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I am in recovery from anorexia, and I live in an area without a lot of support resources, so I thought I'd try to start a support thread for recovery from eating disorders on Gaia. Anyone is free to post here, but please don't be mean or deliberately triggering. Also, you can talk about numbers, specific foods, etc, but please make the text white so they aren't visible without highlighting them, as that kind of thing can be very triggering for some people. I'd like to keep this a positive environment.
About Eating Disorders
Anorexia: This is what most people think of when they think "eating disorder". Anorexia (also called Anorexia Nervosa) is characterized by an inability or unwillingness to maintain a healthy weight for ones height and age, and an extreme fear of eating or of becoming fat. Anorexics will often over-exercise, hide food, or lie about what they've eaten in order to avoid taking in any "extra" calories (or any at all!). If allowed to continue unchecked, anorexia has a range of physical side effects from brittle hair and dry skin to heart arrhythmia and death. Anorexics may also sometimes binge and purge, although these are not the defining traits of the disorder.
Bulimia: Bulimics eat large amounts of food and then attempt to "purge" it from their bodies by vomiting, taking large quantities of laxatives, or over-exercising. After binging, they experience intense guilt and self-hatred, as well as physical discomfort, which creates the desire to purge. They are often secretive about binging, and may steal money or shoplift food in order to keep doing it. Bulimics may be average or overweight, but they have just as many, if not more, physical complications, including tooth damage and potentially fatal electrolyte imbalances.
ED-NOS: Eating Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified. This is any eating disorder which not not fit neatly into the accepted categories of diagnosis, and can encompass a wide variety of behaviors. Someone who restricts what they can eat, or how they can eat it, but eats a normal amount might fall into this category. It also covers anorexics who have a BMI of over 17.5 or who still menstruate, since they do not meet the official criteria for anorexia.
Orthorexia: This is technically a specific version of ED-NOS, but psychologists are starting to think of it as a separate disorder. Orthorexia is an unhealthy preoccupation with healthy eating. It is unhealthy because it consumes much of the persons time and energy, and because if their nutritional knowledge is incomplete (which everyone's is because the nuances of nutrition are not yet fully understood by science) then they can put themselves at some of the same risks that an anorexic does by cutting out entire food groups or macro-nutrients (i.e. fat or carbs), or eating too narrow a range of foods.
Binge Eating Disorder: Almost everyone overeats sometimes, but people with binge eating disorder eat very large amounts of food frequently, especially in response to certain kinds of stress. People with binge eating disorder often feel, or are told, that they just need to get some self control, and don't understand that they have a real eating disorder that can be treated. If their disorder causes them to be overweight or obese, they are at the same health risks as anyone else who is.
Disclaimer: Nothing on this page is intended to replace the advice or diagnosis of a doctor. Also, these descriptions are general, your mileage may vary.
Useful Formulas (may be triggering, use with caution):
Weight in lbs to weight in kg: divide weight by 2.2
Height in inches to height in cm: multiply by 2.54
Height in inches to height in meters: multiply by 2.54 and then divide by 100
BMI:
(weight in kg)/(height in meters)^2
Anorexia includes BMI of lower than 17.5, underweight is lower than 18.5, healthy BMI is 18.5 - 25, overweight is 25-30, obese is anything over 30.
Studies show a longer life expectancy for BMIs between 20 and 24. These numbers are only going to be an accurate representation of your health if you are between 15 and 65 (give or take), and not an athlete or otherwise very muscular. If these things are the case you will want to look at your body fat percentage or see a doctor and get their opinion based on your height, weight, age, and lifestyle.
Formula for how many calories you need to maintain weight:
Resting metabolic rate for women:
655.1+(weight in kg x 9.6)+(height in cm x 1. cool -(age in years x 4.7)
Resting metabolic rate for men: Coming soon!
This is how many calories your body uses just maintaining continued existence, organ function, etc.
Multiply by your activity factor (below) for how many calories you actually use in a given day.
Sedentary (desk job, no intentional exercise): RMR x 1.2
Light (exercise 1-3 days a week): 1.375
Moderate (exercise 3-5 days a week): 1.55
Very (6-7 days a week): 1.725
Extremely: (6-7 days per week plus a very physical job): 1.9
Personally I find activity factors confusing, because they are intended to take into account both the amount of time you spend exercising and how strenuous that exercise is. What I do is guess, track calories for a week including calorie surplus or deficit based on the assumption I made about activity level, and then adjust it up or down as needed if I get unexpected results. If your results are far off from what you expected you should see a doctor because that could mean there's something weird going on with your metabolism.
Resources
12 Step
Eating Disorders Anonymous
Anorexics and Bulimics Anonymous
Overeaters Anonymous
Self Mutilators Anonymous
Informational
National Eating Disorders Association
Something Fishy
USDA Nutrient Lists
Beat Appears to be mostly UK specific. They have a chat room and message boards.
Meal Planning/Food Tracking
My Pyramid (USDA website with meal planning, tracking and nutrition information)
Forums/Social
We Bite Back
Depression Forums (They have a section for eating disorders)
If you have a recommendation for a resource not listed here, PM me.
