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anorexic-related stories

Overcoming Anorexia - A Firsthand Account

Diet & Weight Loss, Motivation

Lucy Howard-Taylor
Photo: Courtesy of New Harbinger Publications
When she was 18, Lucy Howard-Taylor knew she was letting anorexia eat away at her life, her body and her brain. Now, a year later, she's published a memoir ("Biting Anorexia") about living in the grips of an eating disorder -- and how she was able to set herself free. In an interview with a AOL Health, she discusses the competitive (and addictive) nature of posting on pro-ana forums, how she was able to recognize she had a problem and what treatment and healthy eating are like for her today. Read the full interview about anorexia recovery here.

Eating Disorders - Dad and Daughter on Opposite Sides

Nutrition & Supplements

apple and scaleLoving parents want the best for their children -- health, happiness, contentment and success. So this story of a family in the UK whose daughter is battling an eating disorder broke my heart. What makes the situation worse is that the teenager blames her problems on her father, who is obese.

So often, as parents, we worry about the external forces that influence our kids. From TV shows, to dolls, to ads in magazines ... everything is a potential force that can sway our kids away from the values we'd like them to have. But the influences within our homes are even stronger. The examples we set -- with our health, our actions, our morals -- are more powerful than any external source.

The dad whose daughter has an eating disorder and blames it on him was obviously heartbroken. He loves his daughter and he wants her healthy and well. I hope, while recognizing that his habits did influence her, he realizes that her eating disorder isn't his fault. I so respect the way he's handling it, though. As his daughter is receiving treatment for her eating disorder, he's also seeking help for his obesity. While they're on opposite sides of the issue, I wish them both the best of luck on resolving their issues with food and getting to a healthy weight.

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Candice Kicks Anorexia and Embraces Health

That's Fit Club, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness

thats fit club

That's Fit Club is our feature devoted to you, the reader! We have all learned so much on our paths to becoming more fit, and now it's time to learn from and inspire each other! That's Fit Club members are constantly working to better themselves. Some are perfect; some are not. But all have health on the mind. And to reward you for your efforts, Everlast and Everlast Woman have provided gorgeous T-shirts to bestow on our featured members.

candice miserName: Candice Miser

Age: 22

Occupation: Student/ PCA

How often do you exercise? Not enough!

What type of exercise do you do? Yoga and ab training.

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Rachel Zoe - The Star Stylist is Way Skinny

Diet & Weight Loss, Celebs & Entertainment

Rachel ZoeCelebrity stylist Rachel Zoe is skinny. Way skinny. Maybe even skinnier than actress Jennifer Connelly. Spotted at a recent fundraiser, the 37-year-old Zoe sported a protruding rib cage that rivals those bony elbows and knees Connelly showcased on Live with Regis and Kelly on Tuesday.

No stranger to skinny, the size-0 Zoe has long denied being anorexic. But she admits eating isn't a priority either -- sometimes she's so busy, a cup of coffee and a grapefruit are the only morsels that slip through her lips.

Zoe doesn't see herself as thin. What? Says the fashion girl: "Sometimes I'll look at photos and be like, 'Oh, that's not a good look.' But generally speaking, I'm not too thin." Whatever. Not even Nicole Richie believes that. The shrinking star herself fired Zoe back in 2006 because of the stylist's inability to promote a healthy body image.

Shocking Celebrity Slimdowns(click thumbnails to view gallery)

Perez Hilton - BeforePerez Hilton - AfterStar Jones - BeforeStar Jones - AfterKristen Johnston - Before

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Are the girls of 90210 too thin for TV?

Celebs & Entertainment

90210, the iconic TV series from the 90s, is back, albeit with one notable difference: The size of its leading ladies. Shenae Grimes and Jessica Stroup grace the cover of this week's US Magazine but for all the wrong reasons -- Too Thing For TV? asks the bold lettering. It's estimated that Grimes (5'3) weighs a mere 90 lbs while Stroup (5'8) is thought to weight between 100 and 105 lbs.

