an unhealthy approach to ED recovery?

When you are going to inpatient treatment.. they do exactly what you are describing till they hit there goal weight and maintain. The patients need to gain a bit of weight and stay off the exercise. So it seems as though you are doing well recovering BUT you must remember eating disorder is a real psychological disorder too. Are you going to therapy? Talking it out with anyone? Most people with EDs have other mental disorders such as borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, depression.. etc. To really get on the road to recovery you need to find out the trigger.. the source. Why did it start in the first place.. and will it come back as soon as you feel your life is out of control once again? Studies show Anorexia is more common with people who live in or has lived in a home of rules and being controlled by family. While Bulimia for example is more common with people who have been raised in more of a chaotic environment. So physically you are doing well.. but you need to find a mental recovery too.

PM me anytime. Goodluck

It's most likely the eating disorder thinking causing you to worry.

If you are on a meal plan as recommended for recovery from a professional, then you are doing everything right. Early in recovery, you will have to eat a lot of various things (such as fats, and carbs). Some people entering recovery even require more calories than what you're currently eating. To recover, your body is going to need more of certain things than the body of an otherwise healthy person.

Is this an approach you're taking along with a healthcare professional?

If you are under the direction of a competent and qualified medical professional, I would follow their advice. If you have concerns about it, then perhaps you can have a free and frank discussion about it with them. They may highlight the reasoning behind the choices that have been made so that you can greater understand why they want you to follow the schedule they have laid out.

If you are not doing this under the care of a medical professional, perhaps that is an avenue you might like to explore?

Totally agree. Please read this again.

Really really huge thankyous to all of these replies! Was going through a point there when I couldn't quite see straight any more and wanted to give up on the recovery, to take the "easy route". These comments have really really helped and given me that bit of back bone to stand up to the ED thoughts!

I am one of the lucky recoverers to get a dietitian, and unfortunatly the decision to eat all full fat products etc is not completely my own, however thankyou for giving me that push to not give in to my wrong thoughts on "nutrition".

Thankyou! :flowerforyou:

I'm glad those earlier posts helped. I just want to make an additional comment about full fat dairy.

I eat full fat dairy and love it. And i eat it when i want to lose weight also.

Lately i've been playing about and learning about with low carb. From the books i read, i have come around to the current thinking that fat is not the bugbear of health that we have been led to believe it is. Yes it does increase your calorie intake significantly, but that's why fatty foods portions are usually smaller than other foods. However with dairy products, it just makes the food taste so much better and well, i just don't have a problem with it. I do have a problem with low fat dairy.

Some scientists are even convinced that low fat diets are actually more unhealthy for us and cause greater weight gain - not because of the calories in the foods themselves but because weird things go on without appetite and what we tend to end up eating when it all catches up with us.

I"ve' been on a successful weightloss journey through out this year and eaten full fat dairy all year. I'm eating much more cheese than i used to as well and am just loving all the variety of flavours I'm discovering. I hope you can learn to love your food too.

Good luck with your recovery.

Your approach isn't unhealthy at all. Remember that anorexia causes hormonal changes in the body (especially for women) which need a good, healthy amount of dietary fat to get them back to normal, so that you can have periods again and get your fertility back, which also helps to reverse osteoporosis if you have that.

On 2200 calories, your fat and carb intake cannot be that high, because 2200 calories is really not that much at all! In fact it's less than a lot of women eat, and that's people who don't need to gain weight.

It's great that you are following your doctor's instructions, just stick with it and eventually your mind *will* catch up

As others have advised, please do whatever your doctors tell you to do.

I had bulimia when i was young and went through therapy. For me, the binge/purge cycle was triggered by all the awful things I told myself, and I dealt with those feelings by pushing them down (food) and then getting rid of the feelings (purging). Once I learned this about myself, I was able to start on the road to recovery.

It sounds like you are on the path to recovery, and I encourage you to continue on your journey. :drinker:

Don't ask people here on what your "macros" should be for recovery. Go to a nutritionist/dietitian, trust your nutritionist/dietitian.

My experience with recovery:
IP in hospital and then OP: I was there for around 7 months. Dietician started me out slowly and eventually I was eating similar to you except I was consuming around 3500 calories! We were not allowed any exercise - in fact, the nurses would 'get us' for walking down the hall!

Are you recovering @ home? If you are, you are doing a fantastic job!

I tried to - as the hospital was the LAST place I wanted to go - but there was no way in hell that I could double my calories let alone eat 3500 calories!