how do anorexics get so skinny?

they say that if you dont eat enough then your body will go into starvation mode and you'll store more fat.

maybe this is just a crazy assumption, but i doubt anorexics or runway models eat enough.

so whats the deal with that?

There's 'starvation mode' and there's 'starvation'....  Starving people are in starvation mode.  Their metabolism runs very slowly but they are still losing weight because they aren't eating.  This takes a long time, which is lucky for them.  If their metabolism ran at the same speed as a normal person they'd be dead inside a couple of months.

Dieters that get into starvation mode find it very easy to gain weight because, unlike the previous group, they stop starving themselves and eat something.... !! You see it quite often that someone will crash diet all week, go out at the weekend, and find they've gained the next time they come to weigh-in.

The myths about anorectics drive me nuts.

First of all, 99% anorectics DO eat. They just don't eat enough. If they didn't eat at all, they'd be dead within a couple of months, maybe less.

Starvation mode does exist. Undereating to the point that anorectics do (<1000 calories on a daily, consistent basis) causes the entire body to slow down. However, they are still eating so little that the weight loss still occurs in most individuals (there are exceptions to everything, of course). It isn't a fast weight loss, although it may be at first - eventually it slows down to 1 - 2 lbs a month. But that adds up. 2 lbs a month weight loss is 24 lbs a year...in one - three years, that would cause most people, if not initially obese, to become underweight or even emaciated.

Also, it is important to note that anorectics have a mental disorder (seems obvious, but some fail to realize that). They can't just quit starving and go back to eating normally without severe mental, emotional, and even physical distress. So they don't. Healthy people, for instance, might starve for a few months and then start eating normally again right away without slowly phasing it in- and as a result of their slowed metabolism, they gain A LOT of weight very quickly. Anorectics usually don't do this, unless they want to recover, or are forced into treatment or consent to treatment...so they don't have to deal with the consequences of their damaged metabolism in terms of weight gain. So they either keep losing or maintain at a low weight.

I am NOT encouraging anorexic or eating disordered behavior. Eating disorders kill. Anorexia, by statistics, kills the most. Don't get into it, it isn't worth it AT ALL. Stay far, far away.

Well, anorexics do technically go into starvation mode, but since they eat so little, there's not much to store anyway and that's why they dont store fat and continue to get thinner and thinner since they're eating less than the calories they would need from laying immobile in bed all day (BMR)

When you lose weight by going into starvation mode and then try to eat normally again, THAT's when you store fat even more than you did before.

p.s. not all people with anorexia are thin.

ilovechai, yes, all people with anorexia are thin.

Among other things, the criteria for anorexia nervosa clearly states one must be 15% under their ideal weight, which is a BMI under 17.5. Which is thin.

You can have other eating disorders and not be thin, but with anorexia, you have to be.

that's not neccesarily true illisa, it's more and more recognised as a mental thing rather the on body evidence, so people heading the way of anorexics are anorexic, sometimes people can't starve themselves to 17.5 because their body won't let them or they binge.

Anorexia isn't better or worse than any other eating disorder. It's a specific type of eating disorder that involves specific behaviors, thoughts, and physical manifestations. 

If someone starves themselves and has "anorexic thoughts" but doesn't have a BMI under 17.5, then they are NOT anorexic. It doesn't matter why they don't have that BMI - whether they binge*, started out heavier, or can't manage to get down to that weight.

Those people have ED-NOS, which means eating disorder not otherwise specified. Many people die from ED-NOS, and it is just as damaging as anorexia.


*Some anorexics do binge. They have anorexia subtype two - binging/purging. This is not to be confused with people who have ED-NOS and binge or purge, but don't fit the anorexia weight requirement. Two different classifications, although very similar.

How do anorexics get so skinny?

The same way those little children in Africa get so skinny - they don't eat - anorexics because they won't and starving babies because there is no food.  The babies die, and so do a large number of anorexics.

Anorectics eat.

that's really interesting illisa, it has drawn light on my own eating problems when I was fifteen, I was half a stone under weight and therefore under my BMI. This was deliberate, I would eat 800 cals a day and burn off 200 running. So I guess I was anorexic for a while...I never really thought of myself as being labeled with it, although i knew I had a problem.