What diet-mongers don’t tell you

14th June 2008

What diet-mongers don’t tell you

posted in Diets, Eating Disorders, Health/Nutrition |

We often hear weight-loss success stories paraded about in the media with as much fanfare as if a cure for cancer had been discovered. But amidst all the “I can do it and you can, too!” trite, what we don’t often hear are the ugly side effects of dieting. Luckily, we have the British Record to remind us.

Here’s what writer Brian McIver has listed as some of the not-so-pleasant side effects of dieting:

Saggy skin - Yep, got it. And nothing short of a tummy tuck or entire body plastic surgery will get rid of it, either.

Bye bye boobies - Breasts are made up fatty tissue and are often the first to go with weight-loss.

Dog breath - Often a symptom of starvation or malnutrition.

Dieting blues - When a person cuts essential vitamins or nutrients from their diet, it can wrack havoc with brain chemicals so even if you reach that fabled size 6, you might be too depressed to appreciate and enjoy it.

Lizard skin - Dieting can reduce the health of skin, making it appear older, dryer and less healthy.

Fertility or rather, infertility - Periods can stop, your hormones are affected and you are not eating enough nutrients to help grow a healthy baby.

Osteoporosis - A poor diet can strip bones of calcium and minerals.

Obsession & risk of eating disorder - According to the article, people who diet are five times as likely to develop an eating disorder.

Hair loss - When you’re suffering from a mineral deficiency, the body sheds any non-essential function, like hair. I experienced this during my eating disorder. It’s not fun to see clumps of hair fall out in the shower.

With an estimated 95 percent of dieters poised to not only regain the weight they lost, but more within five years, one has to wonder why anyone would embark on fad dieting. Especially when there already exists a paradigm that doesn’t include such ugly side effects, is healthier, and allows people to settle within their own bodies’ natural setpoint weight range: Health at Every Size.

How about you? Have you suffered from any of the above or other side effects during your dieting heydays? Or, if you had an eating disorder, what were some of the side effects or physical problems you encountered?

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1 On June 14th, 2008, nuckingfutz

said:

Let’s see… I’ve got some saggy skin, but that has more to do with having children than losing weight. Although the results are exactly the same. My skin got stretched out, regardless, and now that there’s no longer a 9-lb baby, all the other things that come along with carrying said baby, AND 70 lbs. of water retention (I kid you not), my stomach is like a deflated balloon. (As if I didn’t have enough body image issues BEFORE I had kids!)

Never lost my boobs, though, no matter how much weight I lost.

Dog breath, I don’t know. If I did, nobody said anything about it.

Dieting blues - that’s hard to tell when you’re already depressed.

Never had a problem with infertility - but then again, he could so much as LOOK at me and I’d get pregnant (thankfully I have my tubes tied now).

Osteoporosis - too early to tell yet.

Obsession - oh hells yeah. That’s what bothered Hubby the most about me when I was dieting - I TOTALLY became obsessed over it. Shoot, I remember one specific day when I delayed taking my then-four-year-old out for a “fun day” because I had to figure out what I was “allowed” to eat so I could be a “good” dieter. Ugh.

Hair loss - again, hard to tell. My hair’s been getting thinner and thinner since I had kids, so I really couldn’t tell you if it got worse or not when I was dieting. Although I was dieting for most of that time, so….. *shrug*

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 12:47 pm

2 On June 14th, 2008, Emily

After my first diet that I went on when i was 12 I started binging badly. Put on about 6 stone of weight. Last year I dieted three off, only to then rediscover binging but this time combined with throwing up and I became pretty bulimic. I think diets are pretty deadly and as well as making you fatter have the distinct possibility of making you dead.

Also I bad bad breath and my hair stopped growing but I never had anything else. Was pretty happy when I was dieting because I liked the control except the second I stopped dieting all hell broke loose.

I think dieting had a big impact on making my relationship with food so disordered.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 12:53 pm

3 On June 14th, 2008, Tia

I lost some boobage, but I actually liked it (less saggy then).

Of course that’s when I was younger and the skin went along with the fat… now it’s a dif story.
(but I did have a tummy-tuck!)

