Can you be overweight and anorexic?

voldemortharrypotter
voldemortharrypotter Posts: 12
edited October 6 in Food and Nutrition
Yeah, the question above kinda says it all =)
Your help is greatly appreciated!!
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Replies

  • summalovaable
    summalovaable Posts: 287 Member
    I've never realllly heard of a scenario. But I suppose a "fresh" anorexic might be overweight ? However, long term if you remain overweight... you're likely not doing a very good job at the whole anorexia thing.
  • carrie_eggo
    carrie_eggo Posts: 1,396 Member
    From Wikipedia:

    "Anorexia nervosa (AN), also known as simply Anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight, and an obsessive fear of gaining weight."

    "Anorexia (symptom), the symptom of poor appetite whatever the cause."
  • jhardenbergh
    jhardenbergh Posts: 1,035 Member
    I know you can have exercise anorexia if your overweight
  • tmarie2715
    tmarie2715 Posts: 1,111 Member
    Kind of.

    I think they are calling it EDNOS these days. It means Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_disorder_not_otherwise_specified

    Unnatural eating and unhealthy relationships with food are EDs. End of story. Please get some help for yourself (or your friend) that made you post this question.
  • capriciousmoon
    capriciousmoon Posts: 1,263 Member
    Sort of. You can have anorexic behaviors but would most likely be diagnosed as EDNOS until your weight was low enough.
  • hellotina
    hellotina Posts: 147 Member
    hm.. not sure , i've never seen someone with anorexia that was overweight because usually they restrict eating & they are thin thinking they are fat. i'd say more chance of someone with bulimia being overweight because of the binge eating. don't quote me though, i'm not 100%. either way sad disorder for sure.
  • elizabethm2289
    elizabethm2289 Posts: 1 Member
    Anorexia means "Loss of appetite"... I don't see why you have to be underweight to be diagnosed with it. It's a mental illness. Although if you were anorexic and overweight, you would soon become underweight because you would be severely restricting.
  • Yakisoba
    Yakisoba Posts: 719 Member
    Yeah. ._.
  • ciaobellakiss
    ciaobellakiss Posts: 142
    I think to be medically considered anorexic you have to be underweight. However, if you were overweight and starving yourself or whatever anorexics do, you'd be diagnosed with EDNOS (Eating Disorder not otherwise specified)
  • ciaobellakiss
    ciaobellakiss Posts: 142
    Kind of.

    I think they are calling it EDNOS these days. It means Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_disorder_not_otherwise_specified

    Unnatural eating and unhealthy relationships with food are EDs. End of story. Please get some help for yourself (or your friend) that made you post this question.

    Yeah, sorry didn;t read the posts before I answered :P
  • voldemortharrypotter
    voldemortharrypotter Posts: 12
    :smile: :smile: :smile: Thanks everyone for your help!! I really do appreciate it!
  • getitamb
    getitamb Posts: 2,019 Member
    In think they are clkassified under bulemia because you can definitely be overweight and bulemic. Soeaking from experience.
  • getitamb
    getitamb Posts: 2,019 Member
    Repost: Speaking from experience. My spelling is horrible.
  • ilovemyhorse
    ilovemyhorse Posts: 87
    You can. I know of a few people.
  • Jd1360
    Jd1360 Posts: 170 Member
    I did it. Being anorexic isn't just about being bone-skinny. I was overweight, but consuming less than 500 calories a day. I was dizzy, always freezing, had wicked heartburn and deep black dark circles beneath my eyes.
    And yet I was overweight.

    And more than that, it's a mindset, a way of thinking. An obsessive, crazed one, but regardless.

    Hope that helps!
  • ShannonMpls
    ShannonMpls Posts: 1,936 Member
    Clinically, one must be underweight to be diagnosed with anorexia per the DSM IV criteria, pasted below. However, EDNOS is a catch-all diagnosis for those who have disordered eating without being underweight.

    ---

    Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height: Weight loss leading to maintenance of body weight <85% of that expected or failure to make expected weight gain during period of growth, leading to body weight less than 85% of that expected.

    Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though under weight.

    Disturbance in the way one's body weight or shape are experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self evaluation, or denial of the seriousness of the current low body weight.

