Everyone who goes on a diet to lose weight develops disordered eating behaviors. . .and one out of four of them go on to develop full-blown eating disorders. (references) In the US alone, every fifty-two minutes, someone dies from eating disorder complications.
The intense pressure to lose weight is one of the biggest triggers for people to develop eating disorders in our culture. Sadly, weight stigma is starting in childhood now; not just the teenage years.
And unfortunately, after a lifetime of dieting, it’s becoming normalized for patients to have established disordered eating patterns—and even full-blown eating disorders—as their physicians applaud them for losing weight! Sadly, when patients are the sickest with the disorders, they get the most praise.
Rhetoric such as 100% compliance, portion control, strict adherence to the plan, and intense pressure to reach idealized weights and images add fuel to the disorders.
If you are a parent, become cognizant of how eating disorder language and behaviors may be showing up in your home—or in your child’s peer group.
Here are some examples:
· Vocalizing phrases such as “I’m not allow to” or I’m not supposed to” when referring to food choices
· Lack of innate ability to self-regulate food
· Following precise eating formulas
· Frequent weight and mirror checks
· Rigid food rules
· Tracking every morsel of food and amounts
· Joining weight loss challenges and boot camps—and going on and off of them
· Feeling guilty, anxious, ashamed, and demoralized if one gains weight—or is not losing weight quickly enough
· Number on scale dictates moods
· Vocalizing body dissatisfaction and hatred of body, especially in the presence of children
· Increasingly undereating and skipping meals in order to meet weight goals
· Pursuit of thinness over mental health and well-being
· Publicly sharing before/after pictures
· Celebrity worship of weight loss stories
· Commenting about others’ body sizes
· Showing disgust of others’ bodies
· Life evolves around food, food talk
· Sharing “what I eat in a day” videos and pictures
· Condescending disapproval of what others eat
· Judging others’ food choices
Enjoying a nutritionally-balanced meals is not the enemy of health.
Dieting is.
How Being a Weight Loss Success Story Triggered an Eating Disorder
Emily Boller, wife, mother, artist, and author is on a mission to create expressive works of art in her lifetime; and to bring awareness to the potentially harmful traps of diet-wellness culture. In her free time, she loves to chase sunrises, grow flowers and vegetables, and can homemade soups.