When fat is not the issue

Overweight or underweight?

Anorexic, bulimic or obese?

However diverse the symptoms the cause may be very similar.

Malissa Jones is 21 years old and once held the dubious title of ‘Britain’s Fattest Teenager’.  She is now suffering from anorexia.

At her heaviest of 34 stone she was eating 15,000 calories a day, more than seven times her energy requirements.  To save her life she had a gastric band fitted, saw the weight drop off and became pregnant.  Her son, Harry, was delivered by caesarean section six months into the pregnancy.  Malissa was suffering from liver failure and Harry, malnourished due to Malissa’s eating issues, died an hour after being delivered.  In an interview with Closer magazine Malissa said she doesn’t know whether she will survive on her current 300 daily calories but can’t force herself to eat.

Malissa has shown two very opposite symptoms but the cause is the same: her relationship with food is out of balance going from one extreme to another.  The gastric band just helped her change the effect rather than remove the cause.

And this is where most of the solutions available for weight loss are just wrong.  It’s rarely as simple as cutting down on calories and taking more exercise.  The reasons why we overeat or undereat have nothing to do with calories.  It’s about obsessive behaviour and the focus is food.

The only way you can break it is by pulling apart the old relationship and building a new one which is not easy and not quick.  Unfortunately too many people want the quick and easy and spend years and lots of money pursuing the promises that the commercial weight loss industry make.

Malissa’s story is interesting and heart breaking.  I only hope she can find the help now that she should have had in her teenage years.

Jackie Notman is a feng shui consultant and healer.  In her e-book ‘Diets Don’t Work’ she has pulled together a step – by step plan that will help you balance your relationship with food.  This article is from her blog ‘Life – and everything else’ where you’ll find an eclectic mix of articles and information.

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