How is this happening

hannalexx
hannalexx Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How is this happening
To be very honest, I have had anorexia for the past year and have lost about 60 lbs eating far below my maintenance. When I decided to switch and begin eating my maintenance calories for my weight daily, I still continued to lose weight doing that somehow. Now, finally, I have began to let up and eat unrestrictively without counting (I always count) during my weekends. These past couple of weeks, I noticed that this has led to me experiencing what is called "extreme hunger"(when beginning to eat again in recovery from anorexia, your body needs about 4000-10000 extra calories to repair itself/organs etc., so you begin to feel intensely hungry with no end) I have decided that I will allow myself to proceed through this part of recovery, but not daily like most people experience, only during weekends. In doing so, I have noticed that although the day after what I will call my "binge" days, I can weigh up to 10 lbs heavier then my actual weight, throughout the 5 or so days that follow this my weight always returns to back normal simply eating at my maintenance. How is this possible? I know some of the food that you eat makes you heavier the day after and leaves your body and such.. but to week after week continue to weight the same much by the end of the week again after these extreme hunger weekends makes no sense to me?? How does this happen?

Replies

  • Rose18l
    Rose18l Posts: 147 Member
    You probably have an higher sodium intake during your binges. Sodium will make you retain water. This usually takes a bit longer to clear out of your system. When I have a lot of sodium I can weight up to 7 pounds heavier.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Rose18l wrote: »
    You probably have an higher sodium intake during your binges. Sodium will make you retain water. This usually takes a bit longer to clear out of your system. When I have a lot of sodium I can weight up to 7 pounds heavier.

    and higher carbs which also leads to retaining water
  • Rose18l
    Rose18l Posts: 147 Member
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    Rose18l wrote: »
    You probably have an higher sodium intake during your binges. Sodium will make you retain water. This usually takes a bit longer to clear out of your system. When I have a lot of sodium I can weight up to 7 pounds heavier.

    and higher carbs which also leads to retaining water

    True that. Also alcohol makes you retain water (not sure if she drinks though)
  • rianneonamission
    rianneonamission Posts: 854 Member
    edited April 2018
    ^ What they said re water retention. To add: I had a high sodium day yesterday and despite coming in at 200 calories under my calorie goal, today I am up 1.2lbs on yesterday. Sodium can be a *kitten*. If you are still weighing daily a weight trend app may be beneficial to you. I use Happy Scale, some people use Libra. It trends your weight so that spikes and troughs even out. To me it helps because I don't panic and give up when I see a weight spike. (It does take a few weeks to build up sufficient data to get a reliable trend.)

    Congrats on working to beat anorexia. It must be very difficult. I hope you do well!
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    hannalexx wrote: »
    How is this happening
    To be very honest, I have had anorexia for the past year and have lost about 60 lbs eating far below my maintenance. When I decided to switch and begin eating my maintenance calories for my weight daily, I still continued to lose weight doing that somehow. Now, finally, I have began to let up and eat unrestrictively without counting (I always count) during my weekends. These past couple of weeks, I noticed that this has led to me experiencing what is called "extreme hunger"(when beginning to eat again in recovery from anorexia, your body needs about 4000-10000 extra calories to repair itself/organs etc., so you begin to feel intensely hungry with no end) I have decided that I will allow myself to proceed through this part of recovery, but not daily like most people experience, only during weekends. In doing so, I have noticed that although the day after what I will call my "binge" days, I can weigh up to 10 lbs heavier then my actual weight, throughout the 5 or so days that follow this my weight always returns to back normal simply eating at my maintenance. How is this possible? I know some of the food that you eat makes you heavier the day after and leaves your body and such.. but to week after week continue to weight the same much by the end of the week again after these extreme hunger weekends makes no sense to me?? How does this happen?

    are you trying to gain weight? if you are eating unrestrictively at the weekend but restricting during the week and your weight is the same once the water weight disappears then you aren't eating enough in general.
  • SteamPug
    SteamPug Posts: 262 Member
    After restriction I found what felt like ‘binge’ days were actually just me eating at maintenance calories - they just felt like binges because I’d been eating so little previously. So maybe your average across the entire week and weekend is still coming out at maintenance?

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