Eating disorder --> Always hungry
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FatFreeFrolicking wrote: »Brooke4206 wrote: »Chicken, eggs, bread, turkey, pb, veggies. I eat a balanced diet so i'm not sure.
That's all you eat? If I only ate that, I'd be hungry all the time too.
Here's an example of what my day is like:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with cinnamon, brown sugar, and flaxseed OR 2 eggs, 2 slices bacon, 1 english muffin with Earth Balance
Morning snack: Usually don't eat one but when I do it's typically nuts (pistachios, almonds, etc.) and a fruit
Lunch: 4 oz meat, baked or sweet potato, and a veggie
Afternoon snack: Hummus with veggies, pretzels, protein bar, smoothie, banana with peanut butter, tortilla chips and salsa
Dinner: 6 oz salmon, brown rice, and a veggie
Late night snack: Popcorn
Do you see a therapist for your ED?
Do you eat all of these for one afternoon snack? I'm not saying good or bad, just curious if it's an all of these situation or one of them per day.
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Brooke4206 wrote: »I am recovering from disordered eating. I used to eat about 800 calories a day and I slowly have been able to raise them this past year to 1800-2000 yo-yo-ing. However, it isn't consistent and I end up thinking about food all day. I lost my period over a year ago as well and now am concerned about not being able to have children. I've been to the doctor and they'll going to put me on some medication to see if it can be "jump started." Anyways, This past month I have quit counting and started eating regular food. I used to only eat certain foods day in and day out. But now that i've begun eating all types of food, and listening to my body.. i'm starving. All the time. I'll eat a meal and be hungry 45 minutes later. I'm just always hungry and i'm so fearful that I'm just going to gain so much by simply listening to what my body wants.. anyone know why this is or has anyone been through it?
I've also been getting bad headaches multiple times a day since I started this. Not sure if this relates but thought it might.
You may very well be dehydrated. As others have said, your body can sometimes confuse thirst with hunger and then you're not giving your body what it needs. I drink about 4L of water every day, and 4.5 on lift days, and 5 on run days. I don't know anything about an ED but I do know that by hydrating my body properly I felt so much better so maybe it's a start for you.
I also agree as others have said that you should seek truly medical advice as it seems like the mental aspect of your ED may still be there in that you mentioned above you continue to think about food all day. I don't think about food hardly at all. I plan out what I'm going to eat on Sundays and then I just have it ready to go (I do meal prep) and that's all there is to it. I pre-log so I know daily where I have wiggle room.
Have you been to any kind of counselling for your ED? I have heard from others that counselling helped more than medical doctors because it's so much a mental issue rather than a physical one.
Best of luck to you, though! Hopefully everything starts looking up for you soon feel free to add me if you ever need to chat or are looking for some support. 0 -
when i start eating it all or nothing for me too. I eat all my calories in the middle of the day and try to fill my morning with water and coffee , tea ,a grapefruit,and a apple. then around 12pm...I eat breakfast,oatmeal with blueberries then almonds, salmon with broccoli or spinach. or tuna with spinach . i have a smoothie if i have sweet tooth I make a banana strawberry smoothie with almond milk.and at night if i am hungry i have a yogurt with all bran and pineapples.I just lost 40 pounds eating like this . it is clean eating and i was 220 pounds and i have 40 pounds to go. because of my huge appetite , which i have always had this helps me meet my goals. if you add a huge chicken breast salad you should be close to 2000 calories.0
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acorsaut89 wrote: »Brooke4206 wrote: »I am recovering from disordered eating. I used to eat about 800 calories a day and I slowly have been able to raise them this past year to 1800-2000 yo-yo-ing. However, it isn't consistent and I end up thinking about food all day. I lost my period over a year ago as well and now am concerned about not being able to have children. I've been to the doctor and they'll going to put me on some medication to see if it can be "jump started." Anyways, This past month I have quit counting and started eating regular food. I used to only eat certain foods day in and day out. But now that i've begun eating all types of food, and listening to my body.. i'm starving. All the time. I'll eat a meal and be hungry 45 minutes later. I'm just always hungry and i'm so fearful that I'm just going to gain so much by simply listening to what my body wants.. anyone know why this is or has anyone been through it?
I've also been getting bad headaches multiple times a day since I started this. Not sure if this relates but thought it might.
You may very well be dehydrated. As others have said, your body can sometimes confuse thirst with hunger and then you're not giving your body what it needs. I drink about 4L of water every day, and 4.5 on lift days, and 5 on run days. I don't know anything about an ED but I do know that by hydrating my body properly I felt so much better so maybe it's a start for you.
