Sick Enough
Dr Jennifer L. Gaudiani
A doctor's plain explanation of what eating disorders do to the body, at any size. Reassuring rather than frightening.
Often helpful for: Anyone worried they're 'not sick enough' to ask for help.
Clean out the mental fridge
Everyone keeps things in there far too long: guilt about the cookies, the promise you broke on Monday, a comment from 1998, the way you looked in someone else's photo. It all goes furry at the back and quietly makes the whole place smell.
So take it out, look at it once, and decide what it deserves — vanish it, bin it, compost it, chill it or talk about it. Nothing here is judged, scored or sent anywhere.
You don't have to solve any of this today. You just have to stop storing it in the dark.
What's gone off in there?
What kind of thing is it?
Can't find the words? Borrow one of these
Now — what does it deserve?
Things you've quietly noticed
Kept only on this device. A count is not a verdict — it's just a note to your future self, and something concrete to bring to a clinician if you ever want to.
If it's bigger than a bad week
Difficulties with eating happen to people of every age, size, gender and background — including people who look perfectly well and people in larger bodies. You do not have to be underweight, in crisis, or “sick enough” to ask for help. Asking early makes it easier, always.
Worth asking someone about
- Food, weight or your body takes up most of your thinking, most days.
- You're eating in secret, or lying about what you've eaten.
- You try to undo food afterwards — skipping, punishing exercise, vomiting, laxatives or pills.
- Eating feels out of control in a way that frightens you.
- You've cut out more and more foods, or your rules keep tightening.
- You feel dizzy, cold, faint, or your period has stopped or changed.
- You avoid eating with other people, or avoid seeing people altogether.
- You feel there's no point in trying, or you've thought about hurting yourself.
Where support usually comes from
Your GP, family doctor or nurse
The usual front door. You can ask specifically for an eating disorder assessment or referral — you don't have to wait until it's severe, and you can ask not to be weighed or not to be told the number.
A national eating disorder helpline or charity
Most countries have one with free phone, webchat and email support, plus carer support. Search your country's name plus 'eating disorder helpline'. In an emergency use your local emergency number instead.
School, college, workplace or student health
Counsellors and occupational health can often start support faster than a waiting list, and can help with practical adjustments.
A registered dietitian or therapist with eating disorder training
Ask directly whether they're trained in eating disorders and what approach they use. It is completely reasonable to interview them first.
Someone you trust, first
Telling one person out loud is often what makes the next step possible. It doesn't have to be a professional to count.
A small shelf of books
Widely recommended titles for a general reader. Listing them isn't an endorsement or a treatment plan, and a book is never a substitute for care. Your library almost certainly has some of them for free.
Intuitive Eating
Evelyn Tribole & Elyse Resch
The standard text on rebuilding trust with hunger and fullness after years of dieting rules.
Often helpful for: Long dieting histories, constant food rules.
Overcoming Binge Eating
Dr Christopher Fairburn
A structured, evidence-based self-help programme, often used alongside therapy.
Often helpful for: Binge eating, loss-of-control eating.
Anti-Diet
Christy Harrison
On diet culture, weight stigma and why 'willpower' framing tends to make things worse.
Often helpful for: Shame, comparison, diet burnout.
The Body Is Not an Apology
Sonya Renee Taylor
About body shame, and where it's learned from — gentle, political, warm.
Often helpful for: Mirror thoughts, comparison, feeling watched.
When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder
Lauren Muhlheim
Practical guidance for parents and carers supporting a young person at home.
Often helpful for: Parents and carers.
Please read this bit. Why Weight? is an educational app. It is not medical advice, not therapy, and not a diagnosis — it can't assess you, and nothing you write here is seen by anyone. Patterns you notice here are conversation starters for a qualified clinician, not conclusions. If you're in danger, feeling faint or unwell, or thinking about harming yourself, contact your local emergency services or a crisis line now.
Inside your fridge right now
Only the things you chose to keep. Everything vanished, binned or composted is already gone — there's no bin to go rummaging in.
Top shelf — parked for now
Door shelf — worth talking about
Nothing cleared out yet.
Four small things that make it work
Say it plainly
Write the thought exactly as it sounds in your head — not the polite version. The ugly wording is the one with the weight in it.
Ask who said it first
Most harsh food thoughts are borrowed: a parent, a coach, a magazine, a comment years ago. Naming the original speaker loosens the grip.
Would you say it to a friend?
If you'd never say it to someone you love, it isn't a truth. It's just a habit of speech pointed inward.
Close the door
When you've binned it, do something with your hands for two minutes. Tea, a window, a stretch. Endings need a small physical full stop.
About "bad choices"
Choices aren't moral
Eating a cake isn't naughty and eating a salad isn't virtuous. Food is food. The good/bad language was mostly sold to you by people with something to sell.
Gaining weight isn't a crime
Bodies change with medication, illness, age, grief, hormones, injury and plain ordinary living. A bigger body is not evidence of a worse person.
Self-kindness works better
People who forgive themselves after a slip return to their routines faster. Shame makes the gap longer, every single time it's been studied.
If food, eating or how you look is taking up most of your thoughts, or you're struggling with eating in a way that frightens you, please talk to a clinician or a support line. That isn't a failure of this fridge — it's exactly what the door shelf is for.