Expert: Meg - 4/15/2007

Question
I am 13 years old, and am recovering from an eating disorder. my height is 157 centimeters and in early to mid march i weighed 30.5 kilograms. i now weigh 34 kilograms. my parents have made a deal that when i get to 36 kilograms they will send me to a different school (i am miserable at the school i am at... one of the causes of my eating disorder). we went to our local GP and he has recommended drinking 3 sustagens (a high energy nutritional supplement) a day to help with my weight gain. the only problem is i find myself not having the sustagen, and then trying to make up for this by eating lots and lots of chocolate and icecreams. i KNOW how bad this is for me... but i restricted for so long and now that i WANT to gain weight i can finally eat chocolate with out wanting to DIE. i have a very small stomach and can only fit 3 small meals in a day. my parents were concerned about the amount of chocolate i was eating and have now told me to have a massive breakfast, no lunch, and a massive dinner to try and stretch my stomach. is this a good idea? what effects will eating alot of chocolate and icecream have on me? has all the weight i have gained so far been fat? i have not done any exercise at all. also, it all seems to be pilling on my stomach.  

Answer
Hi Amy,

Thanks for your question and good job on being open to working on recovery.  This is often the most difficult step and you are doing it already, so give yourself a pat on the back.

You don't mention getting any type of counseling to help you with overcoming your eating disorder and I'm wondering if you are only seeing your doctor.  If this is the case, you might want to talk with your parents about getting you some extra support to get you through the difficult start to your reoovery.  Eating disorders are definitely about way more than just eating again and there are generally lots of psychological reasons that cause someone to cope by using an eating disorder and need to be dealt with in order to fully recover.

Anyway, in terms of overeating chocolate and ice cream, I don't think this will harm your body but its important to get all of the nutrients that you have been missing for awhile as you recover.  And, obviously, its important that you have room for food that contains these nutrients which you might not if you are only (or mainly) eating chocolate.  You might want to plan some chocolate or ice cream as a supplement or dessert with your meal plan.

In regard to your stomach being small, I think that you are right and that you do not want to overload your stomach at this time.  It will stretch in time by itself as you continue on in reoovery. I don't want to contradict anything that you doctor tells you, so of course, first you should check with him.  However, my experience has been that a recovery food plan often consists of smaller, balanced meals (some people even do 5 or 6 mini meals for awhile) so that you body will get the nutrients it needs for recovery and you can gradually let your stomach get bigger.  I think eating way beyond your comfort level right now is a mistake and its much healthier to spread your calorie allotment throughout the day.  If you do this and make sure that you're getting an optimal amount of calories for recovery, your stomach will in time get back to normal.

As for how your weight will come back (ie; will it be fat, muscle, etc), that really varies from person to person.  What I can say is that at this point, the most important thing is for your body to get healthy and functionally normally again.  Once you do that, no matter how the weight comes back it will redistribute itself evenly.  But, I'd say for now, make your goal just getting your health back.  I know that probably goes against your eating disordered thinking, but it really is an important thing.  

As for exercise, this is something that you need to check with your doctor about.  I think gentle exercise (ie: walking or yoga) can be incorperated into ones recovery if it will help you to feel better.  But, of course, this is only when your doctor feels like your body is ready for exercise and it will be harmful as it can if you're at a very low weight.

I hope thise helped and please feel free to write again if there is anything else that I can help with.

Best,
Meg