ItsDevo - Member

ItsDevo

Joined October 2010

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Weight History

Start Weight

141.0 lb

Lost so far: 0 lb

Current Weight

141.0 lb
Performance: gaining 0.1 lb a week

Goal Weight

120.0 lb

Still to go: 21.0 lb

ItsDevo's Weight History

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ItsDevo's Latest Member Challenges

462

No Late Night Snacking

status:	Completed
ended:	28 Mar 11
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	Kimmer331
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	Desert Princess
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ItsDevo's Latest Posts

I need to know.

Johanne wrote:

I'm afraid to give one of the people on the "eat all you want one day a week" challenge any advice. She weighs 89 pounds and expects to GAIN weight (her goal is 90) on 400 a day plus one day a week gorge. If she's been eating less than that, how has she been surviving? I know she has to be anorexic and what do you say constructive to someone like that? That constitutes medical advice, and I'm definitely not qualified. I'm so afraid for people like her.

Hey Johanne!
Believe it or not, she actually might be able to gain weight on that plan, depending on her age, height, etc. The best case scenario would be that she is trying to begin the recovery process, or get back "on the wagon". For all we know, she may have been averaging 300-350 cals daily before that, with no "allowed" day to just 'eat whatever'. Think of how it is when starving people from third world countries are rescued.. they have to be refed very gradually. For an 89 pound full grown woman anoretic to say that 90 pounds is her goal, that could just be a sign of amazing will to work thru her disease.
Ok so here's my thoughts on what it's like in that world (or at least kind of); I will use an analogy, putting myself in the their shoes.. Right now I weigh 138, and I am out of shape, so my goal is to get back in shape (and consequently lose 10-15 lbs) .
Now, let's say that people were telling me things like I was grossly underweight at 138, I was actually 'in perfect shape', and I was deluded in thinking I looked out of shape... Let's say that doctors told me that I was likely going to die if I did not gain fifty pounds. I might feel painfully intolerably out of shape and uncomfortable with my body with that added 50 lbs, but if I really got it into my head that the alternative was that I would die if I stayed at my current weight, I would work to gain that weight. I used 50 lbs as the example, because one pound in the mind of an 89 lb anoretic is just as 'menacing' as 50 lbs might seem to me, or any of us non-ED sufferers.
I am SO GLAD I'm not stricken with an ED, because it's literally like being possessed by something that forbids you from eating, and when 'your body' does manage to eat, emotional chaos ensues. Hopefully this helps people here a little because I know that one thing that can further trigger an ED person is 'outsider non-understanding'. Somebody on this thread said it- the only way they'll change is on their own terms, there ain't anything we can do or say, but the least harm can be done by understanding as much as possible, and offering an abundance of support when they do reach out for help. Smile