But you know what? A bit on the disordered side, I’d still rather be thinner. Except for the hair loss. Didn’t like that at all.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

4 On June 14th, 2008, AndyJo

Oh, I’ve had the Full Monty of those symptoms (except for a couple) –

Saggy skin — check. My abdomen is saggy because (although I am still fat) I have gained and lost weight over the years and the skin stretched.

Boob loss — check… Often the first to go when I lose weight. I’m stable now, but I’ve found that with variations in my weight, my bras all fit differently and I end up needing a smaller cup size fairly early in the game.

Dog Breath — check!!! Especially with the Atkins diet. I got nothing but grief from my family over being fat when I was a teenager. I went on the Atkins diet when I was 17, was losing GOBS of weight, but my Mom complained of my breath saying she didn’t see how my boyfriend could bear to kiss me. That ALONE keeps me from the Atkins and other high-pro diets.

Dieting Blues — Check! — In my early 30’s I tried ultra-low-fat vegetarian diets. Wanted to “change my life” because “fat makes you fat”. I lost quite a bit of weight, but in retrospect (and given my mood at the time) I wondered if I hadn’t gotten a bout of depression from it.

Infertility — Not an issue since I’ve never wanted kids anyway…

Osteoporosis — I don’t know — I’ve never had my bone density taken, but I wouldn’t be surprised if my bones are less dense than they should be after having done dumb diets for years.

Obsession — Heck Yeah!!! I can focus like a laser on any goal, and it consumes me. Weight loss became an all-consuming goal. I could never do enough of it. I do not understand how I escaped developing an ED! I used to weigh every day when I was a teen, and I used to take diuretics to lose just that 1/2 pound that day.

Hair Loss — Check! — I had lustrous, long hair as a child, and it became fine and limp after puberty. Coincidentally, that was also when some dumb-ass nutritionist put me on a 1200 and later 1000 calorie per day diet. Hmm… Connection there? It’s better now (more due to styling than anything else), but it will never be the same.

This is the stuff that never makes it into the ads. This morning I saw the ridiculous “Fitness made Simple” ads — “I lost 4 pants sizes in 12 weeks! 40 lbs!!!”. [Results not typical]. And the guy has six pack abs and no flabby skin. Yeah. And I’m the tooth fairy.

–Andy Jo–

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 1:07 pm

5 On June 14th, 2008, Sal

Dieting didn’t give me saggy skin until I was age fifty. I lost fifty pounds and was left with a butt that resembled two deflated balloons. Come to think of it, so did my boobs!

Back in my twenties, dieting made my hair fall out. I had really long hair, and the floor around my chair at work was covered with hair I had lost!

And one no-carb diet I tried left me dreaming about bread!

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 1:09 pm

6 On June 14th, 2008, Regina

“I lost 4 pants sizes in 12 weeks! 40 lbs!!!”.

Every time I see anything like that, I think of Margaret Cho describing herself losing 30 lbs in a month and pissing blood because her kidneys were completely freaking out.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 1:28 pm

7 On June 14th, 2008, Nemohee

Never lost my boobs (and I so wanted to - it hurts when you’re a DD!), but I did start losing my hair, my teeth became sensitive (and I had anorexia - I never purged), I have hypoglycemia (so, ha, my body now has a built in defense system - eat every three hours or pass out), and my doctors suspect that my infertility may be tied to it (although I have a family history of endometriosis).

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 1:33 pm

8 On June 14th, 2008, pennylane

I don’t know about infertility or osteoperosis but otherwise–all of ‘em. Right now I have hunks of skin I can grab and pull away from my body. Hot. My breasts are pretty minimal except for the loose skin but I’m ok with that. But I think the psychological effects are the worst. As someone prone to depression and anxiety anyway the dieting and anxiety really reinforced one another. I’ve been with some of the other posters today who have been insufferable while dieting–it really comes to shape your entire life in terms of can/can’t/when I’m thins….

