How is my diet for anorexia recovery? will it make me fat?

Question

Okay so I've eaten 800 calories or less a day with rigorous exercise (2 plus hours daily) for almost 2 years now. Starting this week, I am on a new diet plan, hoping to recover. I also quit the exercise I was doing before and now I jog an hour on the treadmill every day. This is what I will have today:

Before my workout: 1 Nature Valley Granola Bar

After workout: 1 protein bar, 6 slices lean chicken, 1 lowfat cheese

Lunch: wrap with one whole wheat tortilla, 7 slices lean turkey, 1 slice cheese, 1 tsp. honey mustard and an apple

Dinner: some sort of stir fry with chicken, rice, zucchini, mushrooms, onion, and broccoli. The chicken was sauteed lightly in olive oil and then added to the veggies and the rice was steamed.

After dinner I do 300 crunches

People on here have talked about your body being in starvation mode and storing everything as fat, but my mom is a nurse and has told me that fat is actually the LAST thing your body replenishes when you have been lacking in nutrition. She said that it first repairs organs and tissues and muscle. Is this true?

I want to gain weight in muscle, and stay toned. I'm really scared of making myself gain fat. If I follow this diet and exercise plan, will I be okay?

Answer 1

Lots of protein, lots of veggies, might use some more fruit or a really good multi-vitamin.  Unless you're eating lots of fat, you mom has it right.  You're body will be trying to repair the damage to organs first, and rebuilding lost muscle.  Now you might put on fat initially as your metabolism may be so slow that you're not using all the calories you are bringing in, but stay with it.  Once you rebuild that muscle tissue, it will help strip the excess fat off.

Good for you and stay with it.  Your body will thank you.

Answer 2

that sounds very healthy, since you are working out and your diet has lots of protein you will gain muscle weight not fat, good luck

Answer 3

It's good that you're trying to recover, anorexia can be a serious and debilitating condition.  So, to answer your question about the diet plan, the food choices are good and all your meals are protein based.  Ease back into the increases; if possible, enlist the help of a dietician who specializes in eating disorders to help write up a plan for you.  When you're ready, add a couple of smaller snacks between meals.  As you've probably heard before, eating more smaller "meals" over the course of the day is actually better than 2-3 traditional larger meals.

I'll have to disagree on the point your mom makes about how bodyfat is stored when the body enters starvation mode.  What happens is when caloric intake goes below the BMR, or basal metabolic rate, the metabolism slows and lipolysis (fat burning) ceases.  This is an evolutionary survival trait that kicks in during times of famine.  In starvation mode, muscle tissue is catabolized first and bodyfat retained as bodyfat is the primary energy storage in humans.  Contrary to popular belief, although many anorexics look skinny, they often have a higher than average bodyfat percentage due to very little lean muscle tissue compared to what bodyfat there is left.

So, bodyfat isn't the last thing replenished when your body is in starvatoin mode, but the first, until the metabolism stabilizes to normal levels.  This accounts for why so many people yoyo when crash dieting, and often gain even more when off the diet.  It may take some time to repair any damage there so stick with it as best you can.