There are some fucking idiots posting in this thread. If you are not involved in somehow in the study/treatment of eating disorders or have not had one, then you should probably refrain from commenting.
This is not an issue of training approach.
This is not an issue of dietary knowledge.
This is not an issue of lean bulk/vs whatever.
This has absolutely NOTHING to do with the normal practice of bodybuilding. This is a kid who is sick and dealing with emotional weaknesses.
This kid has anorexia. Anorexia is about CONTROL.
That kid hates some aspect of himself and uses his insane diet and exercise practices to retain some feeling of control over that.
For an anorexic “just eat more” is not an effective prescription. Forcing an anorexic to eat when they do not want to further entrenches their attempts to regain control by continuing to NOT EAT.
Trust me. Iv been there. Iv done that. You have that feeling of control and thats what makes you think you look better when youre behaving that way. I weighed 132 lbs and drank water when I felt hungry so that I could go longer without eating. I grew to love the empty feeling in my stomach. Not because it felt good, but because it meant that I was in control of myself. I had the mental power to deny myself one of the few things that all humans need, food.
Thats not misinformation, thats a kid feeling helpless and becoming addicted to the power he discovers. I doubt very many of you could even begin to understand this unless you, like me, have been there.
If this kid had read this website, he probably would know more than he does, but it wouldn’t make a difference. It has little at that point to do with what he looks like, the body he wants, or his goals, denying himself food gives him control.
Taking such pedestrian stances on what this kid’s problems are and how they should be corrected does nothing but further entrench the misunderstandings and misinformation about eating disorders that make recovery that much more difficult for those suffering from eating disorders.
You guys are fucking retarded and obviously don’t know what an eating disorder is.
It’s sad that so many on this site make claims of being knowledgeable about training and nutrition and yet, they are too stupid to understand that those two things are virtually useless for an individual with an eating disorder.
Explaining that he won’t ever look like (insert name of guy with super awesome physique here) because of his training will do nothing. Teaching the kid about carb cycling will do nothing. Eating disorders have little to do with knowledge, or lack thereof, and a lot to do with control.
Troll. 6/10 for making it onto TV though. Didn’t watch any of the others but if he mentions anything about wanting to look like brad pitt from fightclub he gets a 11/10
You have to ask yourself how much worse this kid’s misconceptions about training have made his condition. Sure, his anorexia is the result of something deeper, but if this kid had known more about proper nutrition at an earlier point, then maybe his obsession with food wouldn’t have developed to such a degree.
There is more at work here than the kid’s insecurities: I’m sure the media has had a huge influence on his perspective on training, and that has fed the psychological aspect of things. You can say that training and nutrition aren’t the answer, but if they are even partly responsible for the position he is in, then they are going to have to be addressed if the kid is going to make a full recovery.
And yes, I had an eating disorder as a teenager. It wasn’t as extreme as many cases, although I was way underweight for my height. In my case, the circumstances of my obsession ironically grew out of wanting to get ripped and muscular after watching the likes of Van Damme, etc. I knew a little about training, but no clue as to how to eat: All I knew was that protein built muscle, so I ate a random amount of protein per day and cut out everything else in order to ‘lose fat and gain muscle’ at the same time. Ridiculous? Definitely! But it is significant because people can and do think like this.
What would be a starvation diet to most people would be ‘bodybuilding’ to someone that thinks this way. The kid isn’t dominated by a ‘normal’ eating disorder, in the sense that he isn’t just trying to get as slim as possible - he is actively trying to build muscle and lose fat. Nor is he trying to ‘starve’ himself to the point of not eating: he obviously eats, but his eating habits are dictated by what he considers to be a ‘bodybuilding’ diet.
In his own mind, the kid probably thinks that he is building muscle as well as getting ripped. I’m talking from experience when I say that a lack of training and nutritional knowledge may very well have helped put the kid where he is.That’s not a misunderstanding of what an eating disorder is: it is acknowledging that in this kid’s case, training and nutrition are part of the cycle of control.
I also suffered from an eating disorder when I was younger. All kinds of things contributed to the problem: the compliments I was getting as I lost weight, the images of what I considered perfect (figure girls and bodybuilders) compared to what I saw in the mirror, the control, the power that I had to change myself, watching my size drop from a 4 to a 0 in some cases…
But it was my own little obsession and the knowledge that I did have about training and nutrition only made me more meticulous.
I knew that I needed a lot of protein. I knew that sugar/refined carbs/most fats were bad. I knew that I had to increase the weight I was lifting. I knew how to figure out how many calories I needed daily. In the end, that knowledge didn’t matter much because I wasn’t really trying to change my physique, I was trying to change myself.
People on the outside seem to think that an eating disorder is just a matter of getting someone to eat more. Or that they just need to learn the right way to be healthy. But the food itself if not really the problem. That’s just the way the problem manifests itself for all to see. Teaching someone with an eating disorder the right way to lose weight/gain muscle/whatever fails to address the root of the problem.