Anonymous wrote:I have struggled with mild anorexia/food restriction for my whole adult life.
Let me tell you -- we don't just deny ourselves permanently (we would die if we literally ate nothing). There's a wide variety of ways anorexics restrict food, but part of it is trying to delay eating for as long as possible.
I never eat breakfast. I weigh myself every day. If my weight comes out as something I consider unacceptable (like today I was 127.4 lbs, which I consider too much) I'll restrict my food. Today I will have a iced skinny latte (130 calories), a container of baby carrots, and a small container of leftover pasta. That's all I'll eat until dinner. Then for dinner I'll probably make a cream cheese and jelly sandwich. Right now I'm hungry but I won't eat because my weight is too high.
This is actually an improvement from when I was in college and would only eat cold cuts, vegetables, and fruit.
My point is just that I agree with OP. IF is what a lot of anorexics do.
I completely agree, although thankfully I only struggled with mild anorexia and food restriction for a few years in adolescence (body image was a longer battle).
The Venn diagram comment is spot on, although I would be there's a great deal of overlap with IF and anorexia (or least Eating Disorder NOS, if that's still a thing). It's telling that in so many of these recent threads on IF, the only choices presented appear to be control or completely out of control with respect to eating. Either you're IF or you're gorging yourself on junk food all day. For people with those control issues, the concept that someone can feel hungry, eat to satiety, and then move on with their day is almost unfathomable.