Eating disorder:healthy eaters ratio?

[mattikake]

Anyone know what the figures for these might be? Nationally or globally?

I have "someone" claiming that people who count calories, have a healthy diet or strict diet are more like to end up with an eating disorder. Whereas I claim that people who have a healthy diet, strict diet or calorie count, for whatever reason, are more likely to be fit and healthy people.

i.e. I'd wager that there are more people who play competitive sports and do fitness activities in a pro, amateur or passtime level who watch what they eat, than there are annorexics and bulimics or are otherwise malnutrutioned (excluding those in abject poverty of course).

Some stats I can find that in 2006/07 there were 3,247 hospital admissions of girls 16 or under suffering from annorexia.

The number of people who play football in a pro, amateur or pass-time leve and eat appropriately for it, must number close to the millions. Similar figures for gym goers.

Edited by mattikake on Sunday 19th May 11:29

[Hoofy]

Interesting question. The problem is that how do you define an ED? Is it simply anorexia/bulimia? What about someone who only eats 1500 calories a day, give or take 1 calorie? Or someone who avoids eating any fat? Or someone who eats healthily then has a massive guilty binge every month?

I think the issue is one of mindset more than the activities. For instance, I have seen some posts on MFP stating that if they tried IF it would "trigger" their ED so they cannot do IF.

You'd have to agree with the person you're arguing with about what an ED is before looking at various stats but I can see dieting in whatever form could trigger some to have an ED whilst most people can diet without having an ED.

[goldblum]

Eating disorders are often part of a deeper psychological issue, such as stress or depression. Whether a person is already a fussy eater or is meticulous about their diet is therefore largely irrelevant.

EDIT I've just re-read my post and don't think my meanings clear, so I'll try again (long day!).

I mean I don't think that you can compare the values you're suggesting Matt. Can't see how you'd get quantitative data.

Edited by goldblum on Sunday 19th May 16:00

[Ordinary_Chap]

Hoofy said:

Or someone who eats healthily then has a massive guilty binge every month?

Sounds like carb cycling

I agree with your other points (seriously).

[amare32]

I play a lot of sports (mostly tennis and basketball) and train in the gym specifically for tennis. Never bothered to calorie count but do eat relatively clean however I still have a few cheat meals every week as you still have to enjoy life.

What I won't do is the silly 600 cals a day or IF. If I'm able to take in 2-3k cals a day and still have a ripped athletic build like Rafael Nadal, then I'm getting results without depriving myself one little bit.

But I guess people will still plough on with silly fad diets regardless leading a few to dangerous eating disorders. I honestly don't even think 600 cals is enough for a child, never mind a grown adult. How could someone function with so few calories every day? Perhaps doing this short term is ok but I'm sceptical how healthy this would be in the long term.

[MrB1obby]

amare32 said:

I play a lot of sports (mostly tennis and basketball) and train in the gym specifically for tennis. Never bothered to calorie count but do eat relatively clean however I still have a few cheat meals every week as you still have to enjoy life.

What I won't do is the silly 600 cals a day or IF. If I'm able to take in 2-3k cals a day and still have a ripped athletic build like Rafael Nadal, then I'm getting results without depriving myself one little bit.

But I guess people will still plough on with silly fad diets regardless leading a few to dangerous eating disorders. I honestly don't even think 600 cals is enough for a child, never mind a grown adult. How could someone function with so few calories every day? Perhaps doing this short term is ok but I'm sceptical how healthy this would be in the long term.

I agree with this 100%

[DukeDickson]

amare32 said:

I play a lot of sports (mostly tennis and basketball) and train in the gym specifically for tennis. Never bothered to calorie count but do eat relatively clean however I still have a few cheat meals every week as you still have to enjoy life.

What I won't do is the silly 600 cals a day or IF. If I'm able to take in 2-3k cals a day and still have a ripped athletic build like Rafael Nadal, then I'm getting results without depriving myself one little bit.

But I guess people will still plough on with silly fad diets regardless leading a few to dangerous eating disorders. I honestly don't even think 600 cals is enough for a child, never mind a grown adult. How could someone function with so few calories every day? Perhaps doing this short term is ok but I'm sceptical how healthy this would be in the long term.

Good for you. Ever considered that not everyone has the time or physical ability to play lots of sports & train in the gym? I suspect the odd one or two has a stressful life as well.

Tackling a problem from the diet side of things is fine, as long as it isn't a fad diet thing & you accept the limitations.

[spikeyhead]

From my experience, my old football teams dietry preparation consisted of at least 8 pints and a kebab the night before the match.

[mattikake]

^ Wah! Was that the team that was aiming to finish bottom of the table? Muscle's need water to work. Alcohol takes it away. Alcohol also directly hinders muscle contractions as well, so it's a double whammy.

