This blog post is going to address overshoot in eating disorder recovery. It is the first of a couple that I have lined up on this incredibly important topic.
Here’s the deal with overshooting your pre-eating disorder weight in recovery: you need to do it.
In scientific terms overshoot is referred to as “Poststarvation Hyperphagia” and there have been a number of studies done to explain why this happens and why it is important.
Minnesota Starvation Study
The first to note it as such was the Minnesota Starvation Study in which the men who had been starved, once put on a recovery diet, overshot their pre-study weight. So after being starved, their bodies reached a heavier weight than they had ever been before.
How much more? An average of 10 percent.
Did they stay at the new heavier weight? Yes, initially, but then they pretty much all naturally and without decreasing the amount that they were eating returned to the pre-study weight.
Why is this important? It demonstrates that the body, after a period of starvation or malnutrition, if given enough resources in the way of calories, will initially gain more weight than it finally settles at. As eating disorders create a starvation environment for the body, it is important this concept is taken into account when helping a person who has suffered malnutrition make a full recovery.
The challenges that face a person in recovery today:
- You have to learn to deal with the thin ideal in society and you have to learn to say “sod that.” You will not fully recover unless you can come to terms with the fact that you need fat on your body in order to be healthy.
- Pre-weight restoration you will struggle immensely with the thought of having fat on your body. Ironically, once weight restored, you will not care about it as much because you are thinking clearly. This is a catch-22, and there is no easy answer, you simply have to eat your way to a place of being about to deal with it. There is, however, support available for you to help you get though the toughest parts. Use it!
- You have to stay there. You cannot reduce the calories that you are eating. You have to allow your body to return to your pre-eating disorder weight naturally. You have to trust it. If you interfere by reducing the amount you are eating you will not fully recover.
- Weight restoration to your pre-eating disorder body weight is NOT necessarily full recovery. Sorry. You are partly recovered at this point. In order to reach full recovery you should aim to overshoot your pre-eating disorder weight.
- Your eating disorder is freaking out as you read all this. Your eating disorder thinks that overshoot is the worst thing in the world that could ever happen. Your eating disorder has every right to freak out about overshoot, because if you are successful in getting there, you have killed it.
Overshoot in eating disorder recovery: TL;DR
- People whose bodies have been starved need to put on weight in order to be able to think clearly and logically.
- Once weight restoration starts is is both natural and advisable to overshoot the pre-starvation weight.
- DO NOT REDUCE INTAKE if overshoot happens. The body will naturally return to the weight it needs to be when it is good and ready.
- Fire any therapist who tells you that you have “put on enough weight” if you reach your pre-eating disorder weight and you still feel that your body wants to eat more. You haven’t.
- My rule of thumb is a 10lb buffer. Aim for 10lbs over your pre-eating disorder weight when you are in weight restoration and aim to stay there!
- Don’t suffer alone or in silence. Talk to a ED specialized therapist, a friend who is invested in your recovery, or join our peer support group where you can get the support of others who have made it though.
Sorry but I’ve no idea was TL; DR is? Can you clarify please?
Yikes, sorry. Tech talk.
TL;DR = Too Long; Didn’t Read
i.e. summary.
🙂
Hiya if you could message me or just post on here, is there a limit to overshoot? I’m probably a 30% overshoot but my mum is really against my recovery for this. I’m pretty sure this is normal and just where my body needs to be but she doesn’t seem to think so.
Hiya,
Yes, great question, and my next blog post touches on this. I think no limits. You have to allow your body to do what your body needs to do.
What is your mum saying? Feel free to get her to email me if she has questions etc. It is important that she understands there should be no upper limits on weight restoration.
