Expert: Nafeesah - 10/30/2008

Question
Hi there,

I have recently gained what i feel in excessive weight. I have been unhappy with my weight for a while, but it has gotten much worse in the past couple of months. A couple of years ago i lost a lot of weight and i know probably wasn't eating. I went through periods of binging episodes and consequently started to gain the weight more. However, on reflection i can see i was still at a very slim weight. But there is no doubt that i have gained excessively since then and have in the last year gone from a 4 to about a 10. My concern about my weight gain is not in my head, it is almost as though my eating and body status have gone into reverse. I think that i began to lose control of what i was eating when i started to gain weight as some sort of punishment to myself and was eating foods i wouldn't previously have touched and also eating a lot more. I am finally reaching a point where i am leveling out with my eating and not eating too little, and not eating too much, i am just trying to be as healthy as possible. However, despite doing exercise and watching what i am eating more i feel that the weight isn't shifting. I am not attempting to be an undesirable size, but i know that right now i am holding too much weight and actually bigger than i have ever been. My concern is that my metabolism has given up on me and is now not working for me and i fear i will continue to gain weight and not be able to get back down to my comfortable weight. Do you have any advice of what i can do to help?
Many Thanks.

Answer
With many who deal with eating disorders binging can in fact throw your metabolism off and cause your weight to fluxuate up and down. What you need to do is possibly talk to your doctor about getting a referral to see an endocrinologist because they would have to run tests on you to see what can be done to handle your metabolism not being stable. I would also suggest you seek out a therapy treatment program so you can begin to work through the issues of what is driving you to binge eat. Work with your doctor to monitor your weight and work on getting you back down to a healthy size that you will be happy with.