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Am I the only one who LOST weight with bulimia?

503K views 444 replies 301 participants last post by  winttercals  
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I always loose weight by purging when I binge/ eat ect. Iv read for years that bulimia can make you gain weight and some people on here said they gained because of bulimia. Can someone explain how they gain weight? Iv ALWAYS lost.
Thankfully I am trying to quit but the loosing weight part of it makes it addicting for me.
 
#2 · (Edited by Moderator)
Omg me too!

I don't understand why it makes some people gain.

I usually fast all day, eat dinner at night, purge, and lose like a pound a day. if you do like i do then you probably have the purging type of anorexia

its simple,

Fast all day = 0 cals

binge= 1000.

purge= -900. Meaning you've only had 100 cals, which is deemed fasting.

That's just an estimate. But... Yea I've lost.20 pounds doing this.

and most of my hair and friends and teeth enamel.
 
#3 ·
I did, my weight dropped quicker than just not eating when i was into that. I stopped purging 3 months ago, i will NEVER go back. It was horrible. I was admitted and my heart and digestive system are still fucked up now.

Dont ever try it if you've not done it before, or have failed, YOU ARE DEEMED TO DIE. IT IS A DEATHWISH. Only a discusting, smelly one which makes you look like a freak.

In school im still known as the puking corpse...
 
#5 ·
I was doing this after a binge followed by a 60 minute all-out guilt-ridden elliptical session and it was all liquid which pissed me off. I don't want to do it inside where my sister will hear it, so I did it outside on my patio. I figured I might as well do all the purging I can outside my apartment while I'm here since it's "normal" to puke at my apartment complex since it's full of drunk 18 year old idiots having their first beer away from mommy.

Members around here, and bulimics/bulimia "experts" in general, always seem to rationalize the weight gain or lack of a weight loss by bingeing and purging by saying "your body already takes in the calories so it doesn't matter what you puke up". This is 100% false. I hate reading it but I also don't want to individually call anyone out in a thread. Calories are in your food, yes. Your body digests food, yes. By digesting the food, your body is taking in the calories the food is made up of, yes. However, it's not like you eat food, the calories are magically sucked into your body, and empty "food leftovers" are left in your stomach that can be purged. Calories are digested in the body as the food is digested in the body. For example, let's say you eat a cheeseburger. That cheeseburger moves to your stomach for digestion. It doesn't sit in your stomach FOREVER. It's eventually digested and cleared completely. As your body is "clearing" this cheeseburger, THAT is when it is separating the different macronutrients and calories and transporting them to other parts of the body for functioning, fuel, storage, etc.

HERE IS THE BOTTOM LINE WHEN IT COMES TO BINGEING AND PURGING -- AND WHETHER OR NOT IT AFFECTS YOUR WEIGHT:

If you eat more than you puke out, you're in a positive caloric intake. Obviously, example, you eat 1000 calories but only puke out 500 calories -- you're still at +500 calories. Let's say you binge on 1000 calories and you puke 1000 calories -- brings you up and back down to 0 calories in the end. Some bulimics, such as the couple I see in this thread, lose weight because they are throwing up enough of their food to leave them with a favorable overall intake for the day. The bulimics who gain weight or stay at the same weight simply don't have a favorable ratio of food-in and food-out. The bulimics gaining weight are probably having a HUGE binge followed by a purge that doesn't remove anywhere near as many calories.
 
#8 ·
Omg me too! I don't understand why it makes some people gain. I usually fast all day, binge at night, purge, and lose like a pound a day! if you do as I do, then thu probably have purdgeing anorexia its real-believe me!! Fast all day = 0 cals binge= 1000.purge= -900. Meaning you've only had 100 cals, which is deemed fasting. That's just an estimate. But... Yea Lol I've lost.20 pounds doing this
That's literally like EXACTLY what I do when I'm not just straight up restricting or fasting. And I, too always lose like crazy using this method. I've never gained weight with bulimia. I'm always losing with it.
 
