Need food help

reachingforarainbow

So I used to have an eating disorder, (restrictive), and then it turned into bulimia.
I have not purged in almost a month, and I have cut way down in the past year.
I do not have a treatment team/nutritionist to give me advice.
The last time I checked my weight I was 149 lbs. midway through the day with all my clothes on and a big clunky watch (at the doctors)
I am trying hard to lose weight (lose fat, not necessarily weight) but have not weighed myself in 2 1/2 ish months because I find it kind of tramatic. I also am having a difficult time eating appropriate amounts/types of food during the day. (eg. breakfast is normally around 200 cals typically fine, but too low in calories, lunch is normally 1/2 a sandwhich, some veggies. Still hungry, get some kind of baked good, get off work, sometimes need a snack cause I am ridiculously hungry, then eat a good sized dinner..... then want to keep eating all night, and it seems I always want something before I go to bed) I feel like I need to get the weight/fat off asap so I've been setting really low calorie goals. but then I eat really unhealthy food. I am also in the process of training for 1/2 marathon. I typically do eat back ALL of my exercise calories (which is probably inaccurately calculated) so I probably always net over 800 calories.
I just don't know what/how much I should be eating. I also get anxious to eat with other people at meal times aside from dinner, becaue I think they will judge how much/little i might be eating.

SOMEONE, give me some advice. I just want to be fit, but I know that I am not gonna get there the way I keep trying.

RodaRose

FIrst of all, you are going to be o.k. Trust yourself and your health care people.
The weight does not have to come off fast. This is not a contest.
Eat the number of calories that your nutritionist suggested for you.

reachingforarainbow

I DON'T have a nutritionist/health care people. The reason I have recovered is because I have somehow been able to force myself to stop.
I just need some advice from normal people cause I don't know what/how much I should be eating. Like what a normal person's everyday intake is.

RodaRose

When you inputed you information into MyFitnessPal -- it asked for current weight, goal weight, gender, date of birth, height, activity level.
MFP calculated how many calories a day you need to lose weight. The most it allows is two pounds a week.
There really is not a normal day because each one of us is different.

These two threads have important information.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/819055-setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

wannabefast

I feel ya! It's really tough. Eating disorders are very difficult. Even after you've recovered from them I don't think its possible to ever completely be recovered. I'll tell you what worked for me. A few years ago I used a different calorie counter before I knew this one was available. At the time weighed 180 for a guy who is 5'8 and a medium frame I shouldn't weigh any more than 160 unless I am trying to build muscle. My approach was to just start counting my calories but not be concerned with what or how much I was eating. I did this for about 2 weeks just to see what my typical eating habits were. Wow was I surprised. At the time I averaged about 3000 to 3500 calories a day and was typically way over on fats, carbs, sugars, everything. I apparently needed to change a lot. However rather than try and jump into limiting myself to 1500 net calories a day. I gave my self smaller goals. So the first week I really started to try and lower my calories I gave my self an easier goal of about 2500 per day. Even that was a little tough but it was realistically obtainable. At 2500/day I still wasn't loosing any weight but I at least was making my goal or coming close to it. When 2500 was starting to get easy then I dropped my goal down to 2200/day and repeated that until it felt easy. Then I went for 2000, then 1800 and eventually <1600 with running and exercise. When I started getting to under 2000 net calories, the pounds started coming off but slowly. At first I did loose a couple pounds a week then it became closer to a pound/week and eventually plateaued to about a 1/2 pound a week. after about 6 months I did get down to about 155.

The point is be patient. Give yourself small obtainable short term goals. Those little victories will add up to big ones and make you feel good about yourself. IMHO, I would also try and focus on distributing your calorie intake through the day more. So if you are trying to have a net calorie intake of 1250 (never go below 1200). If you do 400 calories of exercise, try and distribute your meals out to 400 for breakfast 400 for lunch another 400 for dinner and 200 for a mid afternoon snack and another 200 as a before bed treat to reward yourself. Never let yourself get super hungry. Get used to feeling just satisfied.

reachingforarainbow

Thanks for the advice. I find it difficult to spread out my intake, but I will try.

reachingforarainbow

Any more advice?

xsmilexforxmex

Congratulations on your efforts to overcome your disorder, it takes a huge amount of strength to do that -- especially alone.

I have my goal at 1350 but usually with excercise can go up to 2200 calories, and it's easy to do... with that I'm only running about 3.5 miles at the most so far... so with you training for a half marathon I'd say you could easily eat up to 2500-3000 calories on days you run. If you net below your BMR there's a good chance you're going to burn more muscle and end up having trouble meeting your goals. Don't be afraid to mix it up some and once a month or so have a cheat day. The big thing with 'sustainable' *fat* loss is that you need to healthy with it. Eat too little you're losing weight faster but also more muscle than you might with a few hundred calories more.

With all that ^^ this is my experience/knowledge based off what I've researched. I'm no expert so take what you want from it. Good luck and I hope you continue on your path to healthy