I also agree as others have said that you should seek truly medical advice as it seems like the mental aspect of your ED may still be there in that you mentioned above you continue to think about food all day. I don't think about food hardly at all. I plan out what I'm going to eat on Sundays and then I just have it ready to go (I do meal prep) and that's all there is to it. I pre-log so I know daily where I have wiggle room.
Have you been to any kind of counselling for your ED? I have heard from others that counselling helped more than medical doctors because it's so much a mental issue rather than a physical one.
Best of luck to you, though! Hopefully everything starts looking up for you soon feel free to add me if you ever need to chat or are looking for some support.
Avoiding dehydration is absolutely important. But, she's not hungry because she's thirsty. She's hungry because she's in ED recovery which requires a boat load of fuel to heal the body. She thinks about food all the time because of her ED. Comparing your attitude towards food with her attitude towards food is apples and oranges.
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Yes, I was hungry all the time during recovery. and I experienced headaches when I had sugar lows and/or dehydrated. I do my best when I eat small frequent meals.
^This. I went through the same thing and making sure you have regular frequent meals is the best solution. Also, it will take a little while for your body to adjust; it will no longer feel ravenous all the time when it has been conditioned to expect food at regular intervals.0 -
when i start eating it all or nothing for me too. I eat all my calories in the middle of the day and try to fill my morning with water and coffee , tea ,a grapefruit,and a apple. then around 12pm...I eat breakfast,oatmeal with blueberries then almonds, salmon with broccoli or spinach. or tuna with spinach . i have a smoothie if i have sweet tooth I make a banana strawberry smoothie with almond milk.and at night if i am hungry i have a yogurt with all bran and pineapples.I just lost 40 pounds eating like this . it is clean eating and i was 220 pounds and i have 40 pounds to go. because of my huge appetite , which i have always had this helps me meet my goals. if you add a huge chicken breast salad you should be close to 2000 calories.
I'm glad your plan worked for you. But, she does not need to worry about clean eating. She does not need to think about weight loss right now. She just needs to eat. Simple as that.
In fact, if I were her, I would avoid "huge salads" because they can make you feel uncomfortably full when you aren't used to eating food. I would stick to calorie dense foods until I got used to the feeling of being that full.
Man, I wish people who have NO experience with ED would take a back seat on stuff like this...0 -
Brooke4206 wrote: »Chicken, eggs, bread, turkey, pb, veggies. I eat a balanced diet so i'm not sure.
turkey can cause migraines, I know that's probably not the only source.
are you taking any nutrition supplement/vitamin?0 -
acorsaut89 wrote: »Brooke4206 wrote: »I am recovering from disordered eating. I used to eat about 800 calories a day and I slowly have been able to raise them this past year to 1800-2000 yo-yo-ing. However, it isn't consistent and I end up thinking about food all day. I lost my period over a year ago as well and now am concerned about not being able to have children. I've been to the doctor and they'll going to put me on some medication to see if it can be "jump started." Anyways, This past month I have quit counting and started eating regular food. I used to only eat certain foods day in and day out. But now that i've begun eating all types of food, and listening to my body.. i'm starving. All the time. I'll eat a meal and be hungry 45 minutes later. I'm just always hungry and i'm so fearful that I'm just going to gain so much by simply listening to what my body wants.. anyone know why this is or has anyone been through it?
I've also been getting bad headaches multiple times a day since I started this. Not sure if this relates but thought it might.
You may very well be dehydrated. As others have said, your body can sometimes confuse thirst with hunger and then you're not giving your body what it needs. I drink about 4L of water every day, and 4.5 on lift days, and 5 on run days. I don't know anything about an ED but I do know that by hydrating my body properly I felt so much better so maybe it's a start for you.
I also agree as others have said that you should seek truly medical advice as it seems like the mental aspect of your ED may still be there in that you mentioned above you continue to think about food all day. I don't think about food hardly at all. I plan out what I'm going to eat on Sundays and then I just have it ready to go (I do meal prep) and that's all there is to it. I pre-log so I know daily where I have wiggle room.
Have you been to any kind of counselling for your ED? I have heard from others that counselling helped more than medical doctors because it's so much a mental issue rather than a physical one.
Best of luck to you, though! Hopefully everything starts looking up for you soon feel free to add me if you ever need to chat or are looking for some support.
