Like I said, I emailed Michael Dow of the Pen and Paper Diet about his press release in which he said that his diet (basically count all your calories plan) was a good solution for anorexia and bulimia because: "If a person consumes the appropriate amount of calories for one's height, age, sex, activity level and weight, then one can maintain their ideal weight," says Dow. "This diet will be ideal for those that struggle with anorexia and bulimia because it can enable these individuals to maintain their weight at the low end of BMI like they would prefer while digesting their food," Dow says. Someone with anorexia or bulimia is not granted some special dispensation by their diagnosis that they get to magically choose their own weight. I was sufficiently tweaked, as Laura might say, so I emailed Dow, who replied in the comments on my last post . Here (in all of its shining, happy, long-winded, pissed-off glory) is my response: Mr Dow,
While I do appreciate your responding on my blog, I think I'm going to have to essentially disagree with you.
The easiest way to "manage your weight" is called intuitive eating: eat the foods you find enjoyable/palatable, eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full, and move your body for fun. In fact, it's about managing diddly squat. It's about responding to the natural hunger cues your body is sending you anyway. Your friend in high school who was anorexic may have seen herself as starving to lose a few pounds- I know I did. Right until I landed in the hospital on heart monitors. That's the problem with eating disorders: we don't know there's a problem so we can't stop. People with eating disorders already count every calorie and every fat gram and every single calorie burned. I would have hour-long debates with myself as to whether it was okay to chew a stick of sugar free gum, and if so, how long I would have to chew it in order to burn off all of the calories.
Furthermore, people who are in recovery from anorexia often need vastly more calories than other people of their age/height/weight/activity level. At one point, I was eating 4500 calories per day to gain about 2 pounds per week. Obviously my metabolism had gone haywire. And it tends to *stay* a bit haywire as the body repairs itself. The paper is here: Abnormal caloric requirements for weight maintenance in patients with anorexia and bulimia nervosa . You said: "[Anorexics and bulimics] instinctively know that if they control what they consume then they can help control their weight."
Let me be super clear about this: eating disorders are biologically-based mental illnesses. They are NOT about controlling weight. In fact, they are NOT about control. When I was 50 lbs underweight and living in a haze of ER visits and hospital stays, when I was blacking out several times a day and my lips were blue and my fingernails were blue and there was this strange fur growing all over my stomach, I was still being asked for diet tips. So you're not alone in thinking that eating disorders are about controlling your weight. But it's just not true. And here's the really paradoxical thing: as you approach your healthy weight (not the one you plucked out of the air because you liked the number or how it felt, but the one that your DNA says you will be the healthiest at), the need to control your weight loosens a bit. It's a disease driven by neurochemicals and malnutrition and horrific anxiety and fear. The need to control your weight and calories and such are symptoms of anorexia, not causes of the disease. The predisposition to anorexia and bulimia does not, incidentally, involve a sudden, burning ability to control one's weight through calorie counting and exercise. The predisposition involves differences in serotonin and dopamine levels, as well as higher rates of anxiety and mood disorders. Oh, and the "disposable income" we should spend on research? I don't have any. I've spent all of it trying to recover. My treatment has cost almost *half a million dollars* over the years. Besides the numerous hospitalizations, residential stays (at $1,000 per day, and not covered by insurance, I might add), day treatment programs, therapists, psychiatrists, dieticians, medications, and gas for appointments, I also had major ankle surgery due to a trimallelar break from anorexia-induced osteoporosis, ER visits for dehydration and seizures, MRIs and EEGs for seizures, neurologist visits, doctor appointments, missed work, not to mention the food needed to restore weight and get well. And I didn't have a lot to start with. People with eating disorders come from all economic groups, not just those with disposable income. Yes, I am frustrated and annoyed because these beliefs are all too common. And I often feel I am beating a dead horse . It's just that every now and again it whinneys, and I once more pick up my stick and start whacking away. Is it just me, or is it really freaking ironic that one of the most famous horses is named Mr. Ed?
