Hi everyone! Glad to be back after a year! I’m still adjusting after getting back in the saddle with videos – so bear with me… but anything worth doing is worth doing poorly, right? (That’s what I’m gonna keep telling myself.) 🙂
Here’s my latest video talking about some signs or symptoms you might see in an individual with an eating disorder, in honor of National Eating Disorders Awareness week 2022.
I also did a video on National Eating Disorders Awareness week 2019.
Eating disorders have skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic for several reasons (isolation, lack of social support, and social media to name a few) and they are deadly illnesses. I am taking it upon myself to increase eating disorders awareness.
Here’s a video transcript if you prefer to read instead of watch:
Hi everybody! Long time, no see! I have really missed these regular meetings with you all and am glad to be jumping back in the saddle. If we haven’t met before, I am Kelly Houston, a Registered Dietitian and Lactation Counselor. I help people of all ages and genders eat for fuel, eat for fun, and eat for life. Taking a look, my last video was way back in December of 2020. So what’s been going on since then? I’ve been very busy with clients.
Covid really impacted people’s eating habits – whether they were eating more (because of stress, less structure in the day, or that there was literally nothing else to do) or eating less (due to high anxiety and fear of being called out for gaining the “quarantine 15” – weight stigma, not helpful for anyone of any size). Thankfully many people were seeking help finding more balance with their eating patterns and working to grant themselves a bit of grace.
This week of Feb 21- 27th 2022 is National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. Aside from opioid addiction, eating disorders have the highest mortality rates of any mental illness. The rates of eating disorders have skyrocketed during the pandemic. I wanted to talk to you about some symptoms that someone with an eating disorder might exhibit. AKA: things that in the right context, raise red flags for me during a session.
Please note that just because someone might have a few of these symptoms, they can be pretty general, so just because one or two match DOES NOT mean that someone has an eating disorder.
Here are some examples of eating disorder symptoms:
- – Thinking about food for ¾ of waking hours or more. Studies have shown that some who experience anorexia nervosa even dream about food, so they’re classified as thinking of food for >100% of their waking hours.
- – Feeling out of control with food
- – Out of touch with hunger and fullness. This could look like not feeling hunger until you are STARVING. That could lead to feeling out of control with food due to primal hunger (or eating a large amount of whatever is most accessible because your body feels like it’s starving). Or it could look like not feeling a pleasant fullness, but rather a Thanksgiving-dinner overfull, over-saturated feeling.
- – Lack of flexibility when things change. So, you think you’re hitting a chic bistro for lunch with a friend where you know you can get salmon on a bed of wilted greens. But when your friend picks you up, she’d rather get pizza. And you CANNOT eat pizza. It could also present as all-or-nothing thinking. So if you “cave” and have one cookie, your day is already ruined and you might as well eat the whole box.
- – Loss of menstrual cycle. There can obviously several reasons for this, so if you’re missing your cycle twice in a row, it’s best to call your doctor.
- – Rituals around food, like cutting food into tiny pieces or taking X number of bites.
- – Body checking. This could look like trying on a pair of pants you had since high school or before your first baby to see if they still fit. It could also be pinching your skin with your fingers or constantly looking in a mirror to make sure you look okay.
- – Low blood sugar. Symptoms of this could be: getting HANGRY, shaky, dizzy, a headache, or nauseous if you haven’t eaten for a while. Again, this can have several causes, so if you experience this regularly, please check in with your medical provider.
- – GI issues, especially acid reflux and constipation. Acid reflux occurs when the lower esophageal sphincter becomes weakened or stretched out. It gets weak when the body takes in inadequate calories to daily living. It can get stretched out in clients who regularly purge through vomiting or ruminate their food. Constipation can occur if there’s not enough in the gut to keep it moving along. Either because overall volume of food throughout the day isn’t enough or because people are eating infrequently, so there’s not a consistent push forward. Other factors like inadequate fat, fiber, and fluid can also contribute to constipation.
- – Poor performance. This can take place on the sports field, in the classroom, or at work. If our glycogen stores are depleted or if our body has to break down our muscle for energy, we’ll lose our athletic edge. If our brain doesn’t get enough glucose, we can get foggy and have difficulty concentrating, which can cause our academic and creative performance to suffer.
- – Poor sleep or waking up hungry overnight. I talk about this in one of my 3-video series on sleep and dieting (part 1, part 2, part 3). A short recap: imagine you’re in a hunter/gatherer tribe. There’s a drought and you haven’t come across a herd in weeks. You’re sleeping, but your brain will keep one ear open in case a herd decides to roam by. If your body is lacking food and it thinks it can get it at an irregular time, it will do what it can to get nutrition.
- –Finally, the last symptom that I’ll mention today is purging. Often time purging is thought of in bulimia nervosa in the form of vomiting. However, other methods of purging, or ridding the body of food or calories can be used. That can include: burning off calories eaten through exercise and the use of laxatives. **Side note, use of stimulant laxatives as a method of purging can lead to: dependence on these products, damage to the intestines, and electrolyte & fluid imbalances. Please talk with your doctor if you have been using stimulant laxatives as a purging mechanism.
This list is not all inclusive and having a symptom or a few symptoms on this list is not diagnostic of an eating disorder. Not everyone with an eating disorder will have all of these symptoms. This is just a general, brief review of some symptoms you might notice in someone else who has an eating disorder.
If something on this list was triggering to you or you wonder if you might have an eating disorder, please reach out to your medical or mental health professional.
If you want help with balancing your nutrition or getting help for an eating disorder, please feel free to reach out. You can email me at hello@kellyhoustonrdn.com or schedule an appointment at kellyhoustonrdn.com/schedule. Take care & see you next time!