Anorexia Recovery Trust Nutritionist or Cals?
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Trust the specialist over the internet. You are working with a specialist, trust him/her. Anyone can post anything on a web page, and it can be from very helpful to extremely dangerous.0
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I think that is amazing progress, your dietitian knows your history better than anyone here. I encourage you to stick to the plan that is working and keep working with your dietitian. Talk to her and explain that you want to understand more, logging on MFP may or may not be helpful for you, I feel it may be a distraction right now.0
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I think you need to take a deep breath, try to relax as much as possible, and talk to the nutritionist about what you've read. I also think you need to discuss with your doctor, your therapist, or another trusted source about whether MFP is even appropriate for you to be frequenting until and unless you're in recovery.
All my best wishes for your health.0 -
I think you can bring up the topic to your dietitian and see what she says. 2500 to 3000 calories seems like a lot but recovering anorexics are often put on diets that consist of that amount or higher. When I was recovering and in refeeding, there were days I ate that much but most of the time I was at around 2000 calories.
So far, I would just keep on doing what you're doing!
You will maintain on 2000 eventually!0 -
i woudl imagine theres a reason that your nutritionist hasnt mentioned actual numbers of calories...
speak to her about your concerns.0 -
I don't have any advice on your situation (calories wise)
but I do want to say just keep going. You can do it & will do it.
Keep it up.0 -
stravation mode it does exist im anorexic and was eating 1200 calories and was maintaining then i upped it to 1900 and gained a pound then hit a plateau and stopped gaining0
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I think part of anorexia recovery is learning to trust and let go of your need to control what you eat. I could be wrong, but IMO, following what your nutritionist plans for you seems like the best road to recovery. Talk to her about your options though and the plans you've heard about, let her know you might be interested and talk about why the plan might or might not work for you.
You're not wrong. That's pretty much eat. The idea is called intuitive eating. Basically, you want to learn to eat when you're hungry, and stop when you're full. If you are recovering from anorexia, this is not as easy as it sounds. But it might be, in the long run. Someone who has been restricting is, naturally, going to be really hungry when they start eating again. This can be scary to the recovering anorexic. But the longer you restrict, the more food you're going to need. And yes, some may need around 3,000 or 4,000 calories a day. The idea, though (and this is often how it works) is that the more you eat, the more your body (and metabolism) repairs itself, the easier it will get and the less you'll have to eat. Until you can eat a normal maintenance amount and your weight gets steady.
Not all recovering anorexics are going to need the same amount of calories. It depends on many variables:
How long they were restricting (someone who was restricting 3 months, for example, may not need to repair their body as much as someone who was restricting for 12 months)
How much weight they lost
Whether they reached the critical BMI
And other health complications
The best thing to do is not bother reading the things online. Speak to your doctors. Recovery from eating disorders is a team effort. The team is there to help you understand why you are on the meal plan you are on. While those tips are good for someone who cannot afford treatment, if you can afford treatment... speak to the professionals. Good luck OP. Recovery is worth it.0 -
I really suggest you visit www.youreatopia.com
There are articles (upon articles upon articles) all based on proven scientific research about the effectiveness of the MinnieMaud (aka eating 2500-3000 calories a day) method. And I think it answers just about every question about every process you could ever think of! Plus, there's a forum for support, questions, inspiration, real life success stories.
I totally agree:
http://www.youreatopia.com/blog/2011/9/14/i-need-how-many-calories.html
This article really really helped my understanding of what I needed for my recovery.
Best of luck0 -
Thanks everyone and I meant dietitian not nutritionist. She is very qualified and works for my school. I mean I am gaining on my meal plan now. Here it is.
B-fast: 2 starches, 1 dairy, 1 fruit, 18g almonds (usually 100 cal instant oatmeal with 1/2 english muffin, 3 prunes, Activia light, almonds)
Lunch: 3 starches, 3-4 oz protein, 1 cup veggie (steamed or 2 cup raw), 1 fruit, 1 dairy, 2 T sunflower seeds
(usually 1/2 cup tuna on fat free tortilla with 1/2 cup peas, 2 cups raw slaw, pear, 1 cup milk, 2 T seeds)
Dinner: 3 starches, 3-4 oz protein, 1 cup veggie (steamed or 2 cup raw), 2 T olives (usually fish, sweet potato, 1/2 cup peas, 2 cups spinach, olives)
Snack 1: 370 cal bagel and 30-45 cals spread
Snack 2: Fruit, starch, and dairy
Snack 3: Fruit and dairy
It looks like your meal plan is set to eat between 2500 and 3000 calories. However, it also looks like you are making low calorie choices in each of your food exchanges (based on the examples you gave). I'm assuming you are still in a stage of recovery where you are writing your food choices down, so your dietician should be able to see it and hopefully will discuss that. I think each of us who have had this in the past know why a professional would avoid discussing numbers (such as calories) since it can be such a focal point for obsession. At this point you should just be thinking about one day at a time. If you start worrying about the lasting implications of a long-term eating disorder, you will drive yourself nuts.0
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