Best way to restart eating after "fast"

nicholajaneryan

I'm using the term "fast" loosely here. Basically I got dumped, did nothing but puke and poop for a couple of days, got anti sickness meds, slept a lot. Managed to eat a couple of chocolate biscuits to get through the one day i worked last week without feinting. I
I tried eating a couple of spoonfuls of porridge. Went straight through me. Tried eating crackers. Same result. Last night ate a chicken breast with a glass of wine. Total catastrophe!
Doctor prescribed me beta blockers for now to help with anxiety.
They are aware I haven't eaten, they don't seem too concerned.
I've lost 9bs in a week (was 153 now 144)
I feel awful obviously. I want to get back in the gym, cheaper than therapy! To do that I need fuel.

Once my body will accept food again, what should I expect? Will all of the weight come back?
Can I keep it off healthily?
Online research showing me a tonne of starvation mode bullpoop, claiming everything I eat will be stored as fat etc. Gah!

Also, bananas? Will they fly out as liquid or solidify? Discuss...

Sorry guys, I know this is all rather grim but it's new territory for me.
I'm used to losing the "hard" way (CiCo and gym)

misskarne

You'll probably get a bump up in weight as your body recovers and your glycogen replenishes.

I'm sorry you're having such a rough time. Might I suggest plain toast, or toast with a little margarine on it? That might be safer than chicken/crackers/porridge. Could you also try something like Gatorade? Or lemonade, stirred briskly until it was flat, was what my mother used to give us when we were sick as kids.

Nony_Mouse

Ah, been there, done that. Sorry you have to go through it

A lot of the weight will be water weight, so expect some regain. Any actual fat loss should stay off though so long as you're in a deficit or eating at maintenance. As to how to restart eating, it depends on what your stomach can handle, but I would go with small and often for the first few days, rather than going straight back to full sized meals. But do try to get back to your normal calorie intake as soon as you are able.

I think bananas should help solidify, and given that they are also energy dense wee suckers they are a good option for you right now

ladyreva78

Rice usually helps me (worst case eaten by the expresso spoon-full until my stomach can deal with more than a minuscule rice grain at a time).

Fennel tea or Chamomile tea helps settle my stomach if you can find that where you live.

I'm sorry you're having such a rough time! I do hope you'll manage to get better soon!

federicafezza4271

I am not really sure about what happened, do you and your doctor think you have a stomac flu or something?

I think that the first thing you should focus on is recovering from this with rest and medicine, if needed. You should ask your doctor how to go back to eating solid foods when you will feel better. Also, there are some resources on the internet about fasting (I believe mostly about religious fasting) so you could check their experiences to know what to expect.

As for the weight, I suppose you mostly lost water because you had a very limited sodium and carb intake in this week, but you also had a calorie deficit for a week since you did not ate. So as you restart eating you will gain back most of it except maybe a couple lbs I think.

Good luck with your recovery and be safe!

CattOfTheGarage

Yes, I'm not sure what to recommend either as I'm not sure if you are just temporarily ill or if you're having stomach problems because of the anxiety. Either way, I hope you feel better soon!

TimothyFish

My rough guess is that you will regain six of the nine pounds you lost.

lmew91

I personally do not experience this, so take the tidbit with a grain of salt, but I have heard the comment from a few different people that bananas sometimes increase the urge to "go." On the other hand, they are part of the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, apple sauce, toast) that is recommended for people who have had stomach issues/bugs, trouble keeping food down, etc. Hope you feel better soon!!

Francl27

I second the BRAT diet. It sucks and doesn't fill you up, but that's easy enough to keep down (saltines too).

I used to have horrible stomach cramps from anxiety and it's the only things I could eat.

But it happened to me when I was losing weight, I lost 2 pounds and actually kept them off (I mean, even with a 1600 calorie BMR, if you only manage to keep 500 calories down 3 days in a row, you do burn a bunch of fat), but I reintroduced food slowly.

Last time it happened and I was maintaining I didn't even lose anything, still can't figure that one out.

nicholajaneryan

Update:
2 weeks since the spilt. Have been managing snacks, still no full meals but I have more energy, looking forward to going for a gentle swim tomorrow.

Weight: 142.6lbs

Rate of loss has slowed a lot, was getting pretty scary there for a bit!