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 1:47 pm

9 On June 14th, 2008, mrs darling

I have the saggy skin! I hate surgery so im not sure what im going to do about it when I lose all my weight.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 2:07 pm

10 On June 14th, 2008, wiscck

I especially like how they tell you to avoid bad breath by eating from all of the food groups, but then in the next paragraph, they tell you to avoid depression by cutting out all grains. That makes tons of sense.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 2:10 pm

11 On June 14th, 2008, Rachel

I also developed a heart condition from my eating disorder days, as well as damage to my teeth. Luckily, I had thick hair to begin with to counteract the hair loss. Now that I eat healthy again, my hair is back to its original fullness. I even have to have it razored and thinned out each visit to the salon.

The extra skin is probably what bothers me most. I went from 300 to 175 in a year. Like Pennylane, I have hunks of skin on my abdomen that you can pull away in fistfuls. It makes buying pants aggravating and can sometimes cause skin irritation and infection. Some health insurances will cover a tummy tuck if you can show it causes a health problem like infections, but unfortunately mine doesn’t. So, unless I pony up some $10k in cash or switch to another provider, I’m out of luck.

I have ADD and thyroid deficiencies which both affect memory and forgetfulness, but starvation really robbed my brain of the nutrients it needed to just function. I remember getting so disoriented and confused at times and one time I even almost got in a car accident because of it. Oh, and I’d wake up sometimes several times a night with the most excruciating leg cramps as the result of a potassium deficiency. Those charley horses are the worst.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 2:51 pm

12 On June 14th, 2008, Constance

TLC had a series on weight loss surgery last year. I was alarmed to discover that after the WLS the patients had to have plastic surgery to remove the excess skin. I don’t remember any of the WLS sites mentioning that little issue.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 2:58 pm

13 On June 14th, 2008, Becky

My boobs got smaller, but that wasn’t a bad thing for me, because my boobs are ridiculous. They also got saggier though.

Hair loss, yup. I didn’t have an eating disorder, just regular dieting, so my hair didn’t fall out in clumps but I did have to unclog the shower drain pretty often.

Another one they didn’t mention is I had less energy and slept all the time. I was sleeping 10 hours a night, and still napped on weekends. My immune system was affected too, I got a lot more colds that year than usual.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 3:12 pm

14 On June 14th, 2008, queendom

I did get both saggy skin directly after dieting and stretch marks when I regained the weight I lost in a very short time. I also had hair loss and a stop of periods when I was in a boarding school like weight loss program at age 16 - the funny thing was that nobody there was particularly worried about that. In addition, weight cycling has given me gall stones, and dieting completely screws with my digestive system - I suspect that part of it has to do with the anxiety that I usually experience when I diet.

The funny part about this is - although I know the effects of dieting I still cannot completely let it go. I have been in a bingeing phase for over a year now (probably partially set off by my most recent diet) and I while I TRY to get out of the cycle of dieting/ bingeing by listening to body cues a part of me still longs for the praise I got whenever I lost weight (that is, whenever I lost more than 30 pounds - people usually won’t notice anything less than that). It’s stupid to feel that way, I have known that it is stupid since I was a teen (I have always been disturbed by the fact that dieting was the thing in my life that got me the most praise from others) and still it is seductive to try it again, especially since I don’t know how to stop the bingeing. It’s made worse by the fact that almost every health care professional/ mental health care professional I have seen in my life did not agree that dieting is not a good idea - my most recent therapist actually recommended a diet to me and when I gave her a paper that showed how HAES was more effective in increasing people’s mental and physical health in the long term than dieting she told me that I should set “realistic” weight loss goals.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 3:34 pm

15 On June 14th, 2008, Cammy

My eating disorder definitely began as a “just getting healthy” project. Eight years later: hair loss, flat chest, osteoporosis at age 17, arrhythmic heart, tooth decalicification (despite never purging), possible infertility, impaired kidney function, hypothyroidism, insomnia, low blood pressure, extreme cold sensitivity, dry skin, and countless days, weeks, months, years of my life wasted on meaningless things. And thousands of dollars in medical bills. And a partridge in a pear tree.