Avoiding dehydration is absolutely important. But, she's not hungry because she's thirsty. She's hungry because she's in ED recovery which requires a boat load of fuel to heal the body. She thinks about food all the time because of her ED. Comparing your attitude towards food with her attitude towards food is apples and oranges.
Which is why I said that she should seek medical advice because the mental aspect is still there, I wasn't comparing I was simply saying I don't and I also have never had an ED. I didn't say she shouldn't or judge it, simply said she seek medical help because she admits she still thinks about food all the time, and from my understanding no one here would really be qualified to help her through this mental part of the recovery process.
And I get she's in recovery (although I don't know too much first hand about them) but as I said maybe it's a starting point. Knock one thing off the list so you know that your body is hydrated and it might help with the headaches.0 -
acorsaut89 wrote: »acorsaut89 wrote: »Brooke4206 wrote: »I am recovering from disordered eating. I used to eat about 800 calories a day and I slowly have been able to raise them this past year to 1800-2000 yo-yo-ing. However, it isn't consistent and I end up thinking about food all day. I lost my period over a year ago as well and now am concerned about not being able to have children. I've been to the doctor and they'll going to put me on some medication to see if it can be "jump started." Anyways, This past month I have quit counting and started eating regular food. I used to only eat certain foods day in and day out. But now that i've begun eating all types of food, and listening to my body.. i'm starving. All the time. I'll eat a meal and be hungry 45 minutes later. I'm just always hungry and i'm so fearful that I'm just going to gain so much by simply listening to what my body wants.. anyone know why this is or has anyone been through it?
I've also been getting bad headaches multiple times a day since I started this. Not sure if this relates but thought it might.
You may very well be dehydrated. As others have said, your body can sometimes confuse thirst with hunger and then you're not giving your body what it needs. I drink about 4L of water every day, and 4.5 on lift days, and 5 on run days. I don't know anything about an ED but I do know that by hydrating my body properly I felt so much better so maybe it's a start for you.
I also agree as others have said that you should seek truly medical advice as it seems like the mental aspect of your ED may still be there in that you mentioned above you continue to think about food all day. I don't think about food hardly at all. I plan out what I'm going to eat on Sundays and then I just have it ready to go (I do meal prep) and that's all there is to it. I pre-log so I know daily where I have wiggle room.
Have you been to any kind of counselling for your ED? I have heard from others that counselling helped more than medical doctors because it's so much a mental issue rather than a physical one.
Best of luck to you, though! Hopefully everything starts looking up for you soon feel free to add me if you ever need to chat or are looking for some support.
Avoiding dehydration is absolutely important. But, she's not hungry because she's thirsty. She's hungry because she's in ED recovery which requires a boat load of fuel to heal the body. She thinks about food all the time because of her ED. Comparing your attitude towards food with her attitude towards food is apples and oranges.
Which is why I said that she should seek medical advice because the mental aspect is still there, I wasn't comparing I was simply saying I don't and I also have never had an ED. I didn't say she shouldn't or judge it, simply said she seek medical help because she admits she still thinks about food all the time, and from my understanding no one here would really be qualified to help her through this mental part of the recovery process.
And I get she's in recovery (although I don't know too much first hand about them) but as I said maybe it's a starting point. Knock one thing off the list so you know that your body is hydrated and it might help with the headaches.
Understood. But it's not really helpful to say to someone who thinks about food all the time because of her ED that you never think about food. I mean, that's just weird to me. And, it can feel like a smack in the face when you are struggling with a mental illness.
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when i start eating it all or nothing for me too. I eat all my calories in the middle of the day and try to fill my morning with water and coffee , tea ,a grapefruit,and a apple. then around 12pm...I eat breakfast,oatmeal with blueberries then almonds, salmon with broccoli or spinach. or tuna with spinach . i have a smoothie if i have sweet tooth I make a banana strawberry smoothie with almond milk.and at night if i am hungry i have a yogurt with all bran and pineapples.I just lost 40 pounds eating like this . it is clean eating and i was 220 pounds and i have 40 pounds to go. because of my huge appetite , which i have always had this helps me meet my goals. if you add a huge chicken breast salad you should be close to 2000 calories.
You have a huge appetite, as you said. The OP] is recovering from an ED, are you? Simply increasing calories doesn't help those recovering from an ED. Damage could have been done to the body which needs to be fixed/healed. There's a lot more to it than just eat a huge amount in the middle of the day and then add a huge chicken breast salad to hit 2,000 calories.0 -
acorsaut89 wrote: »You have a huge appetite, as you said. The OP] is recovering from an ED, are you? Simply increasing calories doesn't help those recovering from an ED. Damage could have been done to the body which needs to be fixed/healed. There's a lot more to it than just eat a huge amount in the middle of the day and then add a huge chicken breast salad to hit 2,000 calories.
