. My gym has one and it costs $10 and they will give you some grocery list and meal plan stuff for you if you want it.

I wouldnt suggest binging etc to put on weight but maybe trying a plan like BFL or drinking shakes and do some weight lifting (I dont know if you do any or not)
If you lift weights and build your lean body mass it will help you stay looking good and toned while going up on the scale.

Also, just decide what you like what you see when you look at yourself in the mirror and not whether a scale says you are overweight or underweight. If you are eating well and enough calories where your body isnt starving and it still wants to lose weight, either let it and assume your body knows what it is doing, or see a doctor.

Just take care of yousrself, be safe, dont do anything unhealthy and dont torture yourself over it.

good luck,

MJ