    Amenorrhea (at least three consecutive cycles) in postmenarchal girls and women. Amenorrhea is defined as periods occurring only following hormone (e.g., estrogen) administration.

    http://www.clevelandclinicmeded.com/medicalpubs/diseasemanagement/psychiatry-psychology/eating-disorders/
  • rose_mortem
    rose_mortem Posts: 147 Member
    Anorexa is a mental condition, and yes. Speaking from experience, when I was 14, I was only eating 500cals a day but didn't lose a single pound over 5 months. I think I shut my body down completely. As soon as I learned that I had to eat more to lose weight, I increased to 1200 a day and lost steadily.

    Moral of the story:: it's so much easier to lose weight healthily
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
    In think they are clkassified under bulemia because you can definitely be overweight and bulemic. Soeaking from experience.

    Bulimia is when you force yourself to vomit up the food you eat.
  • capriciousmoon
    capriciousmoon Posts: 1,263 Member
    In think they are clkassified under bulemia because you can definitely be overweight and bulemic. Soeaking from experience.

    Bulimia is when you force yourself to vomit up the food you eat.

    You can be bulimic and never vomit. Some just overexercise or abuse laxatives.
  • Arabian♥Breeze
    Arabian♥Breeze Posts: 323
    Are you asking because you are thinking of becoming Anorexic?
  • AmandaJoi25
    AmandaJoi25 Posts: 50
    Yes you can and more common is bulimics who are overweight.
  • cindymarguerite
    cindymarguerite Posts: 52
    I've never realllly heard of a scenario. But I suppose a "fresh" anorexic might be overweight ? However, long term if you remain overweight... you're likely not doing a very good job at the whole anorexia thing.

    how do you 'do a good job' at being mentally ill? -_-
  • summalovaable
    summalovaable Posts: 287 Member
    I've never realllly heard of a scenario. But I suppose a "fresh" anorexic might be overweight ? However, long term if you remain overweight... you're likely not doing a very good job at the whole anorexia thing.

    how do you 'do a good job' at being mentally ill? -_-

    That was a joke.... maybe it was one of those "funnier in my head" jokes
  • TheShelterCat
    TheShelterCat Posts: 160
    You can start out overweight and become anorexic... that also causes some serious weight problems not seen in average or normal weight anorexics. Either way anorexia is bad, bad, news.
  • Inebriated
    Inebriated Posts: 271
    No. If you're overweight, you can't be diagnosed with anorexia. You'd be diagnosed with EDNOS.
  • Sarah_LM
    Sarah_LM Posts: 96
    I read a story about a woman who was obese and then in determination to lose weight began to display the behaviours/thought patterns associated with anorexia...however because it took a long time to become noticeably underweight, neither she nor the doctors realised she had an eating disorder.
  • AmandaJoi25
    AmandaJoi25 Posts: 50
    No. If you're overweight, you can't be diagnosed with anorexia. You'd be diagnosed with EDNOS.

    They won't diagnose it as anorexia until your bmi gets really low but thats mostly because insurance companies don't want to pay to put people in clinics who aren't near death. They release you from the clinic when your bmi gets back up to "normal" and some women in those places are so afraid of being released when they know they haven't had time to really get better that they will try there hardest to remain at a low weight just to stay there. There is a movie called Thin that documented eating disorder patients at a clinic and one of the women who was released because her insurance company said she was to "well" to be there later died.
  • getitamb
    getitamb Posts: 2,019 Member
    In think they are clkassified under bulemia because you can definitely be overweight and bulemic. Soeaking from experience.

    Bulimia is when you force yourself to vomit up the food you eat.

    You can be bulimic and never vomit. Some just overexercise or abuse laxatives.
    Thank you. You took the words out of my mouth. I learned about it in abnormal Psychology.
  • BuffyEat2Live
    BuffyEat2Live Posts: 327 Member
    You cannot be diagnosed with anorexia unless you are underweight. I was diagnosed with EDNOS years ago, because I had all the symptoms of anorexia but was not underweight by BMI's standards.

    So a person who is overweight but otherwise fits the criterea for anorexia would most likely be diagnosed with Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS).
  • getitamb
    getitamb Posts: 2,019 Member
    Are you asking because you are thinking of becoming Anorexic?
    I just was thinking the same exact thing.
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