At what weight...?

Question

how low does your weight have to be to be considered as a patient at an eating disorder clinic?

Answer 1

People vary in shape, color and everything, so there is not one ideal body weight that fits everyone. However, there are tables with ranges of healthy weights by height. Those tables were first made by insurance companies (they correlated with mortality).

I worry when I see for example, that now they want to set minimum weights for models. We women are under ridiculous pressure by society to fit a certain standard. There are ducks, chicken and swans. By fattening swans they won't become chicken or ducks. What they want is to force skinny women to pay the plastic surgeon to make them look like bloated Baywatch silicone containers.

If you are underweight but you eat a balanced diet with enough calories, you don't purge (vomit, abuse laxatives, diuretics, exercise excessively), you keep on having your periods, and you have enough energy, then you don't have an eating disorder.

There are DSM-IV-TR criteria for bulimia and anorexia (look them up in Google if you want). I think in a way they help but they are arbitrary because between ideal health and disordered eating there is a continuum. I mean, someone could not meet full criteria but have certain behaviors related to eating and weight that are not making him/ her too happy.

I wish we would focus more on acceptance of diversity, also in looks.