Even with a deficit, can past ghosts affect you forever?

Hi there, all!

I'm a fairly short guy, 5'7, and I weigh 140 lbs. Even doing close to nothing, my maintenance calorie intake (judging by numerous calculators) should be sitting between 1820 and 1900.

I'm fastidious with weighing foods out and portion control, a ghost of a past life with a restrictive eating disorder that left me very underweight. But because I was so underweight they put me on a massive refeed period, putting nearly three stones on me in just over a year. Since then, I've learned to live with my quirks (being extremely exact about weighing foods and such) but in a much, much healthier volume - I am no longer purposely restricting.

However, putting on so much weight so quickly really slams the system and I was happiest when I was around 130 lbs (at which point, the doctors took me off the high-calorie surplus, but for some reason by body refused to stop gaining).

Now, I've been trying to lose those odd five to ten pounds in a healthy, manageable way, consuming approximately 1600-1700 calories per day (which is, by average, 150-300 calorie deficit per day - very small, but still a deficit) for the past three months. And yet, I haven't budged in weight at all - not even an ounce.

What I want to know is, even though it was a year ago now, can my past massive weight loss/gain in rapid succession be to blame for a complete inability to shift even a smidge of weight?

Thanks guys.

Replies

  • tiptoethruthetulips
    tiptoethruthetulips Posts: 3,371 Member
    Not what you want to hear..but your BMI is fairly low already at 140lb. It may be that you are at a set point and your body weight isn't going to reduce with drastic action, but this would probably lead back to health issues.

    At this weight you may actually be better placed focussing on building lean body mass, you will lose excess body fat if there is any to lose...
  • Wow, was just about to ask a question similar to this, even though i'm still battling urges to restrict and i never had a dangerously low weight. ANd even though i'm still overweight, for me too, it's really hard (not impossible) to lose weight, even when i weigh my food, upped my intake, lowered it, cut out foods, added foods.... They say all you need is a deficit but i noticed i do lose when i exercise more, even when i eat the calories back. Which is pretty logical. 140 lb at 5'7 isn't bad at all, by the way.
  • Galatea_Stone
    Galatea_Stone Posts: 2,037 Member
    Don't try to lose. You could end up back where you started, but the short answer is yes. A long term eating disorder can impact you for a couple of years into recovery. Your endocrine system may not be back to normal, and there may be other factors at play besides regulation of hormones. Part of the reason for the overfeed is an attempt to get your endocrine system back on track. Besides, TDEE calculators are based on general population and not people with eating disorders.

    You should talk to your doctor about this. My guess is that you already know he is going to tell you that losing is a bad idea.
  • I understand what you're saying, and trust me when I say I've grappled with the psychological side of it for a long time.

    One of the problems of losing a drastic amount of weight is that I now have a -0.48 score on the osteoporosis scale, which is absurdly brittle, meaning I am at extreme fracture risk when doing any impact exercise. The only activities I'm allowed to do are swimming and yoga - the former is great, but I live far from a pool, and the second is hardly ideal for sculpting the body!

    The truth is, the weight gain being as quick as it was - it literally all just clumped around my mid-section and when the weight refused to stop packing on, I went beyond the point I was physically and psychologically comfortable with.

    Even before I started restricting I never had real issues losing weight (or gaining it for that manner), but now, it just seems that if I take my finger off the trigger for a second I gain in an instant, but loss is just not happening for me.

    Anyway, thank you for the response and apologies for the rant!
  • KseRz
    KseRz Posts: 980 Member
    I understand what you're saying, and trust me when I say I've grappled with the psychological side of it for a long time.

    One of the problems of losing a drastic amount of weight is that I now have a -0.48 score on the osteoporosis scale, which is absurdly brittle, meaning I am at extreme fracture risk when doing any impact exercise. The only activities I'm allowed to do are swimming and yoga - the former is great, but I live far from a pool, and the second is hardly ideal for sculpting the body!

    The truth is, the weight gain being as quick as it was - it literally all just clumped around my mid-section and when the weight refused to stop packing on, I went beyond the point I was physically and psychologically comfortable with.

    Even before I started restricting I never had real issues losing weight (or gaining it for that manner), but now, it just seems that if I take my finger off the trigger for a second I gain in an instant, but loss is just not happening for me.

    Anyway, thank you for the response and apologies for the rant!

    Hopefully you'll share youre rapid weight loss experience with those on these board seeking to do the same. Weight lifting is not high or even medium impact. Can you lift weights or do other forms or resistance training? This is prescribed for various reasons but one benefit to the elderly (not that you are old) is the slow down and sometimes reverse osteoporosis.

    As for gaining weight what I think you want and what others have suggested is to gain lean mass.

