@Chelcw- “My new goal is to eat in a way that gives me energy instead of just eating in a way that helps me lose wight. I miss having energy and hate feeling dead tired all the time.”
Great quote- I like that, and it gets to the heart of things. Do we want to be strong, robust and full of vitality, or just sorta look like it? Substance or the appearance of substance?
@scarlettsmum – When in recovery, the calorie is the single biggest ingredient for repair and restoration. By focusing on tasty foods that we enjoy and can digest easily, we’re giving ourselves the best chance to recover without having to force feed ourselves. Eating exclusively unrefined, harder to digest food can drop our appetite and slow down the restoration process.
I’m not sure it will necessarily result in more or less weight gain; the body has its own internal signals for what its optimal fat mass is for proper functioning and hormonal signaling. Whether you get there fast or slow through refined or unrefined foods may not matter as much as just getting there, and allowing the body to shift its hormonal landscape to one favoring robustness and vitality. Given that, though, there’s little reason in my mind to remain overly wedded to unrefined foods, and it probably will drag out the process, and maybe give you more time to freak out and jump ship back to restricted eating.