800 calories isn’t dangerous? #edrec0very

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My name is Adam Wright and I'm on a mission to help you break free from the constraints of diet culture and find true freedom in your relationship with food and fitness.

Work With My Team & I:

[sarahn]

I had this specific ED. No one even knew I ate only 500-600 calories a day because I was heavier. It is indeed incredibly dangerous.

[AdventurousDana]

Kind of teared up hearing about this as someone who used to weigh 253 pounds, and was thrilled to lose 80 lbs due to gastric sleeve surgery but now have emotional issues with allowing myself to eat over 1000 cal., have horrible body dysmorphia and was recently diagnosed with severe anemia with malnutrition. I didn’t even realize all of this might be because of disordered eating until recently watching your videos. Just want to say thank you so much. I’m going to get help and try to be alot kinder to myself. ❤

[KitchenOnTheLeft]

When I was a teenager, I mistakenly believed that you had to burn off all the calories you ate in order to lose weight. I would work out for 90 minutes after I got home from school, and I would eat less than 1200 calories a day as someone who was 6’4 and ~250 lbs at the time. Part of this was unintentional, I didn’t understand how calories worked, and thought the less calories a meal had, the better. I didn’t realize that I was eating less than half the amount of calories I needed to for my height and weight, despite eating 3 meals a day. I didn’t realize how bad the problem was until I saw some photos of myself from that time recently, and I just looked like a normal teenager, albeit with a taller and broader build than most. I was convinced at the time that I was hideously obese, and couldn’t see what I really looked like no matter how often I looked in the mirror. I ended up gaining MORE weight from restrictive eating because of the constant binge/restrict cycles I would go through. I also developed arthritis in my knee at 18, which is severe enough 9 years later that I wear a knee brace at pretty much all times, and I often wonder if it’s linked to malnutrition from restrictive eating coupled with excessive exercise as a teen.

I really appreciate these videos, Adam. They serve as a daily reminder to not fall back into disordered eating habits as go through my current weight loss journey. I also appreciate your openness in previous videos about your own ED; too many people think EDs are a gendered issue and that men can’t have them, which is a harmful idea that leads male ED victims/survivors to not recognize their problem or not be taken seriously when they do.

[jyotithakuri]

Adam, your videos put words into all the emotions I could never figure out. A new video from you just feels like a warm hug from someone that loves me. Thank you Adam.

[jess_]

Thanks for talking about this, I have a cousin who is severely over (he is 18 and weighs 400 pounds) not a lot of people take things like this seriously so thanks for spreading awareness

(Btw here in five minutes 😆)

[YayaSweetie]

I have atypical anorexia, I got tired of lying when people asked me how I lost weight so I started telling the truth. Most people's response to me saying I ate between 200-600 calories was encouragement.
"Good for you!"
"Oh, that's okay, you have so much to lose."
"That's not too bad." Etc. Really fucked with my head. Like, as long as you don't look like you're on the verge of death you're good. 👍
I'm currently in a restriction phase and I really want to shut out what you're saying even though I know it's true. 😮‍💨
EDs suck.

[jessakent]

People who say that crap legit hate fat people. They don't care how sick a fat person gets on a weight loss journey because it's the fat person's fault so now they deserve to suffer, even end up hospitalized. That's ok, they'll say, the hospital will see that they're fat and unhealthy and need to lose more weight! They'll put 'em on 500 calories a day! Take that!

Why do people look so hard for some group to hate? Skin color, religion, what they wear, who they love, body shape and size... It seems like everyone's just gotta hate someone.

[oMTAo]

Its about the disordered eating, not about the body size.

[isabellamorris]

I am a serial crash dieter and even I know this logic is silly. Sure, 800 calories isn't "dangerous" immediately, but even I know you can lose weight eating more than 800 calories a day. Plus there's a limit on how fast a person can even lose weight physically, so why bother going that low if you can lose weight only marginally slower and still feel full?? Diminishing returns, people!

[amp]

the stereotype really needs to stop about anorexia indeed. So many (if not majority) of overweight people actually have an anorexic mind, they genuinely feel like they never deserve to eat. The hatred our society has for them is so, so much more harmful than the weight itself. Thank you so much for spreading awareness

[brittanylarson]

As someone who is overweight and recovering from bulimia…ED’s don’t discriminate. Also overweight people need MORE calories to lose weight.

[sanatsus]

when I was in middle and high school I used to struggle with an ED and had an awful relationship with food and my body, but I never looked as if that was the case. it was weird to open up about it, since I didn't "look" like it.
so, especially speaking for my younger self - thank you for this video. this is so important, because EDs are not restricted to a certain body type.

[yee]

Being fat isn't as dangerous as long term starvation but people want to see fat people suffering at risk to their own health.

[roxaslove]

THANK YOU FOR SPEAKING ABOUT THIS!!! I had a friend who was considered overweight and she had a terrible ED, but because of her body mass no one took her seriously when she was forcing herself to eat only 600 calories per day. She was absolutely starving herself and got very sick, but because her body wasn’t reflecting weight loss the way she wanted, she began skipping meals entirely and would only eat 800 calories for a whole week! Her mom finally intervened and got my friend into therapy before it got worse. Nowadays my friend is doing much better, she has about 2500 calories per day and she’s in such healthy shape!

[user-]

I have this ED. No one ever notices or cares. I’ve never been overweight, I just couldn’t loose weight no matter how much I exercised and starved.

[juliearangio]

When I suffered from anorexia, I was severely underweight. After I recovered from it, I went through a period of intense body dysmorphia and began to restrict again, but no one really cared because I didn't lose that much weight and wasn't technically underweight. This was so triggering, it made me feel like I needed to lose even more weight, like I wasn't doing enough. I was depressed while I was severely underweight, but my life felt like more of a nightmare when I wasn't underweight but still was in the anorexic mindset. We need to keep raising awareness on the topic

[emmaj]

i am not obese but i feel a very similar way, i was previously bulimic and slipped back into some of my ways at the start of this year. i’m now having to allow myself all foods but i don’t feel like i should as when i came from bulimia originally i knew i needed to gain weight, this time i’m a normal weight and don’t feel like i need to gain weight. eating disorders when you aren’t underweight are so difficult to handle.

[tigershenanigans]

Thank you 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 I was in prediabetic range and around 40 pounds overweight, nutricionist put me on such a strict diet that it was criminal 😔😔😔 I lost 30 pounds, and luckily working with therapist and thanks to my own inteligence I managed to avoid anorexia. This is great example how people with not that bad results and not that overweight can end up with much more serious problem. Yes diabetes will maybe kill me in 10 years, but restricting calories greatly would end my life in a few months 😔

[AnnabellaRedwood]

I have atypical anorexia. It's really hard as when you relapse you get congratulated on the weight loss, when really you are sick.

[kind]

During my teenager years (around 13), I started my first diet. I was around 163 pounds, slightly obese ( I was very small). I used to eat 600-800 kcal/ day and praise myself for this.

Right now I'm 191 pounds and weighted 216 pounds few months ago. I'm scared everyday to fall back into eating disorder. Bulimia, Binging, everything I have gone through before finding a middle ground and better relationship with food.


As adults, we need to learn more about food. We might develop ED at any point in our lives and we may ignore we have one.