Triggering (ED): Is this an eating disorder?

[Raggedy Man, Goodnight!]

I've put myself on a diet. I'm living on a really small salad and a yoghurt a day and drinking water. I have lost edited in 2 to 3 weeks and everyone is saying its not healthy and that they think that I have an eating disorder. And now they have the nerve to say I'm a diet to get attention. I'm on a diet because I want to be happy with myself, I've lost edited but I'm still not happy. I just need to know if this could be classed as an eating disorder, I get terrible hunger pains during the day as I have my yoghurt for breakfast and then I don't eat my salad till about 5 or 6 on a night.

[Moyshi]

Hey there,

I can't give you a diagnosis, however I can tell you with certainty that this is not healthy for you to continue. Your body needs food to survive. When you don't provide enough nutrients, you're making it very difficult for your body to continue working as it should. Continuing to restrict your food intake as you're currently doing right now will eventually lead to many serious health problems caused by lack of nutrients.

The thing about trying to lose weight by restricting your food intake is that it's not healthy and it's almost impossible to maintain. You may be seeing quick results right now, however eventually your body will realize it's not being fed enough and will switch to "survival mode". This means your body may actually save what little you eat so you can continue to function. It will then become very difficult to lose any weight. To touch on my comment about it being almost impossible to maintain, this is in regards to your body switching to survival mode, as well as if you continue to consume way below what your body needs for fuel, you will become very sick.

If you feel like you need to lose weight, I strongly recommend doing it the healthy way. This means changing your lifestyle so you are eating healthy (ex. enough calories per day, eating enough from all the food groups, etc.), as well as incorporating exercise into your everyday routine. If you're looking to go on a healthy "diet", I suggest making an appointment with your doctor and expressing to them what you want and see what they say about how to go about this. The results may not appear as fast, but this is the healthy way. This is a long term, maintainable way to go about losing weight.

People often think that losing weight will suddenly be the key to finding happiness. Unfortunately, that is not usually the case, and especially not if you're trying to lose it in an unhealthy manner. Disordered eating and eating disorders will only make you miserable and feel like you're never quite enough.

I really suggest talking to someone about your thoughts you're having in regards to your eating now, before this gets worse. You don't have to deal with any of this by yourself. I have always found it helpful to remind myself that being healthy is the end goal. Food is not the enemy. It's very important fuel that helps your body continue to do all the wonderful things it does for you everyday. You need to take good care of yourself physically and mentally because you deserve to be happy and healthy!

I hope this helps a bit.
Take care. :]

Hey there,

No one can give you a diagnosis but it is true that the way you are eating is not healthy. Your body needs a certain amount of nutrients all day long and it doesn't seem as though you are giving your body those nutrients which is leading to the hunger pains and things like that.

If you are set on losing weight you might want to consider talking to a doctor about the healthy ways you can go about doing this. A doctor might be able to send you to a nutritionist. If they can't do that they might be able to give you ideas on what you can do to start living a healthy lifestyle.

I know you want to lose weight in order to be happy but it's important to remember that weight doesn't define you. I've lost weight in the past and I thought that would make me happier but it didn't. The fact is the amount of weight I lost wasn't enough and I was still miserable.

I hope this helped and I am wishing you the best of luck.

[Palmolive]

Hi there.

I can't diagnose you with an eating disorder as we aren't medically trained here but I don't believe you're eating a healthy balanced diet and that's something really important because eating a healthy balance diet effects us in many ways such as it affects our physical health as well as our mental health. I don't honestly believe you are eating enough at this moment in time and think that's something you need to work on.

How? Maybe you could see your doctor/GP and ask for a referral to a dietitian. They will be able to weigh you and help you to get to a healthy weight in the right way. To me, you seem to be starving your body right now and having a meal plan in place might be beneficial for you as well as having exercise in place. You need to look after yourself and your body.

If you have any bad thoughts around food and your eating, please feel free to talk to us about it. We're here to help you.

Jessie.

[Raggedy Man, Goodnight!]

Thank you I can't eat at the moment, not because I don't want to. I was beaten up on Saturday and my teeth are cracked and knocked out of place. As soon as I have recovered from this I am going to see my GP and see if he can give me anything to help me lose weight as well as a healthy diet plan. One of my friends said I should be able to get health shakes off the GP to help me lose weight.

[Always *]

Like the others said, we can't diagnose you, but it doesn't sound like what you're currently doing is very healthy. The body is a complex thing too and it has a tendency to cling onto any excess weight when starving cause it's like "yo, I need this stuff".

I'm sorry you got beat up. Have you seen a doctor about that aspect of your health? Or a dentist?

Finally, don't waste your money on any of this weird shake thingies or pills that people try to tell you will help lose weight. They're really expensive and never work that great. Look, I used to be really overweight and I had to fight to A) break habits that caused me to gain weight and B) change my lifestyle that would facilitate long term weight loss and healthy living. What you have to realize is that it's the long term that'll pay off now. I know it sucks when your feeling so awful about how you look, but if you take extreme measures to lose weight (e.g. nasty, expensive shakes, meals that are to small, etc.) then you're not going to be as successful longterm, most people gain weight back like that. If you do things like develop healthy habits (balanced meals, exercise) it'll be more likely to stick and it'll be more likely to address any unhealthy thinking you have about dieting and body image. I actually saw a nutritionist and that was really helpful to have someone help me addressing unhealthy things that I did, including my overall mentality.