Ruined my metabolism by under eating..Help!!!

akanchathakur

Hi!! I am 19 years old and i just got done with my freshman year in College. I was seriously under eating in college for all of the spring semester. I was obsessed wit exercising and eating only 500-600 calories a day. I used to eat a 200 calorie breakfast then go to gym in the evening burn about 300-400 calories in the gym then have a veggie sandwich for dinner which had barely 400 calories. When i went to college i was 5'5 and 105 lbs i was skinny but perfectly healthy i was eating healthy i had been the same weight for all 4 years of high school and my first semester in college. In my second semester of college i got down to 5'5 and 102 lbs. I didn't lose a lot of weight and my metabolism crashed. At 102 lbs i would have a heavy dinner once or twice in 2 week and the next day the scale read 106 lbs or 107 lbs. I would under eat again for a week and come back at 102 lbs. I am home now and i am eating healthy. I try to avoid junk food and have healthy snacks once in a while.I jog in the morning. I am eating around 1500 calories a day. I am almost 111 lbs now in just 10 days. I wanna be back at 107 or 108 lbs i know it's not healthy according to the BMI but i always felt healthy around that weight and i have a small built so i looked healthy. I am scared if i keep eating this way i would gain 20 lbs or 30 lbs in a month...i am tempted to under eat again. Please help!!!

karmac0matic

It just sounds like your body is attempting to adjust to eating more than 500-600 calories. Which is a GOOD thing.

Do you feel worse where you are, weight wise? It's not a big difference, it's 3 pounds, and that is bound to happen when you suddenly go from severe restriction to a livable amount of calories per day.

Please try not to go back to so few calories, I bet you'll feel much better in a few days. If all else fails, just do a little extra exercise to make yourself feel better.

When I was restricting, I went from 116 to 105 pounds. Then, eating normally I went right back up to 108 (also, I'm 5'1" so 4 inches shorter and still heavier than you were). And now I'm around 109-110 depending on the usual suspects of fluctuations.

Just give your body time to adjust.

Springfield1970

You may get some posts soon that will really help you.

They will be the ones that tell you to go to the doctors, and get help for what sounds like an eating disorder.

You are going to need help with this one as your brain has been altered somewhat by the disordered eating and you will need an outside professional guide. It's very fixable but here isn't the right place to do it. MFP can be used as PART of your support system.

Luckily it sounds like you are willing to get help.

Don't forget scale weight is made up of lots of things. Lean body mass, fat, stomach contents, water in the muscles, glycogen in the muscles. Learning about this will stop you freaking out when you gain weight after eating.

Eventually you will be fit and healthy and have a whole wealth if knowledge.

Go to a professional first.

wampahoofus

5' 5" 111lbs = BMI 18.5. That is the LIGHTEST you can weight you can be and be healthy. Start eating a normal amount of calories, at least 1500, and get a base level of daily activity. Then, enjoy life! Do not lose any weight because you would be under weight!

Agirard25

Springfiled19 just gave you the best advise. Go get help from a professional. Use MFP as part of the support network--but help yourself by getting help.

grton

Please take Springfiled19's advice and get some help. Seek out a good registered dietitian and a therapist. You deserve a life that is well-nourished and happy. I hope you can get help!

Cmnden

You're going to be fine. You've adapted a healthy, goal oriented lifestyle > THIS can only have one possible long-term consequence and that is a healthy, happy you!

bc2ct

Health professionals will be able to help you set realistic goals based on what your body needs. Women who under-eat or become "health food" obsessed (emphasis on obsessed... I am not saying it is a bad thing to eat fresh, nutritious foods) tend to consume inadequate amounts of calcium and iron and suffer from conditions like osteoporosis, sideropenia, anemia, and amenorrhea. Please talk to a doctor about the kind of diet and exercise routine that will allow you to restore balance to your body and maintain healthy levels of these essential nutrients (the building blocks of your body!).

stephe1987

Talk to a nutritionist. It's okay to be small but you need to make sure you are getting all the right food groups and vitamins. You don't want to mess up your health in later life just because you liked looking skinny in your teens.

