Or is the competitive under eating on mumsnet harmful?

[foreverlobsters]

Full disclaimer- I have a history of eating disorders myself so am possibly over sensitive to this.

Have been reading through another currently active thread as well as what we eat in a day etc (which I occasionally post on and do find interesting). Why do people feel the need to post about their extremely low calorie days on here, or give potentially harmful advice? What's the incentive exactly- and are these people lying about how much they really eat or is most of the mumsnet population in an extreme calorie deficit? Do these people not see how selfish and damaging these posts can be?

I honestly don’t understand the problem with eating 1300-500 calories everyday to maintain a slim weight?

I DO watch what I eat and exercise I don’t smoke. I don’t eat lots of sweets or snacks

What’s the problem?

I’m 5’4 and slim. I know when I have overindulged based on how my jeans fit!

Yanbu. There was a thread the other day where someone said they have a bmi of 18 and regularly don't eat for 24hrs and lots of posters chimed in with the usual people just don't know what healthy bodies look like anymore, people are just jealous because you are slim, you sound perfectly healthy to me confused

^ I think I saw that. People were saying it was perfectly fine to realise at 6pm you haven't eaten since lunchtime...the previous day!

With a history like yours OP do yourself a favour and keep away!

What’s sad to me is the flurry of diet advice that posts attract. Dozens of posts promoting the cutting out whole food groups and perpetuating diet culture. There’s an obsessiveness about it. Eg comments about the sugar content in grapes, wide eyed incredulity that anyone can possibly eat a whole tin of soup. We know diets don’t work - there’s plenty of evidence about it but we just can’t let them go.

I’m always amazed by the under eating that goes on on mumsnet. It’s almost as if it’s some sort of competition.

I’ve made a mental note not to every post a good thread. One poster asked about her toddlers perfectly normal and acceptable diet and she was torn to shreds!! You’d think she’d been feeding the child mcdonnalds and ben and Jerry’s, mixed with lard, for every meal if you went by some of the comments!

I also think that posters really have no idea how many calories they eat, and just pick an arbitrary number that sounds good.

Have you ever watched Secret Eaters? Its so interesting that their calorie numbers in their food diaries are often half of what they're actually eating under surveillance. Posters here guesstimate and put it forward as fact.

I think most threads and posts here you read need to be taken with at least a pinch of salt and often dismissed as an outright lie. You might have to hide certain boards if its triggering for you OP.

@Breastfeedingworries
You forgot to add you’re only 8st and never eat veg, and drive everywhere. And can’t understand why everyone isn’t like you

I once got slated on here for saying that a tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream could last DH and I for a week. I was told that I was denying myself and being a competitive under eater and that most people eat a tub to themselves in one sitting.

So it works both ways I think. Some competitive under eating and some almost boasting about how much they eat.

I have a history of disordered eating and I think yabu although I do agree there could be stronger moderation and potentially those 'are you ok' sort of messages which pop up on other social media sites.

I also think people are being unreasonable to mock stretching a roast chicken to multiple meals which is a perfectly normal thing to do (particularly in the past when chicken was very expensive) and not at all unique to MN - there are lots of threads on the moneysaving expert website about stretching food.

To never post! Sorry!

@Atalune

I honestly don’t understand the problem with eating 1300-500 calories everyday to maintain a slim weight?

I DO watch what I eat and exercise I don’t smoke. I don’t eat lots of sweets or snacks

What’s the problem?

I’m 5’4 and slim. I know when I have overindulged based on how my jeans fit!

I don't think this is necessarily a problem in itself- only you know if you feel sated and if your attitude to food is truly healthy or not.

What is problematic I think is the people who post about eating far, far less than that or giving helpful 'tips' such as 'fill up on water' which are known behaviours of people with EDs.

I’ve just learned that Europeans shouldn’t eat bananas as we haven’t evolved to eat tropical fruit .

Stay away from the threads!

@burritofan

I’ve just learned that Europeans shouldn’t eat bananas as we haven’t evolved to eat tropical fruit .

Stay away from the threads!

That’s a false rumour based on Banana allergies (a rare allergy) being most common in Eastern Europeans I think.

@burritofan

I’ve just learned that Europeans shouldn’t eat bananas as we haven’t evolved to eat tropical fruit .

Stay away from the threads!

Yes I've just come from the same thread.

I think I'll need to try and be much stricter on myself to not click on them (which is hard for someone with history of eating disorders!)

I suppose I worry more about teenagers stumbling upon them, given that they don't seem to be moderated at all.