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"If a person consumes the appropriate amount of calories for one's height, age, sex, activity level and weight, then one can maintain their ideal weight," says Dow. "This diet will be ideal for those that struggle with anorexia and bulimia because it can enable these individuals to maintain their weight at the low end of BMI like they would prefer while digesting their food," Dow says.
Someone with anorexia or bulimia is not granted some special dispensation by their diagnosis that they get to magically choose their own weight. I was sufficiently tweaked, as Laura might say, so I emailed Dow, who replied in the comments on my last post .
Here (in all of its shining, happy, long-winded, pissed-off glory) is my response:
Mr Dow,
While I do appreciate your responding on my blog, I think I'm going to have to essentially disagree with you.
The easiest way to "manage your weight" is called intuitive eating: eat the foods you find enjoyable/palatable, eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full, and move your body for fun. In fact, it's about managing diddly squat. It's about responding to the natural hunger cues your body is sending you anyway.
Your friend in high school who was anorexic may have seen herself as starving to lose a few pounds- I know I did. Right until I landed in the hospital on heart monitors. That's the problem with eating disorders: we don't know there's a problem so we can't stop. People with eating disorders already count every calorie and every fat gram and every single calorie burned. I would have hour-long debates with myself as to whether it was okay to chew a stick of sugar free gum, and if so, how long I would have to chew it in order to burn off all of the calories.
Furthermore, people who are in recovery from anorexia often need vastly more calories than other people of their age/height/weight/activity level. At one point, I was eating 4500 calories per day to gain about 2 pounds per week. Obviously my metabolism had gone haywire. And it tends to *stay* a bit haywire as the body repairs itself. The paper is here: Abnormal caloric requirements for weight maintenance in patients with anorexia and bulimia nervosa .
You said: "[Anorexics and bulimics] instinctively know that if they control what they consume then they can help control their weight."
Let me be super clear about this: eating disorders are biologically-based mental illnesses. They are NOT about controlling weight. In fact, they are NOT about control. When I was 50 lbs underweight and living in a haze of ER visits and hospital stays, when I was blacking out several times a day and my lips were blue and my fingernails were blue and there was this strange fur growing all over my stomach, I was still being asked for diet tips. So you're not alone in thinking that eating disorders are about controlling your weight. But it's just not true.
And here's the really paradoxical thing: as you approach your healthy weight (not the one you plucked out of the air because you liked the number or how it felt, but the one that your DNA says you will be the healthiest at), the need to control your weight loosens a bit. It's a disease driven by neurochemicals and malnutrition and horrific anxiety and fear. The need to control your weight and calories and such are symptoms of anorexia, not causes of the disease.
The predisposition to anorexia and bulimia does not, incidentally, involve a sudden, burning ability to control one's weight through calorie counting and exercise. The predisposition involves differences in serotonin and dopamine levels, as well as higher rates of anxiety and mood disorders.
Oh, and the "disposable income" we should spend on research? I don't have any. I've spent all of it trying to recover. My treatment has cost almost *half a million dollars* over the years. Besides the numerous hospitalizations, residential stays (at $1,000 per day, and not covered by insurance, I might add), day treatment programs, therapists, psychiatrists, dieticians, medications, and gas for appointments, I also had major ankle surgery due to a trimallelar break from anorexia-induced osteoporosis, ER visits for dehydration and seizures, MRIs and EEGs for seizures, neurologist visits, doctor appointments, missed work, not to mention the food needed to restore weight and get well. And I didn't have a lot to start with. People with eating disorders come from all economic groups, not just those with disposable income.
Yes, I am frustrated and annoyed because these beliefs are all too common. And I often feel I am beating a dead horse . It's just that every now and again it whinneys, and I once more pick up my stick and start whacking away.
Is it just me, or is it really freaking ironic that one of the most famous horses is named Mr. Ed?