Expert: Joanne - 6/5/2007

Question
Holly,
I'm 32 and was in anorexia from 2001 to 2006 and have been in recovery for more than a year. i'm eating 4-6 meals a day and limiting my exercising to 2-3 times per week, which includes a little running/ sprinting and lifting weights. it seems if i do more my body rebels, my stomach protrudes and i can't feel when i'm hungry. i exercised alot and often most of my life. ironically it seems rest helps get the weight down as well as lifting weights and sprinting but then i MUST rest. My body says no more for a few days. i feel tired frequently even though i get 7-9 hrs of sleep a night.
 i also saw a eating disoreder dietician and my resting metabolic rate is 2390 calories. kinda of high i know, but that's what it is. she said i don't have to worry about WHAT i eat and she thought i needed to be in the area of 4300 calories per day (i'm a personal trainer-so i'm kinda of active) as soon as i started increasing my cal. to the 3600-4500 mark i gained 13 pounds quickly. Back up here, my low was 119 lb. in 2005 my high was 178 in March 2007.  once i started eating agin my weight shot up, EVEN THOUGH I WAS HUNGRY. seldom do i eat to full, but i'm eating probably around 3000-3800 cal. per day.  only thing that works seems to be workout, run and lots of rest.
 the dietician said my body has a memory, i think that means my body is storing fat, but how do i get it to stop that?

 i have tons of questions, but for now could you explain to me WHAT'S going on and HOW to get the weight off?

 thank you Holly, i appreciate your insight.


   Jerry

Answer
I think that your metabolism may have been affected by you not eating.  I don't understand how people calculate your resting metabolic rate, and don't want you to go against the advice of your specialists, but I think that your calorie intake may be quite high for someone that has spent the best part of the last five years starving themselves!

Anybody that doesn't eat for a while and then begins to eat 'normally' again will likely gain weight as their body tried to rebuild itself.

Your body may be storing fat just now - but your body needs to store fat!  Your body needs to have fat stores, so will need to build them back up, and at the moment, it may be storing more than normal in the fear that your body will return to a state of starvation.  Once your body realises that you aren't going to starve again, it should stop storing what you are eating.  If you are so active, and have been throughout your anorexic period, you will most likely have been breaking down muscle in order to fuel your body, and there is now the need to build those muscles back up again, and most likely build them up even further in order to meet the demands of your regime.  Muscle weighs more than fat, so that will most likely be reflected in your reading on the scales.

Can you avoid weighing yourself?  Is it possible to try and avoid focusing on your weight and be more concerned about being toned and healthy rather than low weight?

Please feel free to come back with any other questions!

All the best
Holly