By the way, I am a biology student (senior in college, applying to grad school soon), and I have pretty in depth knowledge of what starvation mode does to the body, and the long term effects…but cognitive dissonance is a powerful thing, apparently.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

16 On June 14th, 2008, Toni

My one “successful” diet (initial loss of around 75 pounds, though 5 years later, I’ve gained 100+ back), led to not only all those issues, but a pretty severe anxiety disorder and the emergence of fibromyalgia. I probably had signs of both of those problems before losing a large amount of weight in a short time, but they were very mild. But dropping all that weight so quickly sent my body into a tailspin. There were no energy reserves to fight the pain. The depression and insomnia caused by the malnutrition just fed the anxiety. I’ve gained all the weight back, plus some, but the resulting health problems never went away.

My dad, a life-long yo-you dieter, has a very serious heart condition that emerged during a very rapid weight loss. He continues to weight cycle (losing 100+ pounds and gaining it back probably 15 times so far), and each time, his heart gets weaker. Yet, he continues to believe that if he could just keep the weight off this time, it’ll actually be good for his heart.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

17 On June 14th, 2008, Bree

I have never dieted, but I did lose a few pounds here and there because the job I had at the time was physically exhausting (working as an activities assistant in a nursing home) and I was on my feet 7 hours out of an 8 hour day, pushing residents to and from activities, doing a lot of walking around the building, lifting, etc. I only lost weight in my stomach, not my boobs and thighs. Now I have an office job, but I have pretty much maintained my weight.

My mom OTOH, is dieting and lost over 50 lbs. She constantly complains about her sagging and loose skin and now exercises to tone it. When she told me that she hasn’t lost any more weight, I told her that she has plateaued and to stop trying to lose more. Now she can just focus on maintaining. She is 5′11 and 212 lbs, a size 14-16. She was a size 18-20 before she started her diet. Although she is still considered obese thanks to the ridiculous BMI, her height makes her appear much, much slimmer. I think she looks fine how she is now, and she looked fine when she was at her most heaviest too. Our family definitely has the fat gene.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 3:59 pm

18 On June 14th, 2008, Jenny

I definitely have saggy skin: at age 21 I look like I was once pregnant. I lost almost one hundred pounds in a year and went from a size 18/20 to a size 6. I did this through crash dieting, obsessive exercising, and purging. I looked ashen, my skin bruised easily, and I had severe dog breath. And you’re right, I was far too depressed and insane to enjoy finally being thin (but not thin enough!). Additionally, as soon as I started eating normally, I gained back forty pounds over a period of eight months. Now, at a size ten, I think I look much healthier and thus much better.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 5:28 pm

19 On June 14th, 2008, Fat Girl

When I started “Seriously” dieting “For my health” that was when my obsession REALLY came through and my eating disorder, in my mind, got really serious. I’ve always tended to cope with things through food- but once I started obsessing over losing weight, I started “offsetting” my binges by restricting at other times of the day- thus giving myself PERMISSION to eat in an unhealthy manner and..

Yeah. It wasn’t pretty. I’m still struggling because I’ve really only just begun my recovery, and I still feel like things are so much worse than they used to be- I feel awful about myself, I’m TERRIFIED of gaining weight. It’s awful. So yeah, I’m a big fan of NOT dieting now.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 9:25 pm

20 On June 14th, 2008, jasmine

In college I exercised compulsively, tracked every bite i put in my mouth, and basically did EVERYTHING that everyone says you have to do to get a normal body. I stuck with my ‘lifestyle change’ and I was thrilled. I lost 30 pounds. After a year however, I became depressed, paranoid, sick, and didn’t want to leave my dorm room. I lost all my friends and failed out of college and came damn near to killing myself. I was literally starving my body to the point of not functioning for 30 damn pounds.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 9:56 pm

21 On June 14th, 2008, Tori

Lost the boobs, yep. Dieting blues - more like nonstop anxiety. Dry and pale skin. Brittle hair and nails. Lanugo. Kidneys nearly failed, liver nearly failed. Heart nearly failed - slow heart rate and had to wear a heart monitor from the cardiologist. Lost period for two years. Cold all the time. Osteoperosis. Low blood pressure. No energy at ALL and isolation …and the list goes on… Point is: eating disorders SUCK!!!

