Eating Disorders

Have any of you dealt with them before? Do you know anyone/have knowingly encountered anyone that had one? How did it impact your cooking?

There was an ugly but smart girl in middle school (2001)

Her finger nail fell off and she was skinny

I have an eating disorder right now

I've become quite fat.

I have an eating disorder, it just changed my cooking because I measure everything out and make sure everything fits into my calorie allowance.

What types of dishes do you tend to gravitate towards

I do not now, nor can I ever remember having a normal hunger or satiation response to food.
I am always hungry. Even when I am physically full, I feel hungry.

I grew up thinking it was normal to be hungry all the time, and people only had 3 meals a day because it was traditional or considered bad manors to snack between meals.

Of course I was fat, but I didn't believe it was due to overeating because I was just doing what my body told me to do.
Now I am very mindful of what I eat and make sure I only eat what I need to eat and not want I would like to.

It's strange that I've had the same sort of description of that experience with anorexia, except I'm hungry because I'm literally not eating food

Because I'm trying to maintain my weight, I think I eat pretty normal foods. One of my favorite things to eat is oatmeal, and I'm really open to sweet junk food, like Pop tarts or cinnamon rolls, has long as it fits. Gravitate to things like protein bars, veg, soups, anything really

Same. But I think it's just because I was raised eating a bunch of empty-calorie garbage.
Now that I live on my own I've slowly been learning how to cook/eat healthier and I don't have as much trouble. But I still randomly have days (yesterday was one) where I just feel hungry non-stop no matter how much healthy shit I eat. For me I think its that my brain misses mindlessly munching on things, its like biting your nails or fidgeting or something... I wish there was some kind of low/no-calorie crunchy snack food that I could just chew on for hours... It wouldn't even have to taste good.

>I wish there was some kind of low/no-calorie crunchy snack food that I could just chew on for hours... It wouldn't even have to taste good.
carrots?
only joking, they taste like shit

Celery? Gum?

try ice cubes

My friend is vegetarian. It's fucking annoying because she literally won't eat anything that even has touched meat. Not even food that has been cooked near meat either.

I have binge eating disorder

I am a big fat pile of shit and no matter what I do I will always be a big fat pile of shit.

>Have any of you dealt with them before? Do you know anyone/have knowingly encountered anyone that had one? How did it impact your cooking?
Don't be an enabler, have angst or sympathy or anything at all. Don't even recognize it. With regards to things that are truly psych disorders? Get education on it. Most people with one psych disorder have another one, too. Fact. So, the person that is anorexic, bulemic, picky, they also have something else you shouldn't really cater to, like trying to control your diet is related to trying to control also others and making things focused on them instead. Don't play the game with them. Don't engage or entertain conversations about their shit.
Have a simple "you're welcome to join us, or not" or maybe you want some cereal or some toast, which you can get, but this is what I prepared for those who want some...keep it brief and uninteresting. Be courteous but not catering to them.

Without knowing more, I can't give specific advice, but if you are trying to control people's portions, don't go there either. Just serve enough for 1.5x the people seated, and let whatever people want to do happen, seconds or skipping items or a course, whatever. If you want to be a good host, you have more than one option for each item to account for preferences of beverages or sides.

I never had a real eating disorder I don't think, but I always thought I was fat as a teen. Now that I'm actually fat, I think I underestimate my size, and realized I was just above average at most as a teen.

I've been fighting off developing one. Been on a tight diet, I've cheated twice and puked both times I cheated (didn't force the vomit, just ate so much I got really sick feeling and didn't make any effort to keep the food down)

I think it was that stupid BMI chart.

I was average height, but my shoulders are wider than 97% of people, and I've always had huge muscular legs. And glutes that I was embarrassed about.


My legs are still huge and slim, all my weight is in my torso for some reason, but it has creeped to my face more.

I used to have anorexia. I lost 30 pounds in one month, my hair began falling out, I would feel lightheaded whenever I stood up, and I wouldn't even swallow my saliva believing that the calories gained from consuming my spit would make me gain weight. (I had cans and bottles littered all over my room filled with my spit) I eventually got over my anorexia after this one incident where I blacked out and slamed my head on a doorknob. It made me realize just how far I had taken this eating disorder. Now I'm normal and eat garbage food.

Joined HAES

only if you love diarrhea

I used to have an eating disorder a couple of years ago.
Used to be slightly chubby as a teen (130 lbs at 5'5") but I got bullied for being fat and in my head I was this hugely obese monster.
For about a year and a half I allowed myself to eat anything as long as it fit into a 800 calorie daily limit. This meant I mostly experimented with low-calorie broths, mushroom soup and other mushroom dishes. Also a lot of egg dishes, I loved eggs because they're so filling.
I had and still have a huge sweet tooth, so I tried to bake low-calorie sweets a lot.
These days I'm mostly weight restored (120 lbs) and I've maintained for two years. It's great being able to binge on junk food and sweets and not panic. I just eat a little less the following days and I know now that's all I need to maintain.

Try the Quaker rice cakes, they're only 35 calories each