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/muscle-gain-calculator/

    Please check this out and enter your stats. Even if they aren't dead on the numbers are usually close enough for most people to start seeing the results they are looking for. As with everything else we all do here to be successful, we keep playing with the numbers and making small educated adjustments after a significant timeframe (if we keep changing numbers daily then we are sure to be chasing our tails). Hope this helps!
  • AglaeaC
    AglaeaC Posts: 1,974 Member
    If you have brittle bones, yoga is excellent. Why not give it a chance? Have you seen stuff from yogis and yoginis on Instagram lately? They sure don't look like something that came out of the free-weight section of a gym, but the strength and flexibility they have developed is beyond words. And yoga really isn't just asanas but so much more; could help you with the psychological part of your recovery.

    Finally, if you have doubts about it, one can be "a Christian/Jewish/Muslim/atheist/whatever yogi" whilst still having (or not) a religious faith. I'm a beginner at practicing yoga and my daily meditations have brought more peace to me than I ever thought possible. It's like a second, better life.
  • Galatea_Stone
    Galatea_Stone Posts: 2,037 Member
    OP, I understand your struggles, trust me. You should start a strength program and not do high impact for a while. Nutrition: enough protein and calcium coupled with a progressive strength program can do you a lot of good. It had a real impact on my bone density after chemotherapy.

    It isn't the normal suggestion to tell someone to start light and work up, but you're in a unique situation. Start light and work your way up.
  • To the last two posters, I haven't discounted yoga entirely, in fact I've found it's brilliant for incorporating movement into my now (sadly) far more sedentary lifestyle. It's surprising how doing a little can ease up my incredibly sore spine and hips - you'd assume that it would exacerbate it, but it's completely the opposite!

    And I'm sure lowered activity doesn't help my morale either, but I agree, start off small and careful, and work up from there. In the past two years I've broken four bones from general activity (broke my ulna in my forearm by leaning on it the wrong way, of all things!) so I need to be awfully careful about what I do. I guess that's why swimming is great as there's no sharp movements and it's all suspended. Such a pity it's a long bus ride to the nearest pool.

    My rapid weight loss was the result of a real mental disorder that went out of control (and by the way, you can be anorexic and it not be about vanity/looks - as I was - which ironically, has made me wary about my body now that I'm out the other side of it!), and as they say, psychological disorders are never cured, you merely learn to live with them in ways that don't hurt you any longer. I thank you all for your concern, but I'm definitely more careful about how I treat my body these days. I just want to get more of a frame back - and it just syncs up with how I looked five to ten pounds ago, that this was where I was happiest with my frame.

    Thanks again guys. You're really lovely here.
  • AglaeaC
    AglaeaC Posts: 1,974 Member
    Galatea is a wise woman.

    I would add that no matter what you choose, remember to start small. I'm saying this as much to OP as I remind myself; nobody came to the earth a marathon runner, but everyone started from the 5K, possibly via Couch-to-5K (C25K). Week 1 of that programme is the tiniest of intervals of running, from which it will build up slowly - because that's the healthy way to do it. Do the same with your strength building as well as expectations :)
  • RHachicho
    RHachicho Posts: 1,115 Member
    First, This is not a rant at all. You are simply and politely asking for advice.

    Have you considered low impact high volume exercise. Swimming is one thing to do but how about walking? Low impact is great because it doesn't put much strain on your bones or muscles and doesn't dramatically elevate your heart rate so it has a tendency to draw from fat almost exclusively. The big trouble with exercise like this is the sheer amount of time it takes. Walking is a great exercise for the obese I think for the same reason it is a great exercise for someone like you. We both don't want to put undue stress on our bodies. But still want to target and remove fat as best we can without compromising lean mass.

    Walking will do just that. So my advice is get out there and make walking a daily habit. Try to build up to 10,000 steps a day+ If you can. But don't be afraid to start slow. If you get a lot of sun where you live the extra Vitamin D you get won't do your bones any harm either. Plus walking has been shown to improve the operation of the nervous system. Which might make more strenuous exercises less daunting.

    Literally the only bad thing about walking is the time it takes. Oh and I have flat feet and bunions and weight 250lbs so I get foot pain but at your weight. I don't even think your feet will feel it. It will be you leg and abdominal muscles that need to play catch up.

    I sincerely hope my advice is useful to you. And good luck :)
  • First, This is not a rant at all. You are simply and politely asking for advice.

    Have you considered low impact high volume exercise. Swimming is one thing to do but how about walking? Low impact is great because it doesn't put much strain on your bones or muscles and doesn't dramatically elevate your heart rate so it has a tendency to draw from fat almost exclusively. The big trouble with exercise like this is the sheer amount of time it takes. Walking is a great exercise for the obese I think for the same reason it is a great exercise for someone like you. We both don't want to put undue stress on our bodies. But still want to target and remove fat as best we can without compromising lean mass.

