Calorie counting/exercise addiction?
 

Don't really feel like i fit in anywhere with this at the moment, sometimes i feel recovered, not in the place i'd like to be, but recovered as in dealing with it/managing the effect on my life. Bit of background information, about a year ago i started running and counting my calories to lose a little weight, not alot, but enough to put me in an underweight bmi category. Once the weight was lost i upped my calories to the RDA but was unable to stop counting, anexiety about overeating led me to usually overestimate; plus getting stronger meant i upped my exercise. Long story short i continued to lose weight and realised things were wrong (always cold, couldn't concentrate on conversations, always thinking about food, etc), so i went to the doctors but with little follow up from their side in terms of treatment, i upped my calories but couldn't stop counting. I then started training to run the yorkshire 3 peaks, which is in about 3 weeks now. Still unable to stop counting calories and the amount of calories that i am eating seems huge and always increasing but im still always hungry & quite often feel i dont have enough energy to run. Not exercising seems to correlate with feeling low (in addition to feeling of guilt). Seem to have many other symtoms of undereating/overtraining but just seem to be eating such huge amounts; used to love my food but now its at the point i just wish i didnt have to eat, or think about it. Theres so much more i could say but sat here counting to 10 and trying to get over the anxiety caused by realising i undercounted the calories in my sweet potato (by a realistically insignificant amount); do i need help? i just feel like i eat too much to need help

it depends really how its making you feel for example if its making you feel worst then stop. sending you hugs

If you are continuing to lose weight and have found it is beginning to affect you in your daily life, then it is probably a good idea to go and seek help. Have you been eating to match how much you will be burning off by training? It might be wise to keep a food diary so you can see exactly what it is you have been eaten and whether it's enough to cover what you burn off? If it is concerning you, then it is definitely something you should ask your GP about.

It sounds like you're having an awful lot of anxiety about the numbers involved with eating rather than the weight/calories themselves. How do you think you would feel if you changed your daily target of calories, above the RDA, to compensate for your level of exercise at the moment?

It sounds like this is creating a great deal of anxiety for you right now and I agree with the others that it's really something you should speak to a doctor about, because it sounds like its making you incredibly unhappy.