People who "used" to have eating disorder, now obese?

I went through this as well, and now I also have Hashimoto's, I've been curious as to if my eating disorder could have caused or increased my chances of getting hashimoto's/Hypothyroidism?
Because before this, I was healthy, well minus the eating disorder.

I have suffered with Bulimia intermittently over the past 10 years and have seen my weight yo-yo between 98lbs and 126lbs during this period.

I finally got some help and I no longer allow it to control me and my eating habits, which is great. However, I have gained over 50lbs.

I am now working on a healthy balance between a good, clean diet and regular exercise - seems to be working! And so far I haven't been tempted to binge and purge, so I think I am going in the right direction.

I hope you can too, good luck.

Yes, in high school, I suffered from anorexia, only to become a binger in my late twenties. This was an offshoot of surviving child molestation. However, as I recovered from the trauma of that experience, I find I suffered less and less from body image problems. I have finally, in the last five years or so, been able to take the bull by the horns and become healthier.

It isn't as uncommon as one might think.

Yeah, it's actually very common for one type of ED to turn into another.

I lost 30+ lbs by eating very little during my junior year of high school. Never officially diagnosed as anorexic and I thought I was being healthy at the time, but looking back, clearly I wasn't. I maintained that low weight for a while (I was 5'7 and 114 lbs) then my senior year of high school I started binge eating. From then until my junior year of college, I managed to get up to 165 lbs at my highest. I also began to struggle with bulimia at that time.

Now I've gone almost 40 days binge/purge free and I've lost 5 lbs in a healthy way over the last month. Doing Insanity and eating 1900 calories a day. I feel so much better about myself and I would like to believe I've overcome my disorder for good. I still think about food a lot and I often worry about accidentally bingeing, but it's becoming easier each day to say no to those urges.

I've been at war off an on with my body since I was a teenager. I cannot eat what I feel like eating ever again if I want to lose and then stay thin. I know this. My hunger impulses and the food choices I am inclined to naturally make will never let me be thin.

And if I am not thin, I will die. It's as simple as that. I can't work here because I'm sick from the heat, so I have to move. I have no money to move, I have severe social phobia (it was only mild social phobia when I was thin), so I can't work at all, anywhere, until this weight is gone. I'll be lucky if I can work anymore when thin. Ever since I saw just how nasty people can be up close and personal, the last thing I've wanted to do is interact with them. Yet I can't get disability because I'm not certifiably nutty and they couldn't care less about the fact that my spine is messed up, either. My family cannot support me much longer.

And as a side note, all those men and free spirited pals that used to chase me around when I was thin and working and always had a free meal ready or a place to crash for their bummy selves when I was in my twenties? Where are they now when I could use some help? Nowhere.

So I have to get skinny, and get the heck out of this part of the country (preferably out of this country entirely) and find some kind of work. That's how desperate my situation has become. The reason ED is so common is that people with it rightly perceive that they're in danger of being ostracized, miserable, and impoverished if they become overweight. This society is a horror story for fat people. Am I obsessing my way back into an ED? Probably. But I'm out of other options.

Had an eating disorder in 2006 that put me at 125 lbs at 5'7 but after I got married in 2007 hubby always made sure I ate. I gained 50 lbs in 4.5 years that we've been married. I am trying to lose less than half what I gained for now.

THIS IS SOME ADVICE FOR ANYONE STRUGGLING WITH BULIMIA. I AM ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY AND BASED ON MY OWN EXPERIENCE, THIS IS WHAT I HAVE FOUND...

