Apps/methods of tracking food that DON'T count calories, and methods of tracking progress that DON'T involve weighing yourself? (I have an eating disorder)
Content warning for description of disordered eating behaviours (including binging, purging, and starvation) for anyone who may need a heads up.
I'm basically five mental illnesses stacked on top of each other in a trenchcoat. I have binge eating disorder, and in past attempts to lose weight, I've ended up engaging in disordered eating behaviours like having intrusive thoughts about throwing up what I've eaten and getting really scarily close to doing it (and I know if I ever open that floodgate it's not going to just be a one time thing), treating my daily calorie intake like a challenge to see how few calories I can consume (with some days getting as low as 700-800), punishing myself after going over my daily calorie limit, and restricting calories as a punishment, both for food and non-food related "infractions". The last serious attempt I did at losing weight using CICO, I had to stop because I was really close to developing full blown anorexia/bulemia.
So anyway, counting calories is a big no-no for me. I've done CICO with great success about 4-5 years ago, I know how great it is, but that was before I started racking up mental illness diagnoses. In my current circumstances, it just ain't gonna work for me, so please don't come here just to say CICO is the only reliable method. I don't need the level of specificity that CICO provides, just a way to monitor what I'm eating that's more helpful than just writing it in my notes app.
For now, I'm not aiming specifically to lose weight (you're not supposed to while in treatment for BED, but I think treating my BED will come with the side effect of losing weight) - I want to track my food intake in part as a way to deal with the aforementioned binge eating thing, but also to start building the habit to make it easier to transition into a healthier diet. I also feel like this is a more sustainable change than calorie counting long-term. I'd rather use my limited mental bandwidth for things other than calculating a value for everything I eat, and I want to make sustainable long-term lifestyle changes; I don't want to "diet" because it will definitely be of the yoyo variety.
In the same vein, I tend to get obsessive about weighing myself, and normal, healthy fluctuations in weight can make me spiral into unhealthy behaviours. I tend to compare my body weight to other people, even if their body's healthy weight is naturally much lower than mine, so not knowing it is one way of preventing that. I also want to work on fitness and strength, which would probably involve building muscle, and ofc with muscle being heavier than fat, gaining muscle can make it seem like you're not making progress. For when I do start doing the lifestyle change thing, I need to find another way of tracking progress (because without tracking it, I feel like everything I'm doing has no point and lose motivation to continue) that doesn't come with the same downsides as scales.
The ideas I've had include things like resting heartrate for fitness, body measurements (much more admin to find the tape and measure a bunch of different places so I'm less likely to give into the impulse to keep getting on the scales every day, and also doesn't fluctuate as much) and potentially body fat percentage? But I've no idea how one goes about finding out their body fat percentage. Any input or suggestions would be great!
TL;DR I have a history of disordered eating, and the traditional methods of CICO and weighing yourself regularly would be dangerous for me. Does anyone know of any potentially safer alternatives (especially apps, I have an android and I live in the UK if it's important) to monitoring my food intake and tracking my body's progress as I work on switching to a healthier lifestyle?
If anyone has any suggestions, experience, or advice, I'd really appreciate it! Also if anyone else has experience with making this kind of food/exercise lifestyle change with a history of disordered eating, I'd really appreciate any input. Thank you in advance ❤️
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