Weight gain in eating BMR. Help?

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  • Libby81
    Libby81 Posts: 734 Member
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    Personally if you have been diagnosed with an eating disorder you need to seek professional help. Yes these forums are good for general advice but there is so much conflicting information and so many people who beleive they have the answer that it could do you more harm than good. My advice go back to your doctor or see a nutritionist / dietician
  • CnocNaCu
    CnocNaCu Posts: 536 Member
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    I am in recovery for anorexia so I think I can help. I was maintaining my weight on under 600 net calories per day and gained when I upped it to 1000 net calories. Then I started LOSING weight at 2000 net calories. I need about 2500 to maintain. Like you I was mortified when I thought I would never be able to eat above 1000 calories without gaining weight. Turns out my body was basically just so confused about what I was doing to it that normal rules stopped being relevant. I would recommend the following...

    1. Stop trying to lose weight. You have an eating disorder. Recovery and weight loss are incompatible.
    2. Eat at maintenance calories. Use this site to figure out what they really are because MFP is way off: http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
    3. Don't weigh yourself for a month. You WILL gain weight initially because your body probably has a lot of repair work to do from your starvation diet. It will stabilise within 6-8 weeks max (probably a lot sooner) and it will drop off again quickly.
    4. Get therapy and see a dietitian (NOT a nutritionist).

    Good luck. I expect you won't follow through on my recommendations but it's what I did and I went from being severly underweight and sick, and like you I was gaining weight on a starvation diet, to eating loads of food and losing weight which has been a huge help in recovering from my eating disorder.

    This is the best and most competent post in the whole thread!
    :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:
  • littleali
    littleali Posts: 179 Member
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    I am in recovery for anorexia so I think I can help. I was maintaining my weight on under 600 net calories per day and gained when I upped it to 1000 net calories. Then I started LOSING weight at 2000 net calories. I need about 2500 to maintain. Like you I was mortified when I thought I would never be able to eat above 1000 calories without gaining weight. Turns out my body was basically just so confused about what I was doing to it that normal rules stopped being relevant. I would recommend the following...

    1. Stop trying to lose weight. You have an eating disorder. Recovery and weight loss are incompatible.
    2. Eat at maintenance calories. Use this site to figure out what they really are because MFP is way off: http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
    3. Don't weigh yourself for a month. You WILL gain weight initially because your body probably has a lot of repair work to do from your starvation diet. It will stabilise within 6-8 weeks max (probably a lot sooner) and it will drop off again quickly.
    4. Get therapy and see a dietitian (NOT a nutritionist).

    Good luck. I expect you won't follow through on my recommendations but it's what I did and I went from being severly underweight and sick, and like you I was gaining weight on a starvation diet, to eating loads of food and losing weight which has been a huge help in recovering from my eating disorder.

    Thank you so much for this, and all of you for your input.
    I think I'm going to increase 200 calories a week, slowly and gradually to maintenance level so I'm not feeling as uncomfortable as I am now (the bloating that has come with upping 300-400 calories a day has been making me feel awful) and I'm going to try as hard as I can to steer clear of the scale.

    I'm in therapy at the moment and she is supportive of my recovery but trying to not freak out over a 3lb gain is hard ut I shall persevere!

    Thank you all!
  • littlemili
    littlemili Posts: 625 Member
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    I am in recovery for anorexia so I think I can help. I was maintaining my weight on under 600 net calories per day and gained when I upped it to 1000 net calories. Then I started LOSING weight at 2000 net calories. I need about 2500 to maintain. Like you I was mortified when I thought I would never be able to eat above 1000 calories without gaining weight. Turns out my body was basically just so confused about what I was doing to it that normal rules stopped being relevant. I would recommend the following...

    1. Stop trying to lose weight. You have an eating disorder. Recovery and weight loss are incompatible.
    2. Eat at maintenance calories. Use this site to figure out what they really are because MFP is way off: http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
    3. Don't weigh yourself for a month. You WILL gain weight initially because your body probably has a lot of repair work to do from your starvation diet. It will stabilise within 6-8 weeks max (probably a lot sooner) and it will drop off again quickly.
    4. Get therapy and see a dietitian (NOT a nutritionist).

    Good luck. I expect you won't follow through on my recommendations but it's what I did and I went from being severly underweight and sick, and like you I was gaining weight on a starvation diet, to eating loads of food and losing weight which has been a huge help in recovering from my eating disorder.

    Thank you so much for this, and all of you for your input.
    I think I'm going to increase 200 calories a week, slowly and gradually to maintenance level so I'm not feeling as uncomfortable as I am now (the bloating that has come with upping 300-400 calories a day has been making me feel awful) and I'm going to try as hard as I can to steer clear of the scale.

    I'm in therapy at the moment and she is supportive of my recovery but trying to not freak out over a 3lb gain is hard ut I shall persevere!

    Thank you all!
    If it makes you feel any better I gained 13lb in 3 weeks :) remember weight is always controllable and reversible so long as your body is healthy and functioning normally. So get yours working properly again and then think about where you would be most happy with your weight. Mental health > number on scale.
  • graysmom2005
    graysmom2005 Posts: 1,882 Member
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    Thank you for the responses guys!
    I'm just frustrated. I don't have access to nutritionists/doctors etc to ask about this, no.

    Does anybody have any guesses about how long before this weight comes back off? Any personal experiences?
    Run, don't walk, and get a tape measure. Same thing happened to me and at first I gained, but I was losing inches. Then the weight caught up. Your body is just so happy it's getting food it's hanging on until it can trust you again. Plus the extra food in your body will create a tiny gain. It will come off!
  • love4fitnesslove4food_wechange
    love4fitnesslove4food_wechange Posts: 6,897 Member
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    Thank you for the responses guys!
    I'm just frustrated. I don't have access to nutritionists/doctors etc to ask about this, no.

    Does anybody have any guesses about how long before this weight comes back off? Any personal experiences?

    there is no "right" answer--if you consistently eat BELOW your BMR you will only train your body to maintain on less than what you should. Ideally you'd raise your calories to an APPROPRIATE level, higher than what it is now, and allow your metabolism to recover. You'll gain on less than your BMR and you'll gain on more-the thing with gaining on more than your BMR is that you have a greater chance of normalizing your metabolic rate and when you reduce your calories again you can resume losing.

    Best of luck to you--hang in there. Going back to 1200 calories will not likely result in weight loss if you're currently gaining on a bit more than that. So, it's not worth it.

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