not sure where to put this, in relation to slow but un-intentional weight loss during ed recovery

typicallystrange

Hi, I've been officially in recovery for 2 and a half months now, but was eating more frequently and restricting much less in the months leading up to that (eating more frequently to the point that some of the symptoms of my ED like dizziness and low blood pressure started to disappear).

i no longer get upset at how much or what i eat, the weight on the scale doesn't bother me (so i do weigh myself, it's not affecting me negatively), i eat whenever i'm hungry and i'm sure i can trust my hunger cues (i no longer have the ravenous hunger i possessed when i started recovery- which i satiated with as much food as i could eat and sometimes more hehe), and if i don't think i've eaten enough i make sure to snack on some nuts i have no remaining physical symptoms that i can tell, my blood tests are all normal (no deficiencies or even borderline low results, all were good ), my nails and hair are strong, my heart rate and blood pressure are normal, i no longer feel tired or weak or lightheaded and can concentrate and feel happy! i never lost my period but it's been more regular now (before it would come late a lot). i'm not sure about my bone density, i have no symptoms that suggest low bone density, but i may get it checked in the future.

the thing i have a few questions about is.....

in the first month and a bit i gained 25lbs, putting me at a bmi of 19.7. toward the end the weight gain slowed down and then stopped. but then over the course of the next month and a bit i've slowly started to lose weight, dropping about 4.6lbs (bmi 19 now)? i'm still a healthy weight, but on the lower end of the spectrum still and was wondering if i just lost water weight from cell repair, using the assumption that since i had stopped gaining weight and my symptoms were gone, and now i've lost weight, cell repair is almost complete? ( i read in: http://www.youreatopia.com/blog/2012/11/23/phases-of-recovery-from-a-restrictive-eating-disorder.html , that your body retains water to repair your cells in recovery)


since my weight gain stopped and i started to slowly lose, i'm not doing anything differently, i spend almost all of the day sitting (either in class or at home on the computer) and weight train for about 30 minutes once a week- i have a personal trainer and we do HIT training, not to be confused with HIIT (and compensating for that with more calories, fear not).

I know that a bmi of 19.7 in (the height of my) recovery is a little bit low, (now it's 19) but honestly, it's the highest weight i've ever been by about 9lbs.

I feel that you should take into account however that i'm 99% sure i'm one of those naturally thin people.
this is my reasoning:
-before my eating disorder i was slightly underweight
-my mum was also underweight as a teenager and slim as an adult.
-I remember quite vividly that my friends were envious of my fast metabolism (kind of ironic considering how slow it became during my ed)- i used to chow down on a stacked plate of pasta and never gain a pound.
- i also have small bone structure (my wrists are under 6"- fingers overlap each other)


sorry for making you read all that!

should i be worried that i am losing weight (albeit slowly)? I promise you, it's not intentional, although i no longer count calories, i do still estimate how many calories a food is in my head in order to make sure i'm eating enough (coming as a person who's suffered from an ed, we tend to be much more aware of the caloric content and serving sizes of a lot of foods than your average joe)

("For most subjects they initially gained about 10% above their pre-study weights in the re-feeding period." "....and all returned to their pre-study weights in the 12-18 months following the end of the study" http://www.youreatopia.com/blog/2012/10/31/bingeing-is-not-bingeing.html )

i've heard that people in recovery often 'overshoot' their set points, and after that they tend to lose a bit of weight before they settle, is that happening to me?

JustSomeEm

Have you spoken with your doctor/therapist about this? It would probably be a better source of information than strangers on an internet forum who may or may not hold the qualifications to give you an adequate answer but who are certainly not familiar enough with your situation to really help... and many of whom are likely to give you conflicting, confusing information. Hugs, honey. :flowerforyou:

typicallystrange

davis_em wrote: »

Have you spoken with your doctor/therapist about this? It would probably be a better source of information than strangers on an internet forum who may or may not hold the qualifications to give you an adequate answer but who are certainly not familiar enough with your situation to really help... and many of whom are likely to give you conflicting, confusing information. Hugs, honey. :flowerforyou:

thanks! i'll ask my doctor