weighing food = eating disorder

alisonlynn1976

Of course plenty of people weigh their food and do not have eating disorders. That said, I think that people on here who state that they have anxiety attacks when they cannot weigh their food and avoid social situations for that reason have some tendencies in that direction. If it's controlling someone's life to that extent, they may be headed for problems.

rfsatar

The only gip I have ever got is from my mother who generally wafts about a kitchen throwing things in the general direction of a pot and then goes spare when I try to get my favourite recipes off her and force her to put measurements to things.

Seriously though - I tend to just tell people when they ask if I have lost weight "Yes, just eating sensibly and exercising more" and I leave it at that. I have had people criticise me for "calorie control" my choice of bread, veggies... lord even my afternoon coffee and banana is seen as the tools of the devil!

I cook a lot with recipes and so measuring is kinda second nature in that respect (and I even got mocked for laminating a recipe ... !)

People are going to find fault with anything if they want to so just do your thing and keep on going downwards weight wise!

misschoppo

:laugh:

I'd like to see her bake a cake if she thinks measuring things is disordered.

milkyskinn

I've had my family tell me the same thing; I'm not planning to do it for the rest of my life, since millions of people go without weighing all their food and are at a normal weight, and while I've never been overweight, nutrition became more important to me as I started exercising more and I needed to know where the mistakes were that were preventing me from my desired results.

One trick I use in the house is measure things like portions of cereal or oats once, and always eat them in the same bowl where you really can't put more in than that amount. I do ALWAYS weigh my calorie dense foods like meats, nuts, fish and butter, measure my oil in spoons when I'm cooking, but Im less strict with my veggies, but it's very hard to go 100s of calories over with that.

it's just silly, though, you can't win either way: people who have excess weight are judged for not watching their portions, and people who have a normal weight are being judged when you're mindful of your portions: I really think *sometimes* it stems from the mentality that people want to see you do good, but not better than them.
As in, they don't care if you gain weight, but only if you have something to lose and they get to tell you how to do it. And then there are those that think being mindful equals anorexia, which I suppose it's good to worry about someone if you want them to be healthy, but it'd be great if people were a bit more educated about eating disorders as it goes much further and deeper than that.

benefiting

Weighing food helps with people who overeat or need portion control. As someone else said people with eating disorders have a fear of food and/or gaining weight not weighing their food.

ThriceBlessed

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.

Actually, it IS working. Yes I'm still obese. I have lost 56 pounds in less than 7 months, and am continuing to lose weight. Thanks for sticking your nose in, I didn't ask for advice. The OP did, but I just shared what happened with me that related to the OP's story.
If I started things your way, and lets say it did work (which is questionable, but for the sake of argument we'll say it would), the weight would not disappear overnight. It would still take time, the method I am using now takes time.
The fact that it takes time does not mean a method doesn't work.
I haven't seen any method that takes 150 pounds off in a week, not even starvation does that. So yes, counting calories and such IS working for me. If skipping breakfast works for you, fine, skip breakfast. Since I get up at 4:30 AM I prefer to eat by around 8:00-9:00.

ThriceBlessed

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.

Actually, it IS working. Yes I'm still obese. I have lost 56 pounds in less than 7 months, and am continuing to lose weight. Thanks for sticking your nose in, I didn't ask for advice. The OP did, but I just shared what happened with me that related to the OP's story.
If I started things your way, and lets say it did work (which is questionable, but for the sake of argument we'll say it would), the weight would not disappear overnight. It would still take time, the method I am using now takes time.
The fact that it takes time does not mean a method doesn't work.
I haven't seen any method that takes 150 pounds off in a week, not even starvation does that. So yes, counting calories and such IS working for me. If skipping breakfast works for you, fine, skip breakfast. Since I get up at 4:30 AM I prefer to eat by around 8:00-9:00.

Most diets, in fact almost all diets, fail after five years- the standard used for long-term success.

So the question is can you keep up your calorie-restriction approach for the rest of your life?

Do you want to?

The best weight loss is slow weight loss, and you are likely to keep it off longer.

No reason you can't incorporate Hagan's hunger-control approach with whatever diet routine you use now.

You want to re-wire your brain to be like that of a "naturally" thin person. When your stomach signals that it is empty, you file it away and get on with your life and eat when it fits your schedule.

When you reach that happy state, your stomach has likely shrunk down to a normal size, where satiety occurs earlier at every meal.

Slightly OT- that is where the successes from surgery occur. Through an intervention, the size of the stomach is physically lessened. Even though you might want to eat, you physically cannot stuff the food in there.

But you can do the same through meal portion control, and eventually the parsing down of meals to two a day with a morning "fast."

It takes longer to achieve but the results are long lasting.

Well, yes I can keep it up and wouldn't mind doing so for the rest of my life.

And, the stomach can "shrink" from eating smaller meals, regardless of whether you eat 2, 3, or 5 of those smaller meals each day... as long as you refrain from putting large amounts in the stomach it can shrink.

Again, thank you for you unsolicited advice. I'll file it where I usually file unsolicited advice... in the trash bin under my desk.

ShadeyC

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.

Actually, it IS working. Yes I'm still obese. I have lost 56 pounds in less than 7 months, and am continuing to lose weight. Thanks for sticking your nose in, I didn't ask for advice. The OP did, but I just shared what happened with me that related to the OP's story.
If I started things your way, and lets say it did work (which is questionable, but for the sake of argument we'll say it would), the weight would not disappear overnight. It would still take time, the method I am using now takes time.
The fact that it takes time does not mean a method doesn't work.
I haven't seen any method that takes 150 pounds off in a week, not even starvation does that. So yes, counting calories and such IS working for me. If skipping breakfast works for you, fine, skip breakfast. Since I get up at 4:30 AM I prefer to eat by around 8:00-9:00.