ED in girls and woman are very connected to our relashionship to our mothers. I was anorexic at 13, then had trouble with self image all my life untill 22, when I gained a lot of weight due depression and started purging by vomiting, and then here I am at 32, finally loving myself enough and healing me from my ED ( severe bulimia) and from all the EMOTIONAL abuse and neglect from my mother which I was never able to admit before because she made me believe she was an angel, I loved her so much, I couldnt see how toxic she was to me and to my sense of self worth, self love and self image. I was 49kg when I started recovering and stopped purging ( Im 1,62m ) and now Im 64kg, that I think Is my full recover weigh. I suffered a lot with Edema, swelling, hunger, binging , also I was allowing myself to eat things I would ALWAYS purge after during my decade of bulimia, and I have eaten whatever by body asked. Its part of recovery to allow your brain to develop new neurological pathways out of ED patterns. It needs to learn that it 8s nourished and loves and will not go through dehydration and starvations, and vomiting and purgings and restriction, then your hunger and craving will go down, and your body will learn balance. Tell your mom to FUCK OFF, she is being SO TOXIC AND UNLOVING not wanting you to recover and promoting body hate patterns in you by saying she is against weigh gain, but you LOVE and TRUST her so much that you cant see it, and Im so sorry for that. FORGET APPROVAL of your mother, you dont need it, and Im sorry to say you will never be good enough to here there will always be something wrong or missing in you in her eyes because she is probably a Narcissistic Mother. Love yourself and do what is best for you. A loving mother would be supporting your recovery and loving you and making you love yourself in whatever weigh you are now. She should be SO PROUD and ENCOURAGING that you are healing and being so courageous. DO WHAT FEELS RIGHT FOR YOU , BABY
Tabitha just found out about you fro a support group for ed carers, My d is 16 and has spent 2 years with this horrific illness. Im in the UK which you know is pretty much diabolical for ed treatment and FBT looked upon as some weird american rubbish. *GRRRRRRRRRRRR
Any way – do you have access to any scientific studies about remission rates from ed with weight overshoot I can show to my d therapy team – They are more than happy for her to remain at 90% w4h BMI 18-19 range in fact her dietician told her she shouldn’t gain more than 1kg as an adult ( bangs head against wall) What i would love to do is print off the scientific evidence for remission rates for anorexic patients in recovery those who reached (almost) wr and those that overshot it and see how many of the study group ended up in true remission compared to those who needed further hospital treatment or ( remained in phase 1 of FBT if that makes sense) . You are absolutely amazing by the way to have fought such a debilitating illness and to reach out and help others … I only wish the bloody powers that be in the UK actually understood an eating disorder and how best to treat it both in adults and children.
Great question. Off top of my head I don’t but let me get back to you? I am traveling from UK to US today but will come back with an answer in couple days.
Sorry about the rough time you have had!
Hi Samantha if you check out the Minnesota Starvation Experiment which is the only evidence based trial to show the effects of refeeding after starvation. Also Gwyneth Olwen from the Eating Disorder Institute cites lots of studies and writes extensively on recover. https://edinstitute.squarespace.com/learn-more/
And Emily Troskianco writes exstensively on overshoot and her own experience.
Emily Troskiancko https://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/emily-t-troscianko
Hi, im a 17year old female and ive been diagnosed with anorexia for maybe a year or less. Ive been eating excessively for a month and a half.. when i checked my weight.. it has gone up by 20lbs and still counting! Ive been freaking out since i didnt want to gain all the weight ive been trying hard to avoid! All the weight seems to be in my stomach,thighs and face, im afraid it will take a really long time to distribute. All the foods ive been craving lately are carbs, fast food, chocolate and salty nuts! Do you think i will gain a lot of weight and when will this all stop? I do not want to be the same weight as i was before my eating disorder, so do u think i should start decreasing my calorie intake and start to workout? I eat about 2500cals a day and sometimes more.
Hi Roj
I went though just what you describe. The key is to breathe, trust your body, and go with the flow. Don’t restrict.
Hi!
Thank you for posting this. I found it very helpful. My question is what if you have over-shot your pre-ED weight by 30 pounds. Does this happen? I was anorexic for 7 years. My body started to gain weight on 400 calories. When I entered treatment my body shot up within 3 months to 30 pounds over my pre-ED weight. My Pre -ED weight is also what my doctor and dietician agreed is most natural for me (about 155). Is this very unusual so overshoot this much? They all say it will go back down, but it’s hard to find other cases where this much of an overshoot happens and goes back down.
Thank you!
Oh yes! I have known people overshoot by far more than that too!
Hello,
Thank you for your response. You have NO idea how much this calmed some of my anxiety. I’ve really been trying hard to trust the process. People just don’t write about overshooting 30+ pounds and then going back down so its hard to be at peace about it as I recover. Especially because the stories I do read they have binged to that point, and I have never done that. My body just packed on the weight in a short time on normal food! Thank you so much. I will just keep eating and waiting for my body to get it together 🙂 Have a great day!
Hi Sara
Hope you are doing well. My daughter is going through exactly what you describe – weight gain despite only eatiing 600-700 calories and fear of eating any more than that. Depresses as no one is taking her seriously and that she must be over eating. Trying to join a club for social exercise but confused by other suggestions she should not exercise to recover properly and yet the doctor is telling her to exercise more to help prevent depression. Such a minefield.
Hi! I just saw this! Since I posted, my body gained ANOTHER 30 pounds. I have overshot my normal range by 60 pounds. It’s been really really hard. The weight gain did eventually stop after a year and now has plataued. It’s goes down couple pounds then stops. Then goes down a couple pounds and then stops. It’s the worst experience of my life and incredibly confusing. I don’t over eat and don’t over exercise.
