Expert: Ryan Hale - 6/30/2010

Question
Hello Ryan. I am a professional ballerina with an elite world class ballet company. Because of the pressures involved with body image, I have had eating disorders since I was about 15. The issues were always there, but over the past 5 years have been a serious issue. I ended up getting two stress fractures and have since decided it isn't worth risking my health and happiness for something making me so sick. I am 23 years old. I have started eating healthier, trying to get back on track but of course it is so so hard. Mentally as well!! Where I was once eating around 700 calories and performing big ballets, I'm trying to train my body to get used to around 1300 calories, what I'm currently eating. It has been a frustrating process however because since trying to put more food in my body, I cannot stop putting on weight. It is really scaring me, because I am exercising and everything yet I feel horrible about my self image. I started eating more in January so it has already been almost 6 months. I cannot keep seeing the scale go up, it is really getting to me, tempting me to go into old habits. I am 5'6 and was a solid muscle 106 pounds, quite starved for my body type. I am now already 122 pounds and am worried the scale will never stop going up. It's a hard adjustment! My question to you is simply if you had any idea how long it would take my body to begin properly working again and for my metabolism to catch up so I will not keep gaining weight and it will even itself out. I understand as of now my metabolism is shot since it has been abused for so long, however can you give me a glimmer of hope as to when this will be over, and it will run quick again?? Eventually causing me to lose some of this weight?? Thanks so much for your help!! This is so so frustrating for me!!! Catherine Hamer

Answer
Catherine- you are right in your understanding that it will take a long time for your metabolism to re-adjust.  I tell people who are overweight and going through weight loss that it will take some time, considering that they were that way for 10, 20 or 30 years... it's not going to happen in a matter of weeks or even months.  The same holds true for you.  However, this is a great time for you to re-discover your body and your relationship with food.  If it all happened while you were sleeping tonight and your body underwent an entire change to "normal" it would be a HUGE adjustment.  Because it takes so long, you have an opportunity to adjust slowly, change habits that will be able to be sustained and re-learn old assumptions about yourself and food.

As for where you are right now, 122 is not a lot of weight.  It may seem so due to your image of your body in the past.  Our bodies want to build back up after they have been in starvation mode and the reaction your body is going through is normal.  Again, this is the time to re-learn eating habits, learn about healthy diet and return to activity for the sake of health.  Once those things are balanced again, your metabolism will return to normal and you will work into a weight that is "normal" for your body.  

As someone who has been in ballet, you are used to feeling how your body moves.  now is the time to experience and enjoy your body moving for the sake of movement and for enjoyment... bodies are for function, not ornamentation.  Check with your doctor and see if it is safe to take up activity.  You may find that you enjoy dancing again for all new reasons, or that you have the time and energy for activities that you've never tried before.  The other day, I was working with a professional cyclist who has recently retired and he told me how much he has been enjoying riding his bike to the store and to a friend's house instead of riding for training like he was used to.  He re-discovered the enjoyment that he had lost when he was making his living as a cyclist.  You have an opportunity here to do a lot of things positive for your self.