starting weight restoration/muscle gain

emmaocf

hello everyone,
i'm looking for some advice on building up my caloric intake so that i can first maintain my weight, then begin to build lead muscle (ideally on a fairly quickish timescale but i respect that's often not possible.)
i'm currently in anorexia recovery and have struggled significantly in the past with feeling very full/never feeling hungry/bloating even with normal or reduced meals/caloric intake so some advice with that would be appreciated.
my goal is to gain ~5 kilos of lean muscle and to improve my fitness levels (fencing, handball ect.) but i'm quite literally an absolute beginner as in the past my goals have always been lose as much as possible.
any advice for either workouts (resistance, cardio?) food or the mentality aspect would be greatly appreciated

claireychn074

Gosh this is a tough post to respond to. Firstly, congratulations on being in recovery and talking steps to a healthier you. That’s a huge battle and I can’t imagine it’s easy. Secondly, there will be a tonne of advice given to you about exercise and food, but we are internet strangers and not specialists. I hope you have a good support team around you, and they are the ones who can really help you to achieve your goals. The issue with some ED’s is that obsession with losing weight can be replaced with gaining muscle or exercise, and I think you need to be aware of that and discuss it with your treatment team.

As general advice to increase calories (bearing in mind my earlier point that we are not experts), if you feel full quickly it’s often easier to get calories from energy dense foods. Things like good fats (nuts, seeds, avocados, nut butters) can add calories without bulk. Going for full fat options on dairy (yoghurt and cheese), or using coconut milk in stir fries, can be good ways to get calories up without adding bulk. Adding in extra calories slowly can be more successful in learning to tolerate them; you don’t want to aim for fast muscle growth as that could be reflective of your past ED mindset. This is now part of your journey to a healthier you, but you really, really need to discuss your plans openly and honestly with your care team to get their input. Good luck, and I hope your journey gets easier.

cwolfman13

Good advice above.

As far as gaining muscle on a "fairly quickish timescale", just lose that thought. It's a very slow process. A novice lifting female with high quality programming aimed at hypertrophy, proper diet (calories and nutrition), and good genetics can expect to put on about 10 Lbs of muscle on average in the first year...it becomes even slower after that as you have exhausted noobie gains. Mind you, this is basically having everything pretty locked in for optimal performance. For males, it's around 20 Lbs on average.

With ED, this could potentially also be a very slippery slope. Building any kind of substantial muscle mass requires a calorie surplus, and in the process you are going to also put on fat which for many in general (regardless of ED) can mess with their head. It would also then require cutting weight (fat) down the road in a non-aggressive manner in order to retain the gains in muscle mass as a fast cut would just destroy your gains.

Personally, I'd just focus on getting to maintenance and practicing that for a good long while and focusing on your exercise (including lifting) for your overall fitness, health, and well being.