Eating Disorder Recovery Meal Plans: Learn What and How Much to Eat to Heal

Being properly nourished is a critical part of recovering both physically and mentally from an eating disorder. Restricting, purging, and bingeing can all result in extreme weight fluctuations, hormone dysfunction, amenorrhea, gastrointestinal distress, bone loss, muscle wasting, organ failure, and cognitive impairment. An eating disorder recovery meal plan is your primary tool to achieve nutritional rehabilitation, which is key to long term treatment success.

It can be confusing to figure out what and how much to eat to recover from your eating disorder. Just like no two people are exactly alike, no two recovery meal plans are exactly alike either. While this blog is a great starting point to understand the basics of an effective meal plan, I highly recommend working with an eating disorder specialized dietitian who can help you devise an eating disorder recovery meal plan that is personalized to meet your unique nutritional needs. 

The basics of an eating disorder recovery meal plan

While treatment for anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and ARFID may all look different, the basics of each meal plan will remain the same. Every meal plan will take into account these 4 key components: Consistency, adequacy, balance, and variety.

Consistency

Or another word for eating regularly throughout the day. Eating every couple of hours provides much needed energy to the body’s critical systems (think brain, heart, lungs, muscles, digestive system, etc). Providing fuel at regular intervals prevents the body from entering “caveman mode” (re: fight or flight), and can help your brain relax, allowing it (and you) space to process your complex thoughts and emotions in treatment.

Adequacy

Or another word for eating enough. “Enough” food looks different for everyone, and depends on your age, activity level, and weight history. You may need to eat more than you are used to– possibly even more than what you ate before your eating disorder– to achieve adequacy, especially early on in your recovery. Your energy needs may change over time as well. Your dietitian will help you make adjustments to your plan as you move through the treatment process.

Remember, your energy needs are unique to you, so try not to compare what you are eating to what someone else in recovery (or out of recovery) is eating.

Balance

Or another word for eating all the food groups. Your dietitian may have you focus first on eating larger portions of the energy dense food groups, like carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Incorporating fruits and vegetables may be a longer term goal, and might depend on your relationship with these foods and how they make your body feel (i.e. if eating a lot of fibrous vegetables makes you feel too full too fast, you may need to eat less of them for a while).

Variety

Or another word for eating lots of different foods that fall within those food groups. Adding variety may challenge your sense of “safe” foods and “fear” foods, ultimately supporting your long term, healthy relationship with all foods (because remember, no food is “good” or “bad”– food is just food).

Other components of successful eating disorder recovery meal plans

Collaboration

All eating disorder recovery meal plans should be the result of a collaborative effort between you and your dietitian. This means that your meal plan should take into account your food preferences and any intolerances or allergies you may have. Your food preferences may have changed as a result of struggling with your eating disorder (ex: you always used to eat cookies for dessert, but now you avoid them because they make you feel guilty and anxious). Your dietitian may challenge you to consume these foods, and provide support and encouragement to help you manage the complex emotions you might experience.

No counting or tracking

Although your dietitian may calculate your caloric energy needs, your meal plan will not require you to count calories, track points, weigh portions, or count macros. Your dietitian might recommend an exchange based meal plan, where you are responsible for eating a prescribed amount of carb, protein, or fat portions at each meal. This type of plan gives you the flexibility to meet your exchanges with lots of different types of foods. Or your dietitian may recommend a plate-by-plate approach, where at each meal your plate should be covered with foods from each food group, the portions of which your dietitian will recommend.

Long term goal of eating intuitively

Not everyone needs to follow their eating disorder recovery meal plan forever. Think of it as a stepping stone to help you stabilize your physical health and establish a healthy relationship with food. As you progress through recovery, you may feel increasingly confident in your ability to eat according to your body’s hunger and fullness cues. Your dietitian can provide you with the tools to become an intuitive eater and support you on your lifelong intuitive eating journey.

Learn more about eating disorder-specific recovery

Anorexia recovery	Bulimia recovery	Binge eating recovery

Sample eating disorder recovery meal plans

The sample meal plans I have provided here are just that– samples. They are meant to illustrate how consistency, adequacy, balance, and variety come together to create a full day of eating. Your actual meal plan will be tailored to your energy needs and recovery goals. 

Summary

An eating disorder recovery meal plan is a crucial part of eating disorder recovery for every type of eating disorder. The goal of any eating disorder recovery meal plan is to stabilize eating patterns, restore weight, replenish nutrient stores, and provide your body and brain with enough energy to function optimally. 

Your meal plan will focus on consistency, adequacy, balance, and variety, and will be the result of collaboration and communication between you and your dietitian. Eating regular, balanced meals that meet your energy needs will ultimately help you meet your recovery goals. If your goal is to eventually learn how to eat intuitively, your dietitian can help you transition from your meal plan to listening to your body by providing you with the tools to listen to and honor your hunger and fullness.

Reach out to work with an eating disorder dietitian today and jumpstart your recovery with a meal plan as individualized as you.