The term “anorexia” gets thrown around quite a bit on the internet, but while the17 year old model who eats an apple and a can of tuna fish or 20-year-old wrestler who eats 500 calories a day and spends hours in a sweatbox trying to get down to weight isn’t healthy they probably DON’T have anorexia nervosa. Anorexia is more about anxiety and trying to exercise control over some aspect of one’s life – in this case weight- usually because of some external pressure such as abuse physical/sexual or fighting in the home (which the patient doesn’t have control over).
Bingeing, as a disorder is essentially the same thing as bulimia (non-restricting) except there is no purge. The people who have BED have a loss of control when they eat, they also binge alone. Again, just because someone eats alot of food at once doesn’t mean they have BED, a psychological disorder. BED is also NOT the reason most people become obese. You can binge and not be fat, you can have BED and not be fat, and you can be fat and have never binged. Size and BED are largely unrelated.

Eating disorders are a very specific type of extreme relationship with food. You may not have the best relationship with food, I”ve been there, but not have one of these disorders. I disagree with the researchers who seem to have decided that since these black women eat more than THEY think they should they MUST have a disorder, even without psychological distress – the very criteria which would make it a disorder.

My husband is slender and also very physically active, but has issues around food and will often tell me “I’ve been eating junk all day” if he’s been having a bad day. He does it because he’s upset and it makes him more upset, although we are talking amounts of food which won’t harm a six-foot guy who habitually cycles 18 miles a day.

Yet I’ve never been able to persuade him to bring this issue up with his therapist, and nobody is ever going to suspect he has these issues, because he doesn’t look like it.

I don’t think, as an adult, that I have any real issues with food at all (apart from being vegetarian, if that counts) but I definitely shy away from talking about what I eat and how much I eat, because I think people will make assumptions because of what I say – whatever I say.

I firmly believe that binging/eating disorders are about much more than a specific caloric amount or one’s weight. It is about how you feel while binging, throughout the day, about your body and self, etc. I don’t think a certain amount of food constitutes a binge – I think it is really about the psychology and feelings behind it.

I also do not believe that somebody cannot be underweight and have a “real binge”. I’ve had EDNOS for several years and mainly go back and forth on a daily/weekly/monthly basis between binging and restricting. I rationally realize that I am not (and have never truly been) overweight. Yet, I have had days of consuming thousands of calories [4000+]. More typically, I go through periods of restricting all day and consuming 1000+ calories [sometimes 2000-3000+] in one sitting. I realize that 1000 calories or less for a day is realistically still not enough- yet consuming that all at once, in the emotional state/way I’m talking about is *still* a binge. Sitting on the floor crying hysterically/staring off into space while scooping peanut butter straight out of the jar by itself because you’re depressed – is a binge.

I do have some days/periods where I consume 1000+ calories and consider none of it to be binging. It is all about how it is consumed and how I am feeling. I may have X amount of calories one day and feel okay-ish about it, not really considering it binging – having had the food spread through the day, in reasonable quantities, etc. The next day I may have a significantly lesser amount of calories, but feel like I’ve truly binged – having had in all in one sitting while feeling completely out of control, unable to stop completely emotional/dissasociated, etc.

[I'm not sure what exactly I was saying here anymore. Forgive me for this long ramble. I really need sleep. And ironically, am trying to distract myself so that I don't binge. I usually don't post here, just lurk sometimes. I'm sorry for the intrusion, hope I didn't bother anybody.]

Like, if you feel a complete lack of control while you were eating and you do it in secret because you are ashamed, that’s a binge no matter what/how much the actual food consumption is.

Binges are ___. Eating disorders are ____.

If you don’t fit into the neat little box category it’s too easy to say “Well, I guess I don’t have a problem then.”

I wish people wouldn’t feel the need to drag weight into it and confuse binging with overeating. Being fat doesn’t mean you binge and being thin doesn’t mean you don’t. You can never tell by looks.

I will admit, I have had moments where my eyes are bigger than my stomach (just like most people at Thanksgiving), but I don’t feel I have ever had a true binge. When I was younger, one of my parental figures made the frequent accusation that I must be stuffing my face when she wasn’t looking – because the diets she was putting me on weren’t working. It took me a long time to come to terms with this. Its hard to be told that your eating must be disordered when you follow the same (if not stricter) dietary guidelines as “normal” people.