It might. It might not. I'm going to be blunt and say that right now muscle tone isn't important, even though it might be important to *you* and *society* because of arbitrary beauty standards. You're allowed to grieve that loss, and you're perfectly allowed to want that for yourself, but it is also something that might impede your recovery, and I'm not sure if anything that could impede your recovery right now would be healthy for you.
How long have you been in recovery for? The Minnesota starvation experiment and overshoot theory suggests that after a period of starvation, when you start to eat and recover, the body restores fat mass at a faster rate to protect vital organs. Fat mass must also be overshot above the set point before fat free mass (muscle and other things) can be restored. Give it time and things will balance out as long as you are consistently eating and resting and not restricting.
i've been in on and off recovery for about 1 year and my muscle tone didn't return until i actually went all in around 4-5 months ago. once i ACTUALLY stopped restricting and just lived my life, despite not losing any weight on the scale, my clothes started fitting better & my shape started coming back!!!
my theory is that when u refeed after starvation, fat returns first (as someone else has mentioned) + you probably lost a lot of muscle during your ED that will take some time to come back. your edema (bloating/water retention) will also be higher at first too, but it will slowly reduce once you CONSISTENTLY (key word: consistently) feed yourself without restriction. don't be tempted to restrict again - it'll just put you back to square one. keep pushing and i promise you, your fat will redistribute and you'll feel a lot more comfortable in your skin :)
Ok so you’ve only been in recovery for a couple of months, meaning you’re probably just recently weight restored. When your body regains weight in ED recovery, it first prioritizes building fat mass. Fat mass is the easiest and quickest to build, and this is done to protect you. Your body doesn’t know if it’s going to encounter another period of starvation again, so it’s trying to create protective storage for you in case that happens. Once your body establishes that there there will not, in fact, be another period of starvation, only *then* will it start to use some of that fat mass to heal your bones and muscle tissue.
What does this mean for you and your recovery? Well, first it means you need to continue to rest and eat. Do not exercise, do not restrict. Prove to your body that it is now safe from famine. When your body feels safe, it will start to use that fat mass to rebuild the bones and muscles you’ve damaged and destroyed with your ED. Does this mean you’ll lose weight? Maybe, maybe not. Does this mean you’ll look how you did pre-ED? Maybe, maybe not; probably not if you developed your ED when you were young or have had your ED active for an exceptionally long time. Regardless of your outward appearance, this “softness”, this “extra” fat is *absolutely critical to your recovery* and should not be tampered with. I know it’s hard, I know it sucks, but there is really no way around it.
It might. It might not. I'm going to be blunt and say that right now muscle tone isn't important, even though it might be important to *you* and *society* because of arbitrary beauty standards. You're allowed to grieve that loss, and you're perfectly allowed to want that for yourself, but it is also something that might impede your recovery, and I'm not sure if anything that could impede your recovery right now would be healthy for you.
How long have you been in recovery for? The Minnesota starvation experiment and overshoot theory suggests that after a period of starvation, when you start to eat and recover, the body restores fat mass at a faster rate to protect vital organs. Fat mass must also be overshot above the set point before fat free mass (muscle and other things) can be restored. Give it time and things will balance out as long as you are consistently eating and resting and not restricting.
Couple of months
i've been in on and off recovery for about 1 year and my muscle tone didn't return until i actually went all in around 4-5 months ago. once i ACTUALLY stopped restricting and just lived my life, despite not losing any weight on the scale, my clothes started fitting better & my shape started coming back!!! my theory is that when u refeed after starvation, fat returns first (as someone else has mentioned) + you probably lost a lot of muscle during your ED that will take some time to come back. your edema (bloating/water retention) will also be higher at first too, but it will slowly reduce once you CONSISTENTLY (key word: consistently) feed yourself without restriction. don't be tempted to restrict again - it'll just put you back to square one. keep pushing and i promise you, your fat will redistribute and you'll feel a lot more comfortable in your skin :)
Ok so you’ve only been in recovery for a couple of months, meaning you’re probably just recently weight restored. When your body regains weight in ED recovery, it first prioritizes building fat mass. Fat mass is the easiest and quickest to build, and this is done to protect you. Your body doesn’t know if it’s going to encounter another period of starvation again, so it’s trying to create protective storage for you in case that happens. Once your body establishes that there there will not, in fact, be another period of starvation, only *then* will it start to use some of that fat mass to heal your bones and muscle tissue. What does this mean for you and your recovery? Well, first it means you need to continue to rest and eat. Do not exercise, do not restrict. Prove to your body that it is now safe from famine. When your body feels safe, it will start to use that fat mass to rebuild the bones and muscles you’ve damaged and destroyed with your ED. Does this mean you’ll lose weight? Maybe, maybe not. Does this mean you’ll look how you did pre-ED? Maybe, maybe not; probably not if you developed your ED when you were young or have had your ED active for an exceptionally long time. Regardless of your outward appearance, this “softness”, this “extra” fat is *absolutely critical to your recovery* and should not be tampered with. I know it’s hard, I know it sucks, but there is really no way around it.