Struggling with ED at uni & new activity level

snowbab · October 2012

Hey everyone. Ok this problem is a bit complex. More because of my mentality than anything probably.

Basically I was losing weight well at home for a while. But now I have come to uni and I have stopped losing weight, even though my activity level is A LOT higher, and I am not eating very differently. I was on primal diet but have slowly upped my intake of carbs because it's impossible here. I still avoid carbs (except fruit and veggies are allowed) when possible but do have to have cereals (muesli and branflakes/ porridge) at breakfast and a bit of cous cous at lunch. Plus i have added bananas back into my diet which have lots of carbs (but good ones I know).

I have suffered from anorexia in the past and do still have some ED related thoughts, and so at meals I often don't have enough because the food is 'unknown' and it's hard to be healthy so I just have the main if I like it, or tuna, then the veggies and fruit or plain yogurt if it's available (sometimes it's just the cake type option though...). There is a salad bar which I go to at lunch though thank goodness with beans/tuna mayo and ham. By tracking my calories on this site however, I do still try my best to get enough calories in by eating nuts/ houmous etc...in my room. The ED part of me hates this though because I feel like a pig eating loads of calories outside of meals, but I need to do it or I wouldn't get enough for my activity level. I'm finding that this is getting harder though as people tend to say inappropriate things without thinking how it could affect someone with thoughts like mine. I find myself 'forcing' myself to eat enough. Even when I'm hungry I feel it's forced.

Worse is that I seem to have hit a plateau, even perhaps gone up in weight a little! I'm just wondering if it's because I'm not eating enough now? Or too much? I found back at home that I lost well when I upped my intake with the 'EM2WL' idea. I loved it and it helped me to be less scared of food. Now here at university I'm finding it difficult again.

Basically can someone help me to work out how to start the weight loss again, but healthily like on EM2WL. How much should I be eating? What

Height: 5'8
Age: 19 (20 in 2 weeks though)
CW: 116-117? (scales here aren't great)

Activity Level:

I am a 20-30 minute walk from the centre of campus depending on which building I'm in for lectures. I walk this 4-8 times a day depending. Then there's just random walking from building to building between lectures or doing various jobs around campus.

Exercise:

Tuesday: 1 hour of contemporary dance + 45 mins of salsa
Wednesday: 30 mins netball + 2 hours Ju Jitsu (not overly active at the moment though as it's learning the moves)
Thursday: 1 hour beginners' ballet
Friday: 2 hours Ju Jitsu (again, not overly active at the moment but includes warm up and random push ups etc...)
Sunday: 30 mins-1 hour netball (unless studying)

(should I add all this separately or include in activity level?)

+ I have a gym membership so in free time I will be going there by myself or for random fitness classes (i.e. Cardio Blast today burned 360 cals/ Zumba classes/ Bodyweight, freeweight and muscle endurance classes etc.....).
But I will keep adding these sessions as extra activity using my HRM, as they will vary greatly.

So how much should I be eating to maintain. Then how much should I cut by to lose again but slowly and healthily? Feel free to look at my food diary if it will help to assess what I have been doing wrong and should alter etc...

Sorry this is so long! Thanks in advance!

warsenic · October 2012

I think it's because you're underweight, and are aiming to be even more underweight.

JesterMFP · October 2012

how much should I cut by to lose again but slowly and healthily?

It wouldn't be healthy for you to lose any more. It's not a plateau. Your body doesn't want to lose weight because you're already underweight. :flowerforyou:

geekyjock76 · October 2012

Having AN is a struggle for people especially when it comes to the refeeding process. Although you are aware of the need to supply more energy in the form of calories, you still have that voice saying you are eating too much. Plus, leptin concentration levels - being greatly reduced - makes you feel full on less calories. In fact, for many recovered ANs, their leptin concentration values never returns to what it once was so their sense of satiety remains altered.

You certainly seem to be extremely active. With that said, too much activity can create too much stress on the body and negatively affect the endocrine system in various ways.

