Hey guys...

Maybe this is just a wild pitch in the dark, but I was wondering if anyone else is currently burdened with or trying to recover from an eating disorder.

Honestly, I still haven't told anyone official but I guess in a way, this is sort of a practice, and I doubt anyone will really read this, but even if they do, it'll be anonymous. Sorry, I'm rambling.

My weight has ranged from "healthy" to low, and someday I hope to recover. I tend to restrict my calories heavily and fast, along with a constant torrent of disparaging thoughts, but now I've been eating low carb and I feel like it's been really helping me. I've let myself eat to satiety without purposely restricting my calories (though I still count but someday I hope to stop this obsessive counting) and stopped exercising in attempt to burn the calories of everything I ate.

I know jumping from restricting calories to restricting carbs isn't recovery, but it's a step up, in my opinion. And hopefully someday, I'll be able to eat without all this mess in my head.

I'd appreciate to hear others' experience with this way of eating.

Hi. I can relate to your situation: I never told anyone, and my weight ranged from "healthy" to low. I really think you're on the right track. A huge contributor to my eating disorder was the fact that I could NOT moderate my low-fat "healthy" diet. I was constantly hungry and prone to bingeing. It was honestly easier for me to survive on coffee, V8 and protein drinks (ketosis, anyone?)

Eating low-carb puts you in the best position for recovery, IMO. Yes, you're restricting your carbs, but that's because they're an addictive substance! If you've already tried 'moderation' of the terrible standard diet and it doesn't work, then it simply doesn't work and you have to try something else. I consider it practicing abstinence. I don't know if this applies to you or not...

Eating LC also greatly helped the anxiety and depression I struggled with since I was a teen. The ED basically got put out of a job. This is huge. I really believe a lot of mental illnesses will respond favorably to better nutrition.

Best of luck to you. I'd recommend getting professional help, but that would make me kind of a hypocrite. Do make sure you have a safe place to vent and/or ask questions. There are ED recovery forums out there, too.

(ETA) I peeked at your journal and I see you're 17 or 18? I know I would never have wanted to talk to my parents, family doctor, or anyone at school about an ED; but in the city I lived in when I was in my 20s, there was a Teen Health Center. It was available for anyone under 24 and it was free and confidential. They had support groups and medical care. Maybe see if there's something like that in your area?

Absolutely agree. As a teen and young adult, I binge/starved (which is at least better for the teeth ) and while I got a grip on the emotional problems I always struggled with the physical symptoms. Why was I so hungry, all the time?

Low carb solved that one.

A very useful book was The Diet Cure by Julia Ross. It's a guide to pinpointing what nutrients you might be deficient in, how to eat to handle moods and brain chemistry, and she's also a low carb advocate!

I think most people are struggling with chronic malnutrition, and it creates mental and emotional problems as well as the physical ones.

I've noticed the difference too whenever I'm eating low carb and whenever I'm not. So far, eating low carb is when I felt the healthiest, but I guess I'm a slow learner because I tend to resort to other means when times get rough.

I appreciate your concern and though I'm not planning to seek professional help, i have confided on a long-distance friend who's been very understanding. Though your guess is a year up I also don't feel ready to talk to anyone officially about my ED for a couple reasons.

I get what you're saying. Not that anyone believes it since I'm not thin, but I know I have ED tendencies.
I've never been officially diagnosed with an eating disorder, but I at least have binge eating disorder. I've also had bulimic tendencies in the past. I never purged because I also have a phobic fear of vomiting, but there have been instances where I over-exercised or fasted to "make up for" a binge.

I definitely have no intuition when it comes to food.
A lot of LCers say that they eat when they're hungry, well after so many years of under-eating to lose weight or just saying "to heck with it!" and binging...I can't just do that. I don't trust it.
So I've actually found that, since going LC, I've had to start counting calories in order to make sure I'm eating enough.
There was an instance early on when I had 2 boiled eggs for breakfast (nothing else) and was starving 2 hours later. I kept thinking to myself that it didn't make any since because I'd just eaten so much. Well, on a whim I looked up how many calories are in that and it turns out it was way less than I expected!
There have been other instances to where I get hungry after dinner, and, if I calculate how many calories I've eaten during the day it isn't surprising that I'm hungry because in times like that it's usually under 1500.
So, for me, the number helps put it in perspective that it is okay to listen to my body when the binge cycle isn't being fueled by insulin release with overeating on carbs.
Also, I never counted calories before, so it wasn't part of the eating disorder.

You mention you did, so I'm definitely not saying you need to do this too. Especially if doing so may lead back to bad habits.
My point is just that for someone with a history of disordered eating, you may need to modify LC to work around those learned behaviors. That's also why I do not do intermittent fasting even-though it's gaining popularity and there's evidence it's good for you. I did try it once before and it lead back to the old restrict-binge cycle that lead me to gain weight in the first place...so it isn't for me.