ED trigger warning

[Tomlettegregg]

Those who have had experience of anorexia may be able to answer this. I don't understand how people can function on so little calories. Recently I've felt really unwell and have had no appetite. Only had this before when I was pregnant and felt nauseous. Eating didn't relieve it (even plain food like toast or rice). just don't understand how people function especially celebrities with really full on diaries. I'm not looking for tips (obviously) because I hope to be better soon but I'm genuinely curious. Can it really just be coffee and cigarettes (and now ozempic or ritalin) or is that a myth?

The anorexia drives you to function or to exercise & so you just keep going. You still feel starving and exhausted but the fear & drive from the anorexia forces you.

It's a horrendous illness so trust me you're not missing out.

Maybe I've phrased it badly.

I know I'm not missing out but I don't get it.

On Mumsnet there are always women claiming to eat almost nothing and I don't know how, if that's true, they can do normal things like work and care for young kids without collapsing.

It’s simply not a choice to someone suffering from anorexia, it’s a compulsion, and the guilt and upset after having to eat something is horrendous. It’s not the same as going on a diet and sticking to it when you feel like a treat, it’s a severe mental illness that is the number one killer compared to other mental illnesses.

I don't understand the low calorie thing in general. So many people on 1200 calories, id feel ill.

Adrenaline? But yes, how do you not collapse eventually

I nearly started a thread like this a few days ago, but I think your OP is a bit clouded by the connection to anorexia @Tomlettegregg - that's a whole different issue and, as pp have said, a severe disease.

It's not the same as the MN posters who function on a really low calorie intake on a daily basis, though there is probably some overlap and the undereating threads feel very pro-ana. But I always want to know how women are managing their daily lives - work, family, exercise, socialising - on eg one meal a day as I frequently read, or on extremely long fasts or eating 1k calories and no more.

For me, long fasts or a very low calorie intake makes me fatigued, confused, weak and unable to focus, dizzy, shaking and irritable. I always want to know how some women keep going on so little and where they get their energy from, how their hair and nails keep growing, how they exercise and how they function. But I read it on here all the time, people going for months and months on under 1000 calories, or doing fasts that last for days or living off one meal a day. I couldn't do it; I would be impossible to live with and I wouldn't make the gym or be able to do my job.

@Normalwahatisnormal eventually they do collapse and then are admitted to hospital for life saving intervention. My niece spent all of her adult life in a cycle where she was in and out of hospital/specialist units where they would fatten her up and then send her home again where she would again starve herself. It's a horrible horrible disease and the poor lamb suffered every minute.

Yes I tried to change the title but too late @StilettosForMiles captures what I mean more accurately.

But I am also thinking of famous women who clearly are severely underweight.

I've been listening to Lily Allen's new podcast and was really enjoying it then saw some recent photos and she's just so tiny, I don't understand how she functions day to day at that size.

I'm not picking on her either. There's so many celebs who are significantly smaller then they were like Katy perry and Christina Aguilera. I don't know how they can still be up and at it for the days their jobs demand.

People need different amounts of fuel that's all 🤷‍♂️

I've always eaten like a sparrow, because that's just my natural appetite.

I've always been a slow eater too, so I think I start to digest long before I'm finished.

It's the determination and drive that comes from the illness. You feel faint & as though you are about to collapse but generally don't and just push through just like people can push through the pain barrier to do extreme exercise etc. Its not a healthy thing at all almost like the survival instinct is in overdrive so you just keep pushing through.
Alot of people with anorexia do excessive amounts of exercise & continue walking on fractured bones. It's not that they don't feel pain it's just the drive of the illness is worse than the pain.

It's very hard to understand unless you've either experienced it or had someone very close to you going through it.

It's extremely hard to recover from & although it might look like something to be proud of to the outside world it really isn't & destroys virtually every aspect of someone's life.