When does healthy eating become disordered eating?
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I think the first goal for you is to gain weight in order to no longer be underweight. Being at a healthy weight will help you avoid problems such as hair loss, vitamin deficiency, and osteoporosis.
Please speak with your doctor about your concerns, and I do think weight gain would be a good start.3 -
Agree with @usmcmp and @kimny72. Also if you ever start becoming "snobby" with others about what you eat and telling them "they shouldn't eating that", is a likely a sign of disordered eating. Oh and you lose friends quickly that way.
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I've seen articles that say... If you answer yes to 5/7 of these, you may have an eating disorder..... Total nonsense
I'm pretty sure it can clinically be classified as a disorder when you do it despite the fact that it is causing you harm, or if you have some type of panic attack at the thought of not having your way for a meal
Examples:
If you leave town for a day or two and literally starve yourself because you have deemed everything to be below your standards... You have a problem
If you refuse to eat because your scale is broken, leaving you unable to track your intake... You may have a problem
If you bring your scale with you to say, a restaurant and are totally embarrassed by the fact that you have to weigh your food but can't help it... You may have a problem
If you purge because you did not track what you ate, you definitely have a problem...6 -
While you have to be consistent, determined and thorough to lose weight, I do NOT agree that you have to come close to disordered eating.
Some of the behaviours may be superficially similar, but there are crucial differences - specifically, how you feel about it. Calorie counting and healthy choices should not be associated with anxiety, and to the extent that they are, you are doing it wrong.
Now, of course we all struggle with this initially, but if you are moving in the right direction, you should see a decrease in that anxiety and a gradually healthier, more proportionate relationship to food as time goes on. Less moralising, less splitting, less worrying, less emotional eating, less self-hatred, less need to fret over every bite.
By contrast, an eating disorder will see an increase in all those things over time, because an eating disorder is not a means of empowering yourself - it is a progressive loss of control.
We should all take note of this and regularly check our feelings and attitudes, because it is true that any weight loss effort carries a risk of developing disordered eating behaviours.
Look at your trajectory. You should see an improvement in your attitude and feelings around food. If it's deteriorating, you need to revisit your approach, and perhaps seek help.14 -
CattOfTheGarage wrote: »While you have to be consistent, determined and thorough to lose weight, I do NOT agree that you have to come close to disordered eating.
Some of the behaviours may be superficially similar, but there are crucial differences - specifically, how you feel about it. Calorie counting and healthy choices should not be associated with anxiety, and to the extent that they are, you are doing it wrong.
Now, of course we all struggle with this initially, but if you are moving in the right direction, you should see a decrease in that anxiety and a gradually healthier, more proportionate relationship to food as time goes on. Less moralising, less splitting, less worrying, less emotional eating, less self-hatred, less need to fret over every bite.
By contrast, an eating disorder will see an increase in all those things over time, because an eating disorder is not a means of empowering yourself - it is a progressive loss of control.
We should all take note of this and regularly check our feelings and attitudes, because it is true that any weight loss effort carries a risk of developing disordered eating behaviours.
Look at your trajectory. You should see an improvement in your attitude and feelings around food. If it's deteriorating, you need to revisit your approach, and perhaps seek help.
Explain to me how eating at a deficit is possible without any anxiety when you LOVE eating and have a social life that often involves food (that you may not have much control over).
Why do you think that people gain the weight back? Because it gets harder, not easier, for most people.19 -
CattOfTheGarage wrote: »While you have to be consistent, determined and thorough to lose weight, I do NOT agree that you have to come close to disordered eating.
Some of the behaviours may be superficially similar, but there are crucial differences - specifically, how you feel about it. Calorie counting and healthy choices should not be associated with anxiety, and to the extent that they are, you are doing it wrong.
Now, of course we all struggle with this initially, but if you are moving in the right direction, you should see a decrease in that anxiety and a gradually healthier, more proportionate relationship to food as time goes on. Less moralising, less splitting, less worrying, less emotional eating, less self-hatred, less need to fret over every bite.
By contrast, an eating disorder will see an increase in all those things over time, because an eating disorder is not a means of empowering yourself - it is a progressive loss of control.
We should all take note of this and regularly check our feelings and attitudes, because it is true that any weight loss effort carries a risk of developing disordered eating behaviours.
Look at your trajectory. You should see an improvement in your attitude and feelings around food. If it's deteriorating, you need to revisit your approach, and perhaps seek help.
Explain to me how eating at a deficit is possible without any anxiety when you LOVE eating and have a social life that often involves food (that you may not have much control over).