Most diets, in fact almost all diets, fail after five years- the standard used for long-term success.

So the question is can you keep up your calorie-restriction approach for the rest of your life?

Do you want to?

The best weight loss is slow weight loss, and you are likely to keep it off longer.

No reason you can't incorporate Hagan's hunger-control approach with whatever diet routine you use now.

You want to re-wire your brain to be like that of a "naturally" thin person. When your stomach signals that it is empty, you file it away and get on with your life and eat when it fits your schedule.

When you reach that happy state, your stomach has likely shrunk down to a normal size, where satiety occurs earlier at every meal.

Slightly OT- that is where the successes from surgery occur. Through an intervention, the size of the stomach is physically lessened. Even though you might want to eat, you physically cannot stuff the food in there.

But you can do the same through meal portion control, and eventually the parsing down of meals to two a day with a morning "fast."

It takes longer to achieve but the results are long lasting.

Can I just point out that she never asked what worked for you...and that she's asked you several times to STOP.
Are you being paid to advertise this?

darkangel45422

I think that weighing food in and of itself is not necessarily an eating disorder, but it certainly can develop into one when it gets out of control. If you spend all of your time thinking about weighing and tracking your food, using a scale to decide exactly how many grapes you can eat, freak out if you can't weigh or track, etc. then that's become an eating disorder. But weighing alone doesn't mean you have a disorder.

HealthyMakeover

Counting calories and measuring out food is definitely not some "top sign" for an eating disorder. If you've ever met a girl or boy with a true eating disorder, you'd know all of the other fears and anxieties they have.

If you are starting to cry over looking in a mirror at your body, wanting to physically harm yourself, going days without eating at all, starting to purge by excessive exercise or by inducing puking, then maybe you should worry.

Weighing food and counting calories? Definitely not anorexia.

PikaKnight

My therapist believes I have disordered eating behaviors due to the fact that I weigh all food, do not go over my calories except planned special occasions, exercise to earn more calories, and weigh myself daily. She didn't decide these were disordered eating behaviors until I became a normal weight. When I was overweight it was reasonable measures to ensure weight loss. Whatever.

Do what works for you. If your habits begin to concern you or others it may be worth taking a step back and seeing if it really is out of control. Do you refuse to eat food that others have made because you don't know the calorie content? Do you experience stress or panic when you are unable to weigh food or yourself? Do you experience anxiety or panic when you go over calories by a very small amount? Do you feel obsessed with food, that thinking about it or planning it takes out a significant portion of your time and has a negative impact on other areas of your life? If the answers are yes, talk to a professional about normalizing your relationship with food. If you feel fine about all those things and are just doing the weighing to ensure accurate portion sizes and nothing more, you're doing exactly what hundreds of people on this website are doing and that's fine.

I think you need a new therapist.

Escloflowne

I weigh my food because it's accurate and as a Science nerd...Accuracy is very important to me!!!

I might have a Science / math disorder!!!

Fullsterkur_woman

I weigh my food because it's accurate and as a Science nerd...Accuracy is very important to me!!!

I might have a Science / math disorder!!!

That's not a disorder. That's just called "awesome."

And to be more accurate, I believe weighing your food is more precise, not necessarily more accurate. :bigsmile:

lizzyclatworthy

Cannot read whole thread because my phone is pants but I under eat horrifically if I don't weigh food. I don't trust guess work so I.put log loads more calories than I eat.
My mother has asked me to weigh food at her house because I eat more when I know what it is.

Escloflowne

I weigh my food because it's accurate and as a Science nerd...Accuracy is very important to me!!!

I might have a Science / math disorder!!!

That's not a disorder. That's just called "awesome."

And to be more accurate, I believe weighing your food is more precise, not necessarily more accurate. :bigsmile:

This person is awesome! Is that accurate or precise!?

Fullsterkur_woman

I weigh my food because it's accurate and as a Science nerd...Accuracy is very important to me!!!

I might have a Science / math disorder!!!

That's not a disorder. That's just called "awesome."

And to be more accurate, I believe weighing your food is more precise, not necessarily more accurate. :bigsmile:

This person is awesome! Is that accurate or precise!?

Both, for a given definition of precision. That's why I usually say that "so and so is approximately awesome." :laugh:

SpeSHul_SnoflEHk

I'd like to see her bake a cake if she thinks measuring things is disordered.

Or bread. Bread is really unforgiving if you get the ingredients out of proportion.

SomeNights246

Weighing food can be a symptom of an eating disorder, but it isn't inherently bad. What makes an eating disorder isn't the habits. It's the mind frame. The habits come after the mind frame, not the other way around.

I find people are quick to accuse anyone of an eating disorder if they're losing weight. Sometimes, it almost seems as though wanting to lose weight is considered "disordered thinking" by certain people. I just ignore these people.

neandermagnon

one symptom doesn't make a disorder. yes weighing food can be a symptom of an eating disorder, just like nightmares can be a symptom of PTSD. But that doesn't mean everyone who has nightmares has PTSD or that everyone who weighs their food has an eating disorder or is at risk of developing one.

disorders have a whole bunch of symptoms and come with disordered ways of thinking, and someone with the disorder will have a lot of the symptoms and the related disordered thought patterns. One symptom is never enough to diagnose a disorder.

AmandaLY17

I'd like to see her bake a cake if she thinks measuring things is disordered.

I rarely measure things (in the traditional sense) when baking or cooking! (you dont always want to eat what I make however LOL)