Eating issues- recovery tips

[SignificantSalamander]

I'm having problems with my mental health at the moment with anxiety etc. I've been restricting my food consumption for a month or so. I've lost an alarming amount of weight and I realised yesterday how dangerous this behaviour is and how I have to change.

I've admitted my problems to friends who are being supportive and I am seeing a counsellor regarding the root problem which triggered this.

My question is, how do I start myself eating again? I ate a relatively decent lunch today but I can't see how I'm going to manage dinner on top of this because I feel so full. The internet says I should aim for 3 meals and 3 snacks a day and that seems so out of reach at the moment.

Your stomach has probably got used to taking in small amounts, so to suddenly try to manage three full meals a day is asking too much.
Eat medium portions of nourishing food three times a day, I would forget about the snacks, just drink plenty of water in between meals....good luck.

Thanks, will try this.

Can anyone else help on this please? Changing my attitude to this is very hard.

When you say restricting, what were you eating, why were you restricting? When I have anxiety I struggle to eat but I don’t do it purposefully.

it would be helpful to know a bit more detail.

Stop focusing on eating 3 meals a day and instead buy in lots of ready prepared snacks food like the preprepared fruit and picnic snacks, mini cheeses, crackers etc. and keep going back to the fridge through the day and snack on a few bits as you go.

You need to get your body out of starvation mode and used to taking in board food again. Don't be tempted to gorge on high calorie foods, you'll bring them back or they will take a long time to digest. Little and often will do.

@XmasElfOnTheShelff Like only eating half of the food on my plate, tiny portions because I wanted to lose weight. I have lost all interest in food, whereas in the past I've been an over eater. One day last week I ate half a tuna sandwich and a handful of pasta all day.

Anxiety over a medical situation fuelled the initial weight loss and then it seems to have snowballed. Now eating food frightens me and makes me anxious. It doesn't help that at work I'm expected to eat with colleagues in a noisy canteen.

A big plate of food when you feel like that is overwhelming and you'll put a mental block on either eating any of it or all of it.

When you say you've been restricting, to what degree? Look up refeeding syndrome. You really should have medical supervision and bloods.
Once out of the danger zone for refeeding syndrome, three meals and three snacks is best. It will be really uncomfortable at first, your stomach will have shrunk, but the only way out is through. If the food is too difficult discuss doing a mix of food and supplement (ensure/Fortsip) with your gp.

I’ve been in a similar position due to anxiety before and have eaten similar portions. As the anxiety eases though it’s got better alone.

what about eating is making you anxious?

you said you were restricting on purpose but now you’re too anxious to eat so which is it? Or is it both?

It was anxiety to start with and now it's restriction on purpose. But just being around food makes me anxious. I was fat to start with so I'm not underweight now, I've just realised that this is all out of control and I'm lacking energy etc.

It's very positive you've recognised so quickly there's an issue and are willing to change.

Current guidance is to refeed quickly, hence 3 meals and 3 snacks, a daily calorie guideline of 2500 + 1.5-2 litres of fluids (not carbonated). It is painful though, you will feel bloated - a hot water bottle will help. Your stomach is stretching.

If you don't feel you can manage that, then build up to 3 meals first.

Use calorie dense food eg if you can only eat a tuna sandwich, use seeded bread and full calorie mayo with the tuna. You're looking for extras that are easy to add - cheese on top of your pasta, cream in your coffee instead of milk, plenty of oil when cooking, butter on your bread.

Calorie rich drinks - fruit juice instead of diet soda, milkshakes, hot chocolate with milk. There's meal replacement drinks which have 500 calories in a bottle - if you can't manage a full meal, replace the lost calories with this drink.

Contact BEAT helpline, it's open weekends too. And they have online guidance via The Pod and other weekly support sessions.

Your willingness to address this is very positive, keep hold of that. It's ok not to be perfect - if you shoot for 3 meals tomorrow, but manage 1.5 and some high calorie drinks, that's progress on today. Focus on the progress you are making.

Best wishes to you x

Personally OP I don’t think you need to urgently re feed and I don’t know why that’s guidance because I’ve never been in that position thankfully. You do need to eat of course, but why we are jumping from half a sandwich to 3 meals plus 3 snacks I don’t know. 3 meals sounds sufficient to me.

but I think you need to get urgent support from a professional before it gets worse.

The old way used to be that if the person was physically stable, you started with therapy until the person was able to refeed themselves or be willing to refeed.

Now it's understood that disordered eating behaviours, especially those restricting intake, impact the brain function so that the behaviours become more ingrained. So the sooner you can refeed the brain with calories and healthy fats, the sooner the person is likely to respond well to therapy.

@SignificantSalamander please come over to the eating disorders board if you feel able