No eating disorders (or disordered eating) here. I was an athlete in HS and college, so I exercized a lot and ate a lot. After college, I quit doing so much of each and lost a bit of weight. I’ve always been a healthy BMI. Now, after having two kids, things are a bit saggier than I’d like, but whatever. There are bigger things to worry about. I just eat when I’m hungry and not when I’m not hungry.
I’ve never had an eating disorder and have only known a handful of women and girls who obviously did. Obviously I’ve known many who have dieted, but nothing too extreme. I’d be surprised if someone claimed every girl in their school had an eating disorder too.
What’s more odd is the fact that even though all these diet articles are so public, people who are going through it usually exist in a world of their own. Personally, I rarely read diet articles, never needed to - I already knew what the food that I was going to eat had it calorically and how much I’d need to do to burn it off. The next day, I’d see if I could put less into myself. That was the challenge when I was really involved. The funny thing is that I actually read quite a bit of alternative material - books, magazines, pretty much anything I can get my hands on - but nothing particular on dieting.
I appreciate your welcome - so far so good.
As for the words, I think we share some experiences in common and unfortunately/fortunately (depends on how you look at it) with that comes a little wisdom, and some compassion for others who have gone through the same or similar.
Thanks, but I guess I should have made it more clear–I’m pretty much over it. I have never actually done anything all that unhealthy for more than a few days; it’s more of a general dissatisfaction with my body with periodic bursts of extreme behavior. But these days, the bursts aren’t really extreme–I’ll just exercise like crazy for a week or eat no “bad” foods for a week, that kind of thing.
And if you still aren’t buying it, consider the fact that, despite it all, I haven’t ventured outside of a ten-pound weight range since I was 16. My biggest weight-loss campaign (3 years ago) was extremely healthy–right within the diet and exercise guidelines that any doctor would give me–but it only lost me about 5 pounds over 6 months. I’m just bound to be 20 pounds heavier than I’d like to be, forever.
I can’t remember anyone in my high school who could be characterized as having an eating disorder. The first anorexic I knew was in college, and in my whole life I’ve only known three. I know many of us tried to lose a few pounds before a formal event, but that usually only lasted a few hours! Can’t be taken seriously as an eating disorder if you can’t keep it up for more than two days, now can it? Now, at 50, I know lots of people who stick to diet plans, but more for health reasons than appearance alone. But no one really seems to get into fad diets for very long, if at all. The midwest just isn’t as obsessive about weight asother areas of the country, perhaps?
I’ve never had an eating disorder…I like & enjoy food. I don’t have the best bod in the world, but I’m more or less average, and I can live with it.
I’ve never had an eating disorder and have never known anyone that did, or that I would suspect of having one. The idea that most women have had one would be absurd, IMO. I do buy the idea that most women hate at least part of their body, though- that does seem to be epidemic.
I’m honestly curious as to why you keep saying that “counting calories” constitutes an eating disorder.
That is an interesting question. I don’t have a tendency to diet, as I mentioned, but I do have a desired weight range, and when I get above it, I cut back on Cokes, maybe, or forego dessert. One might consider this “needless” calorie-counting, because I’m not talking about a weight that would necessitate dieting for health reasons. It’s purely because I think I look and feel better under that weight, and maybe also because it’s easy to gain 5 pounds, look the other way, gain another 5, and another 5, and before you know it, you can have a health problem. I would not consider this attitude about my weight to be unhealthy or anywhere close to a “disorder.”
I would say that this idea of whether or not you “need” to count calories to be an extremely ambiguous one…at what point is it “needless?”
Disordered eating, not an eating disorder. I’ve never thought I was fat; I have upped the exercise for a couple of weeks in order to look good in a certain dress. Only to realize that hey, I coulda worn a Spanx body-thing!
But I realize my eating is not real healthy. Example: I once had a horrible job that depressed me, and during the course of it, 6 weeks, I lost maybe 20 pounds. (I was a social worker at a mental hospital; eating in the lunchroom was too depressing so I skipped lunch and walked around the grounds, I rarely eat breakfast anyway, and I was too tired & depressed after work to cook, so I drank.) Note that I gave notice after my first two weeks; the director talked me into staying and giving it more than a two-week try, but that job just didn’t take.
