How does Anorexia Work?

Question

Before you guys misconstrue the question, I mean, what happens when a person is anorexic? My understanding is that when one starves themselves is, by going to an extreme deficit of calories the body goes into what is called a starvation mode.

That is a natural technique to adapt to the environment because your body thinks that there is no food around you.

As a result, your body slows down its metabolism to preserve fat storages to keep you alive. Since obese people have much more fat in their body it will take a while longer until they are deprived of the nutrients to keep then alive.

How come this would lead to muscle-loss as well as fat-loss if the body is living off the fat storages?

Answer 1

Anorexia is a disease actually it happens when you have been starving yourself for awhile your body needs food to survive anorexic people usually wear heavy clothes so people wont notice . If you dont eat it is harmful to your body because your not getting any vitamins or nutrients you need.

Answer 2

it eats ur fat and it eats ur muscle for nutrients since they arent eating or barely eating the nutrients are limited and u find proteins not in fat but in muscle ur body wants the proteins so it eats away at ur muscle as well u basically just lose a ton of weight and it kills your organs cuz they need nutrients but the nutrients are used to keep u alive but they are limited

Edit: yes the proteins are last fat is first but muscle is burned off in the first 24hrs if u dont eat in starvation mode after 20-24hrs the muscle will start depleading so if it goes on for days or months or even yrs for some people they become dangerously skinny muscle being depleaded and usually anorexics have binge days wehre they eat so much and it slows down the process of the muscle depleading and fat but still it's terribly unhealthy..and i know this cuz iwas taught this by a few nurses while i was in the hospital cuz i was curious too

Answer 3

Anorexia is a mental illness in which an individual becomes so obsessed with their weight or yearns for control so much that they begin to purposefully starve themselves to control their weight and lose it.  The problem is, an anorexic sees a fat person, or never thinks their weight is good enough, whenever they look in the mirror, no matter how thin they become, and they're always unsatisfied.  If you're anorexic, you'll NEVER be thin enough until you're dead.  Not eating becomes a kind of "addiction", if you will. This is why an anorexic needs help from professionals: a.) to eat and stop losing weight b.) to see themselves as they are and be happier about it.  Anorexia usually has an underlying cause.  Like I said, sometimes it can be about control, if an individual feels that they don't have enough control over their life so they try to control their weight and diet.  Often, it's because of bullying, and it doesn't have to be about weight, but often is.  Sometimes it's due to stressful times or domestic abuse.  Any trauma really. Sometimes Anorexia stems from another mental disorder like depression.  It's also a psychiatrist's job to find the problem that caused anorexia in the first place, so that they fix the anorexia.  But doctors choose to handle the treatment of the disease differently.  This isn't just a physical problem: it's physical problems stemmed from a mental problem.  It'd be good if your mother had a PhD in psychology.

Answer 4

because your body starts utlizing everything to find energy.  in a sense you start "eating" your own muscle mass to get through the day.  often times individuals with anorexia will also do certain things to attempt to keep their metabolism as well.