diet or anorexic

i was just wondering whats the diference between anorexia and a diet?
and when does a diet stop being called a diet and start being called anorexia??
wondering for friends
mexxx

Anorexia, is not eating at all. Dieting is cutting back on your food, but still eating. There is a biggg difference. one can kill you and one can help you stay healthy. IF you don't know the difference love then you dont need to do neither. you or your friend's.

a diet is cutting back on junk food, eating healthy and anorexia is not eating at all and that will kill you.

and i agree with the above if you dont know the difference then you dont need to do either.

but you still eat when your anorexic
otherwise you would die in months ~and i no people that have been anorexic for years

"In humans, prolonged starvation (in excess of 1-2 months) causes permanent organ damage and will eventually result in death."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/starvation

no, you dont eat when your anorexic. your not anorexic if you eat.

Nope. IF you eat and throw up your food that is a different story. but if your annorexic you dont eat. you pick around your food. and do nothing with it but move it around on the plate to make ppl THINK you are eating!

Not true. Anorexics aren't just people who starve themselves. If you limit your calorie intake to a point where you're not getting the nutrients you need, and you're obsessed with keeping your weight down, that's anorexia. Dieting is a healthy approach where you lower your calorie intake, but don't deprive your body of the nutrients it needs to function right. Anorexia leads to death, but dieting leads to a healthier life.

tell them to eat things.

also
do you only have to puke up your food once to be called bulimic ? because its quite a strong thing to call someone if theyve only done it a few times
because i was watching this program and it said "i dont care if you've done it once or five times your still bulimic"
i no it might sound like a completly stupid question but when its happening to you, you really dont no. and it really got to me because i dont class myself as bulimic even though it is because of the food and the fact i really dont want it inside me

Yeah.. 30 years ago there WERE all these problems.. people just didnt see them.. i was watching the news and they interviewed the girl who played marsha brady, and she was bulimic when she played her. that wasnt just recently.. anorexia and bulimia have been around forever..

A diet is avoiding bad calories, but still consuming at least 1000 or 1500 calories a day. Anorexics "eat" in the strict sense of the word, but not really. They just occasionally munch on a piece of vegetable and drink water.
Usually, diets are short term. It's more like "I won't eat any ice-cream, bread or cookies until I weigh 10 pounds less, or until my butt looks smaller" but anorexics aren't happy with that, they don't stop.
I guess anorexia is a VERY strict full-time diet without any comfortable, short-term goals... because they have a distorted body image and can never see that they have already accomplished those "goals."

//T.L.//

The way I think of it, to put it simply:

A diet is eating healthy food, anorexia is eating less food.

That's very, very brief though.

aNoReXiA CaN Be CoNsiDeReD a pSycHoLoGicaL aiLmeNt.. u DONT eAt CoZ u tHiNk YoUr tOo FaT.. tHeN, wHeN u'Ve aLreaDy LosT sOme PouNdS, iT BecOmEs aN aDDiCtIoN.. yOu dOnT eaT unTiL yOu LoSe 3 PouNdS.. tHeN 7 pOuNdS.. 11 pOunDs.. aNd iTS ReaLLy SicK!!..

DieTiNg iS jUsT PuRe SeLf-CoNtrOL.. YoU LoSe PouNdS BuT yOu sTiLL eaT.. iN a HeaLtHy WaY..

Nope, some anorexics eat 1,200 and below. Diets that are only 1,000 to 1,200 are very unhealthy. Your body isn't getting the nutrients it needs.

right... im thinking we've just about defined the two.... But say I'm on a diet, i eat less and less and less until I eat only a meal a day.... is that anorexic or just a diet? then i eat less and less and im eating a sandwich a day - is that anorexic, or still a diet? What about eating one day and not the next? Maybe I'm just stupid but how can you tell when this is a diet, when it's an eating disorder and when it's anorexia?

Okay, a diet is a SAFE way to lose weight. Now tell me, does eating just a meal a day, or eating one day, but not the next sound safe? Well it's not. Anorexics have distorted images of themselves. They think they are fat no matter how thin they may get, so they continue to limit themselves to little or no food. If you want to look like Nicole Richie, or in other words, like you're on the verge of death, go right ahead and starve yourself. All you're doing is putting your life in danger. Just remeber that boney is ugly. Curves are what make us girls attractive.

thanks everyonex
lol but i have more questions

if your bmi is underweight is that serious or does it just mean your a bit skinny??

