I had kept to a modest structured eating plan. I’d been exercising every other day. I had done everything right! What was happening to my body!?
I thank God that I didn’t throw in the towel that day… But, I was so close.
Now that I have recovered, I can see clearly what was happening to my body… And, what could happen to your body too…
Let me explain…
Dear Visitors,
Weight gain is a transitory part of recovery. I remember my experience of first re-feeding and at that time I had just started to consume some food at home. After months of starvation, my body was foreign to food and eating. I remember gaining 3 kilos in one day on very small amounts of solid food . On gaining that weight, my anxiety was very high and in panic I sent an E-mail to Shaye Boddington. Shaye responded immediately but my anorexic mind could not make a sense of her supportive Email. So I stopped eating and then of course I ended up in Eating Disorder Unit. At the Eating Disorder Unit my caloric intake was very very high. And strange thing is that I gained the same amount of weight that I had gained at home whooping three kilos in one day. What I weighed after three days, well lets not go there:) Strange thing was that there were no visible signs of oedema/water retention on my body. I wasn’t using laxative or diuretics and had no history of using such products. I had low protein levels in my blood, I was dehydrated and and my body was simply trying to survive by clinging onto anything that I was eating. It was a survival and my poor body was simply trying to bring itself back into balance. The reason I began to retain water on less than optimal amounts of food intake was because my metabolism was suppressed. Trust me all this is reversed within weeks and that’s the beauty of human body, how adaptable it is and how resilient it is.
So please read below about weight gain in recovery.
Will You Gain Weight In Your Bulimia
Recovery?
By: Shaye Boddington
That’s the big question on almost all bulimia sufferers minds… And, wind back the clock 6 years… It was on my mind too…
When I finally managed to kick the binge and purge habit, I was nervous of what would happen to my weight…
I was so scared of weight gain that even 1 or 2 pounds felt like too much…
But, I was committed to recovery so I stayed away from the scales for 1 week…
When I came to weigh myself, I felt the blood drain from my head. I felt faint. I was shocked…
I remember thinking something along the lines of … What the ****!!!
I had gained 11 pounds in 1 week!
11 pounds!!! I screamed it over and over in my head… How?! I kept asking myself…
I had kept to a modest structured eating plan. I’d been exercising every other day. I had done everything right! What was happening to my body!?
I thank God that I didn’t throw in the towel that day… But, I was so close.
Now that I have recovered, I can see clearly what was happening to my body… And, what could happen to your body too…
Let me explain…
The Type of Weight You Gain in Recovery
When we first give our bodies the opportunity to digest food and drink… They go into a frenzy…
Right from the word go they begin trying to heal and hydrate any dehydrated cells…
They’re also a little dubious that this new and reliable source of hydration is going to last… So, they store up on extra for the future.
Basically, every cell in your body has a great big drink! They go from being shrivelled and thirsty to full and quenched.
Now, when you think about how much of our bodies are water… You can see why this plays such a big part in our ‘scale weight’… Take a look at this example…
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A 132 pound (60 kg) bulimic girl named Lianne with a low body hydration of 65% will have 86 pounds (39 kg’s) of water in her body…
When she begins to rehydrate herself during recovery, her body hydration levels rise to the normal 72%. Lianne will now have 95 pounds (43.2 kg’s) of water in her body…
Already there’s 9 pounds (4.2 kg’s) of gained body weight accounted for…
Plus, there is now food sitting in Liannes tummy… Which has weight too… Probably around 2-4 pounds (1-2 kg’s)
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Of course, it is possible that there will also be some fat gain in your recovery… But, I promise you this will be a tiny fraction of the weight you gain.
Don’t let yourself forget it…. A huge amount of the weight you gain in the first few weeks of recovery will just be water.
Some of that water weight will fall off once you’re body settles into it’s new healthy lifestyle. But chances are you’ll be so happy enjoying your new bulimia free life that you won’t even care!
Source: www.your-bulimia-recovery.com