Why do you think that people gain the weight back? Because it gets harder, not easier, for most people.
I think you might need to step back a second here and consider that not everyone is like you.
You get to make choices about how much of that food over which you have no control you eat and which of those foods you chose to eat. Everyone serves vegetables of some kind.
I've been negotiating downright perilous food situations for 20 years due to celiac disease. Doing it under calorie limits is a cake walk in comparison.
I also don't agree that you have to become nearly disordered to maintain weight. I watched my late mother in law maintain her weight, and she was thoughful about food. It's perfectly normal. When she wanted extra dessert later, she held back earlier in the day. When she noticed her clothes getting tight, she cut back on her desserts.
ETA: Furthermore, there comes a time where all of us need to confront our attachment to food in order to conquer our issues with our weight. I don't think you've done that. Eating is emotionally important to you for some deep reason. You need to examine it and move past it or you will gain all your weight back.
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CattOfTheGarage wrote: »While you have to be consistent, determined and thorough to lose weight, I do NOT agree that you have to come close to disordered eating.
Some of the behaviours may be superficially similar, but there are crucial differences - specifically, how you feel about it. Calorie counting and healthy choices should not be associated with anxiety, and to the extent that they are, you are doing it wrong.
Now, of course we all struggle with this initially, but if you are moving in the right direction, you should see a decrease in that anxiety and a gradually healthier, more proportionate relationship to food as time goes on. Less moralising, less splitting, less worrying, less emotional eating, less self-hatred, less need to fret over every bite.
By contrast, an eating disorder will see an increase in all those things over time, because an eating disorder is not a means of empowering yourself - it is a progressive loss of control.
We should all take note of this and regularly check our feelings and attitudes, because it is true that any weight loss effort carries a risk of developing disordered eating behaviours.
Look at your trajectory. You should see an improvement in your attitude and feelings around food. If it's deteriorating, you need to revisit your approach, and perhaps seek help.
Explain to me how eating at a deficit is possible without any anxiety when you LOVE eating and have a social life that often involves food (that you may not have much control over).
Frustration, yes. Unrequited greed, by all means. That's part of life. I'm not saying you always get to eat whatever you want, whenever you want it, and we all live happily ever after. Being a person predisposed to be fat, who has made a commitment not to be, is challenging, and it sucks at times.
But anxiety, self-loathing, feelings of moral failure - these should not be associated with food. Food is just food. The restraint needed to lose weight or avoid putting it on should not cause mental anguish or rely on self-destructive thought patterns. That's an entirely different thing from being annoyed because you can't have a cookie.11 -
CattOfTheGarage wrote: »CattOfTheGarage wrote: »While you have to be consistent, determined and thorough to lose weight, I do NOT agree that you have to come close to disordered eating.
Some of the behaviours may be superficially similar, but there are crucial differences - specifically, how you feel about it. Calorie counting and healthy choices should not be associated with anxiety, and to the extent that they are, you are doing it wrong.
Now, of course we all struggle with this initially, but if you are moving in the right direction, you should see a decrease in that anxiety and a gradually healthier, more proportionate relationship to food as time goes on. Less moralising, less splitting, less worrying, less emotional eating, less self-hatred, less need to fret over every bite.
By contrast, an eating disorder will see an increase in all those things over time, because an eating disorder is not a means of empowering yourself - it is a progressive loss of control.
We should all take note of this and regularly check our feelings and attitudes, because it is true that any weight loss effort carries a risk of developing disordered eating behaviours.
Look at your trajectory. You should see an improvement in your attitude and feelings around food. If it's deteriorating, you need to revisit your approach, and perhaps seek help.
Explain to me how eating at a deficit is possible without any anxiety when you LOVE eating and have a social life that often involves food (that you may not have much control over).
But anxiety, self-loathing, feelings of moral failure - these should not be associated with food. Food is just food. The restraint needed to lose weight or avoid putting it on should not cause mental anguish or rely on self-destructive thought patterns. That's an entirely different thing from being annoyed because you can't have a cookie.
Exactly. And if one thinks that anxiety around food is normal, it might be worth taking a step back, and honestly asking if some disordered patterns are at play.
This is part of why eating disorders are *so* taboo in society, and why nobody discusses it. Everyone thinks that you need to act or be a certain way, or that people with EDs are a certain profile... when the reality is that while not every behavior is an eating disorder, it's a lot more prevalent and a lot different than what you'd think.
