My friend has been starving himself and vomiting up his food consistently for the past 2 years i’d say, he’s about 65kg whilst being around 6’1, i try to tell him that it’s bad for your health and that sooner or later he’ll just put the weight back on again anyway, but he hasn’t, he’s stayed being relatively skinny and there has been no changes in his behaviour or personality in fact i’d say he’s much happier than he’s ever been.
In: Biology
Well, calorie intake is your best adjustment leaver. But you still need to eat, your body needs that shit (not just the calories) and you need to find an equilibrium eating habit that is sustainable long term.
So yea eat less. In a way that works for you. But starving isn’t it.
Gaining weight back isn’t really the main issue. It’s not bad because it’s ineffective to lose weight, it’s bad because it’s dangerous and has a surprisingly large amount of serious health consequences that are absolutely life threatening
The bigger problems are more about its effect on nutrition and fluid balances and physical damage to your esophagus and teeth
This sort of behavior is especially hard on your heart due to its effect on hydration and electrolyte imbalances. This puts immense strain on your heart and can cause a multitude of different issues related to blood pressure, which can have downstream effects on pretty much all your organs, with your kidneys and heart being especially in trouble. These effects can be very dangerous in the short to mid term and can lead to significant reduction of quality of life in addition to being outright life threatening.
Additionally, there’s a number of concerns with malnutrition in general, making it easy for your body to be deficient in a number of vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients, which can have a very wide range of really dangerous problems depending on what you end up being deficient in
Then there’s a significant amount of damage to your esophagus and teeth, leading to all sorts of painful and sometimes life threatening injuries from that. Additionally it will increase the risk of cancer in your esophagus and mouth, this is more likely long term and not something that’ll happen in the short term, but I don’t think I need to do much to convince you that cancer is bad
The thing is, he likely knows it’s not exactly healthy. People who do this tend to be struggling with mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and very very likely some issues with self esteem. Similar to people who are alcoholics, they likely know it’s harmful but struggle with intense feelings of emotional pain and it provides them a brief bit of relief. You’re unlikely to get far just being like “don’t you know how bad this is?!”, it’s common to have a lot of feelings of shame with things like this and going at it that way can just feel like you’re shaming him and won’t likely be helpful.
The better approach is to express that you care about him and are worried about him, you could mention learning about the health consequences of it and feeling scared because you don’t want those things happening to him. Realistically the most effective thing he can do is seek professional help. I know that can be difficult for a variety of reasons but is likely the most effective way to recover from this. I’d just recommend focusing more on a “I care about you and am worried” vibe rather than scolding him for it or just trying to convince him that it’s bad, because he likely knows this and ultimately this is a symptom of an underlying mental health issue rather than him just simply being uninformed
There is still stuff your body needs, depriving it of EVERYTHING will in the long run do more damage than the benefits of losing weight. It’s going to put stress and strain on your vital organs that depending on how far you take it may never repair itself.
That’s why a lot of people put the weight back on. True weight loss is a balance between a healthy diet and keeping your body active. Starving yourself WILL make you thinner, but your body is a complicated machine. If you break one thing to fix another, you’re still left with broken parts. If you mess up your heart, you won’t have the energy to stay active and burn off whatever calories you’re taking in when you finally HAVE to eat something.
People need vitamins and minerals and such, and they need protein for the amino acids. Fat just gives energy. As a result, even fat people can starve to death.
To answer the question in your title, it’s not terrible if you are still eating enough, and the right stuff, to get important nutrients. The main problem is that most people will lose the weight and go right back to their old eating habits and put the weight back on.
The issue in your post has already been well addressed.
To check, what is the definition of starving?
When I am trying to lose weight I will regularly skip breakfast and lunch and just have a meal in the evening. I drink a lot of water throughout the day instead.
Because starving yourself like that, plus the strain of repeated vomitting, is really bad for your organs- including your heart. Please keep a close eye on your friend because he has an eating disorder and the damage to his cardiovascular system and teeth/throat can get really bad.
No offense but are you trolling? Ur friend definitely has an eating disorder
Your friend has an eating disorder and needs help .. no human should be forcing foods out by vomiting
>he hasn’t, he’s stayed being relatively skinny and there has been no changes in his behaviour or personality in fact i’d say he’s much happier than he’s ever been.
Some people have lived to be a hundred years old while smoking.
“Unhealthy” doesn’t mean “this is guaranteed to kill you within a year”. It means your *risk* is higher.
It is *possible* to be lucky and avoid all the serious negative effects. It is also possible to be lucky and win the lottery. Neither of those are good life plans.
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