Disordered eating is not well defined. Dietitian Lucy Carey explains the difference between eating disorders and disordered eating.

Eating disorders are basically a disturbance in eating that is so bad and so persistent that it affects physical and mental health. Each kind of eating disorder has a set criteria that need to be met for diagnosis.

Disordered eating is the poor cousin.

Basically it’s the same thing but it’s not severe enough, frequent enough or hasn’t gone on long enough to be an official eating disorder. The term itself is a description, not a diagnosis. Most common are:

• Frequent dieting (often accompanied by weight fluctuations)
• Scared to eat certain foods
• Rigid rituals and routines surrounding food and exercise, like having to go to the gym so many times per week come hell or high water, or only allowing chocolate if you also didn’t have cookies, etc.
• Feeling guilty and ashamed about food eaten, or how much food was eaten
• Preoccupation with food, weight and body that impacts your quality of life
• Feeling like you can’t control yourself around food, or certain foods
• ‘Earning’ food with exercise, or ‘making up for’ having eaten unhealthy foods by skipping meals, restricting or exercising

In reality, I think eating disorders are looked upon as sad and those suffering from them are pitied. We all acknowledge that it’s not really their fault and they need help.

But disordered eating on the other hand, is socially sanctioned, even celebrated.

Think Instagram pics of shirtless men who have clearly starved, dehydrated and spent every day in the gym for years to look they way they do.

Or ladies who watch their figure by ordering the salad and going to the gym.

Or young children who say they don’t want McDonalds because it’s bad for them.

As a society, we applaud these things. Even though they’re all kinda messed up.

And there is essentially no acknowledgement that disordered eating can lead to an eating disorder. Not in everyone, mind you. Most people who go on a diet won’t end up anorexic, or bulimic, or with binge eating disorder, etc. But that’s not to say they’ll be perfectly fine, either.

At the very least, they’ll likely end up heavier than when they began, and most commonly they’ll have put another crack in their relationship with food and their body.

Put enough cracks in and it’s going to snap entirely.

I believe that we need to dismantle the diet culture we live in in order to cure disordered eating. All of my clients (particularly those wanting to lose weight) have some degree of disordered eating and are in need of healing their relationship with food. I aim to move them from perpetual yoyo dieting that is making them miserable (and fatter) into intuitive eating.

But what if they need to lose weight for their health at the same time? I don’t buy that excess weight is only unhealthy because of weight stigma and fatphobia. Those things don’t help, for sure, but adipose tissue is an endocrine organ and it does affect health if you have too much of it.

So how can we help clients to ditch dieting, learn to eat intuitively and also lose weight? Can weight loss even fit in with the principles of intuitive eating?

I believe it can. And I’m diving right into the whole thing in my new LIVE Disordered Eating Masterclass. It’s called Roadmap from YoYo Dieting to Intuitive Eating (and where weight loss fits in).

In this brand new free online training, I’ll walk you through:

• Why disordered eating matters when we have clients who want to lose weight
• The 5-step system I personally use to move my clients from a dieting mindset to intuitive eating
• How sustainable weight loss can fit in with intuitive eating principles
• And as a special bonus, in the first 5 minutes I’ll reveal my single best strategy to gain trust with clients and get them to open up to you. It’s so simple it’s either stupid or brilliant – you be the judge!

Plus, I’ll do a LIVE Q&A afterwards, where you can ask all of your questions.

1. If you’re struggling to get clients to lose weight without falling into their old dieting habits that backfire in the long-run
2. If you’re not totally sure what the fuss is with all this disordered eating business and you’re curious as to whether or not this stuff relates to your particular clients
3. Or if you’re simply an overachiever who thinks it can never hurt to get a new perspective and do more learning, especially when it’s for free…

Then this Masterclass is for you. I’m running multiple so you can pick your date and time.

The more of us who ban together to recognise and treat disordered eating, by ditching dieting forever, the better! Join me on the Masterclass, I can’t wait to see you there!