weighing food = eating disorder
Replies
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Anorexia nervosa is a mental health disorder. Weighing food won't cause you to have a mental health disorder. However, weighing food can be a trait that someone with anorexia displays. Food just happens to be the focus for an anorexic, but if you placed someone with this disorder in a controlled environment, you would most likely find that they would have another obsession; e.g. cutting, or pulling out their hair, or drinking.
I can assure you-- those with anorexia didn't "catch it" from weighing food. There was most likely a disorder present long before they had food control issues.
Weighing portions is a perfectly normal thing to do. Just like exercising daily, or keeping a food journal. It keeps you accountable.0 -
I felt way more guilty about eating food before I decided to start exercising and tracking calories. Before I would eat and eat and then feel so bad about how much I ate, like two orders of chili cheese fries from rallys, I can't even imagine how many calories that is. Now, I eat guilt free because I know I'm not eating an insane amount of calories every single day. And now instead of reaching for a box of brownies (and eating three packs) when I get sad or upset, I make myself sit down and think over my feelings.
Some days I go over my calories a little bit. I'm fine with that, because its not a big deal as long as I'm still doing good most days.I'd like to see her bake a cake if she thinks measuring things is disordered.
Lol!0 -
She clearly doesn't know the definition of Anorexia. Does she balance her budget or checkbook? Clearly has a money disorder then.0
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Ignore idiots, even the ones who are family members0
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Oops double post, silly phone.0
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I don't usually tell people that I count my calories because I don't want people to have the wrong idea. Although I do mention it sometimes. But, some people think that any kind of awareness of calories, thinking about calories, watching what you eat is disordered eating. Those are their own issues and/or lack of proper understanding. Also, it seems that some people think that once you lose weight you will just keep losing it. I only lost around 5 or 10 pounds at most, but people were worried I would continue to lose weight. I've maintained this same weight for almost 2 years now. Sometimes people will tell me I look thin and ask me if I lost more weight. The answer is that I haven't lost weight, my weight is the same, or I may even weigh up to 5 pounds more than the last time they saw me. My weight fluctuates within a 5 pound range. But, all of their worries are unfounded. People realize that now that they see me the same weight as I was a year ago, and when they see me eating sundaes and cake and pizza. But, most people got it all along that I just work on my health and fitness.0
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totally. Math + science = unhealthy
lolwut?1 -
This is why I generally don't talk to people outside of MFP about weight loss.0
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Agreed.Calorie counting in general can lead to a lot of disordered thinking...obviously it doesn't mean that everyone who counts calories or weighs and measures everything has an ED or disordered thinking, but many do. There is plenty of evidence right here on MFP.
If you can weigh and measure and track your intake while still maintaining and/or developing a healthy relationship with food then it is the best way to go in my estimation...but people often do go down a very dark road when they start doing this stuff. For those that suffer ED, it is generally not recommended to count calories or weigh and measure their portions, etc as it often triggers their disorder.0 -
This is why I generally don't talk to people outside of MFP about weight loss.
This is exactly what I was going to write. Keep it for yourself OP no need to get stressed out with other people opinions, we get enough of that in the forums.0 -
Chronic overeating is also an eating disorder. I don't think weighing food necessarily is. I mean, if you were thin already, and were weighing food and not wanting to eat something because it had 3 calories more than what you planned... it would be an issue. But just weighing food to get a proper portion size? Nah. I would say that weighing is just one more way of measuring, and everyone measures when they are following a recipe, (or at least they should), and you are following a recipe for a healthy body.
Now, believe it or not, I've been encouraged by others to lighten up, go ahead and have a piece of cake, you don't need to lose weight, yada yada yada....
Yeah, I'm morbidly obese... no matter what guidelines you look at, BMI, Ideal weight, bodyfat percentage, all show me to be obese, but there are still people telling me I don't need to lose weight.... Whatever.0 -
I think I'd ask that person if they follow a recipe when they make XYZ meal or if they just throw a bunch of random stuff in a pot and hope. And how about medication? Do they just eyeball a tsp of cough syrup and hydrocodone or do they measure it? I think the people who have really negative feelings about weighing food and counting calories are the ones with disordered eating (not to say that people who weigh and count can't have disordered eating).0
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Well, any overuse of a good thing can be a bad thing.. or so we are told. I agree with everyone that says weighing,measuring counting calories is the responsible thing to do. And continue to do - I think it is is very important to get my calories and macros right every day.0
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I've never had anyone tell me that personally, but I've read commentary online that suggested even counting calories is an eating disorder. Everyone has an opinion.0
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Any obsessive-compulsive behavior can be considered a disorder.0
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As someone who has suffered from anorexia I will say that your family members weren't WRONG per se. I think their perspective is overly simplistic but it isn't wrong. I think that various weight-loss tactics/behaviors can spiral into an unhealthy obsession. It's important to try to stay objective and heed the observations made by people who love you.0
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Chronic overeating is also an eating disorder. I don't think weighing food necessarily is. I mean, if you were thin already, and were weighing food and not wanting to eat something because it had 3 calories more than what you planned... it would be an issue. But just weighing food to get a proper portion size? Nah. I would say that weighing is just one more way of measuring, and everyone measures when they are following a recipe, (or at least they should), and you are following a recipe for a healthy body.
