Types of eating disorder

We've got information about some of the more common eating disorders – including anorexia, bulimia and binge eating. And about how to get a diagnosis.

If you're worried about your eating, you’re not alone.

I've always had a troubling relationship with food and body image. Going from diet to diet and never loving myself. This led to me developing an eating disorder.

What is an eating disorder?

An eating disorder is a medical diagnosis based on your eating patterns. For example you might restrict the amount you eat. Or eat large amounts of food at once. Or you might use unhealthy ways to get rid of the food you've eaten.

An eating disorder diagnosis involves medical tests on your weight, blood and body mass index (BMI).

Watch: Do I have an eating disorder?

Watch our animation to learn more about eating disorders, including signs and symptoms, and where to get help. 

Anorexia

If you get an anorexia diagnosis (called anorexia nervosa), you’re not eating enough food. This means you're not getting the energy you need to stay healthy.

Some people think anorexia is about slimming and dieting – but it's much more complex. At its core, it's often connected to low self-esteem, negative self-image and feelings of intense distress.

Although anorexia is usually linked with being underweight, you can be very unwell at any weight. You may experience the same symptoms without being underweight. This is called atypical anorexia.

There are two main types of anorexia:

• Restricting type – when you severely limit the amount the amount and type of food that you eat.
• Binge-eating / purging type – when you limit the amount of food you eat, but you may also over-exercise, make yourself sick and misuse laxatives. You may also have cycles of bingeing and purging to avoid weight gain from bingeing.

Anorexia and your feelings

If you experience anorexia, you might feel:

• Unable to think about anything other than food
• Like you need to be perfect or you're never good enough
• Lonely, especially if no one knows about your diagnosis
• A need for control, that you feel you lose by eating
• That you're hiding things from family and friends
• That you're fat and scared of putting on weight
• That losing weight isn't enough
• Like you want to disappear
• Angry if someone challenges you about your weight or food intake
• Tired and not interested in things you normally enjoy
• Like you cannot see a way out, even depressed or suicidal
• Anxious or panicky, especially around mealtimes
• Like it's an achievement to deny yourself food or over-exercise

I was existing, not living. My eating disorder affected every aspect of my life.

Anorexia and your actions

If you experience anorexia, you might:

• Reduce your food intake or totally stop eating
• Spend a lot of time counting calories of everything you eat
• Hide food or secretly throw it away
• Avoid certain types of food, like those with high amounts of calories or fat
• Read recipe books and cook meals for others, without eating them yourself
• Use drugs that claim to reduce your appetite or speed up digestion
• Make yourself sick
• Misuse laxatives or diuretics
• Spend your time thinking about losing weight, checking and weighing yourself
• Exercise a lot, with strict rules about how much you must do
• Develop very structured eating times
• Make up rules about food – for example listing 'good' and 'bad' types or only eating certain colours of food

I continued to restrict my food intake and exercise more. Everyone else expressed concern about my rapid weight loss. But I didn't want to stop. 

Anorexia and your body

While experiencing anorexia, you might:

• Weigh less than you do normally, or should do for your age and height
• Lose weight very fast
• Become physically underdeveloped, especially if anorexia starts before puberty
• Feel very cold and weak
• Move around more slowly than normal
• Have irregular periods or none at all, if you usually menstruate
• Lose your hair or start to have very thin hair
• Develop fine fuzzy hair on your arms and face, called lanugo
• Lose interest in sex, or find you're not able to have or enjoy sex
• Find it hard to concentrate
• Develop fragile bones or problems like osteoporosis – this is a disease that makes your bones break easily

James's experience with eating disorders

James was a teenager when he developed an eating disorder. Stereotyping meant it took time for people to realise what James was experiencing. Watch James' story to learn about barriers to getting help, how yoga helped him accept his body and find his community.

Bulimia

If you get a bulimia diagnosis (known as bulimia nervosa), you may experience a cycle of what's called bingeing and purging.

Bingeing is eating large amounts of food in one go. You might do this when you're struggling with feelings or problems in your life.

Purging is acting to get rid of the food you have eaten after bingeing. You might do this because you’re worried about gaining weight from bingeing. Or you might feel guilty or ashamed of what you’ve eaten.

Bulimia and your feelings

If you experience bulimia, you might feel:

• Shame and guilt
• Hatred towards your body
• That you're fat
• Scared of being found out by family and friends
• Depressed or anxious
• Lonely, especially if no one knows about your diagnosis
• Very low, sad and upset
• Quick or sudden changes in your mood
• Stuck in a cycle of feeling out of control and trying to regain it
• Numb, as if feelings are blocked out by bingeing or purging

Bulimia and your actions

If you experience bulimia, you might:

• Eat lots of food in one go (binge)
• Try to get rid of food you've eaten (purge) – by making yourself sick, using laxatives or exercising a lot
• Go through daily cycles of eating, feeling guilty, purging, feeling hungry and eating again
• Binge on foods that you think are bad for you
• Eat in secret
• Crave only certain types of food

Bulimia and your body

While experiencing bulimia, you might:

• Stay roughly the same weight, or experience frequent weight changes
• Be dehydrated, which can cause bad skin
• Feel bloated or have stomach pain
• Have irregular periods or none at all, if you usually menstruate
• Harm your teeth and get a sore throat from stomach acid, by making yourself sick
• Develop irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), stretched colon, constipation or heart disease, if you continually use laxatives

Binge eating disorder

If you get a diagnosis of binge eating disorder, you might feel unable to stop eating, even if you want to.