    Walking will do just that. So my advice is get out there and make walking a daily habit. Try to build up to 10,000 steps a day+ If you can. But don't be afraid to start slow. If you get a lot of sun where you live the extra Vitamin D you get won't do your bones any harm either. Plus walking has been shown to improve the operation of the nervous system. Which might make more strenuous exercises less daunting.

    Literally the only bad thing about walking is the time it takes. Oh and I have flat feet and bunions and weight 250lbs so I get foot pain but at your weight. I don't even think your feet will feel it. It will be you leg and abdominal muscles that need to play catch up.

    I sincerely hope my advice is useful to you. And good luck :)

    Thank you for that polite response, too!

    And yeah, walking does help too. I can't get too far before it starts to ache, but better to do whatever I can rather than being completely idle.

    Sitting idle does nothing for morale in any circumstance, so going from me two and a bit years ago (over-exercising and underconsuming to a terribly unhealthy degree) to this (having to eat a reasonable amount of calories but not being able to balance it out with exercise) was a massive shock to the system both physically and mentally.

    But hey, some people can't walk at all. I count every one of my blessings, because there's always someone worse-off .
  • RHachicho
    RHachicho Posts: 1,115 Member
    When you say "it starts to ache" what exactly do you mean. Do you get joint/muscle/bone pain or muscular pain?
  • When you say "it starts to ache" what exactly do you mean. Do you get joint/muscle/bone pain or muscular pain?
    My bones are so wracked that my joints experience a burning, stinging sensation.

    My physiotherapy specialists say it's due to something called "osteoblastic dormancy".

    Basically, in your bones, you have osteoblasts (that build bones from the inside out) and osteoclasts (that pull the dead bone from the exterior). When you get severe osteoporosis, the osteoclasts continue to work but the osteoblasts go dormant. Basically, the bones continue to degrade but continue to break apart. By impact, it's like you're waking some of the osteoblasts up, so it IS positive, but it also makes the osteoclasts work a little harder.

    So when you do impacting exercise, you make both the builders and the deconstructors work harder, only the builders are mostly asleep - so that pain felt is, well, basically, an increased alarm clock for the builders but also a whip for the degrading party.

    Long term, it helps, short term, it hurts!
  • RHachicho
    RHachicho Posts: 1,115 Member
    When you say "it starts to ache" what exactly do you mean. Do you get joint/muscle/bone pain or muscular pain?
    My bones are so wracked that my joints experience a burning, stinging sensation.

    My physiotherapy specialists say it's due to something called "osteoblastic dormancy".

    Basically, in your bones, you have osteoblasts (that build bones from the inside out) and osteoclasts (that pull the dead bone from the exterior). When you get severe osteoporosis, the osteoclasts continue to work but the osteoblasts go dormant. Basically, the bones continue to degrade but continue to break apart. By impact, it's like you're waking some of the osteoblasts up, so it IS positive, but it also makes the osteoclasts work a little harder.

    So when you do impacting exercise, you make both the builders and the deconstructors work harder, only the builders are mostly asleep - so that pain felt is, well, basically, an increased alarm clock for the builders but also a whip for the degrading party.

    Long term, it helps, short term, it hurts!

    Man that sounds terrible. The only thing I would venture to suggest is to try and drive up the frequency of your short walks. Just do em as much as you can. And quit once the pain starts to get too severe. I am not a doctor though and I am sure your doctor has given you plenty of advice on how to manage what must be an incredibly frustrating condition. And make sure to run any advice you get on here by him/her.

    You may want to consider focusing and supplementing your diet with Calcium, Vitamin D and Vitamin K and Potassium. all elements vital to healthy bone growth. Either take the pills or eat the food whatever floats your boat.

    I would also encourage you to at least be at maintenance calorie wise. Calorie restriction will probably inhibit or even worsen the condition of your bones. In my honest opinion nothing right now comes before the growth and repair of your bones. If you become strong enough skeletal wise to handle decent amounts of exercise it will probably fix a lot of your other problems fat wise. But at the moment you are in a catch22 situation. You can hardly exercise so any attempt to increase your weight will probably put on a lot of fat. And any attempt to reduce that fat will probably worsen your osteoporosis. Because for lack of exercise you will have to cut on the aggressive side to see weight loss.

    However with a healthy skeleton the equation changes. You can perform high volumes of low impact exercise and burn the fat rather than starve it. And that will help you to lose it while still maintaining the integrity of your bones.

    But once again I am NOT a doctor please run this plan by him/her if you do decide to follow my advice.
  • mtruitt01
    mtruitt01 Posts: 370 Member
    Have you looked into yin (slow deep stretch) yoga?
    I can't do impact other than walking, and the slow, restful stretching is helping. Monkey mind for the first 20 minutes, but then I give in to the relaxation. It's all done on the floor, sitting up or lying down.