Now, believe it or not, I've been encouraged by others to lighten up, go ahead and have a piece of cake, you don't need to lose weight, yada yada yada....
Yeah, I'm morbidly obese... no matter what guidelines you look at, BMI, Ideal weight, bodyfat percentage, all show me to be obese, but there are still people telling me I don't need to lose weight.... Whatever.
Do you WANT to lose weight?
Sure you do.
When people tell you that you look fine, do you feel a little offended that they are making that up to make you feel good about yourself?
All females will look their best at 20-25 % total body fat.
Ever try to attack the eating side of the equation through hunger control?
Folks thing that hunger is something that is locked in stone. But the sensation of hunger starts out as signals from the stomach that it is not as full as it is used to being. That gets processed by the brain, with input from almost every part of the brain, so that for the obese this sensation drives them to eat. A lot.
But the brain is plastic. You can rewire it. You can attenuate the sensation of an empty stomach with the urge to eat.
Want to try?
First, eat small volume meals, as many as you want, to shrink the volume of the stomach. Count calories if you like, but that is not important.
You might be surprised at how you will feel. You might start losing weight.
After a couple weeks of this, start cutting down on the number of meals you eat.
I guarantee you WILL be surprised at how you feel and your change in hunger urges.
Ultimately, the goal is to skip breakfast, and eat your first meal of the day at noon or so. Not only will the fat-burning process be extended in the morning, but you will further get used to working and living your life on an empty stomach.
Your brain will re-wire. You will be a new person. You will gradually lose weight.
Look at the freebie pages in the kIindle version of Dr. John Hagan's "Breakfast: The least important meal of the day."
Take control of your life. Sky's the limit.
You go girl!
Thanks, I'm losing weight just fine and eating breakfast. My point was that no matter what you do, someone is going to disapprove. In the OP's case, someone disapproved of her weighing food, in my case I've had people disapprove of me losing weight in the first place ( not everyone by the way, just some people). And now I'm having someone disapprove because I prefer to eat breakfast :laugh:
Oh, and this wasn't a case of someone trying to make me feel good by saying I look great or something, it was someone seriously trying to convince me my mindset was all wrong to think about my weight as being important at all. One of those, "Its what's on the inside that counts" people. Well, it is more important to me to be of high moral character and to be a nice person than it is to be thin, but it is also important for me to be healthy and be alive to BE that nice, likeable person!
Anyway, I've tried intermittent fasting, and I gained weight on it, there is no one right way for every person... and for me, counting my calories and making sure to get enough protein is what works.0 -
This. :flowerforyou:As someone who has suffered from anorexia I will say that your family members weren't WRONG per se. I think their perspective is overly simplistic but it isn't wrong. I think that various weight-loss tactics/behaviors can spiral into an unhealthy obsession. It's important to try to stay objective and heed the observations made by people who love you.0 -
There is a big difference between awareness (weighing food to know how much you are eating) and obsession with food (thinking and worrying about food).
I weigh nearly all my food when I prepare it and package up single sized servings of recipes, but after that, I spend the first 5 minutes of the day selecting and logging what i plan to eat. I go back in at the end of the day to make a few changes and post, but otherwise, my life does not revolve around food. So. . . not an obsession.0 -
You measure ingredients for a batch of cookies? You measure because you want a desired result.
Measuring your food intake is the ingredient for whatever your goals are: gaining, losing, maintaining. The only difference is the final product is your body.0 -
Before I started weighing my food or measuring it I was completely clueless about portion sizes because I never had to watch what I ate, I was young and with a great metabolism. Now, not so much and I have to weigh/measure/portion or I have no idea what an appropriate portion is. My goal is of course to not have to do this forever, but its purpose to for me is to educate myself on healthy portion control.0
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Chronic overeating is also an eating disorder. I don't think weighing food necessarily is. I mean, if you were thin already, and were weighing food and not wanting to eat something because it had 3 calories more than what you planned... it would be an issue. But just weighing food to get a proper portion size? Nah. I would say that weighing is just one more way of measuring, and everyone measures when they are following a recipe, (or at least they should), and you are following a recipe for a healthy body.
Now, believe it or not, I've been encouraged by others to lighten up, go ahead and have a piece of cake, you don't need to lose weight, yada yada yada....
