Honestly, I think you're doing great. And since you haven't been able to see your therapist yet, I think you're doing AWESOME. You are getting more nutrition in your body and you want to get better. Those two things make a big difference.
You are not going to gain weight too fast if you are very active and are just taking in 1000 or 1200 calories a day. I put your statistics (age 27, 5 foot 5, 86 pounds) into this calories per day calculator and found that if you eat 1,777 calories a day you will just maintain:
That means that in order to gain weight, you will have to work your way up to eating more than that per day. A pound is 3,500 calories. So if you wanted to gain a pound every two weeks, for instance, you would divide 3,500 by 14 days, which would equal 250 extra calories a day. Add that to the 1777 and what it pretty much tells you is that you will need to eat 2,000 calories a day if you want to gain a pound in two weeks. (To gain slower than that, just divide the 3,500 by more days and then add that to the 1,777.)
So while you are increasing your nutrition, know that you will probably gain a little but not much until you go over that 1,777. Your body's metabolism will probably have changed some since you were anorexic, and at first it may try to hold on to every calorie it gets. Don't let that freak you out, ok? You are trying to slowly work through an eating disorder that you have had for a long time. It's going to take a little while, with a few ups and downs. But you CAN do it.
Are you surprised at how many calories it would take to maintain your present weight?
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Laura,
Honestly, I think you're doing great. And since you haven't been able to see your therapist yet, I think you're doing AWESOME. You are getting more nutrition in your body and you want to get better. Those two things make a big difference.
You are not going to gain weight too fast if you are very active and are just taking in 1000 or 1200 calories a day. I put your statistics (age 27, 5 foot 5, 86 pounds) into this calories per day calculator and found that if you eat 1,777 calories a day you will just maintain:
http://walking.about.com/cs/calories/l/blcalcalc.htm
That means that in order to gain weight, you will have to work your way up to eating more than that per day. A pound is 3,500 calories. So if you wanted to gain a pound every two weeks, for instance, you would divide 3,500 by 14 days, which would equal 250 extra calories a day. Add that to the 1777 and what it pretty much tells you is that you will need to eat 2,000 calories a day if you want to gain a pound in two weeks. (To gain slower than that, just divide the 3,500 by more days and then add that to the 1,777.)
So while you are increasing your nutrition, know that you will probably gain a little but not much until you go over that 1,777. Your body's metabolism will probably have changed some since you were anorexic, and at first it may try to hold on to every calorie it gets. Don't let that freak you out, ok? You are trying to slowly work through an eating disorder that you have had for a long time. It's going to take a little while, with a few ups and downs. But you CAN do it.
Are you surprised at how many calories it would take to maintain your present weight?
April 9, 2010 - 10:00amThis Comment
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