Are The People On Here more Susceptible To Eating Disorders?

simpleejenn

I know I am very much susceptible to eating disorders.
The only way I have ever lost weight is from a 4 month binge on cocaine, in which i lost over 120 lbs...
Been bulimic for over 19 years, until last year...

SomeoneSomeplace

Perhaps but I don't think there is a lot of legitimate clinical eating disorders on here.

I think a lot of the reasoning behind the type of disordered eating you see here is ignorance. Not trying to be offensive. But many people aren't aware of what it takes for a body to function and be able to build muscle, not lose too much lean mass etc while also dieting. Or of the harmful effects of the "ABC" diet or others like it and how counter productive low calorie diets truly are.

I am recovered from Anorexia, and it was never a diet for me. It was much more psychological then the desire for a thigh gap or hip bones, which is the kind of "Pro Ana" attitude you see around here.

BetterCrazyThanLazy

I'd also like to mention it's not completely calorie relevant to when you're not eating enough as long as you're eating every 4 - 6 hours more than 150 calories and your goal is still to lose weight then you shouldn't be doing any damage to your body because it's not being sent into starvation mode or lack of nutrients

if you're not trying to lose weight you should absolutely be eating more than 2,000 calories a day

Not exactly true - if I eat 2,000 calories a day I will blow up again. I have to eat 1,600 to maintain my current weight, which is sad... I can easily eat 3,000 and ask for more!

Sarauk2sf

I'd also like to mention it's not completely calorie relevant to when you're not eating enough as long as you're eating every 4 - 6 hours more than 150 calories and your goal is still to lose weight then you shouldn't be doing any damage to your body because it's not being sent into starvation mode or lack of nutrients

if you're not trying to lose weight you should absolutely be eating more than 2,000 calories a day

Huh?

BinaryPulsar

But, it also seems like people on here develop a paranoia of eating disorders and hurl around accusations. I'm not talking about when people try to help someone that actually under eats. As others said, people that binge eat have an eating disorder already (binge eating), so could they swing to another eating disorder, absolutely. The hope is that people will have a healthy relationship with food or whatever else they use to numb their feelings. But, I don't think paranoia is healthy either.

LorinaLynn

I think it's more likely that people with eating disorders would be drawn to MFP than MFP making anyone more susceptible.

Eating disorders are often about feeling out of control in other aspects of your life, and being able to control your food intake. MFP not only allows you to control your intake, but to micro-effing-manage it.

(Edited because "macro-effing-manage" was an interesting freudian slip!)

rubixcyoob

I have an active EDNOS (eating disorder not otherwise specified) and my friends on here can tell you that I have my good days and I have my awful days.

I'll go through periods on here where I restrict like crazy and eat less than 600kcal a day for quite some time, and then I will have other times where I have crazy binge sessions and eat around 3000kcal+ in one day.

However, being on here has not powered that or strengthened those problems. I lost weight healthily last year through using this site and the encouragement of everyone on here. That same encouragement keeps me strong during my bad times and makes me want to keep trying during my good times.

jesz124

Perhaps but I don't think there is a lot of legitimate clinical eating disorders on here.

I think a lot of the reasoning behind the type of disordered eating you see here is ignorance. Not trying to be offensive. But many people aren't aware of what it takes for a body to function and be able to build muscle, not lose too much lean mass etc while also dieting. Or of the harmful effects of the "ABC" diet or others like it and how counter productive low calorie diets truly are.




This totally, there's a lot of people on here that are stupidly blind to anything other than eating extremely low cal. They think this is the only way to lose weight. It seems to breed obsession unfortunately.

Zangpakto

I'd also like to mention it's not completely calorie relevant to when you're not eating enough as long as you're eating every 4 - 6 hours more than 150 calories and your goal is still to lose weight then you shouldn't be doing any damage to your body because it's not being sent into starvation mode or lack of nutrients

if you're not trying to lose weight you should absolutely be eating more than 2,000 calories a day

/thread... apparently the nutritionalists and dietetic associations recommendation that got everyone fat in first place ha infiltrated us...

Body doesn't digest food in 4-6hrs... can take up to 72hrs to fully digest all the food. So only risk starvation mode after 72hrs no eating.

Also 2000 calories or more? Why? Does it ever occur to you some people are short.. like REALLY short and do not require the same as you tall giants?

Te problem is everyone is lumped into one group here no one is individually given attention to what they do, their height, weight, diet habits, genetics etc.
So no, first off 2000 might be too little, and might be too much. No one can tell anyone that without countless tests. And considering we are a living organism, the test results also can be affected day by day.

However for god sakes will people stop saying you will go into starvation mode if you do not eat every few hours... I mean what is the point of having a stomach and digestive tract if you never gave the body to actually fully digest the food...

