Expert: Nafeesah - 12/19/2008

Question
Hi. Thanks for reading. I am concerned about my eating and was hopinh you could help. In grade nine I started myself on a calorie resticting diet where i ate 1,200 calories a day. I weighed 99 pounds and was 5.3 at the time. Now i am in grade 10 and weigh 86 pounds and i think i should stop this diet because it is unnessacary, but when i tried to stop i either was on the diet, or ate compulsivly too much. I am having trouble figuring out what a normal diet would be. Also, latley i have lost my period and have been getting cold easily. I didn't lose that much weight, so i don't think this could be the reason for the loss ofn period. What other factors could have caused this. Thanks so much for reading.

Answer
Your body is still growing in grade and high school, and restricting your eating is depriving your body of what it needs and if you lost your period and getting cold easily that's a sign you are losing nutrients for proper body function. You do need to stop and if you're having problems identifying a diet for your body type and age talk to your doctor. You don't want to get into starvation because you're trying to maintain weight because then you're developing an eating disorder.