If you like looking small you can also do weight training. Gain a little weight but you will still have the small measurements because you'll be muscular.

I think it's fine that you weigh so little because you're only 19 and there are naturally small people even at older ages (some of them eat very little but they are also not hungry; others can eat what they want and still stay small). But it is a bit of a concern that you're panicking over gaining a few pounds when you are still under the recommended BMI and ideal weight calculations (5' 5" small frame is 116-120).

erickirb

If you are not going to get help, which I advocate, one way to repair your metabolism is to eat more. Start at your current intake and add 100 cals to your day. then up it by 100 every week until you get to a reasonable maintenance level intake.

Mr_Knight

Your numbers aren't consistent. If you were eating that little and exercising that hard, you would have dropped a crap load of weight.

Until the logging is nailed down, it isn't possible to really know what is going on.

Clarifications

How the hell did you survive an entire year on less
Than 300 net calories?

Unknown

This content has been removed.

negator5543

Hi!! I am 19 years old and i just got done with my freshman year in College. I was seriously under eating in college for all of the spring semester. I was obsessed wit exercising and eating only 500-600 calories a day. I used to eat a 200 calorie breakfast then go to gym in the evening burn about 300-400 calories in the gym then have a veggie sandwich for dinner which had barely 400 calories. When i went to college i was 5'5 and 105 lbs i was skinny but perfectly healthy i was eating healthy i had been the same weight for all 4 years of high school and my first semester in college. In my second semester of college i got down to 5'5 and 102 lbs. I didn't lose a lot of weight and my metabolism crashed. At 102 lbs i would have a heavy dinner once or twice in 2 week and the next day the scale read 106 lbs or 107 lbs. I would under eat again for a week and come back at 102 lbs. I am home now and i am eating healthy. I try to avoid junk food and have healthy snacks once in a while.I jog in the morning. I am eating around 1500 calories a day. I am almost 111 lbs now in just 10 days. I wanna be back at 107 or 108 lbs i know it's not healthy according to the BMI but i always felt healthy around that weight and i have a small built so i looked healthy. I am scared if i keep eating this way i would gain 20 lbs or 30 lbs in a month...i am tempted to under eat again. Please help!!!

1 liter of water weighs 2 lbs...once consumed your weight is 2 lbs higher until you piss, breathe and sweat it all out.

The same is true for food, the physical weight of the food you eat is added to your total body weight until you use the calories and excrete(poop) the rest. It take our bodies an average of about 36 hours to completely digest one meal. So at any given point in time you can have 2-5 lbs of extra water and 2-5 lbs of food moving through your digestive tract.

These things will make your weight 4-10lbs more than your true body weight, the same as holding an 8 lb bowling ball while standing on a scale will.

So stop worrying about the number on the scale, your severe calorie restriction did not make you lose 6lbs in two days, went from a constantly empty stomach to binge eating a large dinner, that large dinner sat in your stomach for a while and added weight to the scale, it didn't add 5lbs of fat to your body, which is why you immediately "lost" the weight when you returned to starving yourself...empty stomach weighs less than a full one.

Basically, eat food, weigh yourself once a week at the most, once a month might be better and monitor your actual body fat before you panic about potentially gaining weight.

BurntCoffee

OP, I found this thread to be very very helpful yesterday. Be sure to look at the links posted and google that Lane guys videos. Very good information here.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1297910-metabolic-damage-low-rmr?hl=metabolic+damage

tracydr

Stop weighing and lift weights. You'll regain the muscle you lost and lower your body fat percent. You will love the new look!

macchiatto

Springfield19 gave excellent advice.
Wishing you all the best!

