Hello all.

This is not a post to say that LC diets are bad or the devil or anything like that, I want to say that UP FRONT.

I used a LC diet to get down some extra pounds, and I loved it.

However, I want to share my story with you to make sure that it never happens to any of you...b/c it's so easy with this diet I think to fall into this trap:

For the past few months, I've been using the LC diet as a way of disguising anorexia. I was at my goal weight, and I found that I was suddenly afraid of carbs. At all. So I let myself continue without them thinking it was ok...it wasn't. I'm not 110 like it says over there, I'm 105. It's just a little embarresing to admit, all EDs are a little embarresing to admit.

I believe that many people my age use this diet as a way to starve themselves, and it happened to me. I'm just starting to ad back carbs to my diet. Because you DO NEED them. I started to get trapped in the mindset that you not only didn't need them, they were bad. They are NOT bad. OVEReating them is bad...but sometimes I hear people talk on this site about "evil carbs" and it scares me, because I hear people SAY the same things I was thinking while I was sick with my ED.

I haven't had my period in months. I just realized I had a real problem a few weeks ago. I just started making changes today.

Again, I'm not saying that I believe this is a bad diet, or an unhealthy diet, because lord knows I did it and it worked for me. All I'm saying is PLEASE make sure you're having correct thoughts about food and the role carbs are going to play in your life once your target weight is reached.

Maintenance isn't about finding the least amount of carbs your allowed to have. I don't think it's healthy for anyone to be afraid of carbs. That's what happened to me. I think people should think of maintenance as finally being able to ad them back in.

That's all. I hope I didn't offend anybody.

-Sophie

Sophie, I hope our nutrition experts will see this post and respond more fully than I can. I'm glad you're fighting to get back to a more normal way of eating. I'm sure it's very hard, and congratulations for the progress you've made so far.

I think when people here refer to "evil carbs" we're talking as carb addict to carb addict. Not normal weight people who are afraid to eat a carrot because they'll gain an ounce, but people who, in some cases, eat tremendous amounts of sweets, or who live on junk food, or who've overdone it on bread and pasta.

I think if you read the posts you'll find a healthy respect for vegetables and constant advice to eat 10 to 12 times your body weight in calories, to add fat to your diet, and NOT to drop below 20 carbs a day because it won't speed weight loss and it isn't healthy.

You might want to take a look at razzle's journal called maintenance mindset, I think (but it will be in the R section). Her challenge for maintenance is adding lots and lots of vegetables. You may get some support and ideas from reading that.

Thanks Sophie! You have given us one side of the many faceted coin of eating disorders.

One of the other sides, is that of that compulsive overeater who is addicted to carbs.

I never realized that I had a problem until I started low-carbing. Because of it, I discovered I was an addict and realized that a recovery program would be the best thing for me to do to change my life mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Because of my addiction, I can't eat sugar or flour or artificially sweetened desserts without it starting me on a downward spiral. So for me, certain carbs are "evil", but only evil if I choose to eat them and let them have power over me.

For the overweight and the compulsive overeater, finding the right balance is crucial, and carbs in the form of vegetables suit me just fine.

Good luck on your journey of recovery and self discovery!

Karen

hugs to you, ((((sophie)))

I see it a lot on this board--the Eating Disorders mindset. ("I need to punish myself for a slip" and "I know I'm in a healthy weight range but you just don't understand how horribly fat I am" and "but I still have fat on my thighs!" from reproductive-age women and on and on and on.) You're absolutely right, LC can be used as a form of compulsive self-control just as can low-cal eating, exercise, vomiting, or use of various medications.

YAY for you for figuring this out. Don't take this the wrong way, but in a way, you made my day. I see the ED talk here a lot, and sometime counter it (and often tick people off when I do), seldom see people understand what's wrong....and so to see you having the lightbulb go off in your mind--wow! It's just a great thing to see. This truly does mean you're half the way to getting better.

BTW, I do seem to have "Bad" carbs for myself--but they aren't morally bad! I think I'm actually slightly allergic to wheat, and know I am to chocolate. Oddly enough (lol--okay, not so oddly), these are the only two foods I'd ever binge on. Otherwise, I suspect I can eat all sort of carbs.

But otherwise, you're right. Bananas are not evil, peanut butter isn't, veggies certainly aren't!...and believe it or not, being a size 16 isn't the worst thing that can happen to a woman, either.

I hope you post about this in the college/teens forum too--indeed, many (though hardly all) of our members who show signs of twisted, ED-type thinking about food are in that age range. I can hardly blame them with the constant barage of brainwashing they suffer on the topic, but we all need to work towards sanity on this issue, counter the profiteers' messages about our bodies, and learn to love ourselves even when we're fat.