Dieting is a stress. So is exercise. If both parameters are within acceptable levels, your body can manage and the alterations to the endocrine system are minimized. However, if the deficit is too large due to extremes in one and/or both, your cortisol levels skyrocket. One common result of elevated cortisol levels is dramatically increased water retention. Thus, if the stress from dieting, excessive exercise, and the mental worrying of your new environment is taking a toll on your body, that could easily account for abnormal weight fluctuations.

At 5'8" and 117 lbs, you really shouldn't be looking at doing all that activity to lose weight - I hope. If you are still recovering from AN, your main goal should be increasing the amount of lean body mass that you lost during disordered eating. You likely also lost bone mass density due to being anorexic - thus lifting heavy weight should be your primary exercise - not cardio activity. You can still do ju jitsu and ballet, but any cardio at this point should be engaged at a minimum. The stress from heavy weight training may help increase bone mass density. It goes without saying that calcium and electrolyte intake of potassium and magnesium are vital as well. However, depending on the severity of your AN, you'd need to see if calcium supplementation would restore whatever bone mass you may have lost. If you sought a medical intervention to recover from ED and went through a structured refeeding process, a lot of this should have been explained to you.

snowbab · October 2012

I have a very small frame, so although my BMI says I'm underweight (only by a tin bit anyway), I don't look underweight at all I promise

I just want to lose a few more pounds but I'm stuck.

Also i need help with calculating my maintenance calorie intake anyway for when I want to maintain my weight soon

Just so I don't ruin my metabolism all gain back loads!

snowbab · October 2012

Having AN is a struggle for people especially when it comes to the refeeding process. Although you are aware of the need to supply more energy in the form of calories, you still have that voice saying you are eating too much. Plus, leptin concentration levels - being greatly reduced - makes you feel full on less calories. In fact, for many recovered ANs, their leptin concentration values never returns to what it once was so their sense of satiety remains altered.

You certainly seem to be extremely active. With that said, too much activity can create too much stress on the body and negatively affect the endocrine system in various ways.

Dieting is a stress. So is exercise. If both parameters are within acceptable levels, your body can manage and the alterations to the endocrine system are minimized. However, if the deficit is too large due to extremes in one and/or both, your cortisol levels skyrocket. One common result of elevated cortisol levels is dramatically increased water retention. Thus, if the stress from dieting, excessive exercise, and the mental worrying of your new environment is taking a toll on your body, that could easily account for abnormal weight fluctuations.

At 5'8" and 117 lbs, you really shouldn't be looking at doing all that activity to lose weight - I hope. If you are still recovering from AN, your main goal should be increasing the amount of lean body mass that you lost during disordered eating. You likely also lost bone mass density due to being anorexic - thus lifting heavy weight should be your primary exercise - not cardio activity. You can still do ju jitsu and ballet, but any cardio at this point should be engaged at a minimum. The stress from heavy weight training may help increase bone mass density. It goes without saying that calcium and electrolyte intake of potassium and magnesium are vital as well. However, depending on the severity of your AN, you'd need to see if calcium supplementation would restore whatever bone mass you may have lost. If you sought a medical intervention to recover from ED and went through a structured refeeding process, a lot of this should have been explained to you.

I've actually been out of inpatients for just over 1.5 years now, and out of outpatient for almost a year. It's just that I'm fnding the ED thoughts a bit harder to deal with recently as I'm so confused over how much i should be eating now with my new routine, and whether I'm eating too little/too much etc...

I definitely do want to do weight-lifting as I started the first stage of NRoL4W during the summer, but it was too expensive at my gym at home. Now that I've joined the gym at uni though I hope to get back to that.

I basically just really need people's opinions on how much I should be eating to maintain, and how much I should cut by just for the last little bit. Also which exercise I should add as extra and which exercise I should include in my daily activity? Thanks for your response by the way!

warsenic · October 2012

Even if you are small-framed, a BMI of 16.-something isn't really at a healthy level.
You can calculate your maintainence on this site.
I don't think anyone with good conscience can tell you that you need to lose anymore.

