a friend told me I was anorexic... am i?

[gobucks316]

This time last year I trained to get picked to be in a bikini calendar. (odd goal probably) I was eating .... Breakfast: egg beaters with cheese Lunch: tuna salad and cottage cheese snack: yogurt dinner: lean cuisine meal. I also did sprints for cardio 3 x week, lifted 3 times a week and tons of abs. I made my goal. I was 5'3 116 lbs

I ended up completely abandoning my diet till now. I'm back to 120 lbs but I got an offer to be a promo model based on the pics from last year. I'm considering the offer. Was my diet before healthy? If not what should I try? I'm attempting to eat 5 small meals daily now. Help please... :-/

[Adelaide.]

Anorexia nervousa is a clinical diagnosis that has specific diagnostic criteria, and must be diagnosed by a trained professional. Anorexia has to do with more than what you physically eat, it has to do with your whole relationship with food. Simply not eating very much is not enough to declare someone has an eating disorder.

How healthy a diet is depends on more than just what you are eating, it has to do with how much you are eating, and the balance of protein/fat/carbs. And also how much you are training (more training = more food).

Have you been tracking calories or macros?

[gobucks316]

I actually am unfamiliar with tracking macros. I count calories roughly...





Anorexia nervousa is a clinical diagnosis that has specific diagnostic criteria, and must be diagnosed by a trained professional. Anorexia has to do with more than what you physically eat, it has to do with your whole relationship with food. Simply not eating very much is not enough to declare someone has an eating disorder.

How healthy a diet is depends on more than just what you are eating, it has to do with how much you are eating, and the balance of protein/fat/carbs. And also how much you are training (more training = more food).

Have you been tracking calories or macros?

[PattyU]

Anorexia nervousa is a clinical diagnosis that has specific diagnostic criteria, and must be diagnosed by a trained professional. Anorexia has to do with more than what you physically eat, it has to do with your whole relationship with food. Simply not eating very much is not enough to declare someone has an eating disorder.

How healthy a diet is depends on more than just what you are eating, it has to do with how much you are eating, and the balance of protein/fat/carbs. And also how much you are training (more training = more food).

Have you been tracking calories or macros?

This^^^

Sometimes people throw around eating disorder terms without knowing what they are talking about.

One of the criteria to be diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa is to deliberately refuse to maintain a body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height (e.g., weight loss leading to maintenance of body weightless than 85% of that expected or a BMI of less than 17.5); or failure to make expected weight gain during periods of growth, leading to body weight less than 85% of that expected).

115 pounds is considered a healthy weight for someone 5'3". Your ideal weight depends on lots of things including you body fat and bone structure, so you may look skinny at that weight if you have a larger bone structure or have a very low body fat percentage. However, it would not be considered anorexic.

Your diet does not look healthy to me, but I didn't do any math on it. I would be super hungry if that is all I ate. Your metabolism suffers if you go too low on calories. You should figure out your caloric needs and eat slightly less than than that if you want to lose weight. You could be at risk for developing an eating disorder. I don't know you or your personality. It depends on your relationship with food and our body. However, dieting and training to meet a specific goal (like competing or for a modeling job in your case) does not automatically qualify someone as eating disordered.

I have seem people on this site that I thought had eating disorders or were very at risk for developing one. I am a mental health professional by the way.

Macros are the proportion of protein grams, to carbs, to fat that you eat. You can track them on sites like fitday or dailyburn.

I like your user name, by the way.

Go Bucks!!!

[gobucks316]

This^^^

Sometimes people throw around eating disorder terms without knowing what they are talking about.

One of the criteria to be diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa is to deliberately refuse to maintain a body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height (e.g., weight loss leading to maintenance of body weightless than 85% of that expected or a BMI of less than 17.5); or failure to make expected weight gain during periods of growth, leading to body weight less than 85% of that expected).

115 pounds is considered a healthy weight for someone 5'3". Your ideal weight depends on lots of things including you body fat and bone structure, so you may look skinny at that weight if you have a larger bone structure or have a very low body fat percentage. However, it would not be considered anorexic.

Your diet does not look healthy to me, but I didn't do any math on it. I would be super hungry if that is all I ate. Your metabolism suffers if you go too low on calories. You should figure out your caloric needs and eat slightly less than than that if you want to lose weight. You could be at risk for developing an eating disorder. I don't know you or your personality. It depends on your relationship with food and our body. However, dieting and training to meet a specific goal (like competing or for a modeling job in your case) does not automatically qualify someone as eating disordered.

I have seem people on this site that I thought had eating disorders or were very at risk for developing one. I am a mental health professional by the way.

Macros are the proportion of protein grams, to carbs, to fat that you eat. You can track them on sites like fitday or dailyburn.

I like your user name, by the way.

Go Bucks!!!

Thanks for your post! My friend (the one who was upset with me) was diagnosed with anorexia 2 years ago. She has come a long way from the sickly girl I knew before. She got VERY upset when I told her my workout and what I was eating. I take her opinion seriously so it made me nervous. I recently purchased a book on nutrition and training that I think will help me understand what my body needs. How do I figure out the ratio of nutrients I would need? I tend to be a carb-o-holic when I'm not training.


I go to OSU :-) The promo was for the Arnold Classic beginning of March.

[gobucks316]

This is what my book says to eat:
Meal 1
• 1 serving Protein
• 1 serving complex carb
• Vitamins

Meal 2 (10:30am)
• 1 serving protein
• 1 serving starchy carb
• 1 serving good fat
Meal 3 (1:30 pm)
• 1 serving protein
• 1 serving starchy carb
• 1 serving fibrous carb
• 1 serving good fats
Meal 4 (3:30 pm)
• 1 serving proteins
• 1 serving starchy carb

Meal 5 (6:30 pm)
• 1 serving protein
• ½ serving starchy carb
• 1 serving fibrous carb
• 1 serving good fat

[genepool]

The calories look a touch on the low side from quick math, but FAAAAR from anorexia. add a serving of nuts (almonds, walnuts) in there and a lil more protein and u are fine

[PattyU]

Your friend was probably well meaning and very sincere. Like others have said, your calories do look low, so she was probably worried because of that. She may have started off with a diet that looked like yours and doesn't want to see you go through what she did. However, like we said, diet alone does not make an eating disorder.

Genepool is right in saying that if you add a little more healthy food, the diet may not be bad.

Here is a sticky on calculating your caloric needs and macros. http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=121703921 There is lot of useful information in this thread. It looks complicated at first, but it isn't as hard as it looks.

I wouldn't just take a generic diet from a book and expect it to work. Everyone has different caloric needs.

Are you needing to lose those 4 pounds by March? Slow weight loss is best for long lasting results, but I'm not sure what the experts would say regarding the need to lose a few pounds fast for a modeling assignment. Perhaps you could start a new thread with a title like quick weight loss and explain the situation. You could ask about losing a few pounds fast for the modeling assignment. I'm a mental health professional, and I feel confident talking about eating disorders. But there are members on this site more knowledgeable about macros and dieting. They may or may not notice this thread. Most will state that it will not make much difference whether you eat 3 meals or 5 or 6 per day.

I went to OSU for grad school, and still live in central Ohio.