Found out my sis's diet, pls help on what'll happen next (esp. prior ED folks)

[SteelWeaver]

My sister finally told me what her diet consists of, and I hit the freaking roof! It turns out to be less than 600 calories a day It makes me sick that people peddle this kind of crap, preying on other's desire to improve the way they look and feel. The diet basically consists of a protein with green vegies for 3 meals a day, 5 hours apart. No complex carbs. I felt sick as soon as I figured out the cals - I can't believe she's been able to stick to it. No wonder she's hungry.

Anyway, I asked her to PLEASE triple her intake, at least, and add in some oatmeal or brown rice, or sweet potato. I also told her she'd put on weight as soon as she does this, because her body has been starving, and thus has learnt to keep everything it can as fat, and also because of water retention. How MUCH, though, is she likely to put on before things stabilise?

She's engaged a personal trainer (thank god), and I think is ready to dump the diet and get more sensible. I don't think this is about ED - she just doesn't know anything about nutrition - she's never had to care. When we were younger, she could eat ANYTHING she wanted, anytime, and NEVER put on weight, nothing - she was always very active, and stayed slim and trim until she quit smoking last year, when suddenly she ballooned. I think she just didn't have any experience with watching her weight, so it's all new to her.

Anyway, I'd like to try to help her put a sensible diet together, or at least give her some guidelines. Hopefully her trainer will not be a quack, too. What changes can she expect in the next month or so, if she starts eating a more balanced, but still calorically deficited diet, and adds in weight training. And should she add in cardio right now? She doesn't have a whole lot of weight training experience, and I don't think has even done much cardio in a while.

Any ideas?

 

[Raina]

For me, weight didn't just fly back on. I was really little. I severely restricted even my water intake and would eat something like 1 pop tart (not both in the little pack) a day. I did that for a long time. I was maybe eating 4-500 cals a day?? Maybe.

Anyhow, her weight might go up initially and that's probably not a bad thing. When you starve the body like that and it has no idea what you're going to do next, it holds onto whatever it gets. Thus skinny girls with high body fat. I was fairly illogical about the whole deal. I was scared that if I started eating normally I would look like an obese person within a month. I also had NO idea what "eating normally" meant. Normal for me was nothing. I've had times in my life when I considered brushing my teeth to be like a meal.

Though it will go up some, it stabalizes with a little time. Once the body realizes that it's going to get a steady supply of nutrition, it doesn't hold those calories in the same way. I'd tell her to ease into it. I know you're panicking but it'll likely freak her out and make her scared to a degree tht if she immediately ups her food intake, that she'll gain a lot. Plus when you're not used to eating much, eating a lot makes a person feel really sick. Imagine doubling or tripling your food intake- you'd probably feel sick.

I'd agree with what you said about diet. It's good to eat a nice balance of foods. I'd say warn her that her weigh will likely increase for a bit-- that doesn't mean she's getting fat. Explain WHY it'll do that and that it'll even out. I have always taken comfort in being forewarned of changes to expect. Then I don't panic. Cardio is great within reason. A lot of people with extreme diet habits pick up extreme cardio habits. For me learning about HIIT helped a lot. Keep it to a reasonable level (not like running 4 hours a day). If she's going to be lifting with a trainer, she NEEDS to eat. She'll learn that fast because if she doesn't, she'll feel like crap.

Hope that helps a little.

Kate

 

[KBgrl]

steel -- what r her stats right now?

tell her to give u 6 weeks on a plan and then kick her ass into shape.

 

[FitFossil]

Even if you've already told her this, remind her how muscle burns calories and fat does not, how a pound of muscle is more dense and takes up less space than a pound of fat, etc. Then tell her she'll need to regularly "feed" her muscles so they'll stay on her body and help burn fat. In essence she'll be trading fat for muscle and end up with a tighter body and lower clothing size, even if the scale stays the same. Even if you've already told her this stuff, tell her again - I remember how stubborn I was!

Keep reminding her if she doesn't feed her muscles sufficiently and frequently, her body will go back into famine mode (still very fresh in her body's memory) and start holding onto bodyfat and shedding muscle to preserve every calorie. The more she restricts her calories, the better her body gets at holding fat.

Once she's training and on her new improved diet, there may be times she feels "bulky" because the fatloss and muscle gain might not be on the same schedule. She must have faith during these times; if she sticks to it everything will work out in the end-every woman on this board can't be wrong .

It REALLY helped me to keep a training log. That was the KEY thing for me to get my diet in order. It showed me how I was doing everything right in my training but shooting myself in the foot w/ my diet. When I began making small changes in my diet, I could immediately see the results in my training log, and this helped me to keep improving my diet. Finally everything fell into place.

 

[SteelWeaver]

Thanks ladies, that helps. She has now told me that she's eating 5 crispbreads and 2 fruits over and above the 600 calories - yeah, right, big deal - a whole 300 or so calories more.

KB, I don't know her stats right now - she's going to the trainer today to get them done. It's kind of difficult, since I'm in Japan and she's in South Africa. Unfortunately in her last e-mail she told me she's perfectly happy on her diet, and that she's losing lots of weight.

I told her all that stuff, FitFossil - I've told her like a hundred times, but she's convinced everything's OK, because she's losing weight. She just can't distinguish between "weight" and "fat".

She said the trainer was mentioning something like weight training 3x per week, and spinning classes twice, or weights for 20 minutes, followed by cardio. I guess this is a reasonable starting point, but I think I'd like to talk to her trainer (CONTROL freak!), and get my sister on these boards.

The training and nutrition log is a good idea - I'll tell her that.

So, I can tell her she won't really gain a huge amount if she starts eating properly, but that she'll have "bulky" feeling days. Kate - you're carb cycling right now, aren't you? This will help the "bulky" feeling, won't it? And help with water retention, right?

I just want to say that I think you guys are amazing for having come to the places you are now - it's a hard journey - I had some of my own eating problems way back when, so I kind of know the mind-set. I guess education and results are KEY! Anyway - will keep you updated on sis - maybe she'll come visit here, then we can really kick her ass!

 

[FitFossil]

Forgot to mention water. Does she know to drink enough (and does she do it)? When I was subsisting on 4 green beans a day, I didn't like the feeling of anything in my stomach, including water w/ its zero calories. Water helps with those periods of "bulky" feelings.