Reintroducing sports in ED recovery

ED Question

Hello! I wanted to ask advice about sport/physical activity as someone who has been in recovery from restrictive ED.

I am fully weight restored/recovered mentally and physically. My hunger cues are back, no food noise/food fear etc, complete recovery win :)

However, during my time restricting, I have been laying pretty have on sports/workouts and such. I have been doing weightlifting, HIIT, barre and more all week w no rest days. It was very triggering as you can imagine, esp because I was undereating.

But I also realised how much I loved sport and having a routine where u go to the gym/fitness classes. I feel like it clears my mind and is overall a lovely hobby to have.

Now that I am deep into recovery and have no “body goals” in mind, I wanna try reintroducing sports into my life. I have so many classes I wanna try! From boxing to lagree to just weights.

But as you can imagine, I am scared it will turn out to be a slippery slope. Mainly because I’m sure it will tamper with my appetite; like, I know how to listen to my body with little to no physical activity. But what happens when I start lifting, let’s say? My hunger will likely spike up.

Also, I don’t know how to feel about possibly seeing any physical changes on my body, both “Positive” (like unintentionally losing weight or what there boogerhead influencers call “toning up”) or “negative” (gaining weight). Overall, I still feel cautious about any change in my body, although it is not the same animalistic fear I felt before recovery.

I am working with my therapist on this issue, but I would also like some advice from someone who’s been through something similar. Could you organically introduce sport back into your life? And did it truly not mess with your recovery?

Thank you everyone in advice!

TL;DR: I want to reintroduce sport into my life as someone who’s been recovered for ages, but am scared for my hunger cues/self-perception. Has anyone ever experienced something similar? Do you have any advice?

Posted Jul 11, 2026, 2:25 PM UTC · locked

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