"Body Mass Index" - measure of Body Fat based on height and weight, categorized as underweight, healthy weight, overweight, obese.

units of energy from food and drinks.

Pull of gravity on an object's mass. Body Weight is influenced by activity, diet, genetics, and age.

Types of motivation mostly seen online to motivate, in the topic of EDs, weight loss. Toxic Motivation utilizes guilt, fear, shame, and harsh self-criticism to create unrealistic demands to attain goals. Examples being posts calling the viewer disgusting for even thinking about eating or creating the fear that their current weight is someone's fear weight. Soft Motivation usually has the same goal in mind as Toxic Motivation, but hides it under the mask of "kinder words". An example of this is how the viewer may be called an angel, but is just too heavy to fly.

Photographic content of people with, usually extreme, thin body types. Used as inspiration to motivate weight loss and promotes unhealthy eating habits.

Behavior that expells food intake in attempt to prevent weight gain.

- WIEIAD/WIAT: "What I Eat in a Day", "What I Ate Today",
- OMAD: "One Meal a Day"
- ED: Eating Disorder

Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder driven by an intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat. This leaves the person with a distorted body image and a terribly unhealthy relationship with food. Individuals who suffer with anorexia may restrict their food intake via destructive calorie counting and severe restrictions through dieting, fasting, and excessive exercising. This could result in low weight for height and age, but it’s important to note that not everyone who suffers with anorexia will look skinny due to personal weight history and body composition. Through constant starving, the body may go through severe changes in order to survive little fulfillment, such as the ceasing of menstrual periods, dizziness or fainting, cold intolerance, poor moods and concentration, and brittle hair + nails.

Bulimia Nervosa is an eating disorder that causes individuals to consume large amounts of food in a short period of time and immediately purge to compensate and prevent weight gain through methods such as self-induced vomiting, fasting, or excessively exercising. Someone who suffers from Bulimia may usually eat safe foods that are low in calories and binge on higher calorie foods- they may also only binge on food they find easier to purge. Individuals who suffer with this can be underweight, slightly underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese, so it is crucial to not base someone’s struggles off of stereotypes. Bulimia creates unhealthy relationships with food and body image.

Binge Eating Disorder is an eating disorder where an individual may suffer from frequent episodes of consuming large quantities of food. It is different from Bulimia as people who suffer with BED do not usually tend to purge the food they eat. However, it doesn’t mean they don’t feel any sort of way about their behavior; in fact, people who deal with BED can feel distressed with the lack of control on their part during binging episodes and shame for how much they eat in a sitting. BED can lead to other complications like obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.

Also known as ARFID, this is an eating disorder where the person severely limits their variety of foods consumed. It’s not just general pickiness, nor is it driven by concerns of body weight or shape, but rather a condition that is a result of aversions to specific tastes, textures, smells, or appearance. It can also be aversions of specific foods due to traumatic experiences or general lack of interest in food. Symptoms of ARFID can be significant weight loss, nutritional deficiencies, and a limited range of safe foods. Again it is important to note that this is not pickiness and people with this condition should not be forced to eat the foods they don’t like as this can cause them significant stress and can potentially worsen this disorder.

A category to apply to people who did not quite meet strict criteria for eating disorders but displayed symptoms of having issues with significant weight gain+loss, engaging in extreme weight control behaviors, and body image.

A condition with symptoms similar to Anorexia Nervosa, but the individual stays within normal or higher weight afetr extreme weight loss.

A category to apply to individuals who display serious signs of distress with eating behaviors but, again, do not fit into the strict criteria for any other eating disorder, and whose information is not sufficient enough to properly diagnose a specific eating disorder often under emergency situations.

…Or Rumination Syndrome, is a condition where the individual experiences auto-regurgitation of food just after swallowing, the food being undigested and retaining its original taste. Rechewed, swallowed, or spat out, but not by vomiting/reflux. This can affect a person’s quality of life as it can cause malnutrition, unintentional weight loss, and social isolation for shame of their condition. It must occur constantly throughout a one-month period to classify as Rumination Disorder.

Eating disorder where the person compulsively eats non-food items that contain no nutritional value or purpose. It is common within young children, pregnant women, and people with other mental health conditions (such as Autism Spectrum Disorder or Schizophrenia). Pica makes it difficult for people to resist urges to eat nonfood items, and this can lead to harming the body. It entirely depends on the person’s cravings; for example, someone could eat ice, and this is relatively harmless despite the harm it does on the teeth. However, someone who craves soil could be more at risk as soil can contain parasites that can severely endanger their wellbeing. Effects of Pica can be anemia, infections, obstructions in the small intestine or large intestine, and electrolyte imbalances. Some people who suffer with Pica could feel embarrassed to speak up about their condition to their healthcare providers or people they trust. It is always important to point out that they should never be shamed for a condition they have little control over and that everyone should be open-minded to the range that eating disorders cover. Help is always available for people who suffer with Pica, whether it be through mild aversive therapy, behavioral therapy, or differential reinforcement.

Orthorexia is an eating disorder where an individual experiences unhealthy obsessions with eating healthy. They may constantly check nutritional labels and ingredient lists, cut out a huge number of food groups, feel distress when “healthy” foods are not available, can have body image issues, and have an obsession with eating only foods that are deemed healthy or pure. It is when genuine concern for healthy eating becomes a worrying obsession with “healthy eating” that involves heavy restriction. It may not be formally recognized as an eating disorder, but it is prevalent and should be a condition that everyone should be made aware about.

Diagnosis defined by an individual experiencing serious, long-lasting eating disorders after unsuccessful treatment attempts. Its definition varies.