Yeah, I'm morbidly obese... no matter what guidelines you look at, BMI, Ideal weight, bodyfat percentage, all show me to be obese, but there are still people telling me I don't need to lose weight.... Whatever.
Do you WANT to lose weight?
Sure you do.
When people tell you that you look fine, do you feel a little offended that they are making that up to make you feel good about yourself?
All females will look their best at 20-25 % total body fat.
Ever try to attack the eating side of the equation through hunger control?
Folks thing that hunger is something that is locked in stone. But the sensation of hunger starts out as signals from the stomach that it is not as full as it is used to being. That gets processed by the brain, with input from almost every part of the brain, so that for the obese this sensation drives them to eat. A lot.
But the brain is plastic. You can rewire it. You can attenuate the sensation of an empty stomach with the urge to eat.
Want to try?
First, eat small volume meals, as many as you want, to shrink the volume of the stomach. Count calories if you like, but that is not important.
You might be surprised at how you will feel. You might start losing weight.
After a couple weeks of this, start cutting down on the number of meals you eat.
I guarantee you WILL be surprised at how you feel and your change in hunger urges.
Ultimately, the goal is to skip breakfast, and eat your first meal of the day at noon or so. Not only will the fat-burning process be extended in the morning, but you will further get used to working and living your life on an empty stomach.
Your brain will re-wire. You will be a new person. You will gradually lose weight.
Look at the freebie pages in the kIindle version of Dr. John Hagan's "Breakfast: The least important meal of the day."
Take control of your life. Sky's the limit.
You go girl!
Thanks, I'm losing weight just fine and eating breakfast. My point was that no matter what you do, someone is going to disapprove. In the OP's case, someone disapproved of her weighing food, in my case I've had people disapprove of me losing weight in the first place ( not everyone by the way, just some people). And now I'm having someone disapprove because I prefer to eat breakfast :laugh:
Oh, and this wasn't a case of someone trying to make me feel good by saying I look great or something, it was someone seriously trying to convince me my mindset was all wrong to think about my weight as being important at all. One of those, "Its what's on the inside that counts" people. Well, it is more important to me to be of high moral character and to be a nice person than it is to be thin, but it is also important for me to be healthy and be alive to BE that nice, likeable person!
Anyway, I've tried intermittent fasting, and I gained weight on it, there is no one right way for every person... and for me, counting my calories and making sure to get enough protein is what works.
But it's NOT working.
Right?
You admit that you are still morbidly obese.
And there is one right way for everyone. To say weight loss is different for everyone is a complete cop-out.
Talk to the next "naturally" thin person you get to know and ask them about their eating habits and hunger and the like.
Your metabolism and genetics is EXACTLY like theirs.
They have learned to control hunger.
So can you.
This is not intermittent fasting, by the way.
The point is to get you down to eating two meals a day from three or more.
The key and first step in weight loss is to be honest with yourself.
As someone who practices IF, that is IF, and buzz off about it. IF is a lifestyle choice, and it works for some people and not others. She has lost 56 pounds eating breakfast so obviously that is working for her. IF is not magic, it's just a different way of eating.0 -
"Eating Disorder" would imply that you have a problem, and that is something only YOU can really know.
One of my roommates drunkenly ask me the other night "Am I a Slut?" and I told her, "No, I'm not going to Judge you for the life you live because only you can see how you affect people. Look in the mirror tomorrow and look at what you see. Is the person you see better than the person you were last week? more likely to positively influence the world?".... the next day she told me that I wasn't allowed to let her go home with anyone when she was drunk anymore because "it stressed her out".
Although this is entirely a different issue it comes back to the same question, "when you look at who you are today are you one step closer to positively impacting the world? did you take a step or to back or even sideways? If weighing your food and counting calories makes you HEALTHY and HAPPY do it! but if you have or start to overshot these goals THEN reevaluate the situation.
Moderation is the Key0 -
I track my food and am currently at about 2600 a day so I do not know how that would be considered anorexic ….sometimes people that don't have a clue as to what they are talking about should just shut up and remain silent…seriously…0
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Chronic overeating is also an eating disorder. I don't think weighing food necessarily is. I mean, if you were thin already, and were weighing food and not wanting to eat something because it had 3 calories more than what you planned... it would be an issue. But just weighing food to get a proper portion size? Nah. I would say that weighing is just one more way of measuring, and everyone measures when they are following a recipe, (or at least they should), and you are following a recipe for a healthy body.
Now, believe it or not, I've been encouraged by others to lighten up, go ahead and have a piece of cake, you don't need to lose weight, yada yada yada....
Yeah, I'm morbidly obese... no matter what guidelines you look at, BMI, Ideal weight, bodyfat percentage, all show me to be obese, but there are still people telling me I don't need to lose weight.... Whatever.
