NUTRITION HOTLINE: Natural Weight

Q: If I stop purging, how long will it take for my body to get to its "natural" weight?

A: During the first six weeks after cessation of purging, your body releases a large amount of anti-diuretic hormone. Anti-diuretic hormone causes your body to retain extra fluid, perhaps as a protective mechanism after having been chronically dehydrated.

Clients seem to retain the fluid in their face, ankles, shins, fingers, abdomen, and inner thigh areas. While this is uncomfortable it is only temporary, and wearing loose fitting clothes helps (i.e., sweats or pants with an elastic waistband). Also try elevating your feet at night, daily exercise, decreasing salt in your diet, and drinking water with lemon.

During this time it is important to resist the urge to restrict or overexercise. Restricting or overexercising will prevent your metabolism from returning to its optimum level, and both activities can trigger bingeing. With healthy (non-restrictive) eating and activity, your body should return to its natural (or set-point) weight about 3 months later.

For many clients their set-point is the weight they were at before they developed eating disorder behaviors. If this weight seems too high to you, I suggest you meet with a dietician or your physician to get assistance in determining your set-point weight. Factors we use include genetics, presence of normal menstruation, body composition, laboratory data, dietary intake, and exercise.