One of the more dangerous methods used by people who are pro ana include purging, which can take three main forms and result in harm to the body in a variety of ways. First, there is self-induced vomiting, which is harmful, as this can cause tears in the throat, rotting and loss of teeth, and other major problems, including potassium depletion and organ damage. Some people with eating disorders are hospitalized due to low levels of potassium. Second, purging can be accomplished via overexercise, such as running for hours on a treadmill, which can cause muscles to become weak. Third, purging can be accomplished through the use (or overuse) of laxatives, to stimulate a bowel movement and “empty” the intestines of food, so that further absorption of calories doesn’t occur. This can cause dehydration and other harmful effects, including possibly-severe headaches. In addition to purging, people who are pro ana can also restrict, which generally refers to consuming a reduced number of calories than is necessary to maintain their current weight. The total number of calories that would maintain a person’s weight is the Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), which is oftentimes the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) plus ten percent, plus any calories burned from exercise or activities. The BMR is how many calories a person needs to survive if the person stayed in bed and rested all day. By combining the BMR with the number of calories that a person burns by moving around, a person can determine their TDEE. Therefore, restricting means eating fewer calories than would be needed to maintain a person’s weight per the TDEE. Restricting can even cause females to lose their period, temporarily, but this does not mean that these females cannot become pregnant; some have become pregnant even after they lost their period due to restricting to relatively low amounts of calories consumed per day. When a person is restricting and/or purging, their body weight may become lower than the “normal” weight per the Body Mass Index (BMI) charts, which is less than 18.5 BMI for people who are 20 years old or older (those under 20 years of age use different BMI tables). The calculation for BMI for people who are 20 years old or more is available at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm and for those under 20 years of age it’s available at https://nccd.cdc.gov/dnpabmi/calculator.aspx There are some who say that BMI is not effective as an accurate measurement of whether a person’s weight is healthy. For example, at http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2016/02/08/ucla-study-bmi-not-accurate-way-to-measure-health/ there is an article with the title: “UCLA Study: BMI Not Accurate Way To Measure Health”. Additionally, many people who are “underweight” per BMI charts might still be healthy. But how skinny is too skinny? Given body dysmorphia (e.g., not seeing oneself as skinny if a person is skinny) and a desire to continue losing weight (due to receiving compliments from others after they lost weight), for some people, anorexia nervosa (and OSFED, which is a similar diagnosis) are among the deadliest of the mental disorders. Losing weight below the “normal” weight limits per BMI charts might still mean that a person has a healthy weight, so some people lose weight until they end up hospitalized or dead, because they don’t know the real limits.
For more information on this topic, please review my other blog entries and visit http://chatzy.com/proana for pro ana chat.
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