Posted by: gymbuddy1812
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[–] lacucarauncha 0 points 9 points 9 points (+9|-0) ago (edited ago)
In some (in my observation, very few) cases, people who have been diagnosed with anorexia "overcorrect" and eat far too much and overcome the physical mechanisms that protect most recovering anorexics from actually becoming overweight during or after the refeeding process. If you've ever experienced anorexia and refeeding, you might notice that you actually burn hotter for a long time - months and months - after reaching your threshold "healthy" weight. One way some people explain this is "metabolic abnormality" but I prefer to interpret it as your body burning as many calories as possible so it can repair the extensive damage done to necessary tissues over your prolonged caloric restriction. It's like construction companies needing more materials and labor after a hurricane than they would after a spring storm. It's even good to pad a bit on during the first year or two of recovery because your essential systems have been damaged, and any perturbation to your health could result in sudden collapse - and a few extra pounds are a buffer between life and death at that point. But others, people I suspect were incorrectly diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, just seem to either have serious BID and another mental illness not on the same axis, or be people who use sensation to deaden emotion and could have easily been bulimic or alcoholic or speed freaks as anorexic. Once they started to eat again, they begin using the sensation of overfullness as a drug instead of hunger. The thing is, they all had the diagnosis at one point and so all "belong" in the same group. I'm of the minority opinion that bulimia and anorexia do not belong in the same treatment groups, but it's cheaper to treat everyone who presents with eating anomolies as "eating disordered" rather than tease out individual experiences, motivations, and reward schemas. So, fats get into anorexia support groups, and fats who "think" they were anorexic because they tried to count calories for a few weeks and weasel their way into an EDNOS diagnosis jump right in so they can identify with a disease with a horrible recovery rate and prognosis.
[–] crashtestgenius 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
You're exactly right about the using the extra calories to rebuild (healthy) fat reserves, muscle mass, etc. My dietician is trying to get me to eat like, 3k kcal a day, but that's just physically too much food for me to stomach.
[–] lacucarauncha 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Congratulations on your recovery. It's one of the hardest things people can fight, something that the idiots trying to co-opt "anorexia" can't wrap their pudding heads around.
I'm so glad you're still here.