#9 ·
Well, the problem is that it's kind of hard not to binge (even several times a day) whilst knowing that you're just going to purge it the second you finish your meal. Eating huge amounts of food also streches out your stomach so you'll need more food to feel full... And I find that there is no real satisfaction in eating for me anymore. I can binge and purge several times a day. I don't even know why I eat. I no longer have any idea what a normal portion looks like. It's nothing or everything. When I'm alone I rarely eat, but when there are other people around I cook and eat like a crazed pig and I just can't seem to stop.

Mia sucks. Seriously.

I lose weight, then gain back some. The problem with that: a part of what I lose is muscle, what I gain back is fat. So I weigh a lot less than I used to but I could swear I look just as fat and definitely more flabby.

Now, I can only blame that on my lack of self-discipline but Mia helps a lot. She just loves to watch me eat and keeps telling me that if I eat everything I want now I can just purge, leave it all behind and go back to Ana, satisfied and still losing weight.
 
#10 ·
OK BIG RANT .. not for the faint hearted. oh thank God u guys give me hope! I started just restricting, then switched over to full-time binge/purging... lol. I know it's all water weight, so means relatively little... but to those of us who weigh multiple times a day looking for a little hope.... it means a lot to lose even water weight... real or perceived. When I'm into a hardcore purge 'session' I can start the day after my first pee, without food or anything - aka - accurate weight... and finish after a purge having lost a kg. Virtually impossible... but there's an indication that if u get rid of enough... i don't understand how u can gain. Also some people say there are things u can't purge, and that's a crap excuse. If u want to enough, u can bring anything back up. And there's no half-hour time limit. I can bring up food half-turned to liquid from an hour or 2 ago. And as long as it can still come back up in a recognizable form... u probably won't have gained weight, because obviously it hasn't been digested yet. The one drawback with this... is that once you've started... it takes SO much willpower to stop... it's extremely addictive. And I HATE it when people say mia is less serious, easier to fix... whatever. That's crap too. I don't know anyone who would enjoy standing in a shower with puke all over ur toes, or spending ridiculous amounts of money on food ur gonna bring back up, standing up and seeing spots, feeling ur heart flip out, pinching food from people.... it's not EASIER. And it can kill u from the first go. I hate it when people look at it like it's a weaker version for people that can't hold off from food... neither are easy. Both are addictive. And if ur anything like me... u enjoy getting it back up, like it's all ur living for :)
 
#11 ·
Bulimia has always worked for me. like Ian said, you have to purge all of or at least most of what you binged on. I don't see the point in even trying to purge if you aren't gonna go all out on it. I'm not saying Bulimia is the best choice ( I actually am trying to quit because I want to sing) but it works. you just have to do it right.
 
#13 ·
OK BIG RANT .. not for the faint hearted. oh thank God u guys give me hope! I started just restricting, then switched over to full-time binge/purging... lol. I know it's all water weight, so means relatively little... but to those of us who weigh multiple times a day looking for a little hope.... it means a lot to lose even water weight... real or perceived. When I'm into a hardcore purge 'session' I can start the day after my first pee, without food or anything - aka - accurate weight... and finish after a purge having lost a kg. Virtually impossible... but there's an indication that if u get rid of enough... i don't understand how u can gain. Also some people say there are things u can't purge, and that's a crap excuse. If u want to enough, u can bring anything back up. And there's no half-hour time limit. I can bring up food half-turned to liquid from an hour or 2 ago. And as long as it can still come back up in a recognizable form... u probably won't have gained weight, because obviously it hasn't been digested yet. The one drawback with this... is that once you've started... it takes SO much willpower to stop... it's extremely addictive. And I HATE it when people say mia is less serious, easier to fix... whatever. That's crap too. I don't know anyone who would enjoy standing in a shower with puke all over ur toes, or spending ridiculous amounts of money on food ur gonna bring back up, standing up and seeing spots, feeling ur heart flip out, pinching food from people.... it's not EASIER. And it can kill u from the first go. I hate it when people look at it like it's a weaker version for people that can't hold off from food... neither are easy. Both are addictive. And if ur anything like me... u enjoy getting it back up, like it's all ur living for :)
When my sister and I were at Walmart yesterday, we were looking at different cheesecakes that looked fucking awesome. I told her I was gonna get this expensive one that sounded amazing and she could have a little (yeah right) and she says "why would you spend $7 on a cheesecake you're just going to throw up right after you eat it?" lol I didn't buy it.
 
