Knowing what and how much to eat (Part 2)

I have already spoken about how meal plans can be helpful so that you know what to eat, but this post is more about how you can determine how much you should eat if you need to gain weight after an eating disorder. *TRIGGER WARNING* I dont usually talk about exact numbers of calories but I have in this post so please skip this post if numbers of calories trigger you. You must remember that everybody is different and that you should always follow the medical advice you have been given by professionals, rather than listening to what I say. I am not a professional and this is just my opinion of how much to eat in recovery, based upon what seems to be working for me.

There are many different recommendations about how much you should eat while recovering from anorexia and while I havent always felt this way, I now believe that gaining weight on a large calorie intake is the best way to go. I tried my hardest to recover on lower amounts, by slowly increasing my calories, first to 1800, then to 2000, 2200, and even 2500 but I still couldnt gain the weight I needed to. It wasn't until I increased my intake to 3000 calories that I actually started feeling good physically and gaining weight.

You need to remember that while recovering your body doesnt only need energy to gain weight. It also needs energy to complete its everyday functions as well as to repair all if the damage that was done whilst you were underweight or starving yourself. The way I worked out how much I needed to eat was by weighing myself half weekly. If I had gained weight (atleast 200-300 grams) since my last weigh in I would keep my intake the same. If I had lost or maintained my weight however, I would increase my intake by altering my meal plan.

Even if you are managing to gain weight at a relatively low intake (i.e. 2000 calories) I would not reccommend continuing to eat this amount as your body is most likely still in starvation mode. This means that while you may be managing to gain a little weight, your body would not be repairing of functioning optimally. This also means that you are at risk of having a supressed metabolism for the rest of your life which means you will never be able to eat normal amounts of food again without gaining weight.

I hope thst this has been helpful. If you have any more questions on this topic, just ask in the comments section and I will answer them :)