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But again, everyone is so quick to tell people that they have an eating disorder if they are too thin or watch calories, yet being 100 lbs overweight is nornal.3
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I think it's the other way around. If you're going to succeed with weight management, it can't be a struggle. My love for food has matured (if that is an appropriate word) as food became more of a "limited resource" - instead of eating as much as possible, of anything, anytime I could (that is, whenever I couldn't help myself, or nobody was watching), I pick reasonable amounts of my favorite items, and never feel ashamed, guilty, or like I'm losing control. This goes hand in hand with being more assertive - I don't accept every offer of food anymore, and with being more confident - if none of the foods offered are good enough, I can wait until I find something I want to eat. Not being afraid means I'm also becoming more flexible, so a wider range of foods are indeed acceptable. For me, it's getting easier.CattOfTheGarage wrote: »While you have to be consistent, determined and thorough to lose weight, I do NOT agree that you have to come close to disordered eating.
Some of the behaviours may be superficially similar, but there are crucial differences - specifically, how you feel about it. Calorie counting and healthy choices should not be associated with anxiety, and to the extent that they are, you are doing it wrong.
Now, of course we all struggle with this initially, but if you are moving in the right direction, you should see a decrease in that anxiety and a gradually healthier, more proportionate relationship to food as time goes on. Less moralising, less splitting, less worrying, less emotional eating, less self-hatred, less need to fret over every bite.
By contrast, an eating disorder will see an increase in all those things over time, because an eating disorder is not a means of empowering yourself - it is a progressive loss of control.
We should all take note of this and regularly check our feelings and attitudes, because it is true that any weight loss effort carries a risk of developing disordered eating behaviours.
Look at your trajectory. You should see an improvement in your attitude and feelings around food. If it's deteriorating, you need to revisit your approach, and perhaps seek help.
Explain to me how eating at a deficit is possible without any anxiety when you LOVE eating and have a social life that often involves food (that you may not have much control over).
Why do you think that people gain the weight back? Because it gets harder, not easier, for most people.12 -
I agree, @kommodevaran - I enjoy my food
more when I'm on a calorie budget, despite (or because of) the tension of wanting more than I can have.3 -
kommodevaran wrote: »
I think it's the other way around. If you're going to succeed with weight management, it can't be a struggle. My love for food has matured (if that is an appropriate word) as food became more of a "limited resource" - instead of eating as much as possible, of anything, anytime I could (that is, whenever I couldn't help myself, or nobody was watching), I pick reasonable amounts of my favorite items, and never feel ashamed, guilty, or like I'm losing control. This goes hand in hand with being more assertive - I don't accept every offer of food anymore, and with being more confident - if none of the foods offered are good enough, I can wait until I find something I want to eat. Not being afraid means I'm also becoming more flexible, so a wider range of foods are indeed acceptable. For me, it's getting easier.CattOfTheGarage wrote: »While you have to be consistent, determined and thorough to lose weight, I do NOT agree that you have to come close to disordered eating.
Some of the behaviours may be superficially similar, but there are crucial differences - specifically, how you feel about it. Calorie counting and healthy choices should not be associated with anxiety, and to the extent that they are, you are doing it wrong.
Now, of course we all struggle with this initially, but if you are moving in the right direction, you should see a decrease in that anxiety and a gradually healthier, more proportionate relationship to food as time goes on. Less moralising, less splitting, less worrying, less emotional eating, less self-hatred, less need to fret over every bite.
By contrast, an eating disorder will see an increase in all those things over time, because an eating disorder is not a means of empowering yourself - it is a progressive loss of control.
We should all take note of this and regularly check our feelings and attitudes, because it is true that any weight loss effort carries a risk of developing disordered eating behaviours.
Look at your trajectory. You should see an improvement in your attitude and feelings around food. If it's deteriorating, you need to revisit your approach, and perhaps seek help.
Explain to me how eating at a deficit is possible without any anxiety when you LOVE eating and have a social life that often involves food (that you may not have much control over).
Why do you think that people gain the weight back? Because it gets harder, not easier, for most people.
Yes, I agree with this whole-heartedly. My love of food has *matured*. I like that. I've become discerning about it. There are times when I'm not, and I'm aware of making a conscientious choice at the time to not be quite as *mature*.3 -
GottaBurnEmAll wrote: »
ETA: Furthermore, there comes a time where all of us need to confront our attachment to food in order to conquer our issues with our weight. I don't think you've done that. Eating is emotionally important to you for some deep reason. You need to examine it and move past it or you will gain all your weight back.
Well said!
