What do you think of this?

I've gone both ways. I have a restrictive eating disorder that I'll probably never be fully rid of, lurking in the background, but also a long period of 'being better' and overeating during that time to the point of obesity.

When you have an eating disorder such as AN, the restrictive eating habits can sure feel very pleasurable. There is pleasure and joy in knowing you didn't eat more than 300 cals per day for a week, or that you're on a fast.

And, to be extremely blunt, it's easier than eating healthily and a reasonable calorie amount when you have a disorder. The hunger goes away quickly, it's not 24/7 suffering like many people without an eating disorder would believe. Any fatigue or cramps that still happen can feel very pleasurable in themselves, because it means you're 'doing good' (obviously I can't speak for every restrictive eater out there). There are very few calories to add up and count, so you're not having to worry about that. You find your low cal staple 'safe' foods, and that's that. Eating more is really tricky. Nutrition, obviously, doesn't really come into it.. many try to make their tiny intake as nutritious as possible, but again with such a tiny amount you're not having to work anything out. Basically just pick something with a lot of protein or vitamins, whatever your disordered mind thinks you should pick.

And of course, weight comes off very quickly so you have more instant gratification from your "habit".. just like a fat person does from food.

Again being blunt, I could go either way and have gone both in the past. I could easily stop caring completely, overeat and get fat, and that would be easy and pleasurable. I could also restrict heavily, take complete 'control', fast, and simply not eat.. and that would be just as easy and pleasurable. As it stands, I'm not doing either and am eating a healthy amount of healthy foods.. but it takes way more concentration and is way less pleasurable than either for me. Eating 1200 a day and getting proper nutrition is 'simple', but it's not easy for the disordered mind.

But I wouldn't consider my overeating and my restriction actually equivalent. My restrictive habits are a disorder that I battle, and I've had this restrictive disorder since I was a very very young child. My overeating, if I do swing that way, is literally the absence of care. I don't feel the true NEED to overeat, I don't overeat from emotions, or boredom. I just do. When I fall into the restrictive eating, it's a NEED. Something will trigger it to start with (or has done in the past), something completely unrelated to eating and weight for me. And yeah it's a downright need. My brain has fucked up when I restrict, when I overeat.. nope.

When it comes to equivalence, I think it comes down to the obese persons mindset. NEEDING to overeat, overeating until you're sick to the stomach and then eating more and hurting yourself, literally not being able to say no, and gaining pleasure from all of this imo is equivalent to a restrictive and disordered person NEEDING to fast, starving until they're sick to the stomach and then ignoring it and starving more, and literally not being able to say NO to their thoughts of restriction and fasting - and again, gaining some sort of pleasure (whether actual pleasure or a twisted form of it) from it all, or if no pleasure, simply being too addicted. The thing is, pretty much every restrictive eating disordered person works that way (or similar, depending on their particular form of restrictive eating) but not every obese person does. Some do, and they're normally very large (like 600lb life large), but many just.. don't care, and overeat because fuck it and it's nice and don't care to control it.

In my mind, the average fat/obese person is equivalent to the person who is underweight because they're too lazy to eat and too lazy to make good meals. They just grab a bit of pizza and go back to their video game, and end up eating under their TDEE constantly simply because they can't be bothered. No NEED, just desire to live that way because 'fuck it', just the absence of care. Those people are equal... but there are many more careless overeaters than there are careless undereaters, so the impact on society is certainly not equal.

tl;dr whether overeating and undereating are equivalent is a complex issue, that is most likely down to individuals and their personal mindsets, that i don't think can be summed up in one image.

/r/fatlogic Thread Link - i.imgur.com