Do you WANT to lose weight?
Sure you do.
When people tell you that you look fine, do you feel a little offended that they are making that up to make you feel good about yourself?
All females will look their best at 20-25 % total body fat.
Ever try to attack the eating side of the equation through hunger control?
Folks thing that hunger is something that is locked in stone. But the sensation of hunger starts out as signals from the stomach that it is not as full as it is used to being. That gets processed by the brain, with input from almost every part of the brain, so that for the obese this sensation drives them to eat. A lot.
But the brain is plastic. You can rewire it. You can attenuate the sensation of an empty stomach with the urge to eat.
Want to try?
First, eat small volume meals, as many as you want, to shrink the volume of the stomach. Count calories if you like, but that is not important.
You might be surprised at how you will feel. You might start losing weight.
After a couple weeks of this, start cutting down on the number of meals you eat.
I guarantee you WILL be surprised at how you feel and your change in hunger urges.
Ultimately, the goal is to skip breakfast, and eat your first meal of the day at noon or so. Not only will the fat-burning process be extended in the morning, but you will further get used to working and living your life on an empty stomach.
Your brain will re-wire. You will be a new person. You will gradually lose weight.
Look at the freebie pages in the kIindle version of Dr. John Hagan's "Breakfast: The least important meal of the day."
Take control of your life. Sky's the limit.
You go girl!
Thanks, I'm losing weight just fine and eating breakfast. My point was that no matter what you do, someone is going to disapprove. In the OP's case, someone disapproved of her weighing food, in my case I've had people disapprove of me losing weight in the first place ( not everyone by the way, just some people). And now I'm having someone disapprove because I prefer to eat breakfast :laugh:
Oh, and this wasn't a case of someone trying to make me feel good by saying I look great or something, it was someone seriously trying to convince me my mindset was all wrong to think about my weight as being important at all. One of those, "Its what's on the inside that counts" people. Well, it is more important to me to be of high moral character and to be a nice person than it is to be thin, but it is also important for me to be healthy and be alive to BE that nice, likeable person!
Anyway, I've tried intermittent fasting, and I gained weight on it, there is no one right way for every person... and for me, counting my calories and making sure to get enough protein is what works.
But it's NOT working.
Right?
You admit that you are still morbidly obese.
And there is one right way for everyone. To say weight loss is different for everyone is a complete cop-out.
Talk to the next "naturally" thin person you get to know and ask them about their eating habits and hunger and the like.
Your metabolism and genetics is EXACTLY like theirs.
They have learned to control hunger.
So can you.
This is not intermittent fasting, by the way.
The point is to get you down to eating two meals a day from three or more.
The key and first step in weight loss is to be honest with yourself.
steve - do you ever give up on giving horrible advice? Seriously, you have been pushing this skip breakfast thing for like two months now. Look man, breakfast has nothing to do with obesity …some people eat breakfast and are lean and shredded, other people skip it and are obese.good lord man ..what it comes down to is accurately logging/measuring calories, and making sure that one is in a calorie deficit...0 -
Depends on your goals I guess. If weighing your food aids you in reaching your goals, why is it considered a disorder?
if I set a montly budget on my spending and I track it through my online bank account, I have a disorder for that as well?
I like this. Great analogy.0 -
No one has ever said that specifically, to me, and I've also found that weighing my food really helps me log accurately. I'm always amazed how small of a portion the nutritional panel calls for! 28 grams ain't a lot of matter, that's for sure! :-)0
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I've come to the conclusion that anything that challenges the way another person eats is deemed either wrong or disordered. (this includes people who follow specific diets) In my case.. I was under eating until I started weighing my food. Turns out i'm TERRIBLE at eyeballing and always err on the big side.. example.. I just decided for fun to weigh the chai seeds i put in my breakfast.. I use the same scoop every time.. i though it's a tbsp, which is supposedly 13g.. yea try 8g! that's a big difference! 30 calories everyday that I was under estimating... Same thing with my yogurt and cottage cheese serving.. what i though was 4 ounces was really 2 or 3..
Anyway.. if you are eating properly and are eating healthy then just don't worry about it. It's a tool a way to help you achieve your goals. If you take your scale with you to restaurants, you might need a little help..0 -
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I was chatting with some family members and we got on the topic of weight loss. I mentioned that since I've been exercising and counting calories, I've lost a few pounds. I started to go into detail about how I weigh my food so I can know how much I'm actually eating, and my aunt said "but only people with eating disorders do that! You'll become anorexic obsessing over food."
Have any of you been told this?
What do you say?
I just switched the subject.
I weigh my way to 1800 calories (give or take) a day. I don't think my food scale is leading me down a path to anorexia.0
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