VAMommyAgain · October 2012

I have a very small frame, so although my BMI says I'm underweight (only by a tin bit anyway), I don't look underweight at all I promise I just want to lose a few more pounds but I'm stuck.

You probably just need to lift heavy then. Losing even more weight still isn't going to give you the body you want...but lifting heavy will. You'd probably really like how you look if you ate at maintenance and lifted 3x a week.

XXXMinnieXXX · October 2012

With a BMI of 16, I seriously. Don't think you need to lose more. You could tone up if that would make you feel better, but, I certainly wouldn't be losing more at this point. Sorry I know that's not what you want to hear! X

geekyjock76 · October 2012

I can tell by your photo that you naturally are a petite girl, but I recommend you focus more on body composition instead of weight. During the refeeding process you likely regained a disproportionate amount of fat vs lean body mass - this is why you are considered underweight for your height because of reduced lean body mass. Thus, I stated weight training ought to be your primary activity.

Anyway, with that level of activity, you would be considered very active which constitutes as hard exercise 6-7 days a week - that's a modifier of 1.725 x Resting Metabolic Rate. Use these two online calculators and enter your stats:

http://www.cordianet.com/calculator.htm

http://www.weightrainer.net/losscalc.html

Hard exercise 6-7 days per week
117 current weight
20% current bf
20% goal bf (cordianet.com)
Desired weekly fat loss: .75 lbs (weightrainer.net)

Your estimated TDEE is 2220 calories just to maintain your present weight if you continue this amount of activity.

Again, you are lean enough, more than likely, to actually stay at maintenance calories and then eat at a 250 calorie surplus to increase lean body mass. You can do that to gain 1 lb of muscle per month until you gain about 4-5 lbs of muscle (7-10 lbs of total weight). You should only do heavy lifting 3-5 days per week during this time. Once you accomplish that, then you can work back to maintenance in preparation to reduce body fat by assuming a calorie deficit of 375 calories less than TDEE - however, during that time I would greatly reduce exercise to simply 3-4 days of heavy weight training and perhaps 1 day of an supplementary exercise such as dance or ju jitsu. You would thus use moderate activity instead of very active, which puts you at a TDEE around 2060. So you'd eat about 1685 calories for that situation.

snowbab · October 2012

With a BMI of 16, I seriously. Don't think you need to lose more. You could tone up if that would make you feel better, but, I certainly wouldn't be losing more at this point. Sorry I know that's not what you want to hear! X

oh no! My BMI isn't that low! It's around 17.5/6 so it's still healthy really. I certainly don't look underweight like I said. I am looking to tone more than lose but a few moe pounds would be nice

I'm really just more worried about how many calories I need with regards to my new daily routine? And what exercise should I include in that or add as extra? If I knew this I'd be a lot more comfortable about eating in general as my silly ED thoughts would have a logical number to contest with, not my own terrible guestimating.

pigeonhugger · October 2012

I have a very small frame, so although my BMI says I'm underweight (only by a tin bit anyway), I don't look underweight at all I promise I just want to lose a few more pounds but I'm stuck.

You probably just need to lift heavy then. Losing even more weight still isn't going to give you the body you want...but lifting heavy will. You'd probably really like how you look if you ate at maintenance and lifted 3x a week.

^^ this. focus on gaining muscle ratherthan loosing weight. my sisterweighs a stone less than me but looks bigger cause she is ''skinny fat''. she looks great with clothe on- in a bikini is sort of flabby looking but small at the same time. increasing muscle will make you wiegh more but look thinner and loose inches

snowbab · October 2012

I can tell by your photo that you naturally are a petite girl, but I recommend you focus more on body composition instead of weight. During the refeeding process you likely regained a disproportionate amount of fat vs lean body mass - this is why you are considered underweight for your height because of reduced lean body mass. Thus, I stated weight training ought to be your primary activity.