Thanks for your honesty. Please don't hesitate to find professional help for your situation--if that's too scary right now, go to your library and check out some books on the topic, okay? There's hope, truly.

Excellent point Sophie!

I am of the mindset that certain carbs are "evil" and certain carbs are "good," the evil ones being nutrient-free processed sugar foods, and the good ones being nutrient-rich vegetables, etc.

You are so lucky that you have the presence of mind to realize that you may have a problem and you are able to get it under control...as are the people here who realize that they may have a problem with addictions or overeating. Many people don't realize this until it is too late, and their health suffers.

I often read posts from people who are not educated on this WOE and believe that they are only able to eat meat, cheese and eggs, and this is where the bad publicity comes from...or their idea of this "diet" it comes from the bad publicity...vicious cycle. We all hear of famous people that have had great success with this WOE, but some people don't fully understand how and why this WOE works. I wouldn't play with explosives if I didn't know what I was doing, and for the same reason I wouldn't play with my health. The consequences can be too disastrous.

I hope you spread the word around the forum, especially to some of the newbies...many people arrive here in desperation to lose weight, but don't realize that proper information is essential to their health and to their success with this WOL.

There should probably be a "newbies thread" somewhere that outlines the "essentials" of each eating plan (is there one already?), why and how they work, that can be referred to in the cases where a new member is unarmed with the adequate and correct information. Reading the books is the first place anyone should start, but unfortunately that is not always the case.

I wish you the best of luck in maintaining and try to educate yourself as much as possible so that you don't fall back into the same trap.

All the best,
KC

Because someone else might recognize themselves and get help, please list what your typical diet used to be daily when you were "hiding your eating disorder behind LC".

I do eat carbs, but I save them all of them for dinner, then I ENJOY and I do not limit food as any kind of punishment...classic sign of an eating disorder.

Thanks. I hope you do list you eating behavior patterns/typical menu at that time...many people are looking in and some need help. One more thing...

If going NO carb won't help you lose faster, and some say you won't get thinner than is healthy for your body - did you just get that thin from basically not being hungry and or do you think it was from eating lots of foods, but no carbs? Maybe you will never know.

Thanks for being brave enough to admit to this. Many people are accused of eating disorders on these/other boards and they do have eating disorders, but have not DIED yet thanks to eating SOMETHING on a low carb diet (beats eating nothing)...but healthwise, your post could really save someone's life.

I've read that the new eating disorder will be low carbers who get to goal and can't stop! Everyone's thoughts on THIS are invited...

THERE SHOULD BE A SAFE THREAD - WHERE PEOPLE WITH EATING DISORDERS WHO ARE USING LOW CARBING TO SLOWLY GET BACK INTO EATING ANYTHING AT ALL ON A REGULAR BASIS CAN POST...or people who have a hard time knowing how thin is too thin on low carb. A place of no shaming or accusations.

Hi Sophie,

I am sorry about your misunderstandings of basic nutritional science because your subject is an incorrect statement.



There are NO dangers from eating a Low-Carb diet.

There are some 57 essential vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids, etc., required for health of a human. However, carbohydrates is NOT one of them. The daily requirement for carbohydrates is ZERO, ZIP, NONE. The nutritional labels on food in the USA shows a "DV - Daily Value" for carbohydrates, but this is another lie of the politically correct food police.

Health is improved as the level of carbohydrates in the diet the diet decreases. The low-carbohydrate diet prevents age-related degenerated diseases. Skinny people can also eat low-carb and gain weight. As an example:

A relative of mine developed irritable bowel disease (IBS) or Crohn's Disease from eating a high-carb diet combined with the deficiency of protein and fats from meat. Her low weight was 92 lb. She started the low-carb diet by eating lots of meat and fat, and her weight increased to 102 lb. in only 4 months and her disease is mostly cured.

You weight difficulty could be from the avoidance of fats, especailly saturated fats as found in butter, meat and cheese. An increase in calories could also be contributing to the low weight. Give it a try.

Check out my web page about beef:

Myths, Distortions and Lies About Beef.

Kent

kent, either you didn't read her post very carefully and just had a knee-jerk reaction to the title before you fired off your response, or you don't know much about eating disorders. Irrespective, what Sophie said is important and true.

LC CAN become another eating disorder for those people (mostly women) who are so predisposed--and it's darned hard not to be predisposed for women in this culture. Any "diet," followed fixatedly can become a neurotic orthodoxy--some interesting new writing is being done about that and the psychology of such rigidity.

nsmith--i think there's space for that sort of thread here, though most people with EDs would not know they had the problem, I suspect. I've never seen anyone "shamed" for talking about their EDs--I certainly talk about my ED past frankly and have never had anyone say an unkind word. If someone said that one of my posts sounded as if I were slipping back into an ED-type relationship to food or exercise, I wouldn't be resentful--I'd be thankful and seriously examine myself for those signs!
But no thread on a public board can be kept "safe," and therapy for any serious ED should probably be done with a professional. I'm certain there are ED boards out there, as well.

razzle, how can LC eating become a disorder if it produces AWESOME health and causes no known health disorders? LC cannot be classified as a eating disorder. This site is loaded with information on healthy zero carb dieting such as the "Meat Only Diet", Dr. Bernstein followers and others. This is a LC site with thousands of posts in support of the LC lifestyle.

