ABC Diet

It’s called the ABC Diet and Ana Boot Camp Diet.  It’s a difficult fifty day calorie restriction plan that is quite popular among the pro-ana crowd as well as other eating disordered people online.

day1: 500 calories(or less)
day2: 500 calories(or less)
3:300 calories
4:400 calories
5: 100 calories
6: 200 calories
7: 300 calories
8: 400 calories
9: 500 calories
10: fast
11: 150 calories
12: 200 calories
13: 400 calories
14: 350 calories
15: 250 calories
16: 200 calories
17: fast
18: 200 calories
19: 100 calories
20: fast
21: 300 calories
22: 250 calories
23: 200 calories
24: 150 calories
25: 100 calories
26: 50 calories
27: 100 calories
28: 200 calories
29: 200 calories
30: 300 calories
31: 800
32: fast
33: 250 calories
34: 350 calories
35: 450 calories
36: fast
37: 500 calories
38: 450 calories
39: 400 calories
40: 350 calories
41: 300 calories
42: 250 calories
43: 200 calories
44: 200 calories
45: 250 calories
46: 200 calories
47: 300 calories
48: 200 calories
49: 150 calories
50: fast

I have never tried the ABC Diet myself.  I find when I try to follow a strict diet plan with calorie totals like this, I get triggered and my anorexia symptoms flare up severely.  I soon find myself struggling to take in even 150 calories per day.  The ABC Diet is not right for me, but I read countless posts about it every day on the internet, as well as a few posts from people who want to know what the guidelines for the diet are.  Here it is, if you want to try it yourself, or follow along with someone else’s progress–if you know anyone doing this diet plan.

If you have tried the ABC Diet yourself, please share your experiences in the comments for this post.  Tell us how difficult or easy was it for you, and what aspects of the diet did you find most challenging for yourself?  How much weight did you lose?  Were you able to keep the weight off when you returned to your usual eating patterns?

Wannarexics?

Have you heard of wannarexics?  These are people who say they want to have an eating disorder like anorexia.  They idolize people who struggle with real life eating disorders every day of their lives, and they spend countless hours looking at thinspiration and talking about anorexia like some kind of glorified spiritual movement on pro-ana discussion forums and their livejournal entries.  These are the kinds of people who like to think you can choose to develop a real eating disorder, and they ignore or overlook the fact that these are very serious mental illnesses.

Most often, wannarexics are young girls, typically still in high school, and they are often ridiculed on eating disorder discussion forums, including pro-ana boards.  Many people who are dealing with real eating disorders do not want to be disordered and would choose to be free of their illness if they could, so they find wannarexics offensive.

I have personally seen posts about the subject of wannarexics where some people write things like, “No one in their right mind would actually choose to have this disorder,” and “living with anorexia is hell and I wouldn’t wish this experience on anyone.”

I do have to agree that is absurd to want to develop an eating disorder, or to decide to live an “anorexic lifestyle” because you think it’s somehow trendy or the cool thing to do.  I also find it terribly sad that anorexia and other eating disorders have become trendy.

However, wannarexics are not entirely different from the pro-ana crowd, when you look at what the two groups have in common instead of the issue of mental disorder vs lifestyle choice.  Both groups tend to appreciate thinspiration, both groups restrict calories and might be tempted to purge, exercise excessively, or engage in other harmful behaviours and addictions, wannarexics and pro-anas are both resistant to treatment and therapy, and they’re both trying to maintain the lowest possible body weight they can manage.  At the end of the day, how much does it really matter if a person uses these behaviours and techniques to lose weight because they’re driven by a mental disorder they cannot control, or because they made a decision to do it for a weird sense of being cool?

My position regarding the issue of wannarexics is that they have a right to make the choices they wish to make, and to live however they choose to live.  I honestly don’t mind including them in an online conversation about eating disorders, weight loss, or anything else.  I think we can all learn from one another, and we can all benefit from being there for another human being.  I see raising public awareness of eating disorders as a positive thing that could lead to transforming the current attitudes, services, and support systems available to those who live with these conditions, and if wannarexics can help in that process, I will not complain.