[GonnaGetThruThis]

Sorry this is such a long post, but there's alot to explain.

I'm a 19 year old girl and I've always had issues with my weight. I've gone on alot of diets and nothing has ever worked. My highest weight was about 205 and I'm 5'5''. Four years ago, I started the slimfast diet, I weighed about 190 at that point, followed the diet for almost a year and got down to about 125 pounds. I was eating about 1,100-1,200 cals a day for the entire diet. I would cheat on sunday's and eat what I wanted tho.

I became really obsessed with dieting and all my friends said that I looked to thin, but I insisted on losing more weight. I wanted to get down to 115, and now when I look back at pictures of me weighing 125, I looked sick... I just don't have the body type to be that thin.

Once I got to about 125, I started binging for awhile, and eventually got to about 150. It bothered me alot, but I still looked somewhat in shape. I stuck at that weight for a long time, until I got to a very stressful/depressing point in my life where I lost all my friends and could not stop binging til I got to about 180. This is at the point I'm at right now.

I've been dieting for about a week and a half, and I weighed 183 to begin with, and I got to 179 after the first week. I've been eating about 1,100-1,200 cals a day, and going on two hour walks every night with my friend. I'm not following a specific diet, but I'm eating alot of Special K cereal, protein bars, lean cuisine, and occasionally drinking a slimfast.

I feel hungry pretty often, but I can deal with it. But I keep reading that most people eat more than I do, and I just don't want to make the same mistake I did last time, but I'm really neurotic about dieting... and I can't help it, none of my friends understand how I can go thru this. I wanna weigh 140, I'd be content with that I think.

What are your guys' opinions? Sorry this is so long....

[SoulBliss]

Please see a doctor, ask to have a referral to a nutritionist and a also therapist who specializes in working with eating disorders.

[GonnaGetThruThis]

I wish I could see a therapist.. I told my parents 2 years ago I thought I needed help and they ignored me. I think I've been depressed for the majority of my life...

I either use food, or drugs/alchohol to try and help it and I'm sick of it.

[Me23]

Hi hon, I'm 20 yrs old and have been on depression meds since I was thirteen, have been both v. overweight and anorexic, binged, etc. Now you are 19 you don't need your parents to help you seek help, though you could try talking to them again (a lot of times this stuff is difficult for parents to accept, neither my mum nor I voiced the word 'anorexia' till we heard it from a doctor). Here are some options to think about -

- are you at college or school? is there a nurse or counsellor there?
- are you working? Same question
-Is there a support group in your area?
- Try a phone helpline
- Talk to your GP or practice nurse (I'm British so not sure how it works if you are in the US, but here we just make an appointment and go...)
General things: a BMI chart will give you an indication (though by no means an infallible one) of your ideal weight.
- You don't have to starve to lose weight. Just a couple hundred calories less than you need will result in gradual loss. You should certainly lose weight on 1500, though not super-fast.
- You'll feel less hungry if you eat foods that have big volume for their calories, like vegetables, and also if you eat lean proteins and dairy.
Sending you hugs and good thoughts

Jude in the UK

[aphil]

I think that first off you should be aiming more along the lines of 1200-1300 a day, and secondly, I think that it would be a good idea to find some therapy or a group in your area.

[jillybean720]

I whole-heartedly agree that you should seek professional assistance/guidance. Even if your parents don't want to help, you're 19 years old. You are old enough to seek help for yourself. If you are still on your parents' insurance, find out if maybe there would only be a copay, and if your parents are still unilling to help, maybe you could afford to pay the copays yourself so they don't even have to be involved. If you're going to school anywhere, even part time at a community college or anything, they should have a health center, including a counselor with whom you could schedule an appointment. That was my first experience with therapy--a campus counselor

[lumifan4ever]

I would think you need at least 1200-1300 calories. Probably a little more. Starting out so low, you have no where to go down to.

On a side note, JillyBean...love the quote in your signature. Skinny people have problems too. That is soo true. My life was never perfect when I weighed 100 pounds, or 140 or 196.

[baffled111]

Hey there,

Seeing a counsellor of some kind sounds like a pretty good idea.

That said, it occurs to me that if you have issues with overly restricting your food and with bingeing, it might be best for you to practice moderation with a moderate calorie intake--to practice for moderate eating for the rest of your life. If you started on 1500-1600 calories a day, you wouldn't be very hungry and you'd still be losing weight, just a bit more slowly. Losing the weight doesn't seem to be your biggest issue, and it isn't a race, so losing weight moderately and healthily really might be the best thing for you to do.

Are you exercising too? If you do plenty of exercise, you can still lose weight fairly quickly with a decent calorie intake.

[WaterRat]

Plus if you add some real food (not cereal, bars and slimfast) you won't feel so hungry!

[lynnm39]

I weigh less than you and am 20 years older, and I can lose 1 lb. a week by eating 1500 calories a day (although I zigzag my calories, so I eat a different number of calories each day, with the week adding up to 10,500). I'll bet you could easily lose at least 1 lb. a week on 1500 calories a day. I know you're in a hurry, but it's best to build healthy habits and not feel so deprived as you're losing. Sometimes, that deprivation backfires and a binge can result (perhaps this is what happened to you last time?).