I think it's a reflection of society. And that so many women have issues with food/ weight/ looks.

So it's society that's the problem this site just reflects general thoughts etc of a good chunk of women.

@Atalune

I honestly don’t understand the problem with eating 1300-500 calories everyday to maintain a slim weight?

I DO watch what I eat and exercise I don’t smoke. I don’t eat lots of sweets or snacks

What’s the problem?

I’m 5’4 and slim. I know when I have overindulged based on how my jeans fit!

You see if that works for you great, I don't see a problem with it. Would you go on threads though telling people not to eat peas and corn because they are far too sweet or that it is glutenous to eat an entire can of soup or that you think it is perfectly healthy to regularly not eat for 24hrs?

Being aware of what you eat is fine but shaming other people for eating both peas and corn with their dinner is just bonkers.

I find a lot of "official" messaging over calories in particular really difficult. I'm short and seem to have a slow metabolism. The "average" recommendations would have me gaining a lot of wait.

Even when I was 15 years younger and very active, walking everywhere and running 25+ miles a week for fun, I didn't need the 2,000 calories a day that the government suggests is 'average' for a woman in order to remain right at the top of my recommended weight range.

Nowadays, older and not very active, I need about 1000 calories a day to maintain my weight. I'm currently much, much heavier than recommended, so if I wanted to lose, given I have injuries that make exercise difficult, I'm not seeing how I'd do that without cutting those calories down significantly. Would that be disordered eating? Or is the eating more than a 1000 calories a day and putting on weight that risks my health disordered?

Everyone’s body is different though when I follow Calculations I need eat 1200 to maintain (I’m disabled and not active at all) anything over I put on weight. If I want lose weight talking 1000 for it to drop off extremely slowly. Some people manage 2500 and are bean poles.

It's really hard to avoid threads that are a thing you have issues with yourself.

When I had pnd and anxiety and got irrational about a ridiculous thing, I was like a moth to a flame on threads that looked to be related.

Is it a certain topic? Hide it?
If there's a thread title that hits you hide it and go and do something else for a bit might make you less likely to go looking?

@Atalune

I honestly don’t understand the problem with eating 1300-500 calories everyday to maintain a slim weight?

I DO watch what I eat and exercise I don’t smoke. I don’t eat lots of sweets or snacks

What’s the problem?

I’m 5’4 and slim. I know when I have overindulged based on how my jeans fit!

I would argue that if you’re already 5 ft 4 and slim then you are definitely not counting calories properly. Otherwise you would know that’s a weight loss figure for your height. In fact it’s a weight loss figure for disabled people who don’t move at your height too (my aunt was put on a weight loss diet of 1300-1500 after her stroke)

Yeah those topics are like a magnet to those with disordered eating. Someone posts about wanting to lose weight and it's straight in with fasting and low-carbing advice.

Having said that, it does go both ways. I regularly hear people say they'd be starving and emaciated at the slim end of average BMI.

Op these threads are boringly predictable, so you can at least hide them without even opening them.

Mumsnet has a dysfunctional relationship with food and competitive under eating Is quite common
The restaurant salad that’s so big it feeds 2 adults for three days and one of them is the rugby player husband
Proclamation that if they eat more than a water biscuit they’ll bag up
Purges were if one eats “big” one day they’ll forfeit food the next day

YANBU. And I would be willing to lay down a large bet that a lot of people who purport to live on 3 carrot sticks and 30g of alfalfa sprouts a day are actually quite overweight.

If I posted my daily meals I'd be fat shamed daily!!!

I remember the thread about the person who could only eat 1/2 a salad.

I find it extends to their children too. Threads about their ‘skinny’ dc. Suggesting cutting out carbs for those whose children might be a tiny bit overweight.

@Legomania

Yeah those topics are like a magnet to those with disordered eating. Someone posts about wanting to lose weight and it's straight in with fasting and low-carbing advice.

Having said that, it does go both ways. I regularly hear people say they'd be starving and emaciated at the slim end of average BMI.

Op these threads are boringly predictable, so you can at least hide them without even opening them.

Yes I'll start following the advice to try to hide them, thank you.

And yes they are a magnet to those with disordered eating, which is why I end up reading them. Which will be why they're disproportionately full of people posting harmful things I think.

I agree with you OP. I was on a dieting thread on here a few years ago where we all posted what we ate in a day. I would regularly eat only about 200 calories, and a few others would do about 500 a day. It became a sort of pro-ana thread for a few of us.
I know we have to take personal responsibility for our EDs, but threads about other forms of self-harm wouldn't go unchecked in the same way.