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What's wrong with me? Could this be a binge eating disorder?
I've been counting calories on-and-off for probably 3 years now. I've always kind of thought I had anorexia, but I started counting calories again in September and still am. Here's the problem.
I don't know why, but I eat at planned times and such. Then I look forward to it. My mind is focused on food ALL THE TIME. For example; I eat a breakfast sometime in the morning, depending when I wake up. I eat lunch in the 12:00 hour. I may have a snack at 2 or 3PM. Then dinner at 5-6PM, and I usually binge on a snack later at night. Anyway, why do I always look forward to the times I get to eat? Could this be a binge eating disorder? That makes me feel even worse. I count calories (I'm an extreme master at it, honestly) every day. 1,000 is my absolute limit. On average, I eat between 600-800 calories. I get literally no exercise at all since I'm homeschooled and I have a lot of mental health problems (What a surprise..). Anyway, what is wrong with me? Is it maybe because this is really the only eventful thing of my day? I'm 5'2 or 5'3 and I weigh around 93 pounds.
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I think being low on calories for some is normal. I'm the same, except 940 calories has been my highest amount. I'm homeschooled too, but still get to exercise, so I don't know how many calories that makes me having a day. Being low on calories, it is pretty normal to look forward to eating. The few times I go high in calories like if I'm going out to eat, I hate myself for what I've eaten and don't want to eat again, so the affect works based on the calories you've consumed. To keep your mind off food, you probably need to fill yourself up more. I eat about the same amount of calories as you, but get full with every meal. Eat things that are very low in calories so you can consume a lot of it and maybe your stomach will tell your brain to stop thinking of food all the time
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I'd need more info to know if you had an eating disorder. There is a slight chance, that depending on what these meals consist of, that you may naturally have a fascination with the chemistry of well blended foods and seasoning that make a meal to die for, such as chefs would make. Do you have a great interest in being involved in the preparing of meals? If so, you may be destined to go to a culinary school and become a chef.
Otherwise, the greater chance is that you obsess on food over anything else in your life. The American diet is not good and there is too much approved on the market for consumption that is bad for our health in that the food comes with too much salt, sugar or fat. We are trained from todder-hood to like foods that have a lot of one or all of those ingrediants. Now because we are used to them, it's an addiction if we don't enjoy food that are low in fat sugar salt or free of them. It's addictive just like nicotine in cigarettes or street drugs and pain killers. We may not see it that way, and so we become unnaturally drawn to food. Since you volunteered having mental health problems, its likely connected to your thought processes. You are not taking in excess calories. You can probably still have more calories, teens are still growing and the body needs nutrition. But I would look more at the content of your food, not the calories. A good way to learn how to watch what you eat and why its important is to talk to a dietician, most family Drs. can refer you on to one. Also, if there are mental health issues and not seeing a mental health specialist, I would see the family Dr so they can refer you to one. Thats where I'd start dear.
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It's not anorexia. Anorexia is not eating at all. But it sounds like you might have some sort of eating disorder and it's best if you go see a doctor about it instead of trying to diagnose yourself over the internet. None of us are doctors so we can't tell you for sure.
Either way, you wrote to us. And there's a reason you wrote to us. It's because you know this isn't normal and something is wrong.
Eating 1000 calories a day isn't healthy. You could really damage your health by eating this way. And on top of that, you don't exercise. It doesn't sound like you take very good care of yourself.
So since you already know something is wrong, you need to see a doctor and get diagnosed. They can help you fix the problem and then you'll feel much better and you won't be obsessing over food.
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