Can you be thin and have a binge eating disorder?

Yes absolutely. Everyone has a different body type and binging is the relationship that someone has with food. This relationship can look like not eating during the day and eventually reaching a breaking point and feeling the need to eat as much as possible to feel full. It could also mean eating when you are bored or having no control over how much you eat or for how long. Eating food for long periods of time or eating a lot of food does not always lead to weight gain or loss, it all has to do with your body type and shape in addition to your daily activities. If your body type is thin and you have an unhealthy relationship with food and how it makes you feel, you still qualify as having an eating disorder. There is no one way that eating disorders look and each person looks and feels different when they are going through the process of active disorder versus recovery.

It is possible to have a binge eating disorder and still be thin. Some people suffer from Bulimia nervosa. People with bulimia may secretly binge — eating large amounts of food with a loss of control over the eating — and then purge, trying to get rid of the extra calories in an unhealthy way. So they can binge eat but still look skinny because they purge out the food. Having an eating disorder is about eating patterns and behaviour and not about how a person looks or what their appearance is. Please consult a therapist if you think you might have an eating disorder.

Totally! I'm kinda thin and I eat all the time. It's this feeling of weakness I get being thin. My mindset was "I would rather be strong and fat than skinny and weak." It was really damaging, considering I played sports and wanted to be the best at everything. I kept eating, eating, eating, and it was only when my mother called me out on it did I feel bad. It made me feel like a failure, but the food is just so tasty sometimes. I felt ashamed of myself and what's worse is that I was still thin. I didn't feel like I compared at all to my fellow volleyball teammates, and I felt weak when I messed up. This is just my personal experience though.

Eating disorders can affect different bodies in so many different ways. One may suffer from binge eating disorder and be thin. Individuals have different metabolisms and other bodily factors. Just looking at someone physique or size does not allow assumption to determine what eating disorder they are suffering from. There are no size parameters given to certain disorders one may be experiencing. This further goes to show- always be kind because you never know what someone is dealing with in their life. No matter what someone's appearance is there are so many things one could be drastically struggling with.

yes you can. some younger people or anyone can have a high metabolism, which just means your food turns into energy faster than you can weight from it. The exact meaning or term for metabolism is - "is the chemical reactions in the body's cells that change food into energy. Our bodies need this energy to do everything from moving to thinking to growing". So, you can be thin or have a smaller body and have a binge eating disorder. It is possible to eat and ton and not gain weight especially for younger people. hope it helps. x

can you be thin and have an eating disorder? the answer is yes, you can have a binge eating disorder, even though you are physically thin or appear physically fit. binge eating is in no way healthy. every person should be watching their personal food and drink consumption on a daily basis. daily servings of fruits and vegetables, also other helpful eating habits like having enough grain, fiber and drinking eight or more glasses of water a day will help you to appear AND actually be physically fit. being thin to me might be a personal goal, but avoiding binge eating and eating, snacking and drinking healthy are personal must haves to maintain good health.

To state it simply, continually binging yet retaining a low weight would be defying the laws of thermodynamics - of course, one can be thin and binge, but binging is not inherently ‘binge eating disorder’. For one to binge yet not gain a substantial amount of weight (or gain and then lose it), a form of purging would be required - whether this be through excessive exercise, restricting food, self-induced vomiting, etc. But adding a constant form of purging to the binging would stray the disorder away from simply being ‘binge eating disorder’ - it may be bulimia, EDNOS, or otherwise. To put it simply, ‘binge eating disorder’ is not an umbrella term, and using it as such can be harmful to both those who suffer from it, and those who are misguided into thinking that is their disorder. All in all, a thin person who binges is likely to suffer from an eating disorder that combines aspects of restricting and binging.

Yes you can be thin and have this disorder. It can be very hard to deal with this and us at 7 cups are here to listen and support you. Not all people are the same when it comes to a certain eating disorder and it can be very difficult to diagnose what you might have because you don't fit into the "normal" for that disorder. You matter and you belong. Not everyone has to fit in a box and that's what makes all of us unique. The world would be really boring if there was just vanilla. Keep flying high