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ephion comments on Open thread, 24-30 March 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: Metus 25 March 2014 07:42AM

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Comment author: JQuinton 28 March 2014 03:07:14PM 3 points [-]

A friend of mine has mild anorexia (she's on psych meds to keep it contained) and recently asked me some advice about working out. She told me that she is mainly interested in not being so skinny. I offered to work out with her one day of the week to make sure she's going about things correctly, with proper form and everything.

The thing is, just going to the gym and working out isn't effective if her diet and sleeping cycle aren't also improved. I would normally be really blunt about these other facts, but her dealing with anorexia probably complicates things a bit... especially the proper diet part. I was thinking that if she has trouble eating enough, maybe she could try drinking some protein shakes. But I'm not sure if that would actually be effective in helping her reach her goal of putting on more weight if she's not eating properly other times of the day. If anyone has any advice on how I could more effectively broach that subject without being insulting or belittling I would appreciate it.

Comment author: ephion 31 March 2014 05:12:52PM 0 points [-]

If she wants to get bigger, then I'd get her started with Greyskull LP. It's a fairly basic beginner weight lifting program that, when combined with a caloric surplus, will get good results for size and strength. There isn't much work involved (just three sets on 2-3 exercises; doing more is counterproductive for beginners) so it won't use as much energy as a cardio or circuit intensive routine.

A couple of protein shakes with milk/almond milk are enough to get a caloric surplus going. You only need 250-500 extra calories to make good gains, and you can easily get that with a shake or two.