Your body has evolved over thousands of years, through feasting periods and periods of famine. I'm pretty sure 1-2 days isn't bad considering 72hrs is limit at when it will def slow metabolism down, in fact not even going into starvation mode, but actually changing the heat of body by using adaptive thermogenesis as most people here are not at the low end on body fat percent that the body would actually go into true starvation mode....

Why do people get these things wrong every day every single time... Really annoying!

jenilla1

if you're not trying to lose weight you should absolutely be eating more than 2,000 calories a day

Um, I don't think so. That number is individual. I am 130 pounds and have been on maintenance for well over a year. If I ate more than 2000 calories a day I would gain weight. My maintenance is 1680 + exercise calories if I earn them (I don't exercise every day). There is no magic number that applies to everyone.

To OP, I don't have one, but I think people in general are susceptible to eating disorders. It's why so many people are overweight or obese (ED applies to overeaters, too) and obsessed with dieting and the constant yo-yo and shame/emotional eating, etc.. I think you just notice it more on here because it's the nature of the website - eating and fitness - it's what people are going to talk about.

jofjltncb6

I'm on MFP trying (and succeeding) to either gain 10-15 pounds or lose 10-15 pounds. Should I get help too?

If you can't decide whether you are trying to gain weight or lose weight...Then absolutely...you should seek help too.

I alternate between the two because I find it difficult/impossible to add muscle when not eating at a surplus and also find it difficult/impossible to eat at a surplus without also adding fat...so I eat at a surplus to add muscle and fat and then eat at a slight deficit to lose more fat than muscle. Later. Rinse. Repeat. MFP is the tool I use to track.


TL;DR: MFP isn't just for people trying to lose 50+ pounds.

ETA: Oh, and body composition matters more than scale weight anyhow.

love4fitnesslove4food_wechange

There are some people who are more susceptible to developing an eating disorder (which I like to consider a very specific flavor of obsessive-compulsive disorder) than others. I'd say we're all at least a little obsessive here, as you almost have to be if counting calories is going to work for you, but there are definitely some of us who are more anxious than others and who are thus more at risk of going down that road. I'm not sure data exist to say definitively whether more people with that predisposition tend to use calorie-tracking apps and sites like this, but I wouldn't be surprised if that particular flavor of anxiety were overrepresented in our sample here.

Yes, yes, yes!!! I had to take a break at the beginning of the year because I had dropped my weight too low. Prior to MFP, I never paid any attention to calorie counting (I just ate when I was hungry and stopped when I was full), but it became obsessive and I got down to about an 18.9% BMI. I put some weight on and have really tried to not let it get to that point again...I have General Anxiety Disorder and a mild form of OCD, so weighing food, and counting my calories down to the decimal point took over my life...for awhile

If that's you in your photo--and it's current--I'd suggest changing your goal weight (looking at your ticker). I hope you've reached a healthier place.

etoiles_argentees

I'm on MFP trying (and succeeding) to either gain 10-15 pounds or lose 10-15 pounds. Should I get help too?

If you can't decide whether you are trying to gain weight or lose weight...Then absolutely...you should seek help too.

Yes, you should. Addiction to Smarties?

etoiles_argentees

I'd also like to mention it's not completely calorie relevant to when you're not eating enough as long as you're eating every 4 - 6 hours more than 150 calories and your goal is still to lose weight then you shouldn't be doing any damage to your body because it's not being sent into starvation mode or lack of nutrients

if you're not trying to lose weight you should absolutely be eating more than 2,000 calories a day

/thread... apparently the nutritionalists and dietetic associations recommendation that got everyone fat in first place ha infiltrated us...

Body doesn't digest food in 4-6hrs... can take up to 72hrs to fully digest all the food. So only risk starvation mode after 72hrs no eating.

Also 2000 calories or more? Why? Does it ever occur to you some people are short.. like REALLY short and do not require the same as you tall giants?

Te problem is everyone is lumped into one group here no one is individually given attention to what they do, their height, weight, diet habits, genetics etc.
So no, first off 2000 might be too little, and might be too much. No one can tell anyone that without countless tests. And considering we are a living organism, the test results also can be affected day by day.

However for god sakes will people stop saying you will go into starvation mode if you do not eat every few hours... I mean what is the point of having a stomach and digestive tract if you never gave the body to actually fully digest the food...

Your body has evolved over thousands of years, through feasting periods and periods of famine. I'm pretty sure 1-2 days isn't bad considering 72hrs is limit at when it will def slow metabolism down, in fact not even going into starvation mode, but actually changing the heat of body by using adaptive thermogenesis as most people here are not at the low end on body fat percent that the body would actually go into true starvation mode....

Why do people get these things wrong every day every single time... Really annoying!