I was never diagnosed with an eating disorder, though I’ve been accused of anorexia. But I was severely depressed for most of my childhood, and it completely killed my appetite. It wasn’t until I’d moved away from home and became a better adjusted person that I realized I actually like eating.
I still haven’t gained much more than 10 pounds in the 10 years I’ve been out of high school.
Not sure where I fall in the continuum. I lost 50 pounds on WW; I have maintained that loss for 5 years. Even though I am at goal, I always want to be under. I just don’t have the true motivation to go any further.
But - I track my food every day; recently, I’ve been tracking my calories with an online website. I have an excel spreadsheet that goes all the way back to January of this year with what I ate every week.
The good thing is, once I switched from the WW flex program to core, I feel less obsessive about my eating. I’m learning to trust my body to tell me when to eat, and how much.
I don’t punish myself for overeating, just because it isn’t a part of my daily life. There is definitely some obsessing when I eat something “unhealthy”, but it’s maybe for a few hours, and I tend to let it go.
My best friend in high school was anorexic. She was very smart - the saluditorian of our class. She wanted to be a doctor. At our high school graduation, she was so cold from being thin, she wore a winter coat - in June.
Susan
I went to a small, private girls’ school. Lots of anorexics there, let me tell you. One of my very good friends was hospitalized for several months on account of her anorexia and depression.
I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum. I’d say my eating is absolutely disordered, but tends towards binging without the purging. I often feel as if I have no control over my eating.
There is something warped about a healthy-sized girl or woman knowing the calorie count of everything going into her mouth, especially when it’s adding up to a ‘magic’ daily number (say, 1000 calories), and especially when she’s tracking everything she eats in a journal rather than, say, her thoughts or daily events.
I realize, again, that ‘disordered eating’ would have been a better term to put in the OP. I just think it’s odd how much time and effort supposedly rational women devote to losing weight, when so many men I know don’t seem to give it a second thought (and yes, I know they can have eating disorders). These aren’t morbidly obese women or women who’ve got to stay trim for their jobs in the spotlight, they’re teachers and doctors and for some reason losing 5 lbs is a greater accomplishment than a promotion. And I hate that it’s so normalized. I think it sends the wrong message to younger girls that ‘everyone’ diets, and I think it’s odd how many women bond over ‘fat days’ or complaining about their thighs in front of the mirror.
Never had an eating disorder, never had a problem with my weight. I’m thin, but not unhealthily so (been the same weight for at least 10 years now, 110 at 5’7" and no matter what I eat my weight will only fluctuate by at most 2 pounds.) I don’t even know anyone who has ever had an eating disorder (or if they did, they never told me.)
Never had an eating disorder, though I lost about 40lb through stress one year and stayed dangerously thin for the next five years through lifestyle (low income, walked everywhere, ate little). I’m overweight now, but I can certainly see the difference between those weeks when I walk to work and watch what I’m eating, and those weeks where I don’t.
I’d say it’s what you do with it once you’ve counted the calories. Do you restrict your eating a little? For how long? A lot? A little more every day? Where does it end? Calories themselves aren’t the bad guys-it’s the mindset of the person who’s counting them.
But it’s a very logical step towards losing excess weight. YOU may not like it, but it’s not an “eating disorder” to note how many calories you’re consuming. An eating disorder is a behavioural disorder that has some negative impact on your ability to eat in a healthy way.
The most common eating disorder, by far, in the Western world is overeating. If being conscious of calorie intake helps someone solve that problem, that’s not an eating disorder, that’s SOLVING an eating disorder.
But isn’t counting calories pretty much like knowing what your bank balances are? And tracking your spending before you spend so you don’t overdraw your account?
I see counting calories as actually quite healthy and physically responsible, in the same way that staying on top of my money is fiscally responsible and healthy. It’s the misuse of calories (either over or under) and the acompanying reasons for that misuse that can lead you down not so happy paths of either starvation or obesity.