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The fact that you are worried about it means it's probably disordered eating or at least on the verge of that. The good news is that you recognize there may be a problem. It might be a good idea to talk to a professional at this point.
https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1575987-eating-disorder-resources
Jumping to conclusions? Lol6 -
And you don't need to buy a food scale, or even track calories to lose weight...
I lost 180lbs and refused to buy a food scale while doing so
I just felt like I was taking things too far weighing my food, it just wasn't ever necessary
Eat lightly, don't graze and stay active!10 -
CattOfTheGarage wrote: »While you have to be consistent, determined and thorough to lose weight, I do NOT agree that you have to come close to disordered eating.
Some of the behaviours may be superficially similar, but there are crucial differences - specifically, how you feel about it. Calorie counting and healthy choices should not be associated with anxiety, and to the extent that they are, you are doing it wrong.
Now, of course we all struggle with this initially, but if you are moving in the right direction, you should see a decrease in that anxiety and a gradually healthier, more proportionate relationship to food as time goes on. Less moralising, less splitting, less worrying, less emotional eating, less self-hatred, less need to fret over every bite.
By contrast, an eating disorder will see an increase in all those things over time, because an eating disorder is not a means of empowering yourself - it is a progressive loss of control.
We should all take note of this and regularly check our feelings and attitudes, because it is true that any weight loss effort carries a risk of developing disordered eating behaviours.
Look at your trajectory. You should see an improvement in your attitude and feelings around food. If it's deteriorating, you need to revisit your approach, and perhaps seek help.
Explain to me how eating at a deficit is possible without any anxiety when you LOVE eating and have a social life that often involves food (that you may not have much control over).
Why do you think that people gain the weight back? Because it gets harder, not easier, for most people.
People that have never had a weight problem behave this way all the time -making choices & trade-offs (whether consciously or unconsciously) on what and how much to eat. I don’t know about you, but my goal is to think like that.4 -
I definitely think my eating is a bit disordered; not because I track but because I sometimes binge; I think about food too often; a couple of other things I can't recall. Not much I can do about that other than therapy (which I can't afford and it's not affecting my life negatively) I think being aware of your intake, however, isn't the disordered part.3
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It becomes disordered when you develop a complex about it and make it impossible to operate outside of your set of rules. For example, if you can't eat a home-cooked meal without stressing out about it for the rest of the week because you couldn't "count" it, then you might have a problem.
Being precise with your numbers isn't a problem, but if you're letting it ruin your quality of life then it is.5 -
.[/quote]
Explain to me how eating at a deficit is possible without any anxiety when you LOVE eating and have a social life that often involves food (that you may not have much control over).
Why do you think that people gain the weight back? Because it gets harder, not easier, for most people. [/quote]
As someone who is in recovery for an eating disorder and has multiple food allergies I can tell you I used to always have anxiety around eating, deficit or surplus didn’t matter it all freaked me out.
For me now I have used tracking to make sure I’m getting balanced nutrition in the right amounts for my body. This process relieved my anxiety. My husband is a chef and I love food. Now I can enjoy all things (excluding my allergies of course) in moderation.
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CattOfTheGarage wrote: »While you have to be consistent, determined and thorough to lose weight, I do NOT agree that you have to come close to disordered eating.
Some of the behaviours may be superficially similar, but there are crucial differences - specifically, how you feel about it. Calorie counting and healthy choices should not be associated with anxiety, and to the extent that they are, you are doing it wrong.
Now, of course we all struggle with this initially, but if you are moving in the right direction, you should see a decrease in that anxiety and a gradually healthier, more proportionate relationship to food as time goes on. Less moralising, less splitting, less worrying, less emotional eating, less self-hatred, less need to fret over every bite.
By contrast, an eating disorder will see an increase in all those things over time, because an eating disorder is not a means of empowering yourself - it is a progressive loss of control.
We should all take note of this and regularly check our feelings and attitudes, because it is true that any weight loss effort carries a risk of developing disordered eating behaviours.
Look at your trajectory. You should see an improvement in your attitude and feelings around food. If it's deteriorating, you need to revisit your approach, and perhaps seek help.
Explain to me how eating at a deficit is possible without any anxiety when you LOVE eating and have a social life that often involves food (that you may not have much control over).
Why do you think that people gain the weight back? Because it gets harder, not easier, for most people.
People that have never had a weight problem behave this way all the time -making choices & trade-offs (whether consciously or unconsciously) on what and how much to eat. I don’t know about you, but my goal is to think like that.
Of course, but most people gain the weight back because it's not that easy to completely reteach your brain how to see food a healthy way.3
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