Out with the Old — THE EDGE

Maybe it was the time you stepped on a scale at the doctor’s office and glanced at your mother’s look of horror. It could have started when your stomach formed multiple rolls instead of one flat, elongated line. It’s usually a few different scenarios, but they all lead to the realization that you have a body, not everyone looks the same, and society will deem you “normal” or not based on how you look.

Most of the time, this realization leads us to believe that we have to change who we are and what we look like to be loved. If you get caught in this vicious cycle, it can be extremely hard to get out of.

Eating disorders have always been the disease spreading throughout a wide population of young girls. Anorexia, bulimia, you name it - once someone realizes women with a better figure are treated like royalty, it’s hard to get out of the mindset that you must do everything in your power to look like the perfect girl.

Specifically, Anorexia is a tried and tested way to be skinny. It devours more than the muscle of your heart. It does more than keep runway models stick thin and send middle-aged mothers into cardiac arrest. It eats away at your mind, too. It consumes your schoolwork, your relationships, and your inner thoughts. It becomes all you focus on and all you care about. It becomes the sun, the center of your universe.

No one tells you, though, that eventually your weight will plateau. You will stand there, naked on the bathroom scale, wondering what else you can do and why the number hasn’t declined if the calories you’ve consumed have. If you are at this point or know someone who is, or if you want to establish a better relationship with your body and what you put in it, this is where Reverse Dieting steps in.

Reverse Dieting provides a method largely helpful for women who have been affected by eating disorders and want to get back to enjoying food but healthily. It involves slowly increasing caloric intake over the course of weeks or months (most nutritionists recommend 6 months as an ideal timeline for reverse dieting). It is a common method used by bodybuilders who are looking to get back to a healthy lifestyle after months and months of vigorous training.

When done right, the slow increase of food helps to restore your body’s metabolic rate (aka metabolism) while also minimizing fat gain. Although there is no “one size fits all” technique to this method, experts find that it helps to restore a balanced and healthy lifestyle among those who try it.

If you are at a point in your life where you know you are not eating what your body requires and you want to restore that relationship with food, look into Reverse Dieting. At The Edge, we believe food is fuel and you should never feel the need to restrict yourself from what you love.