From having lurked in eating disorder communities where people share photos, I can anecdotally tell you that self-professed bulimics tend on the whole to appear to have substantially more body fat (often even obesity) compared to self-professed anorexics. This could be in part due to the comorbidity of bulimia and binge eating without purging, in people for whom it’s predominantly a mental health issue. Of course there’s also some sampling bias with who shares their images and measurements, but from what’s available, there does seem to be a trend.
If satiety is the primary goal, you can get the same effects with less of the permanent destruction of the oropharynx by consuming high-fiber, low-caloric-density foods. /r/volumeeating on Reddit has plenty of recipes in that vein.
I can anecdotally tell you that self-professed bulimics tend on the whole to appear to have substantially more body fat (often even obesity) compared to self-professed anorexics
Eh, why would this be surprising? Aren’t anorexics defined by their being extremely skinny?
It wasn’t meant to be entirely surprising? Just to contrast the apparent effects of decreased caloric intake vs binge/purge behaviors.
Extreme skinniness is a result of long-term and consistent anorexic behavior. However, if a larger person starts acting anorexic (ie significantly and intentionally undereating), they may encounter health problems from malnutrition, electrolyte imbalances, etc before becoming clinically underweight.
I think anorexics are typically defined more by a (pathological) fear of being fat. In practice, of course, that results in them being extremely skinny.
I don’t think that fact was meant to be surprising, but rather just to point out that not eating in the first place (or exercising intensely to burn off whatever you ate), like anorexics, seems to work better (well, “better”) than the bulimics’ “binge and purge” approach.
From having lurked in eating disorder communities where people share photos, I can anecdotally tell you that self-professed bulimics tend on the whole to appear to have substantially more body fat (often even obesity) compared to self-professed anorexics. This could be in part due to the comorbidity of bulimia and binge eating without purging, in people for whom it’s predominantly a mental health issue. Of course there’s also some sampling bias with who shares their images and measurements, but from what’s available, there does seem to be a trend.
If satiety is the primary goal, you can get the same effects with less of the permanent destruction of the oropharynx by consuming high-fiber, low-caloric-density foods. /r/volumeeating on Reddit has plenty of recipes in that vein.
Eh, why would this be surprising? Aren’t anorexics defined by their being extremely skinny?
It wasn’t meant to be entirely surprising? Just to contrast the apparent effects of decreased caloric intake vs binge/purge behaviors.
Extreme skinniness is a result of long-term and consistent anorexic behavior. However, if a larger person starts acting anorexic (ie significantly and intentionally undereating), they may encounter health problems from malnutrition, electrolyte imbalances, etc before becoming clinically underweight.
You can even have clinically significant symptoms of starvation while obese.
http://web.archive.org/web/20230131185217/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/18/magazine/anorexia-obesity-eating-disorder.html
I think anorexics are typically defined more by a (pathological) fear of being fat. In practice, of course, that results in them being extremely skinny.
I don’t think that fact was meant to be surprising, but rather just to point out that not eating in the first place (or exercising intensely to burn off whatever you ate), like anorexics, seems to work better (well, “better”) than the bulimics’ “binge and purge” approach.