Anna was once an athletic, seventeen-year-old female; but, during her senior year in high school, her weight plummeted. Anna was running cross-country, anxious about college and her everyday life stressors were piling up. Anna’s parents and primary care doctor worried about her weight and lack of period (known as amenorrhea), but she pushed back and argued it was common among athletes. All parties agreed for Anna to attend college and to support her as best they could. However, when her parents came to visit her at college that fall, she had lost more weight and was experiencing additional symptoms (i.e. hair loss, lethargy, etc.). Her parents decided it was time for more direct treatment of the disorder, and insisted she visit The Kahm Clinic.  

In addition to our experienced nutritionists and passion for what we do, The Kahm Clinic utilizes a very unique and highly sophisticated tool to support our treatment of individuals with anorexia nervosa. Unlike almost all other metabolic machines, the one we use at The Kahm Clinic also measures the three kinds of fuel your body uses, namely, fat, carbohydrates and protein. Usually what we see in the cases of anorexia nervosa is that restricting has severely depressed their metabolism and they are burning a dangerous amount of their own protein to make up for the caloric deficit. Learning about this process motivates them to begin and accelerate the recovery process. It also makes the process more accurate, since we can see when they are fully recovered. Measuring and tracking your metabolism is not an optional add-on to our nutritional counseling, as it is with most nutritionists. For us, it is utterly central and crucial to what we do – we have seen so much progress with our clients over the years that we could never go back to working without them. To read more about metabolic testing and what to expect during the testing procedure, please visit here.

During Anna’s testing, she and her parents learned that because of the severe restriction of food and compulsive exercise (symptoms of anorexia nervosa) the way she was burning fat, carbohydrates and muscle were leading to severe health consequences; including pre-aging her body at three times the normal rate and starvation.

These test results were very concerning for Anna, her parents and The Kahm Clinic professionals – and it was recommended she enter a higher level of eating disorder treatment. To read more about Anna’s journey in anorexia nervosa treatment, please visit here.

Fast forward six months …

Anna's transformation was remarkable! Her metabolism increased by 153%, she was no longer using her own body as fuel and most of her eating disorder thoughts and behaviors diminished. Perhaps most importantly, as her body healed, she began addressing some of the root causes of the eating disorder and was even able to return to college!

This is what we are very good at.

If you are interested, please reach out to us, we would love to help.

802.861.1200 | nick@thekahmclinic.com | www.thekahmclinic.com