Eating Disorders - fieldi

22 Recovery Through Nutritional Counseling
Martin Katahn’s picture in Beyond Diet; it has become a helpful educational
tool (Katahn 1984) (See Figure 2.1.)
By starting to eat (at least 1,200 calories for females) and doing so
until the body “trusts” that this will be the new way of eating, the
patient will initially gain weight (Striegel-Moore 1986; Garner and
Garfinkel 1984). But after awhile, when the body can depend on this
amount of food being available daily, the metabolic rate will increase
and eventually the body will burn all calories for its physiological
needs (Keys et al. 1950). Because the body now needs more than the
minimum 1,200 calories, the food plan becomes a weight-loss plan
and the patient starts to lose weight. Understandably this is an exhilarating
experience for the patient, which I happily share because she
worked hard to get there.
When weight starts to drop, it is important to keep increasing the
calories until maintenance is reached. This usually happens between
1,750 and 2,000 calories, the variation depending partly on how
active she is.
Consider the following example: A fifteen-year-old girl, who was
5 feet, 6 inches, tall and weighed 116 pounds, came for her initial
Figure 2.1 Metabolic Reactions to a Low-Calorie Diet, by Dr. Martin Katahn