Hi Sara, just wondering how you’re doing now? I’m going insane with this – feels like my weight will never plateau like everyone else’s. I’ve gained 55lbs in under a year – overshooting my pre-ed weight so far by 40lbs. Any insight to how you’re progress is would be so helpful thank you!
Hi Veronica! I’m sorry I’m just now seeing this..like a year later. To check back in, my body is the same weight. I havn’t gained anymore and I havn’t lost anymore. I’m now just overweight. It won’t come down whether I exercise or change my diet. I think I’m just in that area of it plateuing for a year or two. Every once in a while it will drop 5 lbs, but then goes back up. I know it has to do with my adrenals and my hormones and how bad my anorexia is. I’m still about 60 pounds over my normal weight. It’s been hell. I’ve been recovering for three years now, going into my fourth. I don’t know if my body will ever lose this weight and be normal again. It’s pretty awful. I have a blog http://www.inwardlyrenewed.com where I blog about my recovery. maybe we can connect over there.
Hey Sara! Thank you so much for following up! Wow! I can’t believe your weight is coming down!
How does the weight jist go down AFTER the ” after shoot” if we are still expected to eat certain amount of calories? Or do we need to reduce the calories? But this worries me as ” reducing” = restricting again = becoming obsessesd again= back at square 1 and the anorexia is back. Please reply. Need input. So worried however need input and will try anything to escape this nightmare.
Your words were invaluable for me. I have had an eating disorder for so much longer than your 10 years. I seemed to stay so controlled for so long, I guess it just became my way of life. I never starved by any means, but ate very healthy foods and obviously not enough (restricted). As I got older, several health issues arose due to my obsession with acidic dressings, bloody Mary’s, etc., that I had a bleeding small intestine and couldn’t keep much of what I tried to eat in my body. It took quite awhile for the intestine to heal and as a result, I lost even more weight on top of being extremely thin anyway.
Much like you described, I knew when I saw myself in the mirror, that I was pretty skeletal. I think a lot of my problem stemmed from the trauma of losing my mother suddenly, a bad marriage, and overall, just not feeling good about myself. My size matched the feeling about ME!
I’ve ended up in the hospital due to severe dehydration and addressing the ED problem slapped me in the face. It was my wake up call! I had always lived in the world of denial, using excuses like the bleeding intestine, etc. to explain my thinness. I finally reached the point that I could say out loud that I knew I had a bad problem. Accepting that was the starting place for me in terms of getting better.
I’ve been out of the hospital for about 3.5 months and gained a ton of weight while hospitalized. I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life. I, like you, am major suffering from the huge stomach syndrome and I look like I did when I was 4-5 months pregnant. I had heard from a few people before I read your post, that the abdominal area is the prime spot for weight gain when eating a lot more food. It is uncomfortable, unattractive, embarrassing, and prevents me from wearing clothes. One doctor told me just a few days ago that the body puts on weight there as a way of saving itself by protecting the organs in the body that were under siege from the ED.
You said it took you about a year to stabilize, so that gives me hope!!!
Here are my questions:
I definitely overeat everyday, but primarily really delicious healthy foods. However, I add tons of pretzels to that and even crave chocolate a lot and eat some regularly. I feel like I’m doing the binge eating thing and when I really want something, heaven help me, I eat it. How do I handle getting that more in balance????? Did you find yourself doing that???
I have fat deposits at the top of my thighs and upper arms too. Did you feel like that?
I know your advice will probably be to just roll with it and eat, but I don’t look good the way I am right now at all. I have gotten my head around being larger and can accept and embrace that; however, my body just looks deformed.
Please take in what I’ve said and I would love your advice. Your post really helped me. Many thanks! I am a female. My name confuses people at times!!!
Hi Lee
There were times when I would be eating a hell of a lot, but somehow still restricting. Often, for those of us who have been struggling with a restrictive eating disorder for a long time, restriction isn’t obvious once we get to a point. It can be money-related. Only buying foods that are cheaper rather than those you really want. It can also be to do with still participating in too much exercise. You have to really really rest.
And eat without conditions. Like I said, sometimes we can eat a LOT of food, but still not really be eating the food our bodies are craving – and for reasons other than calorie restriction. The key is finding them.
Hi Tabitha, the problem I have with overshoot and pre-starvation weight is that I don’t really know what my weight was before or what my set point should be.
As I child my diet was heavily restricted to everything low fat as my mother had been an overweight child and didn’t want the same for me and my brother and sister, so food was planned and restricted from day one. Mum was always dieting and I would often follow her diets, I attended Slimming World age 14 even though I didn’t need to loose weight!
