Scared about "starvation mode" or a slowing of metabolism

As a teen I had disordered eating. I would restrict and then binge. Eventually, I developed healthier eating habits, and stopped being so obsessed with the thought of weight and food.
I'm now 22, and lately I feel like I might be starting something again... I don't really know what...
A month ago I got very sick with a fever and couldnt eat for about a week. I felt so amazing after not eating for that week.. I weighed myself and had lost some pounds.. And so I started thinking again about food and avoiding it or eating smaller portions. Christmas was difficult and I ate more than I would have liked...
Now, the past couple weeks I have avoided buying groceries.. and I just get such a bad feeling from eating. I get very anxious... Even if I tell myself its okay to eat, and remind myself about the negative health implications of not eating.. I still feel really freaked out most of the times I eat.

But I'm also really freaked out about the possibility of binging one day... due to not eating much lately.
AND I am extremely worried about ruining my metabolism in the long run. I spent all night looking at peer-reviewed papers about the effect of caloric restriction on metabolism...
I can't tell what I'm more scared of, eating food now or ruining my metabolism in the long run.
I feel like either way, I lose. And it is really distressing me, I dont know what to do.

I know my thinking is becoming unhealthy, but I just need to put my mind to rest...
Does anyone have experience with starting to eat again after severely restricting calories? Do you feel your metabolism is healthy again? Did you gain more weight back than you had before restricting your diet?

I restricted for a few months this time last year. Like you, it was right after Christmas, I'd put on a few pounds, and I wanted them gone and then some. I did and still do have a very unhealthy idea of "thin", and that did not help.

When I stopped restricting, I gained weight pretty quickly. But I also stopped losing weight about a month into the restriction. My body did go into starvation mode, and although I wasn't gaining, I wasn't losing, either. I had hit a plateau, and I wasn't happy with it. I tried diet pills, excessive exercising...it just wouldn't come off. I think that's the only reason I stopped. I got sick, and I got sick of being sick and STILL not losing weight. So I started eating again, and I gained all of it back, and fast. I haven't been able to lose it since. (Part of it is medication - increased appetite, lightheadedness if I don't satisfy it whereas before, I could go much longer without food.)

It kind of was a lose-lose situation, honestly. I always felt sick, and I never got where I wanted, and now my relationship with food is worse than it was before. So, please be careful.

I'm gonna give you an honest answer. The truth is starvation mode is prolly not gonna slow down your weight loss much. I was eating well below 1000 for a while last spring and the weight was still falling off me hard. The reality is if you're starving yourself, you're gonna get thin; s'how it works. Your weight loss may slow by some fraction of a percentage but the net result is still skinny.

Starvation mode is only gonna hurt you if you ###$ up and start eating again. As in, I put on 70 pounds in like 7 months when I went back to normal food. (God I can't believe they let you post numbers here this site is ridiculous.) So don't start in with it unless you're pretty sure you can stick to restricting. Esp. if you cut out all carbs or sugar or whatever; when you reintroduce that $#%^ you're gonna blow up like a balloon, so don't go down that road unless you plan to stay on it.

Callalily wrote:The truth is starvation mode is prolly not gonna slow down your weight loss much. I was eating well below 1000 for a while last spring and the weight was still falling off me hard. The reality is if you're starving yourself, you're gonna get thin; s'how it works. Your weight loss may slow by some fraction of a percentage but the net result is still skinny.

And if you keep losing weight, you die. There's a reason it's called "starvation" mode.

Callalily wrote:Starvation mode is only gonna hurt you if you ###$ up and start eating again.

The problem is that you can't continue in starvation mode indefinitely. You will have to begin eating again and when you do, you will probably put on a lot of weight.

Callalily wrote: Esp. if you cut out all carbs or sugar

I had a friend who did just that. She ended up heavier than she was when she started her diet.

Callalily wrote:I'm gonna give you an honest answer. The truth is starvation mode is prolly not gonna slow down your weight loss much. I was eating well below 1000 for a while last spring and the weight was still falling off me hard. The reality is if you're starving yourself, you're gonna get thin; s'how it works. Your weight loss may slow by some fraction of a percentage but the net result is still skinny.

Starvation mode is only gonna hurt you if you ###$ up and start eating again. As in, I put on 70 pounds in like 7 months when I went back to normal food. (God I can't believe they let you post numbers here this site is ridiculous.) So don't start in with it unless you're pretty sure you can stick to restricting. Esp. if you cut out all carbs or sugar or whatever; when you reintroduce that $#%^ you're gonna blow up like a balloon, so don't go down that road unless you plan to stay on it.

Callalily, I'm honestly not sure if you are a troll or if my sarcasm meter is broken. It sounds like you're advocating indefinite starvation mode as a way to lose weight. This is not only irresponsible, unhealthy, and dangerous, but also biologically impossible.

Dejamelie, don't sabotage yourself by restricting to the point of starvation mode. It will only result in short term loses and will make losing weight in the long term more difficult.

Ha, okay, I know you guys mean well. I do think it's kinda funny that when an eating disordered person posts eating disordered thoughts in the Eating Disorders forum, she's accused of trolling. But okay, I'll find another board.