Expert: Joanne - 1/28/2008

Question
Right now I'm recovering from anorexia. Due to the eating disorder , I've lost huge amounts of my muscle mass that has been replaced with fat. Will some of the lost muscles come back without strength training or do I have to build my body up again with exercising?

Answer
Sandra

It's good to hear that you are recovering from such a deadly illness!  Unfortunately, when you starve yourself, your body uses a lot of muscle as fuel.

Your muscle will rebuild itself to a minimum level which allows you to do everyday things simply through the use of these muscles.  In order to increase muscle mass to its pre-anorexia levels though, I'd imagine some exercise will be needed as putting strain on muscles is what increases their mass.  I would recommend some strength training, but if you don't want to do to much exercise, why not try swimming a few times a week?  It won't help increase your bone mass though as it is not weight-bearing, but will help improve your muscles.  After anorexia, it is important to remember that you will have weakened your bones as well, so may be worth doing some strength training to help rebuild bone.

Joanne