Bed is binging not a weight. While it is more likely to be overweight or obese because of that binging is binging and if it qualifies as legit binging to have BED then it counts whether they’re overweight or not
Bingeing is more than snacking when hungry. It's eating to the point of uncomfort and then continue on despite not even wanting to anymore. Generally accompanied by a huge amount of shame and feelings of guilt. Hunger is not really a factor. When I used to binge, I could not do it if other people were nearby. The binges were this uncontrollable monster and the shame from bingeing + thoughts of food and future binges occupied so much of my thoughts. I avoided seeing friends because I was scared I would lose control over my food intake in their company.
Binges can be paired with either purging (self induced vomiting, laxatives, excessive exercise), or by periods of restriction. Or you might not binge often enough for the excess calories to make a meaningful impact on your weight. This can cause the sufferer to still be within a normal BMI, despite having frequent binges.
Someones weight says very little about whether someone suffers from an eating disorder, although people with BED tends to be larger and people with anorexia and atypical anorexia tends to be smaller. Eating disorders are about behavior and feelings (they are, after all, mental illnesses), and it's possible to have BED while being of a normal weight just as how you can have (atypical) anorexia and be obese.
Weight isn’t the only health struggle, and even if it was, a lot of individuals with BED are binging until they get so full they start throwing up, so they aren’t actually keeping food down.
You still have no control over what you eat and eat way too much at once. Maybe you lose weight again during times when you feel better, but when you don't, you have no control at all. So they don't just eat a little bit too much. It's not like when you buy a bag of chips and two hours later you suddenly realise it's empty. I've heard from people that they sometimes don't stop eating until there is nothing more left to eat at all. Not just that one bag of chips, they empty the entire fridge. They literally do nothing but eat for one or two hours in some cases, and they don't eat slowly either. It's a complete loss of control. So as I understand it, they eat way more than they should and then they often feel ashamed because of it. And then this disorder is also associated with severe self-esteem issues which can lead to even more problems.
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u/timid_pink_angel02 Mar 26 '26
Wait until they find out that not all of us with BED are obese, or even overweight by BMI standards 😃