More and more people are talking about “disordered eating", but it might be hard to work out whether your eating habits are actually disordered. This blog post outlines 6 signs of disordered eating to watch out for.

So what is disordered eating then?

Imagine your colleague tells you she’s cut out carbs from her diet. Or your friend logs all their food in a weight loss app. Or you know someone who talks about their trips to the gym as a way to “earn” her breakfast.

These kinds of conversations are so normalised that it might be hard to work out whether eating habits like this are in fact disordered.  Where is the tipping point?

Especially because so much of this stuff is considered “healthy”.

Disordered eating refers to irregular food or body related behaviours that are used to help someone lose weight or perhaps get “healthy”, but they haven’t yet warranted an eating disorder diagnosis.

So this is where disordered eating is different to an eating disorder – disordered eating is a way of describing someone’s eating habits and behaviours, rather than a specific diagnosis. On the other hand, an eating disorder fits certain specific criteria and this is what leads to the diagnosis of an eating disorder.

The phrase “disordered eating” is increasingly common, so let’s explore the 6 signs your eating might be disordered… 

What are the signs of disordered eating?

#1 - Food restriction

This could include frequent dieting or skipping meals, like breakfast or lunch. It could include cutting out whole food groups or cutting down on calories.

#2 - Feeling out of control

You’ll regularly feel out of control around food – this will probably include binges or an inability to hold back – like, always eating the whole box of chocolates or going wild at the buffet table.

#3 – Compensation

This includes using food restriction, fasting or hardcore exercise to make up for “bad” foods that you’ve eaten. You might even go so far as purging, like using laxatives.

#4 – Rituals and routines around food

This often comes with the need to control food – perhaps you weigh out portions, only eat at certain times, or never eat after 8pm. Perhaps you’ll only eat certain foods / meals and never deviate from your meal plan.

#5 – Pre-occupation

This is a preoccupation with food, weight or body image that impacts your quality of life. Perhaps you weigh yourself and judge yourself by the number on the scales, or you are critical about your body, or you always read food labels, or never eat anything you consider “unhealthy”, or always calculating grams of sugar in food, and only cooking “healthified” versions of food.

#6 – feeling guilty

This can include disgust or feeling anxious about food, or feeling guilty every time you eat. You might feel so guilty and/or anxious that you start to withdraw from friends and especially social activities that include food.

It’s important to remember that there is a contiuum that exists with normal eating at one end, and a full blow eating disorder at the other end.

Disordered eating is somewhere in the middle. So, you might recognise one or two of these behaviours in yourself and it never develops into an eating disorder.

Unfortunately for me, it started with 1-2 habits, which led to 4 or 5 and then 9 or 10 and eventually a full-blown eating disorder.

And that’s the point – research shows that a proportion of people who diet will end with disordered eating, and then a proportion of those people will end up with a full blown ED.

Bottom line: if you are preoccupied with food or your body image, you feel guilt surrounding your food habits, often restrict or purge then definitely consider reaching out for support. Here’s a link to book a quick call if you’d like to see how I can help you.