According to the magazine
, one insider on the set reveals, "I've never seen Jessica or Shenae eat." Yet another source hints at a sort of intervention, claiming, "I heard some of the boys on the show are going to sit down with the girls and talk to them ... The girls were all skinny when they started, but they're definitely thinner now."

What do you think? Are these girls healthy role models?

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Thinspiration a dangerous pursuit

Womens Health, Diet & Weight Loss

Staying healthy makes me inspired. Does staying thin, then, make me thinspired? To some degree, I guess it does. I eat right, exercise right, minimize stress, sleep enough, and do all I can to stay healthy, which also happens to help me stay thin. Not skinny. Not bony. Not skeletal. Just more thin than thick, more fit than fat.

Thinspiration is a buzz word used by youngish girls who strive to be skinny, anorexic even. It's a topic Blair at Gettysburg College addresses over at College Candy and what she finds is really quite disturbing. Scour the internet, she says, and you're bound to land at all sorts of anorexia blogs, pro-anorexia websites, and YouTube videos chalk full of crazy dieting tactics and images of girls whose bodies are wasting away. One 24-year-old even features on her website a thinspiration page, wallpapered with skinny-girl photos that mostly give me a sick feeling in my gut and make me realize I'm not all that thinspired after all. Nope. Inspired is what I am -- inspired to be healthy and happy in all of my 135-pound glory.

And you? Are you inspired -- or thinspired?

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John Mayer's ex loves her curves

Diet & Weight Loss, Celebs & Entertainment

Actress Minka Kelly may have said goodbye to once-boyfriend John Mayer but she won't say farewell to her curves, says the 28-year-old Friday Night Lights star.

"I've heard it all -- 'Lose weight, lose the booty.' It's not going anywhere though!" she says. Nope, there are no diets on the horizon for this beauty, who reports that she's a healthy girl who likes to eat.

Kelly wishes all women would love their bodies. "It's good for them to know that you don't have to be anorexic."

What about you -- do you love your curves?

Minka loves her curves(click thumbnails to view gallery)

Minka KellyMinka KellyMinka KellyMinka KellyMinka Kelly

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Actress Kristen Johnston drops 60 pounds

Diet & Weight Loss, Celebs & Entertainment, Nutrition & Supplements

I last saw actress Kristen Johnston on ER -- she played the tough nurse manager Eve Peyton for a few episodes -- and I remember realizing what a large woman she is. She's six feet tall, after all. That's just plain big. But she looked a bit overweight too. Apparently, she was.

Johnston has reportedly shed 60 pounds in the past year and a half. You may say the 40-year-old Johnston looks a bit too skinny -- check out this photo and see what you think -- but here's what she has to say about it: "When actresses lose weight, people think they are anorexic. It is important to me to say that this is not the case here."

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Tara Reid: Too thin, motel to blame

Celebs & Entertainment

Before Britney went off the deep end and Lindsay made rehab popular, Tara Reid was raising eyebrows as one of Hollywood's biggest party animals. And she's still at it, particularly with the publication of these photos of her looking frighteningly thin and disproportioned in a bikini.

She's recently been speaking out about the controversy surrounding her figure -- not only is she a victim of botched plastic surgery, but her waifish appearance was caused by her recent stay in a hotel. Apparently, they didn't offer room service. So? She just. didn't. eat.

Um, yeah ... No comment.

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Keira Knightley doesn't eat junk food

Diet & Weight Loss, Celebs & Entertainment, Nutrition & Supplements

Keira Knightley doesn't eat junk food. Maybe that's why she's so slim and trim. Maybe it isn't that she's anorexic at all, as media rumors might suggest.

"I don't eat junk," says the 22-year-old actress. "I cook. I go to farmers markets in London and cook really good sort of organic foods."

Knightley credits her figure to good genes and a good healthy diet. She's no gym rat, though. The roles she plays in period pieces like Pirates of the Caribbean and Pride & Prejudice tend to keep her in shape.

"The corsets are a workout. Heavy dresses and all that," she says.

