Disordered eating and eating disorders (EDs) can affect anyone, regardless of identity or lived experience. However, some groups may be at higher risk than others.

The term “disordered eating” refers to food- and diet-related behaviors that don’t meet diagnostic criteria for recognized EDs but may still negatively affect your physical, mental, or emotional health.

Chelsea Levy, MS, RD, CDN, is an intuitive eating counselor and weight-inclusive dietitian in New York City who works with people recovering from disordered eating and EDs. She told Healthline that disordered eating and full-threshold EDs fall along a spectrum.

“On one end is healthy eating, or just regular old eating, and then all the way on the other side of extreme or unhealthy behaviors would be an eating disorder,” she said. “Disordered eating would be somewhere in between.”

What does disordered eating look like?

Disordered eating habits may include:

avoiding entire food groups, certain macronutrients, or foods with specific textures or colors without a medical reason
engaging in compensatory behaviors, such as exercising to “make up for” food you’ve consumed
exercising compulsively
cutting food into small pieces, slowing down the pace of eating, or otherwise attempting to trick yourself into feeling fuller from less food
feeling guilt, disgust, or anxiety before or after eating
following strict food rules or rituals
intentionally skipping meals or restricting food intake — including skipping meals before or after you’ve consumed a large meal, food you consider unhealthy, or alcohol
opting to eat only foods you consider “clean” or healthy
engaging in purging behaviors, such as using laxatives or making yourself vomit to control your weight
tracking food or calories to the point of preoccupation
weighing yourself or taking body measurements often

While disordered eating isn’t considered an eating disorder on its own, people who engage in disordered eating are at high risk of developing EDs over time.

Are fad diets a form of disordered eating?

Many fad diets encourage eating habits that are considered disordered — so much so that some professionals suggest that following any diet to lose weight is a sign of disordered eating.

Wait, what’s a fad diet?

A fad diet is a usually drastic change in eating patterns that is meant to cause weight loss. Fad diets typically become popular quickly and may be promoted by influencers or endorsed in mass media.

These diets often involve fasting, cutting out entire food groups without medical necessity, eating only one food, restricting calories, or eating nonfood items in an effort to lose weight.

Some examples of popular fad diets are the ketogenic (keto) diet, Whole30, the Atkins diet, the “Paleolithic” (paleo) diet, gluten-free diets, intermittent fasting, and cleanses.

Some diets, such as keto and gluten-free, are helpful or even medically necessary for people with certain health conditions, and people with allergies may need to avoid certain foods or food groups.

However, the weight loss industry has co-opted these practices and markets them as quick pathways to weight loss for people who don’t have any health conditions that require a specific diet.

Following fad diets is linked to the development of EDs. Learn more about fad diets and how to tell them apart from evidence-based nutrition advice.

Rebecca Eyre, MA, LMHC, is an eating disorder therapist and the CEO of Project HEAL, a nonprofit that offers direct services to help people overcome systemic and financial obstacles to accessing ED treatment.

“Dieting doubles your risk of an eating disorder, and I think what that really means is disordered eating doubles your risk of an eating disorder,” she told Healthline. “It’s really dangerous to toy with that, especially when you consider how rarely dieting leads to the desired outcomes.”

She pointed to research indicating that most people regain more than 50% of the weight they lose within 2 years of starting a diet.

That weight regain can lead to weight cycling — a pattern of dieting to lose weight, gaining weight back, and attempting to lose it again via dieting.

Levy said our bodies have a set point weight that’s largely defined by genetics. Dieting forces a body away from its set point, and once the diet has ended, the body will do what it can to return to that point, such as slowing down metabolism and increasing appetite.

“Any type of fad diet is harmful. To what degree is individual … Maybe somebody goes on a couple of diets in their lifetime, and they end up leading a long, healthy life. That is absolutely possible. That’s not to say that they didn’t do any harm to their body — and another individual might end up with an eating disorder.”

— Chelsea Levy, MS, RD, CDN

Among adolescents, dieting is the most important predictor of developing an ED. Those who diet moderately and those who follow extreme restrictions are 5 and 18 times more likely, respectively, to develop an ED than those who don’t diet.

Not to mention, dieting and weight cycling are associated with other negative health outcomes, such as:

What’s the difference between disordered eating and an eating disorder?

In general, the difference comes down to the frequency and severity of the disordered habits. EDs are considered more severe, and a person who has an ED will engage in disordered habits more often with a greater impact on their health.

“Are these behaviors taking you away from your job, from socialization, from school and education, or not? And those behaviors can look identical, but how frequently they occur and how they impact you psychologically, and also day-to-day in your functioning, are probably the biggest factors of distinguishing between disordered eating and eating disorders,” Levy said.

Formal ED diagnoses may also take into account a person’s weight, how long they’ve had symptoms, and any effects their behaviors may have had on their physical health.

Disordered eating affects people of all demographics

While misconceptions suggest that the people at the highest risk for EDs are thin, white, cisgender, affluent women and girls, the reality is quite different:

People at higher body weights are more likely to exhibit disordered eating behaviors. In fact, Eyre said that just 6% of people with EDs are medically underweight.
Research on EDs and disordered eating in communities of color is lacking. However, studies suggest that people of color are just as likely as white people to engage in disordered eating, while advocates and other studies say that people of color may be even more likely.
Sexual minority adolescents — those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, or other non-heterosexual identities — are more likely to engage in disordered eating than heterosexual adolescents.
LGBTQIA+ adults and youth are more likely to engage in disordered eating or receive ED diagnoses than their cisgender, heterosexual counterparts.
Transgender people are at especially high risk of developing EDs. One study involving 289,024 college students found that more than 15% of trans people surveyed reported ED diagnoses, compared with 0.55% of cisgender, heterosexual men and 1.85% of cisgender, heterosexual women.
Rates of disordered eating are increasing among people with below-median income more quickly than among more affluent people.
Disordered eating is increasing among people ages 45 and older more quickly than among younger adults.
Men account for about 25% of anorexia and bulimia diagnoses, and at least 1 in 7 men will experience an eating disorder by age 40.

