Why is the fear of weight gain still such an issue?

I get so frustrated that, at this advanced stage in recovery, Ben still stresses about putting on weight. Today I asked him if we could work on doing full days at school once the AS Level exams are over and he starts A2 course work towards the end of this term. "Not if I find I've put on loads of weight next Friday", he said.


So I reminded him (again) that we have to look at weight gain over the long term to avoid knee-jerk reactions to every scales session which result in maintaining or losing weight over the long term. Next Friday we will be 8 weeks into the Recovery Contract and I've been making notes of how much his weight has gone up and down during this time. At the moment he's averaging 0.33kg gain per week over 6 weeks. I pointed out to him that he'd have to increase by a massive 2kg next Friday for it to average out at the 0.5kg gain recommended by the NICE Guidelines. So, in theory, that shouldn't stress him out now that he is much, much more rational in his thinking.

So I guess it's a case of reinforcing this concept over the next week and also the fact that he is not yet weight restored.

But it frustrates me that he still worries that he will suddenly 'balloon out' into some kind of blubber monster - and even at just a couple of kg heavier he feels he wouldn't be attractive to the opposite sex.

The Good News is that I've heard so many mums say that one of the most amazing things about full weight restoration and recovery is that gradually weight and appearance become less important, sometimes disappearing altogether...

But we're not weight restored yet...

And they also say the last few kg are the hardest...