Expert: Joanne - 9/17/2007

Question
Hi Holly,

Last week Wednesday I made the decision to start the road to recovery from my anorexia. I count calories, and used to eat 600 a day. Over the past 5 days I have slowly built up to 1500 calories with regular snacks and meals (no binging)- but I've LOST weight instead!

I'm 17 and 6'0" - how many calories should I be eating in order to gain weight at a healthy rate? Or, once I eat the right amount of calories necessary for weight gain, how long will the weight gain take? I still eat very healthy foods, and I have been concentrating on getting the full amount of recommended nutrients, such as iron and calcium (which I suspect I am now very deficient of). Thank you for your time - any advice is very much appreciated.

Answer
Congratulations on deciding to begin recovery!

It is hard to say how long weight gain will take and at what speed it will occur as everyone is different, and is dependent on so many things to even think of without loads of scientific stuff!

I think that you should continue as you are doing!

It may be worthwhile looking to get an appointment with a nutritionist with some experience in disordered eating as they will be able to give more guidance on what you should be aiming to eat on a daily basis!

Have you ever had any help for your eating disorder before?  If not, I would recommend speaking to a therapist or counsellor about some of this, just to help solve some of the underlying issues that lead you to an eating disorder initially!

Please continue as you are, and try not to be too disheartened if you do struggle with this at any time.  Many people may have slight slips back into the disordered eating patterns, and this puts them off recovery as they feel they have failed at it, but just keep persevering - hopefully with the help and support of family, friends, and maybe even some professionals!

Please come back if you want to ask or talk about anything
All the best
Holly