Expert: Joanne - 4/10/2008

Question
hey...
      I used to have anorexia and bulimia when i was 10-15...now a year later, i thought i was practically better after therapy. But now...i am on about 1600 kcals when on a really good day...but when i do eat this, I do a 800 calorie workout...ive not gone on the scales recently but is this bad?
Also Im starting to binge and stop eating etc when under stress again..my metabolism is pretty good now..but i think im starting to relapse...


Answer
Lindsey

There must be some underlying reason that you are returning to these old behaviours.  I would recommend trying to get yourself back into therapy, or even just some informal counselling sessions as soon as possible in order to ensure that you don't end up fully relapsing.

You recognise that there is a problem, and that is great, but now you need to act!  Talk to your parents, or people that you trust and are aware of your previous problems, let them help!

Do you think that you could not work out for a while, or try to eat even more on a day that you are doing such workouts, but don't increase the amount of calories you burn?  If you don't think that you can do this, then you seriously need to think about whether or not you consider yourself recovered.  I believe that to be truly recovered, you should be able to eat and work out logically, in order that you are only burning as much as your diet allows.  True recovery would have you focus less on how many calories you are eating on a daily basis!

Please think about approaching your Dr to get a referral back to someone that can help, or if you can self-refer, do that, and do it soon!  Believe me, this will be so much easier to treat and a lot less emotionally draining if you do this now rather than waiting until you are becoming sick again!

Joanne