Food is the medicine in ED recovery. Lots of food as fuel to repair the damage that has been done. Increasing calories is vital for those recovering. Obviously that is not the ONLY aspect of recovery, but it is the first and most important.
You already said you do not know much of anything about ED's, so why offer advice on something you know nothing about? Not trying to be rude, this is just a sensitive topic and giving random advice isn't helpful.
To the OP--extreme hunger is very common in recovery. Keep doing what you're doing, fueling your body with those much needed calories. 0 -
mama_hannick wrote: »acorsaut89 wrote: »You have a huge appetite, as you said. The OP] is recovering from an ED, are you? Simply increasing calories doesn't help those recovering from an ED. Damage could have been done to the body which needs to be fixed/healed. There's a lot more to it than just eat a huge amount in the middle of the day and then add a huge chicken breast salad to hit 2,000 calories.
Food is the medicine in ED recovery. Lots of food as fuel to repair the damage that has been done. Increasing calories is vital for those recovering. Obviously that is not the ONLY aspect of recovery, but it is the first and most important.
You already said you do not know much of anything about ED's, so why offer advice on something you know nothing about? Not trying to be rude, this is just a sensitive topic and giving random advice isn't helpful.
To the OP--extreme hunger is very common in recovery. Keep doing what you're doing, fueling your body with those much needed calories.
^So much this. Food IS the physical medicine for ED recovery. Absolutely. That's what the body needs to heal itself.
The mental parts? Well, that's different for everyone.0 -
Brooke4206 wrote: »I am recovering from disordered eating. I used to eat about 800 calories a day and I slowly have been able to raise them this past year to 1800-2000 yo-yo-ing. However, it isn't consistent and I end up thinking about food all day. I lost my period over a year ago as well and now am concerned about not being able to have children. I've been to the doctor and they'll going to put me on some medication to see if it can be "jump started." Anyways, This past month I have quit counting and started eating regular food. I used to only eat certain foods day in and day out. But now that i've begun eating all types of food, and listening to my body.. i'm starving. All the time. I'll eat a meal and be hungry 45 minutes later. I'm just always hungry and i'm so fearful that I'm just going to gain so much by simply listening to what my body wants.. anyone know why this is or has anyone been through it?
I've also been getting bad headaches multiple times a day since I started this. Not sure if this relates but thought it might.
I had a similar experience when recovering from my eating disorder (struggled with the disease for about 9 months). The constant hunger was part of daily life for around 3 or 4 months. I slowly increased my calorie intake (whole foods & gluten free {I'm celiac}) stopped counting calories and started eating in response to my body.
I would have small calorie dense snacks (nuts, yogurt, dried fruit, hardboiled eggs etc.) all throughout the day and drink lots of water to curb my hunger (which was frustratingly always lingering) rather then have wait and have large meals to get my calories. From that point my intake became more and more self regulated and instinctual and eventually the intense hunger faded. At first I felt bad eating more then 1800-2000 calories but letting go of that was immensely important in my mental and physical recovery, it was certainly my turning point. I had similar concerns about weight gain but honestly recovery was so much easier once i simply let that go and accepted my hunger. Just do your best to respond with whole foods.
As for your period, I truly advocate for giving your body time to recover completely without the hormonal interference of drugs such as birth control. It took me a while longer then expected to get my period back, around a year and 3 months (regular weight has been achieved several months prior) ; I was concerned but the wait was worth it. It will come back once your body reaches a weight and status where it feels comfortable putting that extra stress on your body so don't get too worried I did talk to a nutritionist and therapist whilst this was going on and i took natural natural supplements such as maca root powder and iron supplements to balance my hormones and body. Keep in mind when recovering that every persons experience is different, and it is as much about finding your own way as getting advice from others.
It took me about 2 years to fully recover and i ended up being 138 when my period came back (lowest was 100). I didn't reintroduce my usual amount of exercise until then (2-5 days a week rock climbing) and I think that was a good idea. Good luck with your journey and don't give up!0 -
That tends to happen a lot in recovery. It helps to get with a dietician and come up with a meal plan. With an eating disorder, your hunger cues get messed up and it can be hard to distinguish from emotional and physical hunger.0
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