A diet, is technically, whatever you eat. You can have a healthy diet or an unhealthy one.

But in the sense of losing weight, a healthy diet is making sure you have a balance of different food types, and eating sensible portions so that you lose weight/becomg healthier.

Anorexia usually starts as a diet, but the person doesn't realise they have actually achieved their weight-loss goals, and they feel that are still overweight.

Techinically, an anorexic is someone who is 15% or more under their ideal body weight (using their BMI to calculate it), and refusing to make any effort to put the weight back on. So, for example, if you were really ill and you lost a lot of weight, but once you were better you started eating again, that's not anorexia.

Once the condition becomes serious, anorexics may eat nothing (or very little) each day - some survive on a handful of grapes and a spoon of yoghurt each day.

Bulemia is similar, in that people control their calorie intake; bulemics binge on food, and then get rid of it, either by making themselves sick, or excessively exercising to compensate for the food they've eaten.

Most people aren't completely one or the other, they have symptoms of both. For example, some people may binge, but then go for days without eating at all to compensate. Others may not eat much, and when they do, they make themselves sick again anyway. Doctors tend not to diagnose anorexia or bulemia in these circumstances - it is simple called an eating disorder (ED).

If you are cutting down the amount the amount you eat by a lot, and you wont touch anything remotely unhealthy, or you make yourself sick/exercise loads to compensate for anything you DO eat, even if you don't have a full blown ED, there is a high danger of it becoming very serious, very quickly. If this sounds like you, please get help now, before it becomes serious. Eating Disorders can be fatal.

Sorry it's so long. I just had to explain it properly. Much love to everyone xx

so if you slowly stop eatting and cutting down the amount of food you eat your anorexic?
but what if its not because you think your fat
what if its just a was to control your feelings ?is that still anorexic?
at the moment i dont want to care about my food but i cant eat it without feeling completly crap, it feels like ive failed in some way. but its nothing about the weight, im fine with my weight. i used to cut but ive stopped because it didnt help and now im just taking all my feelings out on food, like when i make myself sick i feel good about my self
but i dont call that anorexic ??
mexx

You can become anorexic like that.
It doesn't necessarily have to be because you think you're fat..some people feel their life is going out of control, so they control the one thing that they can...food.

Or, as you said, it might be linked to certain emotions. For example, some people binge when they're depressed, others eat nothing at all.

Sweetie, it seems to me like you're controlling your food as an alternative to cutting. It's fantastic that you've stopped cutting, but now there's another issue to deal with. What you're describing isn't exactly anorexia, or bulemia..but it does sound like an eating disorder.

I think they issue here isn't the food...it's whatever the problem is that you're using food to deal with.
Do you talk about your problems to people? I'm guessing you probably don't, or at least, you don't talk about anything in great detail. Am I right?
Try talking to someone about what's bothering you, they may see a way of dealing with it that you hadn't, coz they're looking at it from a different perspective, or at least it might help to let your feelings out by talking.

If you haven't got anyone you feel you can talk to..I'm always here. Some people say that, but when it comes down to it, are too busy to listen to your problems..I'm not like that. I mean it when I say I'm always here to talk to, ok?

xxx

Ask your doctor.

Hi. I havva question.
What if you could always eat what you wanted, all your life, and you never gained a pound. Then one day that all stopped and you didn't realise. You started gaining weight pretty quickly (about 20 pounds in a year, without growing more than an inch or two). When you realize you totally panic. You can't really try a diet or anything because your mum totally doesn't see the problem. She doesnt understand how much chubby can upset a person. So, you figure, you'll just eat less. Quickly you learn you have absolutely no self control at all. Everyday you watch yourself during lunch and breakfast, then you completely loose it at home. Everything sweet and tasty goes into your mouth and right does your throat. Then of course you have to offset it with its opposite, salty with chocolatey, sweet with sour, and so on. Today you haven't eaten anything all day but for a pudding cup your teacher practicaly force fed you when she noticed you didn't have lunch. Currently, your resisting the urge to run upstairs and wiegh yourself, to see if today made any difference. Do I have a problem?

Dacey*

Yes you do have a problem. I really suggest talking to someone about this problem, it can be a parent, teacher, friend or ANYONE!