When I left home at 18 my weight remained stable for a couple of years, I was in an abusive relationship and made to eat in the toilet, I know it’s mad but then that three year relationship was crazy, there was nothing normal about it.
Then after I left that relationship my weight sky rocketed to 16 stone, I was officially obese and started on slimming tablets by my GP. I managed to loose some weight only to put it back on again. I joined weight watchers at 25 and lost four stone but once I reached my target weight and left the weight crept back up again at 30 I joined weight watchers again and managed to loose 7 stone and continued going there for some years to maintain my weight. But slowly over time my weight went down and down and I’m not really sure at what point I went from dieting to anorexia, this is very unclear, but probably for longer than I realised.
Anyway I am now in treatment and have started gaining weight much as I don’t really want to I know I have to. So from the perspective of understanding what weight I should really be I guess I’ll never know. I think I have to just keep eating and trust that my body will know what I need. So hard to accept after so many years of dieting.
Thank you so much Tabitha you have no idea how much you’ve helped me with getting my head around recovery 🙂
Just a question my mum doesn’t think my weight needs to go all the way up to what it used to as I was slightly overweight before (I was 144 pounds at age 13) but it seems to me that if that wasn’t the case (ignoring the possibility of overshoot here) I would not only have to get back to my pre-ED weight but above seeing as I’m still growing. What do you think? Like I said I was a little overweight by my bmi before so is that weight still ok for me? (I’m also quite large framed for my age and have always been in the heavier side before my anorexia) Thanks ?
Yes Jane. The greater danger is not putting on enough weight in recovery. You are so smart.
Thank you for all of your overshoot articles. I am currently a stone or so over my pre-ED weight, and still seem to be hungry/gaining. After reaching my pre ED weight, I didn’t give my body a chance to fully heal – I went through an immensely painful breakup and lost my appetite (not ED… I just found it hard to eat anything that wasn’t cereal!), and when I gained it back I tried to eat intuitively too early. Fast forward two months later, I finally got the memo my body still wanted around 3,000. I actually feel more miserable than I ever did before, but rereading your articles are helping. Thank you.
Sorry you’ve had a rough time Lucy. Hope things pick up for you.
Hi Tabitha,
I am 45 years old and I had bulimia/anorexia for 20 years. I am 5.5 and I stayed at a weight of 115lb for all of those years. I am now over 5 years into recover following the Minnie Maude guidelines of 3000 a day and I am now 147lb, which I reached in the first 3 months of recovery and have styed there over the last 5 years. I have an identical twin sister who never suffered with an ED and her natural weight was and still is 120 pounds, so I presumed once I got into recovery I would, initially overshoot but I presumed I would come back down to pre ED weight which is and was somewhere at where my twin sister sits at 120-125 lb. As much as I know I’m doing all the right things in recovery, I am still struggling to accept the way my body looks and I truly believe that I have damaged my meablisilm for good. For 5 years now I have had this overshoot with fat deposits all over my body from my feet to my face, I don’t look normal (and I’m not just saying this). Although my weight went all over my body, I still have a rally large extended stomach and a large middle. I am so fed up with playing by the rules and yet there is no sign that my overshoot will ever go, especially after 5 years!
I have read so many articles that say just be patient and it will eventually go back to normal but nothing seems to change. I really don’t want to sound negative but this feels just as painful as when I was in active in my ED, I feel like I have been lied to (not on this site) by so many of the blogs I have read that say things will improve.
Do you know of anyone who has been in a similar situation to me where things have started to improve and where their overshoot has lasted over 5 years and then come down?
I hope you are able to reply, many thanks in advance, Anna
Hi Anna, I just wanted to say I relate so much to you as I’m 40 and suffering from AN for +20 years as well. You are so brave. The longer you have had AN the harder it is to choose recovery, because we haven’t really experienced nonrestrictive eating and lack of relate compulsions, so this half living is all we know. But I’m attempting recovery again, too because I ‘m really tired of this disorder. The previous time I tried i got the bloating and the uncomfortable fullness, the puffy face etc but that was better than this constant pain
I just want to say that I really admire you and that im sure it will pay off for you as it did for Tabitha and many others.
Lots of love.