#14 ·
I always lost weight when I purged. It worked so well, which was part of why it was so addictive for me. I finally broke the cycle and am restricting again. Honestly, I find just restricting way easier, since I already restrict part of the time anyway when I'm in a bulimia stage. I never want to go back to purging, it's the devil.
 
#15 ·
Yes. I'd binge up to 5,000 cals sometimes and still managed to lose 15 pounds in three months. I b/ped before that too, but that's when it got bigger and more frequent.

That's probably the only good thing. To list just some of the bad parts... got 9 cavities, threw up blood several times, and even b/ped in public places.
 
G
#17 ·
I usually lose after a binge/purge day because I fast all day besides the binge, which I obviously purge. The I quite often still feel really guilty the next day and eat less than normally then as well and lose more :) The only time I really gain from b/p'ing is when I lose control and do it 4-5+ times in a day cause then it is impossible not to leave a substantial amount of food inside which makes me gain.

I usually try to restrict myself to maybe one or 2 days a week where I binge and purge, but on those days I sometimes end up doing it 2 or 3 times though. :unsure:
 
#18 ·
I've gone through a year or so binging and purging almost daily, it's harder to actually lose though because most people can't purge everything in their stomach because at some point your stomach kind of closes off and you REALLY have to work for it, it hurts and makes your stomach sore.

That's why when some people purge they finish and they already want to eat again, it's because they've left a lot of food in their stomachs because they think they've emptied but it's really just being protected almost?

If you're forcing yourself to throw up, your stomach isn't trying to get rid of the food like it'd do when you're sick.

It's just harder to get rid of because you have to go until it hurts, really. But people don't usually do that. I don't blame them. I was always in pain.

So like, if you take in 3000 calories on a binge, sometimes you only get out 1000? Depends how long you wait. But that also doesn't count what you've already eaten that day.

Plus it makes you bloat a lot, so weight loss isn't really noticeable.
 
#19 ·
I always lose weight from purging, and I've lost over 30 lbs in 3 months. I put this down to 5 things.
1. I only eat once a day, and I purge it.
2. I am extreme about making sure I got rid of it ALL. To me theres no point in a half assed purge.
3. When I eat/binge, I try to keep it under 300cals. But sometimes I have up to 3000 cals but still lose because I get rid of it all.
4. If I can't purge straight away for whatever reason I will purge up to 3 hrs later and it's all still in my stomach, probably because long term EDs lead to delayed gastric emptying.
5. I stay away from sweet things or foodscontaining simple sugar. This is because sugar hardly needs to be broken down before it's absorbed, so you absorb the calories quickly. If you eat complex carbs, proteins or even fats they take a while to digest so you are much more likely to get rid of it before you take on the calories.
 
#20 ·
I do all of the above, restricting, binge/purge, and laxatives. I'm of "normal bmi" but thats not where i want to be. I'm a fan the bones. So i will continue till my ribs show. I'm a mother of 5, 15-23. The girls (21, 17, 16) think they know, but i keep denying it.
 
#24 ·
People could be referring to how bulimia will place your body into starvation mode. If you don't keep it up or have lapses of attempted self recovery, etc, often times you fluctuate more often. Bulimia and yo-yoing do go hand in hand. I got to my lowest weight from restricting and purging. But it depends on the person, there are people who can continuously maintain their weight. And as previously mentioned if they aren't purging enough out, there will be repercussions, and weight will be gained. But I think it's often associated more with the overall progression. Lose a ton of weight, climb back up, lose it all again, maintain, etc.