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 10:39 pm

22 On June 14th, 2008, Rachel

Tori: I had low blood pressure, too. I used to be an EMT so I am aware of normal readings and I became concerned when my pulse dropped to 50 something beats per minute. I mentioned this to the extremely petite massage therapist who worked at the gym I attended and who I had befriended. She told me not to worry about it; that because I had lost weight, my heart simply didn’t need to beat as much and as fast. I knew that was a bullshit answer: my heart was reacting to starvation and compulsive over-exercising.

I lost my period, too, but strangely, this is a side effect I would gladly welcome back today. I have no clue how this affected my bone density, though. I’ve never had a test done to check it out.

Fat Girl: I know where you’re at and it’s a pretty terrifying place. There was a time early in my disorder when I plateaued in my weight loss and actually gained a few pounds. It terrified me. I even told my therapist that if I ever went back above XX pounds, I would commit suicide. I know you are trying to lose weight right now and I’m glad you seem to be trying to do it via HAES instead of dieting. As my mother said to me when I started losing weight, “You didn’t put it on overnight and you can’t take it off overnight.” When I entered recovery from my eating disorder, I did gain some of the weight I had lost back, in part, from a year of severe depression and emotional overeating, but more so because that weight was only maintainable through a disordered lifestyle. I now practice HAES and I’ve been able to maintain a weight loss of 100 pounds for going on five years now without dieting, disordered eating, and obsessing over food/calories/exercising. Keep at it and eventually you’ll get to the a place where you can also eat mindfully and where your body will settle at a weight healthy for you.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 10:57 pm

23 On June 14th, 2008, Melissa

I haven’t had any of those side effects because I never could stick to a fad diet for long enough to lose the weight.
But a very good friend of mine lost near 60 pounds in 2 and half months by eating minimal points or less on weight watchers (eating a small amount of fast food by the way because she hates to cook) and then exercising hours and hours a day to burn most of the pitance of calories that she ate.
She ended up having her hair fall out and looked at doing social things with a terror, and I’m sure had an eating disorder.
When she went off she got much more heavier than she was before.
This may be non related and she may have been on her way to this anyways, but less than a year later she started having neurological problems, pain and was diagnosed with a disease called Gylian Bar Syndrome (sp)

Currently she doesn’t diet and has maintained her weight and will never diet again! She is unable to exercise due to her diagnosis.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 11:00 pm

24 On June 14th, 2008, Sarah

I lost most of my hair with 150 pounds. My arms are unrecognisable as appendages, leg cramps that had me screaming in tears for an hour, teeth literally crumbling in my mouth and a ruptured back disc from overexercising.

My throat was raw from purging, stomach bloated from binging and heart palpatations from malnutrition.

I am managing myself better now but will always have this pysical legacy of being obese combined with an eating disorder. It is me and I could never imagine punishing my body further with cosmetic surgery just to make it more ‘acceptable’. To me, that would be giving into the ED.

25 On June 14th, 2008, Rachel

I should probably add that most of the people who have tummy tucks after a dramatic weight loss aren’t only having the procedure done for cosmetic reasons. Loose skin also contributes to skin irritation, infection and even rashes. If I had the means to have plastic surgery to remove the excess skin from my abdomen, I’d totally have it and not because I hope to sport a bikini someday.

posted on June 14th, 2008 at 11:25 pm

26 On June 15th, 2008, Erin

I (unhealthfully) lost 40 lbs in a 2 months (which was a significant percentage of my weight) a few years ago. Let’s see here:

Saggy skin - Definitely. Arms and thighs and belly.

Bye bye boobies - Definitely got smaller, but I was blessed with big boobies so I’m in the clear. But see saggy skin above - they are definitely not as perky as they were.

Dog breath - Not sure about this one.

Dieting blues - Social life OVER. Although I think this was a combination of depressive symptoms and being terrified of being faced with food/drink if I engaged in social activity. So I stayed home where I had control over what food was available to me.

Lizard skin - Not a problem for me - I was so concerned with the saggy skin that I put on tons of toning moisturizer (didn’t do crap).

Fertility or rather, infertility - Never lost my period and I’m hoping my diet stint was short enough that I don’t have any lasting effects.

Osteoporosis - See above.

