According to surveys among adolescents, more than 40% of girls aged 13-16 say they are overweight. More than 70% of girls 16 years old have already tried any kind of diet without consulting a specialist. Fashion today dictates the standard of beauty – a slender, tall woman. Teenage girls tend to look like models, ignoring both the individual characteristics of the figure and their height (a taller girl visually looks more slender).
In some cases, the desire for beauty turns into a disease – anorexia. But how to identify the signs of anorexia in adolescent and in adult women?
How anorexia begins
Anorexia develops over a long time, it appears imperceptibly neither for the sick person, nor for others. It usually starts with a healthy and intelligent desire to lose weight. There are periods of restriction of nutrition, passion for diets and physical exercises. The girl brings the figure back to normal, but continues to lose weight: thoughts of losing weight and the pleasure of a new figure are so exciting that anorexia patient can no longer stop .
Where is the line between the natural desire to be slim and the painful desire to lose weight – at any cost?
Symptoms of anorexia: changes in diet
At the onset of the disease, the patient reads a lot about proper nutrition and sports. Often, girls, especially in adolescence , are addicted to various diets, many of which are harmful to the body, but few are stopped by this. Initially, the patient refuses certain harmful products – cakes, sweets, pastries. Gradually, dietary restrictions are becoming more severe: the girl stops eating all sweets, then – foods high in fat: butter, hard cheese.
The list of “allowed” products is decreasing every month. As a result, the diet can be reduced to buckwheat and oatmeal, vegetables and water. At the same time, the amount of food consumed also decreases . Frequent and in limiting meal times: a popular advice “do not eat after six” women perceive is serious, and do not allow violations of the rules, even if you do not have time to dine before. In the most severe cases, girls with anorexia start fasting for several days.
It is important to note that all the symptoms of anorexia nervosa do not come on instantly, but stretch over time for months and years. Nutritional restrictions are steadily increasing, the girl does not allow herself any indulgence, even if the weight has returned to normal long ago .
Signs of anorexia: unhealthy sports and ” food cleansing “
Girls with anorexia are often fond of various sports, but sports for them is not a way to maintain health, but a method of losing weight. The attitude towards sports as a method of weight loss manifests itself in many situations. If a girl with anorexia is not feeling well, she will not miss a run – after all, this is necessary for losing weight. The choice of exercises and sports is also very specific: for fast weight loss – jogging, for “burning fat” in the waist – abdominal exercises . At the same time, other muscle groups, for example, the muscles of the arms, a girl suffering from anorexia, are of little interest.
Another popular weight loss option for anorexia is “cleansing food” by vomiting and taking laxatives. If, after a meal, especially sweet, the girl regularly rushes to the toilet, there is a high probability of causing vomiting. This is far from a harmless thing – due to gastric juice, the enamel of the teeth is destroyed, an inflammatory process develops in the throat.
Regular use of laxatives or diet pills is another common symptom of anorexia. The harm of prolonged use of pharmacological drugs without indications and without medical supervision is obvious.
With a weight starting anorexia?
Normal weight limits can be measured using the body mass index. Body mass index is calculated by the formula: I = m / h2, where: • m – weight in kilograms • h – height in meters For example, the weight of a girl = 50 kg, height = 170 cm. Accordingly, the body mass index in this case is: BMI = 50 : (1.70 × 1.70) = 17.3