What is disordered eating?

Is it…?

• not eating breakfast
• having a cheat meal every week.
• fasting
• keto
• obsessing about macros
• binge and restriction cycles

We all choose different ways of eating and it’s a subject that brings up passion and conversation in people. A lot of us like to defend our choices and even preach about them. Eating, food types and behaviours is such an interesting topic, unlike smoking and other behaviours, it’s something we are unable to give up. There are so many posts, opinions, influencers, marketing ploys all attempting to push their way of eating, it can be a confusing mess trying to decipher it all.

Disordered eating can be used to describe unhealthy eating behaviours and concern about body image. It covers a range of irregular eating behaviours that may have not yet developed into a diagnosed eating disorder. People experiencing these behaviours maybe under a significant amount of physical, mental and emotional stress. This is a very serious issue and can progress into a diagnosed eating disorder.

How do you know if you have disordered eating behaviours?

I believe that most of us have some form of disordered eating from time to time, in varying levels and in different ways.

Physical and mental symptoms to look out for in yourself or loved ones

• Dieting
• Substantial weight fluctuations
• Rituals and routines with food and exercise
• Feelings of guilt around eating
• Preoccupation with food, weight, body composition, body image
• Loss of control around food
• Purging behaviours post eating
• Physical signs could be bad breath, dry skin, brittle hair, tooth decay
• Gut issues
• Amenorrhea, F.A.T (female athlete triad) / RED-S (relative energy deficiency in sport)

Having had, and still having a turbulent relationship with food, I would say that dieting is a disordered eating behaviour. Dieting can encourage the restrict and binge cycles. I ask my clients to try and find a way of eating for life, not for 8 or 12 weeks. If you are doing something you can’t maintain long term, then that’s a diet. Ask yourself, is your current way of eating serving you? Can you continue to adhere long term? How about instead thinking of permanent wee changes you can make to your eating behaviours for the long term?

Disordered eating is a serious issue, once behaviours become classified as an eating disorder, then we class the illness as psychological. Be aware that your disordered eating behaviours may jump in and out of various eating disorders even if you don’t exhibit the exact criteria for diagnosis.

Eating Disorders

• Bulimia nervosa – eating excessive amounts and purging in some way post eating
• Anorexia nervosa – restricting food intake
• Binge Eating Disorder (B.E.D) – excessive compulsive food consumption
• Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) – person avoids a certain type of food(s) completely
• Other specified feeding and eating disorder (OSFED) – behaviours overlap and jump in and out of the above

If the above is resonating with you in regard to yourself or others, then there are many tools to help.

Throughout my recovery I found that you need a team of people supporting you, encouraging you and nurturing you to help you through this, I believe you can’t do this alone.

If you would like some guidance with tools or where to start on your path to recovery, then please get in touch with me.

[email protected]

027 431 5920