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Is this an eating disorder? What's going on with me?


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Hi guys. I'm looking for some advice/opinions on something I've noticed that's been happening with me lately. I'm a 20 year old girl and I've always been on the slender side and still am to this day. For some reason, though, I've noticed that I have a strange relationship with food. I've always been uncomfortable eating around other people/in public, so whenever I'm alone, I feel somewhat unable to control my eating. I'm constantly thinking about foods I want to eat and that I want to eat something, even when I'm not necessarily hungry! It's the strangest thing. Also, I feel like whenever I get it in my mind that I want a certain thing (for example, "wow, I really want a bagel"), and know I have that food at my disposal, there's no talking myself out of it, I have to go eat it. It upsets me because I don't understand why I do this and it makes me feel guilty every time after I eat something. I've never had any sort of eating disorder EVER in the past, so there's no history there. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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My answer would be no!

 

Have you ever found yourself suddenly desperate to eat a bar of chocolate or find yourself eating and eating even though you aren't really hungry? You could be suffering from food cravings and they are probably your body's way of telling you that you are lacking certain vitamins or minerals.

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I don't think it's an eating disorder. Possibly it may have something to do with "emotional eating", in a mild form, but not the real thing, so to speak. I tend to eat when I'm not hungry and I eat what I crave etc, but I don't see it as a problem.

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I don't know. Just wondering if its to do with the kinds of foods you eat in terms of proportions. Protein and fats satisfy us for longer periods. With the low-fat high carb diet thats promoted these days people might be ending up constantly hungry as people are trying to fill the job that protein and fats are meant to do with carbs. I've heard it said before that if you live on carbs you end up constantly hungry and constantly having to eat to be satisfied. You could step up intake of things like tinned wild salmon (high in protein and omega 3) - but watched the farmed stuff, nuts (but don't overdo nuts unless you do quite a bit of exercising as too much can cause weight gain), eggs, etc. Also, eat more regularly and you'll get less hungry. Also whole foods (like brown rice and 100% wholemeal bread) burn more slowly and keep you satisfied for longer compared with white stuff.

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  • 3 weeks later...
I'm a 20 year old girl and I've always been on the slender side and still am to this day.
Here's my take: I would say to be careful, because it could easily develop into an eating disorder depending on how you respond to it. It sounds like your body's starving (to an extent)--I was the same as you, where I was skinny most of my life, and tried to stay "fit" and "healthy" by avoiding greasy foods and working out, but I was trying to maintain too low of a weight (especially as I got older). Your body might need more energy at 20 years, and it's asking you for it (that's just my take on what you described with the obsessing about food to an extend, because a more extreme version of those symptoms is what automatically happens from anorexia/malnourishment) so...you probably don't want to fight it (as long as you're not craving like chocolate bars only and keep eating them multiple times a day or something lol)! Trust me, because being hungry is a sign of your metabolism working, and fighting it is what damages it. Anorexia and body dysmorphia and all of the mental disorder parts of it can actually stem from the malnourishment too, not just the other way around (look up minnesota starvation experiement I think it's called).

 

Have you had any symptoms of OCD? Anxiety?

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