Well…to add my two cents, I’m a 25 yo, 5’8 female and I’ve started losing weight after refeeding. After a 10 year history of constant dieting and a pretty severe stint with anorexia my body is really effed up…my immune system crashed giving me a stint with chronic mono that lasted YEARS and other funky things have happened like suddenly getting a bunch of new food and environmental allergies, having constant sinus infections, gross cystic acne along my jawline, dry flaky skin, IBS symptoms, depression and anxiety…general misery. I got fed up and started refeeding in April 2012. I went from 185-215 pounds, but never changed clothing size oddly enough (remained a size 12 the whole time). Throughout the last two years I’ve also been practicing power yoga a minimum of 3 times but preferably 6 times per week, which is pretty much the first time I’ve ever been consistently physically active. I only stayed at 215 for about a month and then immediately started going down again. It took 9 months to get back down to 185. I then had a dieting relapse and effed up my metabolism/digestion so I did more refeeding this past December-January and now I’m just eating to appetite of whatever I want. I don’t know exactly how much I gained during the second refeed because I’ve decided that scales suck and I threw mine out but judging by clothing Id say no more than 10 pounds…and I’ve already started losing again. I’m now a size 10 so I’m clearly more muscular and my body shape has completely changed (my stomach is smaller and now all my fat goes to my ass and thighs? Weird because I’ve always had a flat butt in the past). I’m eating a lot of abominations including soda, pizza several times a week, donuts every morning and dessert every evening. As time goes by I’m noticing I want more healthy things so I’m slowly shifting to more whole foods and less refined sugars/PUFAs, etc and I would be shocked if I don’t keep losing. This probably isn’t a great inspirational story because a lot of women would be ashamed to weight what I do but I don’t feel like a size 10 is that bad and plus….I’m just really enjoying life for the first time in a while and I’m much healthier! My theory is that the meditation, yoga, and other stress relief tactics I use regularly such as hot baths, journaling, soothing music and lower stress lifestyle made a big different in being able to lose the weight I gained so easily. I know you generally don’t recommend as much exercise as I get but I really love the benefits of yoga. I do it in the evening after I’ve eaten most my calories for the day and it doesn’t seem to hurt my temps.
I personally enjoyed the newsletter and I thoroughly appreciate your honesty. Makes you much more trustworthy.