Disordered eating is pervasive — but why?

Many EDs and cases of disordered eating are rooted in body image concerns, which are often influenced by fatphobia. Fatphobia — the fear or hatred of fatness — seeps into everyday life, from the kitchen table to the doctor’s office.

The weight loss industry, the media, and influencers alike encourage behaviors and products meant to keep weights low and waistlines small despite evidence increasingly suggesting that weight loss diets do more harm than good for many people.

The normalization and celebration of these behaviors is one reason disordered eating endures. To put it simply, disordered eating is hard to spot.

Medical professionals in the United States and the United Kingdom receive little training on EDs and are often the ones prescribing weight loss to patients. There’s especially sparse education on EDs in adults, men, people of color, and LGBTQIA+ people.

Plus, whether a behavior becomes disordered can depend on context. For example, while fasting for weight loss may be disordered, fasting for religious reasons is not necessarily harmful. Having “food rules” could indicate disordered eating, but having preferences or following cultural eating practices would not.

Additionally, major players in the weight loss industry have rebranded as fad dieting has fallen somewhat out of favor. What may have been called a diet a decade ago might now be considered “wellness” or a “lifestyle” — labels that seem much more innocuous and actually co-opt language used in eating disorder recovery spaces.

But it’s all still rooted in the same goal: intentionally shrinking the body to align with beauty standards that prioritize both thinness and whiteness.

“Everyone in our culture is touched by diet culture and this weight-centric medical model,” Levy said. “We all deserve to unlearn these disordered rules around what health looks like, around eating and having a healthy relationship to food and body.”

Repairing a disordered relationship with food

Whether you feel that your relationship with food may be disordered, that it could meet ED criteria, or that you just want to improve it, support is available — and you deserve access to care.

“If you’re asking the question ‘Is my relationship with food disordered?,’ talk to somebody. You don’t have to have the most serious eating disorder that’s ever existed in order to need healing.”

— Rebecca Eyre, MA, LMHC, Project Heal CEO

Consider speaking with an eating disorder-informed physician, licensed therapist, non-diet registered dietitian, or other healthcare professional.

They can help you talk through your feelings surrounding food, your body, and your weight and guide you in reframing any beliefs that might propel disordered eating.

Levy recommends that people who occupy marginalized identities work with professionals who have lived experiences in common with them or can demonstrate allyship.

Culturally competent medical care, including in the nutrition field, helps foster trust and increases the likelihood that the person seeking care will receive realistic recommendations that fit their lifestyle.

“Finding an eating disorder dietitian who is Health at Every Size [certified] is probably the first indication of the right direction,” she said. “Check out their website and see what their ‘about’ page talks about, and then have a conversation for 15 to 20 minutes to see if they might be able to support you.”

And Eyre said that healing from disordered eating doesn’t have to take place solely inside a clinician’s office, either. She suggests enlisting podcasts, apps, blogs, and other resources to support your recovery.

You might consider some of these options:

Way, a non-diet app to support healing your relationship with food
ThirdwheelED, a blog by two queer people who write about ED recovery with “the dual perspectives of patient and nontraditional caregiver”

But remember: Full-threshold EDs have a high likelihood of being life threatening. It’s important to connect with a medical professional if you believe you have symptoms consistent with an eating disorder.

Organizations that can help you access care

There are plenty of barriers to recovery, such as difficulty finding an ED-informed healthcare professional or affording the cost of treatment. But many organizations can help offset some of these challenges.

You may want to check out some of these groups:

Project HEAL: a nonprofit (of which Eyre is CEO) offering financial assistance for ED treatment, including funding and help navigating insurance
Equip Health: a telehealth platform co-created by Project HEAL co-founder Kristina Saffran to support those with EDs via the family-based treatment modality
Arise: a digital healthcare startup offering sliding-scale ED and disordered eating recovery programs
Association for Size Diversity and Health: an organization that promotes the Health at Every Size framework, provides resources for people affected by fatphobia, and maintains a listing of weight-inclusive healthcare professionals
National Eating Disorders Association: a national organization that has compiled a list of free and lower cost resources, as well as information about accessing treatment
National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders: a nonprofit offering peer-led support for those with restrictive disordered eating habits, including a helpline, a mentorship program, treatment referrals, and a directory of eating disorder-informed clinicians
National Alliance for Eating Disorders: a nonprofit offering virtual therapist-led support groups, referrals to treatment, and a helpline for those in need of support, as well as direct outpatient services in select cities

The bottom line

The phrase “disordered eating” is becoming more common, but it can be tough to determine whether your habits might fall into that category.

Overall, disordered eating includes food- or diet-related behaviors that are consistent with ED pathology but aren’t considered severe or frequent enough to meet the requirements for an ED diagnosis.

It’s important to work with a healthcare professional if you suspect that you have an ED or if you’re unsure whether your habits might constitute an ED.

Your day-to-day functioning does not need to be severely compromised for you to deserve support.

“I think we should all assume, baseline, given what I understand to be true about disordered eating and eating disorders, that we all have room to heal our relationships with food,” Eyre said.

Rose Thorne is a freelance journalist and former Healthline editor. They graduated from Mercer University in 2021 with a degree in journalism and women’s & gender studies. As an Atlanta-based writer, they cover gender and sexuality, food and nutrition, health, and the U.S. South. You can spot their byline in Business Insider, The Washington Post, The Lily, and more. You can follow Rose and share your thoughts with them on LinkedIn.

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