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Eating disorders and type 1 diabetes

hollyslot

Well-Known Member
Messages
167
Location
London, United Kingdom
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
In my teenage years from the age of 11-17, I had anorexia. Now that I am 19, I still weigh out my food to know the carbs in it, but also the calories. I still worry a lot about my weight too. But I am able to eat out and eat what other people cook for me if they do (obviously just guessing the carbs).
I'm worried that I will never feel comfortable not weighing out my food, due to my diabetes and worries about my weight. I made a post ages ago asking people if they weigh out their food, and most people said they do to know the carbs, but I feel like it's really difficult to weigh out your food to know the carbs without worrying about the calories, especially if you have had an eating disorder.
I guess I'm not sure how much better I can get in terms of my eating disorder. I am a healthy weight and eat enough, I just weigh myself and my food, and I was wondering if others do the same?
I think it's quite difficult not to develop a somehow disordered relationship with food when you have diabetes, which requires so much focus on what you eat.
Anyway sorry for this rambly post! I feel like I've posted too much recently!
I wondered how others feel around food, and if you weigh yourself and food too? And if anyone else has had type 1 diabetes and an eating disorder, and how you are doing now?
 
I agree that diabetes can make it hard because food always has to be in your mind. How I deal with it is to think of food as fuel for my body, and then focus on the carbs along with healthy elements of the meal eg I always make sure to have plenty of veg.

I don't have those 'diet scales' which let you know calories too. I use accurate, digital scales that simply tell me the weight. I then use my memory or a carb guide to find out the carbs. I rarely think of the calories in food now, although I used to a lot in my teens. I focus on carbs and keeping my blood sugars as much in control as I can. That's more important to me now - trying to be as healthy as possible.

So yes, I do think about food a lot, but in a general health way rather than solely a weight way
 
I was a bit obsessive about my weight as a teenager, though never anorexic. I was diabetic already, like you. I got over the weight thing by focusing on fitness. I feel that when I do sports, I like my body for what it can do for me, rather than focusing on what it looks like to others. So I get more confident about my body and myself and I eat for health and energy then. In a sense it makes me experience my body from the inside, rather than measuring it against some random social ideal, which changes every few years anyway. Of course, it doesn't do any harm that keeping up a reasonable level of fitness (not obsessive) also does keep you in shape. And also boosts mood.

And since you are obviously youngish, may I say that all the evidence is that selfies and social media are the plague if you have any tendency to eating disorders. Try to avoid them. Everyone photoshops everything anyway.
 
Hi , yes i do weight myself and food as well , i am eating balanced food grain complete bread plus vegetables boiled or fresh and chiken boiled as well, some cheese and very few brazilian nuts 1time a week,I do also drink lots of coffee with a drop of non fat milk( might be not healthy but at least that )My menu might be a bit meager but i do worry about my weight, i do sport , lots of sport but not loosing any kg.
 
Me too, I think I think about it a lot more in terms of my diabetes than the calories, but I still worry! And same I have digital scales (which only tell you the weight of the food).
 
@hollyslot When I was younger what helped me was reading an interview with a very famous model. To me, she had the perfect face and the perfect figure - yet in that interview she revealed how she woke up worrying that she was fat/ugly/old and then spent most of the day trying to remedy these 'faults'.

The moral of that story is even people you assume are completely confident about how they look have insecurities just like the rest of us, diabetic or not. No one judges a woman as harshly as she judges herself! There was absolutely nothing wrong with that model yet she agonised about her weight and looks.

I used to get mad having to think about food all the time when I was first diagnosed. It made me grumpy and either destroyed my appetite or made me hungry. Now I plan out what I'm going to eat in a day and concentrate on good food. So I try to turn the having to think about food thing into something positive.
 
Just think of carbohydrates as poison in large amounts in a short time, but in small amounts good for you. Which is why the FDA have put a limit or cap on the nutritional information for an average healthy person which would be 2000kcal,250g(90g) carbs(sugars), 90g protein etc, for an underweight increase these values slightly in coherence with the other nutrients, and for overweight, i suppose the other way around.

Christmas dinner for example, typically includes (in my experience and bear in mind this is a 30cm diameter plate):
- Potatoes (60g)
- Swede (40g)
- Gravy (15g)
- Stuffing (25g)
- Yorkshire pudding (20g)
- Parsnips (15g)

So this totals at 175g carbs, note that I don't really eat much else otherwise it would spoil the dinner. You know how kids are opening up their presents and eating their chocolate/sweets straight away.
 
Wot? No turkey? I cut all the rest way back and pile on the turkey.
 
I was only counting the carbs, when you think about it, its all carbs apart from the turkey/chicken/ham, i don't eat meat that much so sometimes I skip the meat and go for the vegetarian option. Excluding the veg like leeks, peas etc.
 
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