Anybody else take up bodybuilding post-eating disorder?

[SarahKasprzyk]

Hey guys. This is my first post on these forums so I'm sorry if this is in the wrong section.

Anyway, I have fought EDNOS (a really awful mixture of anorexia, bulimia, and compulsive over-exercising) since I was eleven. I'm eighteen now and will be nineteen in July. I was just wanting to see if anyone else on this site got into bodybuilding while/after recovering from the disorder. I've gained back enough weight to be considered healthy, but I'm a mesomorph and so I put on muscle very easily. So that means a more dense composition and thus, more weight.

If this aplies to you, how did you cope with weight? And how do you cope on days where the disorder comes back with a vengeance and you don't want to eat?

Sorry if I'm being annoying, I'm just really curious. . .

[mediumraw]

If I had to guess, I'd say about half this forum.

[heidismommy]

If I had to guess, I'd say about half this forum.

True that.

I am one who has come from a history of battling severe anorexia. I spent most of high school and college in-and-out of hospitals and my last relapse happened when my older daughter was a toddler. It was in attempts of recovery at the time I discovered weightlifting by accident and it took on a life of its own. I've put on over 25 lbs since my last relapse, but for the first time in my life I'm okay with being a "normal" weight. I feel good about my body, I know I've worked hard for it and listing is empowering.

I actually don't have days when I no longer want to eat (and I never thought that would be possible for me). I'm about as recovered with food as I can possibly be. I am a bit obsessive with the lifting, but I'm really learning to find the same balance as I've found with food. I love being strong and looking as strong and healthy as I feel. I know that by not eating, it will set me back and undo some of the hard work I've put in...that is motivation in itself.

Anyway, what I'm say I'm saying is that a full recovery is possible. It isn't easy and takes a lot of hard work. For me it has meant replacing one coping mechanism (ED) with another (lifting). I put all the energy that I once put in the ED into working out and it has helped immensely. So bodybuilding is possible after an ED (and, in fact, seems to be unite common). I never wanted to me "muscular", not in the beginning. But as time has gone on, I have really developed an appreciation for the muscular physique. I love my newly developed muscles and love what working out has done for me.

[faithandfit]

Heck yeah girl! Lifting is what makes me happy to eat more and gain muscle! It makes me feel amazing and give up my ED tendencies!

[MegLeh8]

Yep! Long story short I struggled with anorexia which turned into anorexia-bulemia for most of my college years.. add in alcohol and being a college athlete and you've got an awful mix. Figure
competitions and lifting changed my life! You really learn to view food as fuel not as comfort or an enemy. I owe everything to body building and everything I've learned from it

[thecityignites]

Helped me a lot too. I've been battling anorexia for about 10 years now. Almost died when I was 19. I've put on about 50 pounds since then. Spent high school and college being in and out of treatment, along with one good try on my own that finally got me better. Obviously, I still need to gain a bit more. But, weight lifting has really helped me with that. Its helped me feel much better about my body, and myself. I'm probably about as "normal" when it comes to food as I'll ever be. But lifting helps me see what my body can do when I continue to feed it properly.
The sense of gratification I got the day I dead lifted 135 lbs was worth every calorie I've consumed to get myself there.

[happyplace]

Yep, anorexia. Done with that sh!t, am now much too fascinated by my body's capabilities to go back down that route. Recovered before I started lifting, but was always fearing a relapse. Lifting has pushed me beyond that into what I would definitely see as full psychological recovery. I worry sometimes that people assume I have gone from one form of physical manipulation of my body to another, but I know in myself where I'm at. Actually, the biggest thing that lifting gave me was an appetite. Now that I have regular and strong hunger signals, I embrace food and trust my appetite rather than needing to count calories. My honest opinion is that recovering anorexics need to take some time away from physical obsession and criticism (even if it is positive) to make a full psychological recovery and realise the true priorities of life. Otherwise an eating disorder only slips into another form of disordered eating.