I know a little about eating disorders. I was heavily into carbohydrates and personally know how they will give one a book full of diseases. The biggest eating disorders in today's society are the "fat phobia" and "red-meat phobia" that are epidemic. These are the eating disorders currently causing women sever health problems, but they cannot be classified a being "predisposed." Brainwashed is a more accurate term.

I become a little direct when people try to undercut the healthy LC WOE with "warnings" and personal experiences that violate hard science on the subject. This is not a "knee-jerk" reaction but a well thoughtout response to inaccurate statements.

I have to agree with Kent. Anorexia is one thing and Low-Carb is totally different. You may use LC in an anorexic way, just any other plan. Hence the "Warning, Please read" should be on Anorexia, not LC. I very much agree with the content of the warning, but the title does blame Low-Carbing, and is a false statement. It may very well draw attention to make you jump in and read/learn, but it's false nonetheless.

I would have wroded it differently, maybe "anorexic abuse of low-carbing" or something like that.

Wa'il

Over on the low-fat board, they're probably saying, "how can LF eating become a disorder if..." and over on the vegetarian board, "how can vegetarian eating become a disorder if..."

Any dietary theory (and LC, as much as I like it, is just theory) can be misapplied. Like my garden shovel is a great tool--but I could also murder my irritating neighbor with it and bury his body. Tools, in other words, even great ones, can be misused. LC can be misused and become an ED for those who would continue to lose on lower carbs and do so even after achieving a healthy weight. It can also be misused (and so often is) in the meat-fast, never-go-above-20 g-for- months sort of mania or vegetable-avoidance habits you see here.

Wa'il, the original post title may not be ideal--certain I came here initially expecting to post something like Kent did--but what we have is a member who is about 10 pounds away from hospitalization for a life-threatening disease that LC is (at best) not helping...and I thought it more important for me to support what she was saying (which I believe to be valid) than to just state the same thing I've re-stated several dozen times elsewhere--that the health risks associated with LC are rare--only preexisting kidney disease and that odd disorder that makes cholesterol levels rise in some people would result in severe health damage from LCing. (though it's possible there are more, rare conditions that we just haven't heard about yet). Since highest estimates say that 50% of N.A. women have eating disorders, and ED thinking is so common on the board, it seems an important issue to address--which is why I'm so direct in reminding new members who are in their healthy goal weight range that indeed that is where they are.

It's very hard when inside an ED to recognize it, and I think sophie's pretty special for doing so. I wasn't so strong...spent years passing out every time I stood up, hating my "fat" body in my size 5's, starving myself, obsessing on every gram, calorie, etc...and only after the weight regain was I able to get the help I needed. That she can see it now is really a marvelous thing...so I won't nit-pick her thread title.

Thankyou Sophie for sharing your story. I've moved this thread to our Addictions and Depression forum, and if you have a look around, you'll see other messages from members who've had similar or other experiences with anorexia. There is hope

Years ago, I became anorexic and afraid of food - any food .. while following a low calorie, low fat diet, deemed to be nutritious, and supervised by doctors and nurses. I required counselling to get past it, but I did and now body image is less of an issue (but not entirely gone) and my focus now is on health and vitality.

If you're having troubles still with fear of carbs and fear of eating, may I suggest you read Normal Eating from the Mirror-Mirror website, which is a personal site by a woman named Colleen, an ED survivor. That whole site is wonderful and gentle and you'll find a lot of hope there.

Good luck to you

Doreen

I think of EDs as not the content of food or lack thereof, but as a mental process, your 'control' of your world through what you put or don't put into your body. Therefore, I believe that you can be disordered through any type of eating plan that affects the health of your physical and mental capabilities. It is true there are many components to EDs, not just food issues, but I think that's where most manifest.

Sophie, thank you for sharing, it was very brave of you to post your warning and to bare your personal experience on this subject.

Razzle, I agree with everything you have said.

I think the misunderstanding here is that we have two different topics, one in the title, and one in the post. I agree with your insights regarding the post, since I'm totally ignorant about eating disorders. I never had to deal with them, and hence, I'm totally unqualified to address them, and I appreciate the presence of others here who do know about them.

Wa'il

Yes Sophie! You are very courageous for sharing your experience with us and thank God you discovered what you were doing before it was to late.

Karen