I agree.

jofjltncb6

I'm on MFP trying (and succeeding) to either gain 10-15 pounds or lose 10-15 pounds. Should I get help too?

If you can't decide whether you are trying to gain weight or lose weight...Then absolutely...you should seek help too.

Yes, you should. Addiction to Smarties?

Hey! I shared that with my closed group of 91 of my closest MFP friends in total confidence. I never dreamed it would be used against me in the forums.

(Why is everyone here so MEAN???)

ILiftHeavyAcrylics

I think it's more likely that people with eating disorders would be drawn to MFP than MFP making anyone more susceptible.

Eating disorders are often about feeling out of control in other aspects of your life, and being able to control your food intake. MFP not only allows you to control your intake, but to micro-effing-manage it.

(Edited because "macro-effing-manage" was an interesting freudian slip!)

This.

BinaryPulsar

I'd also like to mention it's not completely calorie relevant to when you're not eating enough as long as you're eating every 4 - 6 hours more than 150 calories and your goal is still to lose weight then you shouldn't be doing any damage to your body because it's not being sent into starvation mode or lack of nutrients

if you're not trying to lose weight you should absolutely be eating more than 2,000 calories a day

/thread... apparently the nutritionalists and dietetic associations recommendation that got everyone fat in first place ha infiltrated us...

Body doesn't digest food in 4-6hrs... can take up to 72hrs to fully digest all the food. So only risk starvation mode after 72hrs no eating.

Also 2000 calories or more? Why? Does it ever occur to you some people are short.. like REALLY short and do not require the same as you tall giants?

Te problem is everyone is lumped into one group here no one is individually given attention to what they do, their height, weight, diet habits, genetics etc.
So no, first off 2000 might be too little, and might be too much. No one can tell anyone that without countless tests. And considering we are a living organism, the test results also can be affected day by day.

However for god sakes will people stop saying you will go into starvation mode if you do not eat every few hours... I mean what is the point of having a stomach and digestive tract if you never gave the body to actually fully digest the food...

Your body has evolved over thousands of years, through feasting periods and periods of famine. I'm pretty sure 1-2 days isn't bad considering 72hrs is limit at when it will def slow metabolism down, in fact not even going into starvation mode, but actually changing the heat of body by using adaptive thermogenesis as most people here are not at the low end on body fat percent that the body would actually go into true starvation mode....

Why do people get these things wrong every day every single time... Really annoying!

I agree.

Yes, I agree with this also. And I laughed about "Does it ever occur to you some people are short.. like REALLY short and do not require the same as you tall giants?" ROTFLMAO :laugh:

iplayoutside19

I think a lot of the reasoning behind the type of disordered eating you see here is ignorance.

I agree with this. The General Population just has no clue how diet & exercise work. I know I didn't till I started doing research. Because there is so much contradictory stuff out there some of that research was trial and error. I spent the first two weeks of my weight loss journey just reading and looking up nutritonal information on the stuff I was currently eating before I made any changes.

Also, What jof' said. This is My "Fitness" Pal. Fitness can be a lot of things; from the people who have a hundy to lose, to ultra runners, to cardio bunnies, to body builders. Fitness is lots of different flavors and we each have our own goals and what we do plays into those goals....so maybe we shouldn't be so judgemental.

debdelilah

It can be easier to suppress hunger when exercising. I fell into a trap briefly of exercising off 700 calories a day while only eating 1200. I was NOT losing weight fast, but I was getting weaker fast. I noticed myself not having strength and having what seemed like a rapid loss of strength in my lifting workouts. And that propelled me to eat more every day, which led to the plateau breaking and the gradual return of strength(still not finished undoing the damage). I realized how drastic the difference was between what I had been eating to pretty much maintain(gained a few pounds over several months, but I was not eating enough to gain rapidly) and what I was eating to lose, and I realized that it was MUCH too large a deficit. My strength and running capacity declining in the course of a month taught me a lesson and I'm not going back there!

beansprouts

I'm on MFP trying (and succeeding) to either gain 10-15 pounds or lose 10-15 pounds. Should I get help too?

If you can't decide whether you are trying to gain weight or lose weight...Then absolutely...you should seek help too.

I alternate between the two because I find it difficult/impossible to add muscle when not eating at a surplus and also find it difficult/impossible to eat at a surplus without also adding fat...so I eat at a surplus to add muscle and fat and then eat at a slight deficit to lose more fat than muscle. Later. Rinse. Repeat. MFP is the tool I use to track.


TL;DR: MFP isn't just for people trying to lose 50+ pounds.

ETA: Oh, and body composition matters more than scale weight anyhow.

The advice still stands...you need professional help with your overeating /lack of muscle building problem ...This site had ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with the development of your disorder.