Eating disorder

Eating disorders are mental disorders defined by abnormal eating habits that negatively affect a person's physical or mental health. They include binge eating disorder where people eat a large amount in a short period of time, anorexia nervosa where people eat very little and thus have a low body weight, bulimia nervosa where people eat a lot and then try to rid themselves of the food, pica where people eat non-food items, rumination disorder where people regurgitate food, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder where people have a lack of interest in food, and a group of other specified feeding or eating disorders. Anxiety disorders, depression, and substance abuse are common among people with eating disorders. These disorders do not include obesity.

The cause of eating disorders is not clear. Both genetic and environmental factors appear to play a role. Cultural idealization of thinness is believed to contribute. Eating disorders for example affect about 12% of dancers. Those who have experienced sexual abuse are also more likely to develop eating disorders. Some disorders such as pica and rumination disorder occur more often in people with intellectual disabilities. Only one eating disorder can be diagnosed at a given time.

Dieting

Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated and supervised fashion to decrease, maintain, or increase body weight. In other words, it is conscious control or restriction of the diet. Dieting is often used in combination with physical exercise to lose weight, commonly in those who are overweight or obese. Some people, however, follow a diet to gain weight (usually in the form of muscle). Diets can also be used to maintain a stable body weight.

Diets to promote weight loss are generally divided into four categories: low-fat, low-carbohydrate, low-calorie, very low calorie and more recently flexible dieting. A meta-analysis of six randomized controlled trials found no difference between the main diet types (low calorie, low carbohydrate, and low fat), with a 2–4 kilogram weight loss in all studies. At two years, all calorie-reduced diet types cause equal weight loss irrespective of the macronutrients emphasized. In general, the best diet is one where you find a way to eat fewer calories in any way that you can.

Body image

Body image is a person's perception of the aesthetics or sexual attractiveness of their own body. The phrase body image was first coined by the Austrian neurologist and psychoanalyst Paul Schilder in his book The Image and Appearance of the Human Body (1935). Human society has at all times placed great value on beauty of the human body, but a person's perception of their own body may not correspond to society's standards.

The concept of body image is used in numerous disciplines, including psychology, medicine, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, philosophy and cultural and feminist studies. The term is also often used in the media. Across these disciplines and media there is no consensus definition. A person's body image is thought to be, in part, a product of their personal experiences, personality, and various social and cultural forces. A person's sense of their own physical appearance, usually in relation to others or in relation to some cultural "ideal," can shape their body image. A person's perception of their appearance can be different from how others actually perceive them.

Body image (medicine)

Body image is a medical term, often used in the context of describing a patient's cognitive perception of their own body. The medical concept began with the work of the Austrian neuropsychiatrist and psychoanalyst Paul Schilder whose masterpiece The Image and Appearance of the Human Body was first published in 1935.

Medical applications

In psychology, it typically refers to one's perceptions, beliefs, and emotional attitudes towards one's body. The concept is used to discuss various pathologies and disorder, such as anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders, body dysmorphic disorder, body integrity identity disorder and various post-stroke conditions like somatoparaphrenia, and unilateral neglect.

Body image problems may also manifest themselves in psychopathologies like schizophrenia and the Cotard delusion. Although it is often confused with the term 'body schema', which concerns postural and motor control, 'body image' is distinct from the former phenomena.

Measures