Researchers have it that eating disorder is one of the harmful ways of gaining extra pounds in your body. While dieting is one of the ways of losing weight, it is only works in the short run and in the long run it usually leads to individuals gaining more weight than even the weight lost during dieting period. Having extra pounds in your body is dangerous since it causes many diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart and lungs complications and the list goes on. Having unwanted fats in your body is dangerous but you should work to get rid of these extra pounds in your body in a healthy way.

Sadly, some individuals across the globe have died because of eating disorders while some are surviving with medical assistance as a result of eating disorders. The two most common disorders are bulimia nervosa, simply known as bulimia, and anorexia nervosa, simply referred to anorexia.

Eating disorders are usually characterized by lack of eating when you feel hungry. Some individuals (with Bulimia Nervosa disorder) eat as much as they can whether they are hungry or not while individuals (with anorexia nervosa disorder) do not eat even when they feel hunger pangs because of the fear of gaining weight. What these individuals do not know is that when you eat when you feel hungry, your body takes in just what is enough for normal operations of the body.

Bulimia Nervosa

Individuals with anorexia nervosa eating disorder do not monitor the quantity of food they take. They are not scared about gaining weight and therefore they eat as much as they can without even caring the types of food they are consuming on a daily basis. The extra calories consumed on a daily basis can be very harmful to their bodies causing various health complications.

Anorexia Nervosa

This is an eating disorder where individuals are scared about the thought of gaining an extra pound in their bodies. As a result, these individuals can nearly starve themselves to extreme limits as a result of fear of gaining weight. Unlike individuals with anorexia nervosa disorder, these people eat as little as possible. Lack of adequate nourishment in our bodies can cause failure of internal organs and in very extreme cases even death.

The process of dieting which is one of the eating disorder increases the body’s propensity to add some extra weight; which is referred to as dieting induced weight gain by scientist. In addition, dieting contributes to the epidemic of obesity which is harmful in our bodies. Dieting amplifies the number of extra pounds gained in your body compared to an individual who is not dieting. This is according to research carried out by Pietilaineet al, 2011. Dieting accelerates the risk of one being overweight in the long run. After you stop dieting, every subsequent meal you take leads to more weight gain than even the original weight. This is called weight cycling.

When you are dieting, your body biologically takes the process as a way of starvation. As a result the body takes a primal survival mode in which it slows down the metabolism as well as escalates food cravings. The dieting process disconnects you from your body hunger as well as satiety cues and therefore you may tend to eat even when you are not hungry.

To deal with eating disorders you should only take food when you are hungry, you should endeavor to take healthy foods at all times, you should never take foods for emotional reasons but rather should be for physical reasons and you should rely on innate satiety cues to determine the amount of food that is appropriate for you. It is worth mentioning that there is no meal plan that can determine your hunger or fullness levels. This is only determined by your body internal systems which are interfered with by eating disorders. Eating disorders have harmful aftermath in your body in the long run.

Once you learn that you have an eating disorder, you should start rectifying this as soon as possible. However it is worth mentioning that this calls for patience since it is not something that can be achieved overnight. You need to be patient and kind to yourself as you relearn the unhealthy eating habits. It is recommended that you start to gradually introduce healthy foods like vegetables and whole meal foods instead of a sudden paradigm shift which can be unrealistic and ineffective.