Anyway, with that level of activity, you would be considered very active which constitutes as hard exercise 6-7 days a week - that's a modifier of 1.725 x Resting Metabolic Rate. Use these two online calculators and enter your stats:

http://www.cordianet.com/calculator.htm

http://www.weightrainer.net/losscalc.html

Hard exercise 6-7 days per week
117 current weight
20% current bf
20% goal bf (cordianet.com)
Desired weekly fat loss: .75 lbs (weightrainer.net)

Your estimated TDEE is 2220 calories just to maintain your present weight if you continue this amount of activity.

Again, you are lean enough, more than likely, to actually stay at maintenance calories and then eat at a 250 calorie surplus to increase lean body mass. You can do that to gain 1 lb of muscle per month until you gain about 4-5 lbs of muscle (7-10 lbs of total weight). You should only do heavy lifting 3-5 days per week during this time. Once you accomplish that, then you can work back to maintenance in preparation to reduce body fat by assuming a calorie deficit of 375 calories less than TDEE - however, during that time I would greatly reduce exercise to simply 3-4 days of heavy weight training and perhaps 1 day of an supplementary exercise such as dance or ju jitsu. You would thus use moderate activity instead of very active, which puts you at a TDEE around 2060. So you'd eat about 1685 calories for that situation.

Thank you so much!! This is exaclty the sort of advice I was looking for

Are you sure I would be counted as 'Very Active' though? I thought I was moderate at the moment, even then I though maybe lightly active? Is that including all the exercise I mentioned including the random gym sessions? The gym sessions will probably be too random for me to include at the moment as I'm still adjusting to my timetable a bit.

Or would this be excluding the gym sessions but including some weight-training sessions like you suggest?

Or is it fitness class sessions at the gym AND weight-training, but no extra gym sessions with cardio as that would be replaced by the weights>

Sorry just need to clarify

geekyjock76 · October 2012

Moderate activity is stated as exercising between 3-5 days up to an hour each day. Depending on how active you are in ju jitsu, you could be averaging two hours 6 days a week of activity plus the walking to classes. I would not even consider adding any more exercise activity on top of that because too much exercise will tank your Resting Metabolic Rate and screw up cortisol levels. You'll be left with a very depressed metabolism and even far less lean body mass - which is what you ought to be increasing at this point. Basically, by over-training, you are establishing a negative environment that makes reducing body fat a very difficult task which will lead - if it has not already reached that point - a plateau.

Seriously, increase your lean body mass by focusing on weight training. Although I know you are already lean, get a body fat test done - your Kinesiology department can probably help you with that for free. Find out what your body fat percentage is, and once you have that, then you can set an upper limit body fat percentage which - when reached - will end the period of increasing lean body mass at a surplus - 250 calories or 2250 total calories eaten. For instance, if you are 19% body fat, you can stop once you hit 22% or so. After you gain a few lbs of muscle mass, then you can think about cutting at a deficit and reducing body fat.

freerunner12 · October 2012

I have a very small frame, so although my BMI says I'm underweight (only by a tin bit anyway), I don't look underweight at all I promise I just want to lose a few more pounds but I'm stuck.

Also i need help with calculating my maintenance calorie intake anyway for when I want to maintain my weight soon Just so I don't ruin my metabolism all gain back loads!

CassieReannan · October 2012

I dont think you need to lose anymore weight.. You are underweight and just need to maintain or bulk up. Keep up the healthy eating, you rock!

freerunner12 · October 2012

I have the same issue! I too have a small frame and am constantly told that I am underweight, yet I have love handles and a lil extra weight around my middle.Its so frustrating! I lost 5kg when I first started running before i joined my fitness pal but its slowly comming back although my diet is the same!. Im worried that i may be overeating as surely I must be if im storing extra weight but also worried if i cut back my calories ill go into starvation mode as my daily calorie allowance is only 1200.

Struggling with ED at uni & new activity level

Replies

Categories