[antjeAnt]

Hi. I'm writing because I'm a bit concerned. A couple of my freinds have expressed concerns about my weight and think I might be anorexic. In my opinion I know I'm kinds thin, but I didn't think it was serious. I'm happy with how I look, but I do panic when I gain even a kilo and monitor my body pretty obsesively. It was hard for me to come to terms with being heavier than I was earlier aswell.
My time of the month is regular, but apparently you can still menstruate when anorexic (this was news to me).

The reason I'm a bit concerned as my heart does seem to have developed palpatations a lot and they scare me, but Im easy to scare with health issues. My skin has also been dry and itchy for the last year
I exercise 5 to 6 times a week (very intense workout on the crosstrainer for 45 mins, and then 15 of weights). I do suffer from what the doc thinks might be chronic fatige but he has asked if I want to see an eating disorder clinic too.

Are my freinds being overly concerned or am I just failing to see that my weight might be a problem? Any help gratefully appreciated.

ps: I tried to figure out my frame size, but the wrist method said I had a small frame, and the elbow one said I had a large frame. So I have no idea. I have very broad shoulders so I think possibly medium to large.

[mazing]

If you are having these concerns I would suggest talking to your doctor about assessment if you can. If the people around you are becoming concerned it would probably be good to talk to someone about what is going on and check everything is ok, especially if you are having heart palpatations. It could be something to do with nutriton or something else but still important to get checked just in case.

[lrt1978]

If you are having concerns then I would see your doctor.

When my friends first started to raise concerns, I was the same and didn't think I had a problem, it wasn't until I went to get help then it hit home at how ill I was.

((Hugs))

[antjeAnt]

Thanks Lrt and Mazing. I appreciate your taking the time to answer. I've made an appointment to see the doctor. My boyfriend also just told me that when he looks at me, he is scared for my health, so I guess it's not good. The thing is, I dont WANT to gain any weight, and I dont like being bigger, but that, I am guessing, is what therapy might adress (I hope so anyway).

[Redsoft]

Definitely get evaluated for anorexia if you are concerned, and especially so if so many people are speaking up. It takes a lot for people to speak up about these kinds of subjects generally, so the fact they've made leap says something.

In the meantime...try cutting your workout to five days a week, maybe three if you've just started a routine. The body responds better to two days of recovery sometime in the week. Also, not sure entirely what your routine is since cross-training can mean many things, but thirty minutes of cardio is all one needs unless you are doing an overall special training regimen, including diet, for long distance running (which you shouldn't really do if you're having problems with fatigue). Weights should be done before cardio because of the chemical processes that happens during the workout, involving glycogen especially and others like hydrogen that make muscle movement harder for what essentially feels like no reason, because your body uses up the glycogen it needs to lift weights (contract muscle) when doing cardio first.

Also, when not eating enough or properly, the body does not produce enough glycogen, making workouts more difficult and with significantly less efficacy, just serving to make you more worn out with very little gain, contributing to fatigue. Cardio workouts also serve as a means to lose weight when eating a diet supportive of doing so, so maybe cutting back a little on the cardio wouldn't be a bad idea until you at least get evaluated since you mention your weight may be lower than it should be as it is.

[lrt1978]

Originally Posted by antjeAnt

Thanks Lrt and Mazing. I appreciate your taking the time to answer. I've made an appointment to see the doctor. My boyfriend also just told me that when he looks at me, he is scared for my health, so I guess it's not good. The thing is, I dont WANT to gain any weight, and I dont like being bigger, but that, I am guessing, is what therapy might adress (I hope so anyway).

I didn't want to gain weight and that was hard but with therapy I realised I had to gain weight, I didn't have to like it and I didn't like, I managed to get my weight into the healthy range, once my weight was in that range, I was allowed to maintain. I found therapy did address this and we talked lots about it, what I found was once I started to feel better psychically I didn't want to go back to be under weight and feeling ill all the time.

I am at the point that I can exercise as I am eating enough so my weight has stayed where it is now since January and I am healthy enough to take part in a 10k race in a few weeks, I am running and raising money for UK's eating disorder association beat xx

[spondiferous]

Let us know how it goes with the doctor. I find that if the people closest to me are noticing things are off, they're usually right. There's usually something to be addressed. Good luck.