Each eating disorder is unique and recovering has to be unique also. If you are recovering from bulimia, you MUST MUST MUST exercise. It is so important to establish healthy routines because if you have had bulimia for a while, your metabolism is probably pretty messed up. In addition, you need to repair your heart and muscles. It's also important to get used to processing your calories, rather than purging them, and to do this in a healthy way, exercise is key. If you have been binging and purging up until recently, you will probably have to start slow. If you were like me, you are probably suffering from exhaustion and a vitamin deficiency. This makes exercise difficult, but starting slowly is part of the healing process. There are two components of bulimia that have to be addressed, the purging of course AND the binging. To fix one without the other is very dangerous. The urge to binge is going to linger. To combat this, get used to drinking lots and lots of water. Most bulimics have dehydration issues, so chances are, drinking significantly more water will not only fill you up, but also properly hydrate you. In addition, make sure that when you eat a meal or a snack, it is in a traditional way. Do NOT eat food directly out of the container, bowl, bag, etc. This is a trap to overeat. It is crucial that you divide out the portion you are going to eat, sit down, and eat it slowly. If you find that you are still hungry, try to fill up on things like large salads with LOTS of vegetables like spinach, cucumbers, or mushrooms, and fruits like blueberries, strawberries, or apples. Everyone giving diet advice always says not to skip meals and for someone overcoming bulimia, this is so key. If you are hungry, you are setting yourself up to overeat. If you are overeating, it is very easy to resort to purging. When you wake up in the morning, EAT. Eat a bowl of oatmeal or a protein bar. Eat some eggs and turkey bacon. Get your metabolism started and set a time for the day when you are going to stop eating. Stay satisfied, but not ever uncomfortably full, throughout the day. Until you have been in recovery for a while, feeling full may give you the feeling of needing to purge.

Above all, heal your heart. Figure out how to convince yourself that you deserve good health. This could mean removing negative people, and eliminating stress, which clouds thinking. Be open with the people around you about your eating disorder. I know that it is embarrassing, especially this specific eating disorder, but if you are making a genuine effort to heal yourself, you have NOTHING to be embarrassed about. Changing the way that you think about your eating disorder is important. Make yourself a priority, and eat with the mindset that your body WILL be processing the food that you are eating, so up your standards of what you eat! It becomes easier every day. And sometimes, you may slip. You may have a bad day and you may binge and purge. Understand that this is not the end of your efforts. You have to pick up and keep going if you fall off the wagon. And understand that just because you slipped, does NOT mean that you will fall back into that lifestyle. I have found that when you are healthy and you slip, your body reacts worse than if you are binging and purging on a daily basis. It's all about good habits and a positive mindset. Good luck to ANYONE struggling with an eating disorder. You can do this. You deserve good health.

I think if you now focus on 'health' and not weight it will fall into place. Or perhaps go to a nutritionist?
I would also take a slow approach and don't try any fad diets. Focus on wholefoods that will benefit your body.

anorexia and bulimia are *more* than just focusing on health. It's a mental disease. If it were that easy, don't you think people would have an easier time kicking it?

Well, i have always been self conscious about my weight, even as a young child i remember hating ballet and swimming because of the tight costumes, i wasnt overweight as a child, i was just a healthy chubby i guess, but in highschool i realised the food i ate equaled the fat on my body and i started trying to eat healthier and lose weight. This quickly turned into anorexia and when i was 15, 5'3" and 80lbs i was sectioned and forced into an inpatient centre to gain weight. I hated every minute of it [i was there for 4months, over my 16th birthday] i then had to go to a psychologist every week for the next 1 & 1/2 years. But this was pointless for me as i never wanted to recover to begin with so sat in silence for 30-60minutes while i was weighed and told why i needed to recover. Over that time i was almost sent back to inpatient due to relapses but managed to stay out. Although my weight hovered just under a healthy weight for my height, around BMI 18, i just couldnt face being healthy. Then stress from my final A-level exams effected my eating, i was starting to 'binge' at night because i was stressed, then not eat anything the next day until night time where i would eat a whole box of bran flakes. I wasnt used to feeling so out of control. Sometimes i would purge or try to exercise and restrict the next few days. By the summer holidays i felt like be ause i had binged i must be fat now. I saw myself as very overweight, even though i had only gained a couple of lbs and was around bmi 18.5 - 19.5. But my body dysmorphia meant that my self esteem was at its lowest, which resulted in bigger and bigger binges, and my weight continuously went up. Before i went to university my bmi was around 20.5 , but in my first few weeks of uni i lost quite a bit of weight and wasnt eating much apart from fruit and vegetables. But oh yet again my binges came back, i didnt know what was a normal way of eating so i just ate too much. I couldnt leave my flat because i hated this body which was bigger than it had ever been considering i was 13 when i became anorexic. By christmas 2013 i had missed lectures and felt depressed all day every day. Ultimately i made the decision i couldnt return to university without sorting out my eating disorder because i just wouldnt be making the most of my time there. With a doctors note i have deferred my first year. So, i was anorexic, and i now have a bmi of 24. Almost into the overweight catagory, not quite, but almost. And it kills me because my thoughts are the same as when i was at my lowest weight with anorexia. I am 18years old. It is even harder that in May 2013 i was still technically underweight, and now i am trying desperately not to become overweight, my biggest fear. I wouldnt wish an eating disorder on my worst enemy.