Obsession & risk of eating disorder - Definitely obsessed. I would say borderline eating disorder - definitely disordered eating and I consistently ate less than 1000 calories per day. But somehow (and to this day I have no idea how this worked out) I just ’snapped out of it’ and gradually went back to eating normally. And since I actually went back to eating a normal healthy diet, my weight stayed the same. I think I’m a lucky one.

Hair loss - This was the most devastating symptom of my weight loss for me. I have always been praised for my thick head of hair and when I had clumps coming out when I rinsed my conditioner every day I felt like crying (and sometimes did). Other symptoms - always feeling cold (still have this, 2 years later) and it hurts sitting on a bonier butt!

posted on June 15th, 2008 at 12:00 am

27 On June 15th, 2008, sarah

Saggy skin: That’s happened a bit with my stomach — several years of weight fluctuation has definitely left me with a poochier tummy… at my thinnest, it was never flat.
Boobs: Yes, they definitely got smaller when I lost weight, and I’m sorry to say that it *really* bothered me. Esp. because they were not any perkier, so I felt like I’d gotten the shaft both ways. It’s really awful, but I was honestly very revolted by them for quite awhile (Hello, BDD?!).
Hair Loss: At first, I didn’t think I’d experienced this — I never had a full-blown ED (despite displaying some disordered behaviors), and my hair didn’t come out in handfuls or anything. But, comparatively, I think there *was* more hair going down the shower drain in my dieting days than there is now.
Obsession: Yes. Yes. Absolutely. I’m a recovering Weight Watcher-er, so for the past 8 years or so, a huge chunk of my brain has been taken up with Points values. I’ve been obsessed with food, obsessed with the number on the scale, obsessed with my body (and, of course, its myriad “flaws”).
You know the most important thing that I learned from dieting that people don’t like to tell you? (other than the fact that diets don’t really work?): *Weight loss. Will. Not. Make. You. Happier.* It will not. No matter how much you lose, you will still be you. For reals.

posted on June 15th, 2008 at 1:16 am

28 On June 15th, 2008, Cordelia

I lost over 50 pounds in less than two months one year when I finally decided I couldn’t handle living in a world fat. I was living on at the most 400 calories per day and exercising for an hour a day, and yes I lost alot of weight .. but I would often get dizzy when standing up quickly, I was forgetting things, I was obsessing about how else I could cut out calories, my hair was falling out like crazy.
The sick demented part about it all was all the people close to me were so happy and excited for me, and were so much happier when talking to me, not one person expressed concern that 50 pounds in less than two months was probably unhealthy or concern about what I was doing. I got so mad and honestly I couldn’t see the difference in the weight loss that they all saw.. to me I still saw me .. yeah my clothes were starting to fall off.. and stuff, but I couldn’t see it which made me even more upset… cause I was still me.

I ended up going through major depression due in part to that episode and of course regaining all the weight plus more. I look back now and see that I was doing so much damage to myself… and that getting all the applause and praise for losing weight didn’t make me feel any better about myself and just made me realize that harming myself to fit in made no sense to me.

I want to be healthier, I don’t want this package to keep me from living my dreams.. but I don’t want to harm myself just to fit the generic mold anymore, and I can now see beauty in me as I am, which is a great change.

I am left with much thinner hair (which is the saddest part I used to love my thick hair) among other things from that.. but I did learn lessons from it so there is a positive!

posted on June 15th, 2008 at 1:21 am

29 On June 15th, 2008, VelvetGalaxy

I must be a freak of nature.

Saggy skin - nope, but then I only had 40 lbs to lose.

Bye bye boobies - Lost some boobage, but was pleased because I was a 38 DDD before the diet and a 34 C afterwards.

Dog breath - Nope, probably because I ate healthy, balanced meals…rather than a fad like Atkins, which causes you to go into ketosis

Dieting blues - Nope. I feel better than I ever have. Lots more energy, happy, etc.

Lizard skin - My skin is actually softer since I started drinking more water and am getting more vitimens from fruits and veggies, which I never really ate much of before.

Fertility or rather, infertility - My periods are normal…wouldn’t know about fertility because I’m not trying to get preggers.

Osteoporosis - Nope…better bone density now, since I’ve been doing weight-bearing exercises.

