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[loveandbees]

I am a lazy purger. When I was younger and thinner I would throw up everything I ate without fail, and as soon as I had eaten it. I do it now when I feel full or unhappy with myself, so it is often acidic and unpleasant coming up, and I have been wondering recently just how effective vomiting is, in regards to weight loss. Clearly it is not

Comments

[shinygobonkers]

look in the memories. someone once tore that 'purging is not effective' study to shreds

it really, really depends on HOW a person does it. I can be VERY effective. It can be VERY ineffective. There is no one % of effectiveness that is applicable to everyone, or even to one person at different points in time. I dont want to be more specific and possibly get into 'tips' territory, but yeah.

[frailing]

Agreed. And yes, this question has been asked a ton of times -- plenty of instances are archived in memories.

I do think there's a physiological component that influences how much one is able to purge. In other words, I don't think technique completely controls. Bodies digest food differently, at different rates and so on, hence the absorption rate (i.e., food moving from the stomach to the intestines or through the lining of the stomach) will vary. For this reason, any person's evacuation of food through any given method of vomiting will produce varying degrees of "success."

[spyral_path]

Foods don't move through the lining of the stomach. They have to be fully digested and then enter your blood stream through the small intestine.Alcohol can pass through your stomach lining, but that's not exactly a food. It's more like a neurotoxin.

[frailing]

Yeah, I suspected I'd get called out for that. :P I was fairly certain I was incorrect about the stomach lining. Water does pass through it, though -- that's what I always worry about when purging if I wait too long.

Thanks for the correction. I hate to communicate misinformation.

[shinygobonkers]

not necessarily, though true in some cases no doubt. really the ONLY distinction between those diagnosis wise is weight. If someone has massive binges, but purges efficiently and manages to get down, in that fashion, to a below anorexia cutoff BMI, they will be diagnosed as purge type anorexic. its really not that unheard of/people on communities here have been in just that scenario.

[laja_89]

I think they are the same. I was considered a purging bulimic until my weight got very low and my diagnosis changed to b/p subtype anorexic. I was b/ping constantly.

[yasdnil723]

In academic lectures I’ve heard on eating disorders in psych classes (about 3 have covered it now) professors will acknowledge the b/p anorexic subtype but hedge it very much by saying like “but to an anorexic, a normal meal might be considered a binge or they might just eat little bits of food and purge that.” It’s like they have this idea that anorexics can’t really binge like the normal/overweight bulimics when clearly that is not the case…

[luinecu]

"I do wish to lose weight, but I certainly do not wish to do so via throwing up, so please note that this post is for education purposes, and not for aiding with my eating disorder."

Please, be careful :( We often try to rationalise these things.

All the best, x

[loveandbees]

Thanks. As I said earlier, I am overweight so I think it is acceptable to want to lose some. I tend to purge so I don't feel full, or because I feel ugly and it somehow makes things better; when I do lose weight I genuinely want it to be through healthy eating :)

[laja_89]

At my lowest weight I was binging on over 20,000 calories a day.

I don't think there is an answer for how effective it is. Purgers come in all sizes.

[spyral_path]

I think purging is just like any other method people use for weightlosss. It works for some people and doesn't work for others. I am curious as to why you are asking his question when your own experience has already given you the answer. The first time I saw people tossing around the idea that we only vomit half of what we eat on internet forums I knew right away that it couldn't possibly be true from my own experience. Since then it's been like a fish story. It's gone from half to a third to not effective at all

[loveandbees]

I probably didn't word the question very well; I can see that it is not effective for me, but I am interested to know the biology behind it.
I agree that therapists probably are either just misinformed or attempting to stop us from engaging in the habit. They of all people should know that it doesn't really make a difference...