superskinnyme I'm curious as to what you think of her "study" thus far, particularly regarding the legitimacy of the project and the ethical issues surrounding setting yourself up without having a strong support system (specifically a mental health specialist) during the experiment. She maintains that this is an "extreme diet" and not the beginning stages of an eating disorder and she seems rather confident that she will simply stop and gain the weight back soon after as she is happy with her weight. If you aren't familiar, this is a journalist who is experimenting with a highly restrictive diet (what looks like about 500-700 calories/day) for 4 weeks: I am not doing this as some sort of “lifestyle” or to reach a certain weight. It is merely a study to see if “real” people can stick to such a regime, and the effects that it has on me...As extreme dieters weigh themselves every day I shall also be doing this, as well as starting a strict exercise regime. The entirety of the introduction can be found here.
Do you think that theres a time stamp on eating disorders, a point at which you can stop before it takes you over? Do intensity and mentality play a large enough part in their development for a person to just stop after a month? Does the fact that this woman is currently overweight play a part in the legitimacy and objectivity of the project?
Scattered questions, little background--I hope you can work with that.