You might rely on food to make you feel better. And you might also use food to hide difficult feelings. 

Binge eating disorder and your feelings

If you experience binge eating disorder, you might feel:

• Out of control
• As if you can't stop eating
• Ashamed of how much you eat
• Lonely and empty
• Very low, even worthless
• Unhappy about your body
• Stressed and anxious

Binge eating disorder and your actions

If you experience binge eating disorder, you might:

• Eat large amounts all at once (bingeing)
• Eat without really thinking about it, especially when doing other things
• Often eat foods that are high in fat or calories
• Eat for comfort when you feel stressed, upset, bored or unhappy
• Eat until you feel uncomfortably full or sick
• Hide how much you're eating
• Find dieting hard whenever you try it

Binge eating disorder and your body

While experiencing binge eating disorder, you might:

• Put on weight
• Feel sick a lot
• Have shortness of breath
• Get sugar highs and lows, which means having bursts of energy then feeling very tired
• Develop some gut health problems, such as acid reflux or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
• Develop other health problems, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, or joint and muscle pain

Other specified feeding and eating disorder (OSFED)

If you get an OSFED diagnosis, you have an eating disorder. You may experience any feelings, actions or body changes linked to other eating disorders. But you don't meet all the criteria for anorexia, bulimia or binge eating disorder.

This doesn't mean that your eating disorder is less serious than others.

OSFED just means that your disorder doesn't neatly fit into current diagnoses. Getting a diagnosis of OSFED can help you access treatment and support.

Examples of OSFED include:

• Atypical anorexia – you have many behaviours associated with anorexia nervosa, but your weight is within or above the ‘normal’ range
• Bulimia (of low frequency and/or limited duration) – you have many behaviours associated with bulimia, but the binge/purge cycles don’t happen as often or for as long
• Binge eating disorder (of low frequency and/or limited duration) – you have many behaviours associated with binge eating disorder, but the binges don’t happen as often or for as long
• Purging disorder – you purge, for example by making yourself sick, to control your weight or shape, but this isn’t part of binge/purge cycles
• Night eating syndrome– you repeatedly eat a lot at night, either waking up from sleep, or after your evening meal

OSFED used to be called ‘eating disorder not otherwise specified’ (EDNOS). This name is used less commonly now.

For more details, see Beat's information about OSFED.

That word 'atypical' stopped me from getting help. Inpatient help was denied me due to my BMI. All this created a bitter relationship between me and my mental health.

Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)

If you get a diagnosis of ARFID, you'll strongly feel the need to avoid certain foods or types of foods.

There are different reasons why you avoid or restrict types of food, including.

• Wanting to avoid the smell, taste, texture or temperature of certain foods
• Previous distressing experiences with food
• Lack of interest in eating
• Feeling anxious about eating

ARFID does not tend to be linked to body image issues. It's more anxiety about the process of eating itself.

For more details, see Beat's information about ARFID.

My eating disorder has never been about body image or control. And I've had it for as long as I can remember. When I'm faced with certain foods I feel a reaction in the pit of my stomach like someone has put a plate of the most disgusting things in front of me. I can only equate the sensation to walking past an open sewer. 

Pica

If you get a diagnosis of pica, you'll often eat things that aren't food. And you'll have had this behaviour for at least a month.

The things you eat tend to have no nutritional value. Some examples include chalk, metal or paint. This can be very damaging to your body.

For more details, see Beat's information about pica.

Rumination disorder

If you get a diagnosis of rumination disorder, you'll regularly regurgitate your food. This means bringing food back up that you've already eaten and swallowed.

You won't have a physical health problem to explain it. You might re-chew, re-swallow or spit out the food you regurgitate.

For more details, see Beat's information about rumination disorder.

Diabulimia

Diabulimia can affect people with type 1 diabetes. It means you restrict your insulin, or stop taking it, to control how many calories your body absorbs from food.

Diabulimia is not a formal medical diagnosis, so your doctor might not know about it. But it's a term that some people with type 1 diabetes use to describe this experience.

Some people also use the terms ‘T1ED’ or 'T1DE'. These are short for ‘type 1 diabetes with an eating disorder’. You may hear these used to describe living with type 1 diabetes and experiencing an eating disorder, including restricting your insulin.

How do I get an eating disorder diagnosis?

The first step towards getting help for an eating disorder is usually to visit your GP. They will ask about: 

• Your feelings and behaviours towards food and eating
• Your overall health
• How long you've been experiencing difficulties with food and eating
• The impact it's having on your life

A diagnosis usually also involves checking your height and weight, and having blood tests.

If your GP thinks you have an eating disorder, they should refer you to an eating disorder specialist for more help. 

Difficulty getting a diagnosis

Getting a formal eating disorder diagnosis isn't always easy.

For example, you might have difficulty if:

• Your problems with eating aren't easy for your doctor to categorise 
• You have a very difficult relationship with food which affects your mental health, but doesn't fit into any current diagnoses
• You may be experiencing more than one eating disorder, or symptoms from multiple disorders
• You experience stigma – for example, doctors are less likely to recognise eating disorders in people with larger bodies, or in men

But it can be helpful to understand feelings and behaviours linked to certain eating disorders even if you don't have a diagnosis. Or if you prefer to consider your experiences in a non-medical way.

Our page on recovering from an eating problem has more information about getting a diagnosis and different treatments.