just joined! got some q's

[edea]

hi guys! well here's my story. feel free to skip to the next or last paragraph :X --well I lost around 15-20 lbs (went from size 12 to size 4) playing ddr and eating right about 2 years ago in the span of a few months ( i don't remember the exact time frame) ... my metabolism kept it off after I stopped playing for a while but I gained about 10-15 of the weight back. I tried to get back into shape by swimming and eating right but I seemed to only gain muscle. In Nov. of last year I developed bulimia and a short bout of anorexia (I was consuming 400 and under calories daily), but thanks to the help of my bf and the motivation from starting up ddr again this year, I'd like to say I've recovered.


I'm currently 5'11" weighing in at 130 lbs (lost 5 lbs since the beginning of the year) . My usual day, 7 days a week, is a 600 cal goal in DDR (takes roughly 35-40 min. I play 7-9 foot songs above 165 bpm mostly) , pilates for 10-15 min, and situp/crunch cooldown for 5 min twice a day. My calorie intake each day is restricted within the 600-680 range.

It's working pretty well, but I seem to be stuck at 130 and my goal is 120-125. 130 was where i was at before but some of my pants i wore before still are a little tight.. I'm thinking that maybe I'm burning off fat and gaining muscle so the scale is remaining steadfast??

>< I know I'm going to get a lot of grief for various reasons..

[abrannan]

Sorry to tell you this, but you still aren't taking in enough calories, not by half. at 5'11", 130lbs, your BMI puts you in the underweight range. Given your stated activity level, your Base Metabolic Rate should be around 1500 calories/day, and when you factor in the exercise you do, you should be burning around 2200 calories/day.


Long story short, you're still starving yourself. And that's not going to get you to lose any weight. Your body is going to cling to every last calorie it can find to keep you alive, and it's going to slow down your metabolism as much as possible to burn as few calories as possible.


Eating 200 more calories, but burning 600 more calories via DDR is not "recovering" from anorexia any more than drinking one less beer but drinking half a bottle scotch is recovering from alcoholism. Your minimum caloric intake should be up around 1100 calories per day, preferably closer to 1300. You need to get your metabolism back on track and functioning normally.

But most importantly, you need to see a doctor, preferably a nutritionist. They can explain more fully what exactly it is you're doing to yourself with your current diet/exercise plan.