Hi Tabitha – your posts are fascinating. I would be so grateful if you could guide me and my daughter to some guidance so she can start to understand what is happening to her body. She developed anorexia nervosa when she was 14 , partially recovered some weight but then during her first year at uni her weigh plummeted and she ended up having a hospital stay which included some naso gastric feeding. She returned to uni a year ago still pretty underweight but ok, then 6 months ago she underwent a massive weight increase – 18 kg over 6 weeks.She is absolutely clear that she was not overeating and after her being at home over the summer I fuly believe her. Over the last three months her weight is stable – however she is only eating 600-700 calories a day and exercising a lot. She has been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome during this period as well, All the health practitioniers she sees clearly do not believe she in not overeating and are always trying to give her an opportunity to tell them she is binging – a bit like one of the other posts here, as a result she feels no one is taking her seriously and is in danger of becoming depressed. Is there some scientific information about this that we can refer to/ She thinks if she understands what is going on she can cope better. Is it possible she only needs 600-700 calories per day or will she be malnourished? Any help guidance please.
Sounds to me that because she is eating so little, her metabolism is very low. I would, however, get her checked out and seen my a Dr who really gets eating disorders and is going to give her both the help and respect that she needs.
Hi Tabitha, I’ve been living with anorexia for the past year and a half now. I weighed 224lbs at my heaviest pre-ED and went all the way down to 105.lbs5 last October, 2018. I had the usual ammenorhea at this point for which I was given a pill to bring it back From that I gained around 6lbs and my periods returned! Although even after I stopped, I’ve been rapidly gaining weight and am now at around 130lbs. My thyroid, insulin and blood sugar is normal. I only have PCOS in both ovaries but no other reason to explain this weight gain. No matter if I eat less than 300 or up to 500 calories a day or even with 2 hours at the gym, I still gain weight. I’m definitely eating more than I did when I was losing but not over eating. Maximum 500 calories a day. I’m assuming this maybe the recovery overshoot. My main concern is am I going to go back to the 220+ weight? Is this completely out of my control? I want to stay at 118lbs but my faith in that happening is weakening everyday which isn’t great for the anxiety or depression. My mom thinks I will plateau at 130lbs but I’m not sure. Help 🙁
Thank you so much. I have been trying to recover for 3 months now from anorexia. I have finally started to gain back a significant amount of weight. I haven’t been weighed yet but I feel as if I’m weight restored and it’s really scary having to put on even more weight. My stomach feels so big and I feel like I don’t need to gain anymore weight. This post really helped me and opened up my eyes to the fact that I need to have fat on me to be healthy, and just because I can’t see my ribs anymore it doesn’t mean I’m fat. My body will tell me when I’m at a healthy weight
I know this is an old article, but I’d be thankful if you could help with my question. I read and love ALL of your posts.
What if your pre-anorexia weight is obese? In my case, I went back and forth with disordered eating most of my life. In 2018, I was severely obese (225+ pounds at 5’4″) and decided one day to go on a diet and lose weight. That triggered an anorexia response in me, almost immediately.
Over the next 17 months, my weight bottomed out and I lost 145 pounds, and have now been in anorexia treatment (and continued to relapse many times, until just recently). None of my friggin doctors agree on what weight I should aim for, and I’ve been pretty much going by your posts, to let my body settle where it should, since my pre weight wasn’t healthy either.
Am I doing this right, as far as not assigning a range, including pre weight, since that wasn’t a healthy weight either?
Oooh, and any insight you can provide on how I can stop body checking constantly, short of cutting my damn hands off, would be much appreciated!! 🙂 LOVE your videos and posts, you have been such an inspiration in my *finally* progress-made recovery!
I just stumbled onto this thread and am finding it so infinitely helpful.
My story – I’ve been a grade A restrictor for nearly 5 decades – always underweight, but never enough to end up in a forced treatment center for anorexia, but still always existing on WAY less calories than my poor body needed to fuel my constant exercise matched with nervous energy (how I masked severe anxiety from both myself and those around me). Both my family of origin, and the family i married into overseas were seriously into fat shaming…and judging anyone who carried more than 5-10 extra pounds as morally deficient.
And here I am now…at age 57, committed to recovery and eating three meals a day…but after 5 decades of being praised for being underweight….I have now SERIOUSLY overshot…so much so, that I sat in a new doctor’s office this morning and heard those most cruel and triggering words….obesity. And everything in me wanted to scream….”you don’t understand – I have spent my life starving myself so that I could maintain my weight at 115-120 (I’m 5’7″). I have an iron will…and can so completely disconnect from my body that I don’t even feel the hunger…”
But those things aren’t badges of honor any more….but this morning, weighing in at 2 pounds shy of 200 pounds….and even as I write those words the shame of it floods back in. HOW CAN THIS BE?! How can I have gained 80 pounds by simply eating three meals a day?! And how long does this ‘settling’ take?
Struggling and so in need of solidarity, community, and folks who understand just how hard this healing journey is.