6 Outcomes of Disordered Eating
9% of the population is affected by eating disorders worldwide, and most of them start from ‘harmless’ diets which are actually rooted in disordered eating habits.
Common signs of disordered eating include:
Habitually counting calories
Viewing foods as either good or bad
Excessive food restriction in type or quantity
Spitting out food because you do not want the calories
Over exercising to burn off calories
Obsessive thoughts about food
Avoiding social event because you are afraid of eating fun foods
Wanting to lose as much weight as possible
It is important to be aware of these signs so that you can take action to dismantle your disordered eating habits. Many people do not know the harm that disordered eating can actually do to your body, which is what will be discussed further here.
Source: ANAD
Here are 6 Outcomes of Disordered Eating
1. Higher BMI
Higher BMI is one of the outcomes of disordered eating. Note that BMI is not the most accurate measure of body composition and that BMI is not a sole measure of health. We use BMI as just one piece to the puzzle because a weight or BMI-focused mindset is one of the main factors that lead people into disordered eating. Now, most people engage in disordered eating habits in the pursuit of weight loss, but surprisingly, disordered eating habits can actually result in a higher BMI in the long term. This is because disordered eating patterns can be hard to stick to once you lose so much weight that your body will fight against it by increasing hunger hormone levels (ghrelin) and decreasing the fullness hormone levels (leptin). Disordered eating habits that include heavy amounts of restriction will stimulate these hormone levels to go out of balance to motivate you to eat. Eventually, this leads people to have ‘cheat days’ or a ‘diet break’ resulting in overeating, and weight gain. Note that this weight gain is supposed to happen because your body is starving and needs fuel! The act of disordered eating becomes counter intuitive because you end up opposite from the initial goal in mind. Specifically, researchers have found that those in the normal BMI range who start dieting and engage in disordered eating have the most significant weight regain after periods of restriction in comparison to those who start in the overweight or obese BMI category.
2. Weight Cycling
As disordered eating becomes more severe in one’s daily life, weight cycling can become a large concern. Weight cycling is when you go through periods of high weight followed by periods of having a low weight and vice versa and you constantly oscillate between the two. Approximately 20-50% of women in the nation struggle with weight cycling, so it is important to know the implications of it. The reason that weight cycling occurs as a result of disordered eating is because the more restrictive you are, the more your body wants to fight against it. High restriction can lead to a lower weight, but the sustainability of that low weight may become close to impossible to maintain, so your body will send you continuous signals to eat, and over time you can’t resist them anymore resulting in weight gain. Researchers have found that weight cycling can actually be worse than sustaining a higher weight in terms of health risks such as high insulin levels, blood pressure, cardiac output, cortisol sensitivity, and blood glucose levels which will be touched in the following sections.
Source: 24183140, 2718940, 25614199, 32099104
3. Eating Disorder
Eating disorders are the obvious outcome of disordered eating when extreme habits are created. There are 3 main eating disorders that can arise from excessive disordered eating behaviors. They are called anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder. Specifically, anorexia nervosa is the deadliest mental illness, and it is reported every 52 minutes someone loses their life from complications of an eating disorder. Eating disorders can have a variety of origins, but they all can stem from excessive disordered eating behaviors that begin to take over the majority of your mental space. All 3 of the eating disorders have a component of physical or mental restriction of food which can lead to either excessive eating episodes in bulimia and binge eating disorder or they can lead to excessive starvation as in the case of anorexia.
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4. Blunted Cortisol Reactivity
Having a blunted cortisol reactivity is also an outcome of disordered eating. High-stress situations have been shown to elevate our cortisol levels over time which leads to negative health outcomes. Specifically, when you are under chronic stress your body is supposed to respond to that high cortisol output. Researchers have found that those who have disordered eating patterns will have a blunted cortisol response to psychological stress compared to the control group who have a normal cortisol response. The blunted cortisol response shows that the body is under chronic stress and over time the excessive cortisol release is not dealt with the same way it would in healthy circumstances. This is one of the reasons for elevated BMI and other metabolic problems.
Source: 24183140
5. Hyperinsulinemia
Another one of the outcomes from persistent disordered eating is hyperinsulinemia, which is when you have elevated insulin levels. Insulin is an anabolic hormone released from our pancreas when we eat food. It helps us to put glucose into our cells for energy or into our fat cells for storage. The problem with hyperinsulinemia is that too much insulin in the bloodstream can signal the ovaries to produce more testosterone which is not good for hormone balance. Additionally, hyperinsulinemia can lead to insulin resistance and prediabetes. This condition occurs due to continuous weight cycling and is statistically more common in people within the normal BMI ranges because of the overshoot theory. This theory indicates that the people in the normal BMI range who undergo weight cycling will end up overshooting metabolic and cardiovascular health markers when they gain the weight back. Basically, after periods of weight cycling due to disordered eating and excessive dieting they found that serum insulin levels were very elevated to abnormal levels.
6. Impaired Cardiac Function
Impaired cardiac output refers to these cardiovascular factors that can overwork your heart and put you at a higher risk for hypertension, heart disease, or stroke so it is important to understand how to prevent it. Unfortunately, increased cardiac output is one of the negative outcomes of weight cycling due to disordered eating. In a study with lean women, they underwent 2 cycles of weight loss (4.4kg) and weight regain (ad libitum, or however much necessary). After the 2 cycles their health markers were evaluated 100 days after the study finished, and they found a significant increase in plasma triglycerides and an increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressures. These results align with the overshoot theory as well. A possible mechanism for the increase in blood pressure can be that when you are smaller your heart doesn’t have to pump blood as hard as it would when you are bigger, so when you weight cycle, your heart will have a harder time adjusting to the new size of your body and will go into overdrive pumping harder. Additionally, studies found that those who had disordered eating behaviors had an attenuated vasodilatory response. Vasodilation is when our vessels increase in diameter to provide more blood flow to an area of injury or special concern. This increase in blood flow is good because it allows anti-inflammatory molecules to heal the area. Conversely in those with disordered eating habits, they experience reduced or attenuated vasodilation which reduces healing time and immunity. Lastly, a study found that even those with disordered eating tendencies who didn’t have a diagnosis had the same poor health markers as those who are formally diagnosed with bulimia. This is important to acknowledge that having the patterns of disordered eating can be just as those who are already formally diagnosed with an eating disorder
