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.
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.