Obsession & risk of eating disorder - Nope. Eating lots of yummy stuff.

Hair loss - Nope…hair has stayed pretty much the same, though I think it’s longer now. Hard to tell, since all my life my hair only gets to just past my shoulders and then stops growing, until I snip the split ends off and then it grows out to that same spot it always grows to.

posted on June 15th, 2008 at 1:57 am

30 On June 15th, 2008, Meowser

Melissa, it’s Guillain-Barré syndrome. (Pronounced gee-YAN bar-RAY.) It’s a relatively rare autoimmune neurological problem with an as yet unknown cause, although it’s said that vaccinations and surgery can trigger it, and it’s often preceded by viral and bacterial infections.

Here’s the thing about dieting, though. Most people who “fad diet” are absolutely convinced that their diet is not a “fad diet,” that all they’re doing is “trying to be healthier” or “following a sensible food plan” or (ick) “clean eating.” But they can still have all the symptoms you mention, even if their “sensible” plan doesn’t involve putting toad eyeballs up their nose or anything.

posted on June 15th, 2008 at 2:21 am

31 On June 15th, 2008, Kweezy

Gallstones! Rapid weight loss is one of the reported causes of gallstones.

posted on June 15th, 2008 at 8:00 am

32 On June 15th, 2008, Rachel

I can’t believe I forgot that one, Kweezy. I had an attack at work and I imagine the pain to be worse than that of childbirth, even.

posted on June 15th, 2008 at 11:34 am

33 On June 15th, 2008, buttercup

I haven’t dieted in years, and have no plans to, but recently when I was put into a nursing home to recover from a severe injury, they fed me so poorly that I lost 30 pounds in a month and my hair started falling out. I’ve been saggy for a while now so that doesn’t bother me much but back when I was a True Believer ™, each diet the first thing I lost was my boobs.

And Meowser, LOL at the toad eyeballs up the nose. Bet that would be pretty effective at suppressing the appetite.

posted on June 15th, 2008 at 2:18 pm

34 On June 15th, 2008, gnomeprincess

Saggy skin - Uh huh. Still have it despite gaining back 80 of the 110lbs I lost.

Bye bye boobies - Not only bye bye, but hello to deflated balloon like skin pouches where the fat used to be. I basically ended up with saggy flat flaps at the age of 22.

Dog breath - I notice this one any time I haven’t had time to eat at the right time.

Osteoporosis - I don’t know if this happened or not I hope not!

Obsession & risk of eating disorder - Oh god the obsession, and the total dissatisfaction, no matter how small I got I felt just as fat as I ever did.

Hair loss - Happened to the point that you could see my scalp at the top of my head. Most of it has grown back (well it’s still pretty thin on top but it’s filled in enough that it’s a thin/normal texture)

GALLSTONES - Oh man, when they took my gallbladder out a month ago I had 2 large stones and HUNDREDS of mustard seed sized stones. Dieting = your gallbladder not contracting often enough = cholesterol and bile sitting around and crystallizing = gallstones = PAIN.

posted on June 15th, 2008 at 6:57 pm

35 On June 15th, 2008, gnomeprincess

Oh yeah and I had low blood pressure and would see spots and the world would spin every time I stood up. I passed out a couple times and had a seizure like episode (my body trying to raise my BP to get blood to my brain) Just going from laying down to sitting dropped my systolic 30 points when I went to see a doc about it, and that didn’t even make me feel dizzy!

posted on June 15th, 2008 at 7:12 pm

36 On June 16th, 2008, Pamela R

Check, check, check, check and more!!! I’ve lost 88 pounds since Sept 07 and I’m a walking advertisement for someone who needs plastic surgery. But in spite of the lose skin, pancake boobs and hair falling out I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

posted on June 16th, 2008 at 12:43 pm

37 On June 16th, 2008, Mary Sue

I have two sets of stretch marks: those from gaining weight too fast and those from losing weight too fast.