This is EXACTLY how I am. I am so glad I found this. I am generally the obsessive type. I obsess with neatness and grades and love. However no one expected my obsession with weight. Long story short, I did the whole nine yards except for bulimia for about a 2/3 year. Ii was never even fat either. I had a beautiful muscular body. lost 20 pounds from not eating, binge chewing and slitting, and eating nothing but 0000 fat foods like gummy bears (and for my fist cavity). At the same time I straightened my hair obsessively. This coupled with my malnutrition left me with NO hair. I was always cold and would cry if I couldn't get food right away. I had no help recovery. So while I realize now that I should have been adding healthy calories, I are without restraint! I was so excited to be eating again , that I didn't eat smartly at all, using the excuse that I was so underweight. But I quickly passed my original weight and just instantly became pudgy and get FATTER by the day. I would eat in secret obsessively, compulsively, uncontrollably, and honestly still do. Everytime I think about what I've done to myself, to my metabolism, my body, my hair, I hate myself and I eat more! And I hate the comments I get from people telling me that I'm fatter. If they saw how beautiful and then how sick I was before, they'd be more careful about what they say. But I am MUCH more confident now and just have a wider perception on life. I'm more easygoing and have a lot more friends and am really just going for life full speed ahead, whereas in those days I was always overly-cautious and insanely reserved. I NEVER want to go back to that time, now that I'm outbid it bs realize how just ugh and psychologically unsound it was. I was not living! But now I'm starting to even out and I want to look like me again with my figure and hair, but do it better, less extreme. I'm so wise now really, it's crazy. And I thank God all this happened because I'm a more alive, wise, and most of all unafraid person. I'm LOVING MY LIFE! 20 pounds over my original weight (40) over my anorexia weight. However, it's been a year and my incite confidence is ready for a healthy, natural, real change in my body. But this time I liveofe to the fullest, regardless of how I am because I know my place. And whereas before I rejected everything for years, (the place I had moved to, most if not all people, all the opportunities with my family), now I have a difference attitude towards life. I reject nothing, I am accepting to everything, and I remember it's not about me. I'm open and excited and WISE and free. And I'm closer to God than ever, fat and unstable as I am. They say pudgy people are the jolliest (that's purely for humor, not to love by). But I recognize now that I'm not at a healthy wight and I have fester potential for my life relationships and confidence. While I was gaining weight, I fixed and enlightened and opened up the inside and my mentality and stress--and stopped obsessing and assuming, to boost confidence. Now I'm ready to safely and lightly tone the outside to march how I feel on the inside! (Rather than changing the outside hoping that will somehow fix the inside). I'm open to advice but I know I need to do. I practically earned my doctorates in Biology during this too because I read every nutritional article and watched every documentary too, out of intrigue and a willingness to be different. Anyways, my rooms a little sloppier, my body is a bit pudgier, but my family is SO much happier, my friendships are do much richer and fuller, I'm gonna cry , and life is more look life. It's just better, from the inside out. But immeasurably to be healthy now. I'm not eating less--God, I'm long passed that, I don't know WHAT I was thinking--I'm going to et more, of the good stuff. I'm making fruit cilantro smoothies and getting active and immersing myself in good people, and living more and worrying/thinking/over-contemplating (it's so liberating because really all the assumptions, reserved, antisocial, snobby, or afraid people make are all just so UNTRUE), I'm accepting more, complaining and rejecting less [i'm watching movies with the family even though they're sometimes annoying and getting in with other people (seriously we all need people. Everything I ever rejected and led to my own head, even my college and educational decisions--which is most important to me--all the things I assumed myself In my own little head mad world were wrong)]. I'm just open to life and feel like I'm blazing to the sunrise. Really just open up. Changes are if you're the only snobby one that thinks it is right, it's wrong. Just be normal and open and unafraid. I'm ready to get toned the right way, but I don't regret any of. If my friends can love me fat, then they'll love me any way. And opening up and just rejecting nothing and not over-thinking and remember the world is not about me and getting out of my own head, being true to myself, best and wisest thing I ever did.

You are all extremely amazing