Do you buy Knightley's explanation for her weight? I tend to trust what she says, but only because I recently stopped eating junk food and sweets and witnessed 15 pounds melt right off my body. Thinness isn't always caused by an eating disorder. Sometimes it's caused by ditching the junk.

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Counting higher calories if you're a recovering anorexic

Nutrition & Supplements

Ever needed to count calories so that you can eat more, not less? That is the case with anorexics who are wanting to recover and maintain a normal weight for hopefully a lifetime.

Recovering anorexics sometimes develop a faster-than-normal metabolism that somehow burns more calories than normal -- meaning it takes a vigilant effort to maintain a normal weight by consuming above-average calories.

But what kind of calories are the best to eat? As many of us know, not all calories are created equal. Plenty of fruits and vegetables, chicken and fish and eggs, breads and pasta. In this case, even eating ice cream, potato chips, bagels, cream cheese and other calorie-dense foods are a staple. I'm not sure those are the best kind of calories to eat, but for recovering anorexics, any calories is a good calorie.

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Anorexics have markedly different brain activity levels

Motivation

A new study released this week found that those suffering (or who have suffered) from anorexia nervosa have quite a difference in their brain patterns compared to those that have never developed the disorder.

Is a difference in the brain the cause of the eating disorder which can pale down someone to flesh and bones? That's hard to say. Using unique brain-scanning and reward-penalty research, the study concluded that the brains of young women who had anorexia nervosa were indeed not making a distinction insofar as making a large difference between winning and losing.

Lead researcher from the research team out of Pittsburgh said that "for anorexics, then, perhaps it is difficult to appreciate immediate pleasure if it does not feel much different from a negative experience."

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Strive for lean -- your body will thank you

Diet & Weight Loss, Celebs & Entertainment

There's been a lot of weighty discussion about my recent Catherine Zeta-Jones post. More than 130 comments have been left, all of them passionately spelling out thoughts and opinions about celebrities and weight loss. You see, the actress has recently trimmed down her already-svelte figure, and people are noticing. Some media folk say she's anorexic; some say "leave the poor girl alone." Your comments echo these sentiments.

Now that I've poured through each and every comment on the topic of Ms. Zeta-Jones, I want you to know how I feel about thinness.

I think thin is OK. In fact, I tend to think the whole "too skinny" problem is not as bad as the obesity problem facing our nation. Now I don't by any means promote skeletal pursuits, and it worries me to no end when girls and boys alike are swallowed up by eating disorders. But right now, at this very moment, I truly believe the fat we carry on our bodies is so much more dangerous than our lack of it. There are countless posts right here on this blog that warn of obesity and its inherent dangers. Other posts reflect on the value of eating a calorie-restricted diet. Those who eat less live longer, say the experts. And now, we learn from a new landmark study that excess fat is linked to six different cancers. I feel even more secure in my position now.

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Catherine Zeta-Jones says: "I'm not anorexic"

Diet & Weight Loss, Celebs & Entertainment

Martha told us just recently in her post Stay-slim secrets of Catherine Zeta-Jones that the beautifully slender actress is no friend of the diet craze and keeps her figure in tip-top shape with a healthy lifestyle that includes gym workouts, dancing, aerobics -- and sometimes even a little pasta.

Fast forward one week, and Zeta-Jones is now responding to questions about a recent weight loss that some say is linked to an eating disorder.

Do I look anorexic?" Zeta-Jones told PEOPLE on Saturday at the Savannah Film Festival. "How could I ever, ever be anorexic?"

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Italy bans controversial anorexic ads

Celebs & Entertainment

Back in September That's Fit first mentioned the controversial Italian advertising campaign featuring a 68 pound anorexic model, and now it's making headlines again: almost all (there's only 1 left in Rome) of the images have been pulled due to claims that they don't follow Italian advertising code of conduct standards. The photographer, Oliviero Toscani, is calling the move "censorship" and says he's considering legal action for moral and economic damages.

I personally don't think the ads should have been pulled, but regardless they've already made an enormous impact.

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