I like my stretch marks. They’re texturally interesting. I was debating getting a Trogdor the Burninator tattoo set up so that one of the bigger sets of stretch marks looked like flames shooting out of his mouth.

posted on June 16th, 2008 at 1:37 pm

38 On June 16th, 2008, Branwyn

As a child and early teen, I was put on a “diet” by my parents. From the time I was 8 til I was 14. I wasn’t fat to begin with, so I didn’t have to worry about all the saggy skin or anything, but…

I am the shortest person in my family. I come from genetics that suggest I should have been between 2″ to 5″ taller than I am. At 14, I was under 90 pounds, 5′2″ tall, and met the physical criteria for suffering from anorexia. I probably had the emotional criteria too, but that was imposed on me by my parents.

Until I was out of my parents home, and was allowed to eat what I wanted/needed to (although, I had severely disordered eating patterns), I had ammenoreah (my first mense started approximately 3 months after leaving my parents house, and gaining 40 lbs of weight).

One of the “wonderful” effects of my parents actions is that my metabolism is extremely sluggish now. Any time I have tried to diet (in the past, I’ve finally gotten over that), I could lose 5 to 10 pounds, and that would be all I could lose. Then my body would start shutting down to conserve the energy, thinking it was going back into the starvation time. Of course, when I couldn’t live on the starvation diets I was feeding myself (400 - 800 calories a day), I’d gain back that 5 or 10 pounds and at least another 10 to 20 on top of it.

I still struggle with eating right, but it’s much better than it used to be.

posted on June 16th, 2008 at 5:41 pm

39 On June 17th, 2008, Amanda

Whoa whoa whoa.
Many of these are in cases of extreme dieting.

posted on June 17th, 2008 at 2:26 pm

40 On June 17th, 2008, Rachel

Not necessarily, Amanda. Many of these symptoms can result just by following commercial fad diets. The reason many of these fad diets work (at least in the short-term) is due to excessive calorie restriction. And don’t forget, much of the same dieting advice given to overweight people by their doctors and health professionals are the same tips shared on pro-ana messageboards.

posted on June 17th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

41 On June 18th, 2008, queendom

Amanda - all the effects I described above (hair loss, amenorrhea, screwed up digestive system) I had while officially being on a 1800 kcal/day diet. Granted, I ate less than that (as I said, I was in a weight loss program for adolescents, and I was usually further restricting the portions that I was given) - however, no one ever asked how much I was eating, on the contrary I was praised for my determination and that praise often came from medical staff. Actually with one notable exception every single health professional in my life has praised me for any weight loss, even if I lost the weight quite rapidly (4 - 5 pounds per week). If asked people will usually tell you that you should try to lose weight slowly, etc. But if you do lose weight fast very few people will have a problem with that. In any case the effects mentioned in Rachel’s post and in the replies can easily be experienced on a 1200 kcal/day diet by many people - and 1200 kcal/day is usually not seen as overly restrictive.

posted on June 18th, 2008 at 5:09 pm

42 On June 26th, 2008, evolving~soul

I missed periods, gotten wiggly teeth, pinched flab in mirrors, weighed myself/NOT weighed myself,…
I’ve been on “a diet” for the past 12 years. At least. I’ve been all over the map: bulimia, restrictive intake, binging, you name it, and I’ve always felt better about myself (just like everybody else!) when I’m thin. Although I’ve never been underweight, I have reason to believe that I had developed several vitamin/mineral deficiencies over the course of years, that had been exacerbated by my latest diet regime. This (plus heredity) resulted in some pretty nasty excema.
I just want to be healthy. I want to eat healthy foods in reasonable amounts. I understand the importance of exercise and a nutritionally balanced diet, and how they contribute to physical and mental health.

I just need to maintain the level of courage I need to let go and do this!
Learning to feed myself could be the most challenging, most frustrating, but most feminist activity I’ve ever engaged myself in.

posted on June 26th, 2008 at 10:20 pm

43 On June 29th, 2008, Alexandra

I’m sitting here with my laptop balanced on my knees. It’s Sunday and I had 3.5lbs of “excess skin” cut from my abdomen on Tuesday. I bled internally and needed a blood transfusion. But hey, at least I’m “thin” now. :-/ My hair is thin & wispy and I fear for osteoporosis in the future.

I lost 8 stone and although I got away with it boobs & arms wise the tummy didn’t.

posted on June 29th, 2008 at 8:41 am