Counting calories = eating disorder?

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  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    edited May 2015
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    aggelikik wrote: »
    SkinnyMiss053 wrote: »
    Hi there. I'm new here and I would like to lose 10-20lb. Not sure how much yet. Depends on how I feel. I'm 5'2, 22, female and mfp gave me 1200 calories but I set it to 1350 because I feel like I might binge if I eat so little. I'm not active, but still.

    Anyway, my mom thinks counting calories is an eating disorder. I don't live with her but I know she will bug me about it often. My sister got close to anorexia once and now she thinks I will head down the same road.

    But I don't feel like I would be able to maintain without counting, because if I let myself get fat once I would surely do it again if I didn't keep myself accountable?

    Do you think counting calories forever is an eating disorder or wrong in any way?

    I am on this site, so I have obviously counted calories, but still, yes, I agree with your mother. If counting calories for a while (be it months or years) helps you lose weight or gain weight or whatever your goal is, and if it helps you understand how to make better eating choices for the rest of your life, it is a tool. If it is something you need to do forever to eat, it is a disorder. If for whatever reason, there is a long history of years of very bad eating patterns, leading either ot obesity or being extremely underweight, or becoming bulimic etc, then counting calories for life might be a better choice than the alternative. But feeling at only 22 that you need to spend the rest of your life counting calories or you will get fat, this is disordered thinking IMHO.

    This is a good point, the distinction between feeling like you have to count calories or making the choice to do so. I also agree that it a person feels they have to count calories forever or they'd get fat is disordered thinking, which is not yet an eating disorder but certainly can lead to one.


  • tarcotti
    tarcotti Posts: 205 Member
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    I guess we all have eating disorders then haha. I didn't read any of this except for the first post....
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
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    SLLRunner wrote: »
    barbecuesauce wrote: »
    OP, let me echo everyone who said not to speak to your mom about it. She displays disordered thinking and doesn't seem able to differentiate your way of thinking from hers or your sister's.

    And give yourself credit for manually resetting your calorie goal because you thought 1200 was too low for you. You already seem more self-aware than your mom.

    Do I ever agree with this. The last person to speak to about any aspect of food and/or exercise or dieting is someone who is already disordered. Not engaging, or disengaging if you end up getting pulled in, are the best things you can do.

    A simple, "Okay, I understand," works, or simply changing the subject, or even leaving the conversation if neither of those work.

    Yup. I definitely agree that mom is the one who is disordered here.

    My doctor recommended that I count calories. It's a tool.

    A tool is benign, but a tool in the wrong hands can be a dangerous thing. If someone has an underlying disorder, calorie counting can trigger it or become part of it. It's not disordered behavior in and of itself, any more than using a hammer to hammer in a nail is disordered. If you use a hammer to assault someone? Whole different ballgame.

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