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Addicted to weight loss... eating disorder?
I'm a 19 year old girl. Bear with me: this is long.
I've always been heavy, and I recently topped out at about 225 lbs. That was a month ago, and now I'm down to 208. I struggled with binge eating disorder from about age 10 until recently, so I was used to that. But now things are changing.
I started off by dieting. I started to lose some weight. Then I started to cut calories. I live with my boyfriend, so he got worried. I stopped cooking enough food for the both of us, and gave him most of it so that I didn't have to rationalize my not eating.
Now I've got a new job, and it involves a lot of exercise. I've been losing weight at the rate of 1-2 pounds a day since starting. I've been skipping meals so that I don't have to eat, saying that I'm not feeling well. When I do eat, I try to eat mostly salad, with very little else.
I'm weighing myself every day, almost obsessively. If I gain a half pound back, I make myself do an extra half hour on the treadmill, and cut my normal meal amount in half. I guess that's as close to purging as I get.
I noticed all of this today, because I was getting dizzy and nauseous while I was working, and had to stop.
My question, now that you have the background, is this:
Do I have an eating disorder, or is this just extreme dieting? If so, which one, because I'm really confused as to where to start with fixing things if I do, and getting onto a healthy weight loss path. I tried looking this up online, and the only one that really fit my behaviours was anorexia, which I don't have because I'm overweight.
Any help on the matter would be great.
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Hey:)
I went through a stage where i lost a drastic amount of weight a while ago going from 154lbs to 130lbs in a short time span. I too was losing 1-2 lbs a go due to excessive exercise and constant monitoring of my calorie intake, i ended up consuming around 250 calories a day (basically lettuce, water and a piece of fruit/juice for energy). You really need to sit down and plan how you are going to lose weight managably; it's good that you've noticed that the diet you are on isn't right for you. I ended up in hospital with exhaustion because my body couldn't cope with this amount of pressure it was under. I now eat healthy and exercise enough to stay a nice weight and still feel happy and energic. I eat around 1200 calories a day and do 30-40 minutes of cardio 3 times a week and weights 3 times a week to stay in shape as i do a lot of sport and find it hard to keep weight off.
I wouldn't say you have an eating disorder at the moment, you're just going through an obsessive stage which is so easy to do when you get in the mood to diet. That said, you do need to change your diet of your body with either rebel and you'll put the weight back on quickly or the worst could happen and you'll develop an eat disorder.
Sorry this is a late reply,
Stay healthy:)
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Look up ED-NOS; it fits your symptoms. Mind you, no one here can diagnose you, but perhaps it will provide a certain measure of comfort knowing that you're not just nuts?
Please try and get yourself help sooner rather than later. A therapist could be tremendously helpful to you. A dietitian would also probably be of use. I would definitely suggest seeing a doctor; he or she can run tests to rule out physical reasons for your weight, and possibly even physical reasons that might lead you toward this unhealthy weight loss.
You're hurting your body. I know you know that, and I know that to a certain degree right now, it doesn't matter. Weight loss is almost a natural high. I've been there. I am there. It's not pretty, and it doesn't get easier.
I think you know it's a problem, because you're posting here. The next step is to figure out why you're doing what you are. How do you feel when you don't eat? How do you feel when you do? What other things can cause these feelings? Why is this the path you've chosen? It goes beyond weight, because if that was all there was to it, you wouldn't be depressed to see the scale go down only a bit; you'd just be happy to see it go down.
Please get help. Talk to your loved ones. Talk to a professional. You deserve better than this.
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just because youre overweight doesnt mean you cant be anorexic. many anorexics start out weighing a lot, and then lose all the weight because they dont eat anything. it is difficult to say whether this is an eating disordeer or just extreme dieting, but either way it isnt good. exercise every day is good, as is cutting calories, but you should still be eating three meals a day. skipping meals is never good. especially if you skip breakfast, because that slows down your metabolism, making you burn calories slower. losing a pound a day is ok if youre exercising a lot, but you have to make sure youre getting the essentials your body needs, and eating enough food. as long as you make sure you eat three meals a day you should be ok. make sure you dont exercise too much, and cause youre body to break down.
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