Introduction to Eating Disorders

Eating is intuitive. It is one of the most natural things that one does. One feels hungry, one eats. But, eating can be very unnatural and stressful for many people and there are many disorders that are related with eating. These disorders are called eating disorders. Eating disorders can be caused by many underlying factors. These include but are not limited to genetics, environment, social pressures, abuse, restriction etc. There are 4 main kinds of eating disorders. They are illustrated in the table below.

*Even though orthorexia is a subset of EDNOS, we are giving it its own space. This is because our book is related with health and fitness and we often see clients suffering from orthorexia.

Eating disorders can be fatal and cause death. The less severe effects of EDs include nutrition deficiencies, loss of teeth, physical weakness, immunological deficiencies and mental distress. Eating disorders can be extremely debilitating. People suffering can find it difficult to deal with ordinary situations such as going to a restaurant or eating with family or friends and other such social occasions. If after reading the symptomatology, you feel like you are suffering or identify and relate with any of the symptoms, we recommend that you meet with a psychologist. A person suffering would require nutritional, physiological and mental health care and should seek help and diagnoses immediately.

Does Restrictive Eating Cause Eating Disorders?

Restrictive eating and self-imposed strict dieting very often leads to eating disorders. In my career, I have seen that people who are trying to lose weight especially fall prey to disordered eating habits. I have seen people on both sides of the spectrum. Some competitors and clients, who have been dieting for a long time binge eat once food is available. Others are absolutely unable to eat and severely restrict themselves once food is available.

So let’s get into what restrictive eating means. So imagine that you are a normal person and you eat normally. What this means is that you don’t really care about what you eat. You are served food. You eat it till you feel good (not stuffed, not hungry) and then you get on with your day. Simply put, you get hungry, you procure food, you eat it, you get full and you get on with your life and your day. Now mostly, you will notice that your body will find a number on the scale that it likes. It could be 50kgs, 75 kgs etc etc. If you eat like you want and chill, your body will stay put at a weight. This number is known as your metabolic set point.

All human bodies love to be homeostatic. Homeostasis simply means that bodies like to be balanced and just chill. Like goldilocks, bodies like to be… neither to hot, nor too cold, they like being just right. Now these balanced bodies look and feel “normal”. This means that the way these bodies look would be dependent on your genetics, your activity level and your environment. You could be lean, muscular, thin, fat, chubby anything. Remember this is a body without you eating restrictively and overtraining.

Now to change the way that your body looks, you would have to change the way you eat and your physical activity. When people want to change the way that they look, they turn to dieticians, friends and to the internet. Now always remember that the internet has an expanse of stuff available. But, it is also the place that tells you that your headache is cancer.

Now what that means is that the Internet is full of information, correct and incorrect information. What happens most of the time is that people find diets on the internet and without questioning the diet they start eating what this diet tells them to eat. These diets often claim to give you radical results and may ask you to juice fast, severely limit your food intake, ask you to limit water and salt, or eat only veggies or only fruits …you get the point.

This caloric restriction is not limited to the internet; I also often get clients that have worked with renowned dieticians that have given them cookie cutter diets. I have worked with men and women who are eating as little as a 1000 calories a day and still not dropping any weight. I also notice that people often see their friends not eating wheat or going gluten free or vegan and follow blindly.

This brings me to a very important point. Each of you is unique. What works for you may never work for someone else. Some people can eat everything and still gain no weight and some can take a nice whiff of chocolate cake and gain 10 lbs. Cookie cutter diets given by coaches, friends, dieticians or found on the internet cause restrictive dieting and hence can potentially lead to eating disorders. I would like you guys to stay away from developing a disorder for no reason. It is not worth it. It has its physiological and mental consequences and it is best to keep yourself at bay and keep your sanctity intact by being smart from the get go.

I can share my personal experience with you guys just to let you know how bad eating disorders can get. I suffer from a binge eating disorder. In the past, I severely restricted the types of food I ate and when I was in the presence of delicious, sumptuous food, I would feed myself till I felt sick. I would eat till the time that couldn’t breathe and couldn’t move and the guilt would hit me after. After I had eaten, I would feel immense guilt and would give myself a hard time for eating. Bro dieting and severe long term restriction has lead me here. I would find myself being severely preoccupied with thoughts of food that I was not (could not) eat. I had difficulty concentrating on regular day to day activities and decided not to go to social gatherings. I isolated myself. Had difficulty in my relationships and could not enjoy a normal healthy life. I feel like these consequences negate the entire process of trying to get fit. If the meaning of getting physically fit is sacrificing your mental fitness, I don’t think that it is worth it.

The number one factor that determines what your body looks like is your total daily calorie intake. Body fat is only burnt when you are in a calorie deficit i.e., when you less calories than what your body requires on a daily basis. Before we go into understanding the role of energy balance and why it is so important, lets cover the basics for those who are very new to nutrition and the terminology that goes with it.

PRAJVI MALHOTRA EXPLAINING HER EXPERIENCE WITH ANOREXIA

I HAVE AN EATING DISORDER

LACTOSE INTOLERANCE AND HOW TO DEAL WITH IT