Svenja’s Way Out of Bulimia: Her Period Is Back After 8 Years and Exercise Is a Side Issue

When this message lit up on my phone, I had to read it twice. Eight years without a period, ten years of food problems, first anorexia, then bulimia, plus compulsive exercise that almost cost her the sport she loves so much.

Svenja lives in Berlin and works in film. She was already in therapy at 16, and several coaching programmes followed later. At the beginning of 2024 she started 1:1 coaching with me, with one clear wish: freedom, a life in which food can simply be food.

How it’s possible to get your period back after bulimia and years of compulsive exercise is something Svenja tells you herself in this article.

I’m Lina, a state-certified nutrition consultant and health coach for women’s health. I know this pattern not only from working with clients, but from my own story.

“A few kilos less for the summer”

Svenja’s beginning was almost classic: at 16 she was ill, lost weight and suddenly got attention for it.

Puberty came on top. Her body changed without her having any influence on it, and losing weight became an attempt to take back control. Svenja always knew she had a problem. But admitting that she couldn’t find her way out alone took a long time for a perfectionist like her.

I come across this pattern often: change is frightening, and body and eating seem to be the two areas you can still steer. The eating disorder then works like a railing on a shaky bridge, until you notice that you’re not holding on, you’re being held: by apps, numbers and an ideal.

Svenja was lucky to have her mum by her side, who had had eating disorders herself and saw through her tactics and excuses early on. For her mum it was like looking in a mirror, and yet she remained a reliable support. Just as important were friends who didn’t look away.

Stable in weight, unstable in self-worth

At 16 Svenja started behavioural therapy, in which weight gain and weekly weighing were the focus. She still understands the approach today, and yet she describes that time like this:

After that she oriented herself by plans and by people on TikTok with similar stories, and adopted whatever seemed to work for others. Her own signals went unheard: “Actually I’m tired and should rest, but my head said I still have to do this and this today.”

At some point she felt like a computer that only functions. Food became the only way out of this robot mode, a moment in which she didn’t have to think. That developed into bulimia.

I know this cycle well: exhausted and empty in the evening, the emptiness is filled with food, followed by guilt, compensation and the next diet. A meal plan alone can’t break it, because it doesn’t touch the need behind it: the wish for a break from your own head, for a hug from the inside.

Exercise: from punishment to joy

For Svenja exercise is far more than burning calories. She has been sporty since she was five, played nine years of squad basketball and has been running for over ten years. Many of her friendships began through sport.

In recovery a complete exercise stop is often recommended. I never asked that of Svenja, and looking back she says:

That’s exactly the decisive point: It isn’t the exercise itself that’s the problem, it’s the energy deficit. Professionally this is called relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S): if the body permanently gets less energy than training and everyday life use, it shuts down functions that aren’t immediately vital, including the cycle. If you eat enough and are well nourished, you can exercise during period recovery too. You’ll find more in the article Period missing because of exercise.

Svenja realised something along the way that she wouldn’t have thought possible before: “We women always get put in this box, as if we only eat lettuce leaves. We can eat so much more than we think.” Carbs are her best friend today.

The turning point: injured and still well nourished

Last year Svenja was badly injured twice in quick succession. The cause was reduced bone density. Oestrogen protects the bones, and when energy, nutrients and hormones are missing for years, bone loses substance, often unnoticed until it gives way.

For five to six months she couldn’t run and paid very deliberate attention to her nutrient supply during that time. In the past she would have eaten even less in such a phase to make up for the missing exercise. This time her focus was on healing, so that she could run with her friends again.

It wasn’t easy, and Svenja talks about it openly: it takes strength to accept that clothes get tighter and the body changes, especially now that the hormones are returning. “But my goal is no longer to be as small and inconspicuous as possible. I want energy, I want strength, I want to keep my period.”

What was different this time

Before working with me, Svenja had already done several coaching programmes, with lots of input, exercises and techniques. Her conclusion:

What had been missing until then was the holistic view. We analysed her blood work and found values we could work on, even though she had been told before that everything was fine. We didn’t look at her nutrition with the question of what she was doing wrong, but what she could add, and we explored where her behaviour patterns actually came from.

Today friends come to her with their blood results. That is exactly the aim of coaching: a stable foundation so that you aren’t dependent afterwards, but continue your path with your own tools.

“Your gravestone will never say: she always said no to pizza”

Svenja once picked up this line somewhere, and it stayed with her. In the end nobody will remember what dress size she wore. But she herself remembers the many times she said no out of fear: to pizza, to dinner with friends, to spontaneous plans.

At first she hoped the topic would be settled for good in six months or three years. Today she sees it differently: it remains part of her story, but not a threatening one, rather the chance to get to know herself and her body again and again.

For a long time Svenja was the listener who thought everyone else was much further along. Today she knows: Anyone who engages with this topic and gets help is already a step ahead of many. As soon as you are suffering, you deserve support, no matter whether another woman’s story sounds “worse”.

Dear Svenja, thank you for your courage and your openness. I’m incredibly proud of you. How she is doing almost a year later, she tells in episode 104 about her life after bulimia (in German).