Anyway, this was obviously ED's as in under-eating, not over-eating!

I blame the media above all things for shaping society into one where slimness is favoured over fitness, of which of course, there is a world of different between the two...

Apparently there are 8.7 million registed gym users. Although the Telegraph reckons only 1/3 actually "exercise" (at least breaking a sweat) and 1/3 don't even turn up for more than a few weeks. Still, that still leaves around 3 million proper gym users and you could pessimistically guess half those eat somewhere between reasonably to properly.

[spikeyhead]

mattikake said:

^ Wah! Was that the team that was aiming to finish bottom of the table? Muscle's need water to work. Alcohol takes it away. Alcohol also directly hinders muscle contractions as well, so it's a double whammy.

Ever played Sunday league football? It's two teams of 11 hungover blokes meeting up for a barney.

[Pork]

I think it depends on what people are counting the calories for....are you counting as you want to be stick thin and are afraid of having even an ounce of fat on you? Or are you counting as a part of an educated intake of foods, considering other factors too?

Having an interest in what you put in your body can only be a good thing.

[Munter]

Pork said:

Having an interest in what you put in your body can only be a good thing.

I think essentially this can be boiled down to:

Interest = Good
All consuming obsession = Bad

[Hoofy]

Munter said:

All consuming obsession = Bad

Yeah, and now we're in dangerous territory:
1) Is it all-consuming because you have a goal and are dead serious on achieving it eg you're competing in an athletics competition or just want to be in the best possible shape (not fat nor skinny but actually athletic/fit), or
2) You're fixed on not eating above 900 calories a day and will either attend a social event and sit drinking tap water whilst everyone eats pizza or avoid going out so you don't feel obliged to eat/drink or poke your tonsils.

For some, (2) is a reality and, of course, bad, but how many are we talking about vs people who want to achieve (1) even if it's not a formal competition but just a fitness goal? As I mentioned before, it's all down to the mindset of the individual.

[mattikake]

^ exactly. And the too literal "someone" instantly took calorie counting as the exclusive behaviour of an eating disorder, than can also be the behaviour of someone fit or healthy. I calorie count, but have no interest (indeed extreme difficulty on a <=1000-1500kcal/day cutting week or weekend) in starving myself.

(Naturally the rationality kind of deteriorated from their erroneous starting point.)

Edited by mattikake on Monday 20th May 17:39

[Hoofy]

Aye. I calorie count to make sure I get enough calories (and protein) in each day - averaging over what the "average man" needs according to the NHS website, so the opposite of an eating disorder!

[Coco H]

I went to an all girls boarding school. I think about 1 in 10 of the girls had a real eating disorder of some sorts. I think of the remainder 1 in 5 suffered from disordered eating. This was some years ago.

[mattikake]

^ to supress pure envy, I assume you are female coco!

That's a really disproportionately high number. You wonder if girls succumb to eating disorders/slimming disorder at an all girls school because there were no boys around to tell them how good they looked as they are?

[Firefoot]

When I was a youngling back in school, I wasn't really aware of people with eating disorders.

It was only when I reached late teens and started quite a tough exercise regime that I developed a bit of an issue with food. I became an obsessive calorie counter. I was also obsessive about fat content of food, if it had more than 1 or 2 grams of fat I couldn't even buy it, let alone eat it! I would weigh a lot of my food to make absolutely certain I knew how many calories I was taking in. Then I would schedule the days exercise to make sure they were all used up.

Typical days exercise was 40 minutes Jane Fonda style aerobics before work, 100 lengths of full size swimming pool after work followed by game of badminton, then home for 10 or 20 minutes skip rope. Circuit training twice a week. Typical days calorie intake was between 1000 and 800.

I used to keep a diary of exactly what I had eaten and how much exercise I had done. If I didn't do enough exercise I would be a right grumpy sod!

Finally kicked it when I was dragged along to the doc by my mother. At that point I weighed 5st 6lbs.

Gosh, I haven't thought about that for many years! What a nutter I was. But when you are on the inside of it, all you can think about is how to avoid calories.

[LeftmostAardvark]

spikeyhead said:

Ever played Sunday league football? It's two teams of 11 hungover blokes meeting up for a barney.

Anecdotally, the reason the British mountain climbers of the 50s were bagging so many first ascents was that they were so used to climbing and training whilst hungover that they could cope with the effects of altitude much better than the 'purer' athletes.

[Coco H]

I think all girl schools can be hothouses of bhiness and competition. My sister was anorexic - 5'11 and just over 6 stone. Mind you she was socialising with proper well known models in those days. It's all about comparison.