piedpiper95

I lost 25 pounds between October and January, likewise restricting way too much. I was restricting because of a life-threatening allergic reaction that led me into extreme anxiety, frequent panic attacks, and eventually I ended up on the depression spectrum. This complex didn't develop overnight, and the 4-something months of severe restricting made me realize how much I needed to change. I basically woke up in January when I realized I couldn't remember when my last period was, and that was when I knew I had to get healthy. I increased my caloric consumption to a maintenance level. My advice to you is to stop weighing yourself: it seems your concern is over weight, while mine was panic over possible food reactions. After I had stopped losing for a while I realized that I needed support, so I went to see my GP, who did a physical and ran bloodwork to make sure that I was healthy. I'm still at a healthy BMI despite losing, so that wasn't a concern for me as it may be for you, but I wanted to be sure. You should definitely go see your GP. I also saw a nutritionist, who gave me advice and reassurance about the recovery process. That was vitally important to me: as I was reintroducing food I had all kinds of GI problems, because your stomach isn't used to processing enough food and your body is in starvation mode. Basically once I was reassured that I hadn't permanently damaged my body, I removed all distractions in my life like school to focus on being healthy again. I'm working on my anxiety, and am getting better every day. It won't happen over night, but the BEST POSSIBLE THING you can do is to see a professional! See your doctor, talk to a nutritionist. If possible, consider seeing an anorexia specialist. Even if the issues that prompted you to restrict (whatever they may be) are not body-image related, someone who works with recovering anorexics will have vital resources and advice to help you reintroduce foods, repair your body, and get back on track.

fay_pigu

You sound like my ex apart from the fact she didn't get help till after uni. She's doing great now, has a kid and happy life, still exercises and watches what she eats but it doesn't consume her life.

Go speak to your doctor for a referal or student services in college, they will have good people, you are not the first and not the last.

Good luck.

ucabucca

Been there done that and am happy to say that with help I am recovery and have not slipped back in 2 years You need help because the grey matter in brain changes and it called refeeding and it can be hard but it does level off I was scared the vody changed and stored around organs for protection first I hated that but in a few months with help from a registared dietician and therapist it started to change and I leveled off then was allowed slowly to start exercising again but eating all calories back. I lift and am competitive again and metabolism went back to normal Hang in there but PLEASE get help You really cant do this without a meal plan.

Graelwyn75

As others have suggested, seek help.
You are far too young to be allowing this to consume your life...what I would not do to go back to your age, when I had anorexia, and not have fallen down the rabbit hole.
You also need to bear in mind, that you cannot expect to be the same weight as a grown woman, that you were as a teenager.

Carley

When I was in recovery for anorexia we would add 100 calories every week day to menu. I started off with 400 calories, we didn't rush it because it scared me. I took a tad longer, it took me about 2 months to get up to 1500 calories.

Springfield1970

I too couldn't eat more than about 1200 without panicking about the scale numbers. I was either there, or in my binge place where I let go and hid under big clothes. I would pack away probably over 3000 cals a day on a normal day, and slowly gain weight up to possibly 140 ish (I never weighed myself) then go back to restricting. I wish I'd understood how scale gain has very little to say about fat percentage and muscle gain.

MFP has helped me eat normally again, I also had therapy about other issues, mostly anxiety related, but I was never a diagnosed eating disorder. There's been disorder all along though. I wish I'd gone for help 20 years ago instead of muddling through with various regimes, that mostly left me moody and imbalanced.

Nowadays I cruise along at a wonderful weight, 127-129, 1750 without exercise, up to 2750 with exercise, weigh myself every day, don't panic with the fluctuations because I know what causes them and how healthy they are. Ie, doing lots of weight training and running in one day, eating tons of food, and seeing the water, food weight and glycogen the next day is a thing to celebrate, because in a few days the body fat I've burnt will make me look leaner, after the repairs have been done and the water has gone.

I still have little fantasies about slowly cutting fat, but nowadays I look at my body which is about 18-20% fat curvy and strong! and think Mmmm I may run faster! and my jeans may do that loose hanging off me thing, but I'm looking great, and my boobs will shrink, and I'm so happy here! So I eat under by 50-100 cals a couple of days a week to feel that little bit of control. I also have party days too, where I treat myself but don't out and out gorge like I used to. It's wonderful!

Some say to weigh only after a rest day, with low sodium, and away from TOM. I think that's sensible. That'll be from the mouth of HeyBales.