Expert: Ryan Hale - 7/5/2010

Question
Ryaaaan,

Hi there :) So I have a query for you - I am a seventeen year old girl and I started exercising quite excessively about eight months ago. I don't have a rest day, I try and do a minimum of three hours a day and when I overeat, I feel guilty and sometimes do seven hours of exercise. What sort of impact does this have on the body? I was also restricting my food intake quite severely, down to 200-400 calories a day which led to a lot of binge eating and thus weight gain. What are your thoughts on this?

Thank you :)

Rebekah.

Answer
Rebekah- it sounds like you need some balance with your exercise and eating.  The activity takes fuel which comes in the form of calories.  If you aren't feeding the machine, you can't go as hard as if you were.  Also, a rest day is necessary, but it seems like you are trying to use eercise as a form of food/weight control so the idea of a rest day wouldn't make sense in that case.  You need to balance your acyivity with your calories and fit in a rest day.  Your body will recover better and be ready for more work and the binging will improve due to you calorie balance.  It sounds like you know what you need to do, it's a matter of applying it.  Also, your attempt to calorie restrict and over-exercise could use the help of a therapist because without addressing the issues that lead to that, no advice from me will help.