Everything about our society tells us that we must be thin. Everyone on TV and in the movies is thin. Models are thin. Our classmates are thin. Our neighbors are thin. Our husband's secretary is thin. Are there any fat men or women on "Desperate Housewives?"

American men and women are constantly on diets of some sort: South Beach, Scarsdale, the Zone, and other catchy names promise us that we too can look like thin celebrities. We enmesh ourselves so thoroughly in these diets that we often develop a weight loss eating disorder. Instead of limiting our calories and getting more exercise, we do anything that works quickly; never mind the fact that we gain all that weight back, plus even more pounds, as soon as we start to eat normally again. Just as with Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder, weight loss disorder can be just as deadly.

What Characterizes a Weight Loss Eating Disorder?

Those who suffer from a weight loss eating disorder are always on some kind of fad diet. In addition, they use several over-the-counter medicinal aids to lose weight. Green tea, vitamins, "energy" pills, enzymes; none of these products are approved by the Food and Drug Administration as true weight loss aids. People with a weight loss eating disorder also use several other easily obtained medicines to lose weight quickly; ipecac syrup, laxatives, and diuretics ("water pills").

Ipecac syrup induces vomiting due to accidental poisoning. It is never meant to be used on a long-term basis. Yet people with a weight loss eating disorder use it chronically, as bulimics do, to vomit up excessive food they've consumed. Repeated use of ipecac can cause the heart muscles to weaken, chest pain, breathing problems, rapid heart rate, and cardiac arrest.

Those who develop a weight loss eating disorder very often use laxatives excessively to shed unwanted pounds through an increased elimination of fecal matter. This not only doesn't work, it is medically very dangerous. By the time a laxative takes effect, calories from food have already been absorbed into the body. Laxatives are meant for occasional use only.

They actually backfire if used excessively and cause intense constipation. Laxative abusers, such as people with a weight loss eating disorder, have bloody diarrhea, electrolyte imbalance and dehydration. While most people think of laxatives as harmless, they can cause permanent damage to the bowels, severe medical complications and even death.

A weight loss eating disorder results in excessive use of diuretics. These are pills that rid the body of unwanted fluid. Diuretics are often used to treat high blood pressure and cardiac problems; they are not meant to be used as a weight loss aid. Those suffering from a weight loss eating disorder who abuse diuretics commonly found in any drug store lose vital fluids and electrolytes, develop severe dehydration and kidney damage. Diuretics and laxatives combined is a prescription for eventual death by heart failure.

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