Lived Experience Forum

[BlueBay]

Hi everyone 

I have sm eating disorder and diagnosed last year. But it's been years. I used to go to the gym dsily sometimes twice a day. And if I missed a day I was so upset and angry with myself. 
I'm now seeing a dietitian who has been a fantastic support fir my ED. He is very caring and knows about my mentsl health. 
Trouble is now I'm going to the gym twice a week and walking daily
  I'm beginning to feel addicted. I want to go more and more to the gym. I wanted to go tomorrow but csnt and I'm angry.  The same feelings from years ago are coming back. 
I need to lose weight and tone up. 

the more I go the more I have to go. 
I feel thst eating, weighing myself and gym is on my mind a lot lately. And I'm trying to do more exercises to lose weight. 

Since doing more exercises I'm not eating much. I need to do this in order to lose the weight. 

[Gazza75]

Hi @BlueBay ,

I can relate a little to your post, minus the ED. 

As you know its not ideal to weigh yourself daily as it can change depending on the time of day along with a range of factors.  I understand the need and the challenge of not doing it, but, weekly or monthly is better from a mental health perspective.  Its a hard habit to break.  

I think going to the gym reasonably frequently is good for you.  As long as you have a day or two off a week to allow yourself recover.  Try not to feel angry if you can't go.  It's not the end of the world.  Overtraining may lead to injury or other physical ailments.  Ie I think you have a sore hip on occasion and overdoing things may cause that to flare up or get worse. 

Like pretty much everything, finding that balance or happy medium should be a the aim.  Easy to say, but, harder to do.

I would try and focus on toning your body and feeling better physically and hopefully mentally.  Weight is most likely to fluctuate and increase a little as muscle density is heavier than fat.  Also as you go along the changes in weight will most likely be reduced, ie your more likely to lose more week in the first week or two against progress in weeks 2,3 and so on.

Lately I have been at the other end of the spectrum where I am struggling to find the motivation.  

Meds / side effects can also play a pretty significant role in weight issues.  Since my initial diagnoses (18 months), no matter what I did phsically or with diet, it never really helped.  I found myself turning this over in my mind over and over and for me it wasn't a good thing to be doing.

If you can maintain or even have minor weight gains, to Me thats more or less positive and small victory. I hope I've explained a bit of the why in that earlier. 

Maybe the addiction you feel is in part the benefits that you are getting from exercise.  The body does release chemicals / endorphins.

I don't know much about ED as I disclaimed earlier.  It is important to eat well and fuel your body along with your mind.  A varied diet and food intake is beneficial as then you are getting different vitamins and minerals.

Not eating much has been shown not to really help with weight loss as your body is going to slow down metaboliccaly and hold on to reserves to keep you going.  I'm pretty confident your dietician will confirm and recomend strongly against this thinking.  Your body needs a certain ammount of caloric intake to keep going, not getting enough will change your metabolism and will be hard to turn around.

This has turned into a long winded reply.. In summary, try not to focus or worry about your weight.  At this stage I don't think you are overdoing it with exercise or the gym.. providing you aren't walking huge distances or long periods of time. 

Focus on the benefits of being healthy and exercising, feeling better that you are living an active lifestyle.

Take care BB

[Otter]

Hi @Gazza75,

Thanks so much for your highly supportive, well thought-out and deeply caring contribution to this thread.

Just wanted to clarify that we first and foremost do encourage members to discuss their diet and exercise regimes with health care professionals. These are complex matters and everyone is different, and it's important to be careful when giving specific medical advice. It is always worth consulting with your dietian. Please check in with your health care professionals before strictly following any advice on the forums.

Hope you are well @BlueBay and we are here to support you.

Kind regards to all,

Otter

[BlueBay]

Hi @Gazza75 @thsnks for your support snd post. I do get what you're saying. 
its because of my black and white thinking. Things have to be 100% otherwise in my head it's nit good enough. 
it can't be 50% that's not good enough. 
@Otter this is so tough.  It's hard for me to get my head around all this.