Nowadays, it is all too easy for teens—especially girls—to get sucked into the dieting frenzy. With glossy posters of stick-thin models and giant billboards of airbrushed perfection at every turn, there is constant pressure to look thin if you’re a girl and muscular if you’re a guy. Unfortunately, looking “good” doesn’t always mean being healthy.

Like many teenage girls, I paid attention to my diet and exercised regularly to maintain a healthy weight. To ensure that I made smart choices, I read nutrition facts on food labels closely, kept track of the foods I ate and checked my weight daily. During meals, I avoided fried, greasy dishes. Fat-free, low-calorie and sugar-free snacks became my new obsession. These were all good habits for healthy living; I was just being health conscious to take good care of my body. Right? Not necessarily.
 

photo by blmurch on Flickr.com

Good Intentions Gone Wrong

Deep down, I was curious about my obsessive behavior. Even though many of my friends and classmates had similar habits, I couldn’t help feeling uneasy at times. Even though I had never starved myself or made myself throw up, I often felt guilty and fat after indulging in a rich treat. And it didn’t seem right to constantly check the nutrition labels and obsess over every single pound I lost or gained. If this was really good for me, then why did I feel so bad?

After much coaxing from my parents, who were concerned about my behavior, I finally summoned the courage to talk to my doctor about my habits during an annual checkup. I was shocked to discover that my “healthy” eating habits and behaviors were actually mentally and physically harmful. While the intention of following a balanced diet is good, my doctor explained, becoming too preoccupied about the calories and fat in food is unhealthy.

The real secret to a healthy, balanced diet is moderation. While low-calorie and fat-free snacks seem to offer guilt-free munching, many of these foods are not as healthy as they are advertised to be. Oftentimes, these products contain extra sugar and sodium to make up for the flavor lost in the original version. Just because the cookies were reduced fat did not mean that I could eat twice as many; I still needed to control my portions.

A Dangerous Cycle

Obsessive dieting, weight-watching, calorie-counting and exercising have become so common in movies, TV shows and ads that we don’t recognize them as unhealthy behaviors any more. Instead, we have accepted them as “normal.” It’s so easy to fall into an unhealthy pattern of obsessive dieting and weight watching without even realizing it. The more I talked to my doctor, the more I realized that my body-checking behaviors had gotten out of hand.

Although everyone checks their body to some extent, I had allowed my weight checking to become a constant habit. Every time I stepped onto the scale, I was anxious and often felt worse, not better, about myself, which only motivated more of my obsessive eating and weighing.

“Health-conscious habits can turn into eating disorder behaviors when they become excessive,” says Rebecca Greif, Psy.D., at the Rutgers University Eating Disorders Clinic. “Obsessive dieting, excessive weight watching and excessive calorie counting [can] increase a person’s preoccupation with shape and weight…leading to low self-esteem,” adds Greif.

I had gotten into a cycle of behaviors that were dangerously similar to those of people with eating disorders. To avoid this pattern, my doctor suggested that I check my weight just once a week. This would also give me a more accurate reading, since body weight constantly fluctuates throughout the day with meals and exercise, but eventually stabilizes over the course of the week.

It was a relief to finally learn the truth. If it weren’t for this physical, I would have never known that my “healthy” attitudes toward my body, diet and, most importantly, myself weren’t so healthy. I’m learning to give my body the love and respect it deserves through a healthy, moderate diet and exercise. This takes me one step closer to achieving good physical health and peace of mind.

If you feel that you may be struggling with obsessive dieting, weight watching or other early signs of an eating disorder, talk to a trusted adult or medical professional. For more information on the treatment of eating disorders, visit Something-fishy.org.