But i can relate to where your coming from with the teacher forcing you to eat. My teacher found out about my bulimia, and well... Now she makes me eat every lunch time with her. But i see why she's doing it. Im in trouble i know i am. So are you hun, you really dont want to go down thw Eating Disorder path. It totally messes your head up. No one wants to go down that path.

Owww all this just confuses me so much :S

I feel really insecure about myself because I feel so fat, everyone around me is so skinny and looks so great that I just feel like total crap when I see them... Then I don't know if I am as fat as I think I am, or worse or what.. I'm 5ft 4, 7st 3lbs, and only 13... I don't understand the BMI things so I just can't work out what the hell I am.

I am absolutely obsessed with what I eat, but it doesn't make me eat any less, it just makes me feel worse about it afterwards.
I know if I tried I could just stop eating and loose the weight quick enough. I know this is a really stupid thing to do, but what's worse, that, or feeling so awful all the time because I'm fat? I just can't seem to manage a proper, healthy balanced diet. any help???

- Polly

Dont worry Polly. You not over wiehgt at all, your extremely skinny! I'm 13, 5' 2", and I wiegh around 110 lbs.

I know that I'm not that over wieght, if at all, it just bugs me. I hate my wieght. People like to poke me because I have about and inch of fat on my arms, legs, and tummy. I'm squishy. I know that, they know that, they just don't understand. If you'll pardon the dramatic term, they don't understand how much it hurts me inside.

Woops posted again..

if your bmi is underweight is that serious or does it just mean your a bit skinny??

*sorry for posting this again i just want to no*

It has to be how underweight. Like some people are naturally underweight. But if you were normal weight once upon a time and youve lost a lot of weight by starving yourslef then it does sound like you have a problem with food. I suggest you go and see your doctor or someone to find out your BMI and if your underweight or whatever. Then if you are underweight then he'll give you a diet to help you gain it.

I've always wondered this,
and i know its probably going to sound
really stupid, but you know how people
say your body isnt getting the nutrients it
needs when you're anorexic?
what if you took a multi-vitamin everyday
would that make a difference?

Food gives you the nutrients, if oyu dont eat food, then your not getting the nnutrients your body needs. So at first ithe body uses muscle for energy then fat. Then when you do eat again it coems abck as fat.
I dont know, its better getting the nutrients from food rather then pills and stuff.

I think the pills make up for the vitamins and nutrients you need, but you loose all your muscle and body fat- you'll freeze your butt off in the winter. You'll be weak and frail. I know a girl that looks like a twig- but shes always been like that, so I dont know if shes always not eaten, or if shes naturally like that.

No you do eat but then you bring it back. A diet is when you cut back on the amount of food you eat in a day.

a diet is eating healthier to lose weight, maybe cutting back on your calorie intake. anorexia is starving yourself and eating much less in a day than is reccomended to be healthy, even if 'you' are already underweight.

yeah im pretty sure you dont want to
be anorexic when its freaking
20 degrees below zero like it is here!!!!
hahahahaa

anorexia.. loosing all the appetite to eat.. like.. when you eat this certain thing.. you find the need to vomit it all out.. then you do.. or.. rather.. you dont eat anything at ell.. i've been in that stage.. brought to the hospital because of that.. LoL..

diet? its just simply reducing the amount of food you eat.. not eating too much.. that is.. and not too little either

if you stop eatting and lose lots of weight for a month or so would that really reck your matabilisum ?, so if you start eatting normally again you put on lots of weight ????????

Thea, you know you've got so many questions lol I don't think you're gonna find all the answers here... do you reckon you could go the doctor and find out or would that be kinda too hard?
xxxxx

lol sorry polly, too many questions and not enough answers!!!
and i am NOT going to the doctors, i think that would make a small problem suddenly huge and scary

i think that would make a small problem suddenly huge and scary

^
Hunny, if you are starving yourself and have barely ate for a while then i seriously think you do need help. And its not a "small problem" Its a huge one. I think the statistics are that 1 in 250 people are anerexic and 1 in 50 are bulimic. (Sorry if these are wronge but ive read it somewhere when researching some stuff on bulimia).
If you do have strange eating habits, then even if you dont want to go to the doctor you hsould tell someone. A teacher or parent. Someone like that.
You seriously do NOT want to get mixed up in the world of EDs. It just really messes your head up.
Is there any reason you havent been eating properly? Has anything happened? If you need to talk im hear to listen.
xx

It's kinda funny, in a way..I feel so naive. I'm glad this post is here, I've learned a lot.