A New Eating Disorder

I am seeing an interesting trend lately. I am a psychotherapist, specializing in eating disorders. I have been in practice for over twenty years. Recently, I have seen a new eating disorder that isn't in the books.

It seems to be primarily affecting women in their 30's. These women are coming to me in desperation because they don't know how to maintain a healthy weight. They say, "Whenever I needed to lose weight in the past, I would just..." The list that follows ranges from: doing the master cleanse, starving themselves, running 10 miles a day, cutting all carbs, etc... It is usually some drastic diet and/or exercise regimen that would work to bring their weight down in the short term. Once their weight got to where they wanted it to be, they would just go back to what they had been doing before and would gain the weight back.

By the time these women come to me, they realize that they can no longer do the master cleanse, run 10 miles a day, or cut all carbs. Their lives are too busy, they don't have the time or the energy, and they can no longer tolerate that kind of deprivation. They know how to gain weight, they know how to lose weight (in the short term), but they never learned how to maintain. This is like knowing how to swim but not knowing how to float. If you stop swimming, in this analogy, you sink.

The key to losing weight isn't dieting; it is learning how to be the weight you want to be permanently. More on that in my next blog. Meanwhile, does this new eating disorder describe you or someone you know?

If you'd like to participate in the research for Irene's new book about the process of weight loss, please visit http://www.eatingdisordertherapist.com/and take the survey.

Comments

[pointyheadprodigy]

Why isn't there a story on Huffpost about this yet?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7728605.stm

It shouldn't have left the headlines for the last couple of months, but the only place I see it is at the BBC.

[MIMom]

Sorry to say - if I thought it would for me, and I wasn't sick as a dog, I'd try it.

[candyperfumegirl]

In my psychology classes, this might have been categorized as bulimia, which can involve excessive periods of exercise or deprivation to compensate for excessive indulgence... though perhaps these women's regimes aren't as extreme... perhaps it is "functional bulimia"?

[Irene Rubaum-Keller - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you for your comment candyperfumegirl. These women don't fit the bulimia criteria as most of them don't binge. They just go back to their regular eating after the extreme diet/exercise phase. They come close to bulimia but don't quite cross the line.

[Carolab]

My only concern is that I'll be able to eat at all in the future.

[Skye]

People just want a quck fix but that never seems to work.

[gfk]

I know several women who fit this description. Some are in their 40's and 50's though. Didn't Oprah just go on some crazy cleanse? Even she can't see to realize how to maintain a healthy weight without doing crazy things. Looking forward to your next blog about how to overcome this.

[krisgarfield]

Not me so much. I'm in my early 40's and have had the great fortune of a mother who taught me how to eat healthy, moderately and lovingly. I say lovingly since I know how to cook from scratch and pore love into my food. I do know some young women and even women in their later years who have a difficult time with maintaining. I think they have had a neurotic relationship with food since they were girls. Add to that the obnoxious pressure by our society to be a size 0. This can be quite devastating to any woman's self esteem.

I think maintaining is all in the brain and emotions...not the colon. Great blog Ms. Keller!

[wolfgangmo]

Speaking as a man who has many male friends with a similar opinion.

I like women. All women. Zaftig, curvy, athletic, tall, short, or anything as long as they are not starving themselves to death. Not only does an unnaturally thin women look wrong somehow, they are also less than pleasant to be around. Unrelenting neurotic behavior is not attractive.

So please be yourself and give yourself permission to be your normal beautiful self. Size zero doesn't even look good on Twiggy.

[Irene Rubaum-Keller - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you for speaking out wolfgangmo. We need more men like you letting women know that super skinny isn't attractive to most men.

[krisgarfield]

You're mom taught you well. How wonderful that there are men like you out there!!!
By the way, I'm a happy size 8/10. I agree, Twiggy types are boring , grumpy and look like Walter Keane paintings with those large, vacant eyes.

Only a dog wants to chew on a bone.