Bree

That's not fair! Just not fair!

And Gurdur, I'm not angry with you .

She isn't a binge/purge type of girl. Even so, I know for a fact that purging your daily intake doesn't mean weight loss.

Strawberry

If it makes you feel any better, Bree, there's no way she can sustain that forever, and she'll likely end up with serious cholesterol problems later on. That and her grocery bills must be horrendous!

My cousin, who's male and about 6' tall, had to eat 7000 calories a day while he was on a pro rowing team. I do find the 8000 a bit hard to believe; I don't think you'd even need to stick a finger down your throat to throw up from all that...is this her normal daily intake?

lisarea

I never counted my calories, but I used to be impossibly skinny and couldn't seem to put on weight no matter what I did.

When I was a kid, I was put on various diets, including one where I got heavy whipping cream on my cereal and in my tomato soup instead of milk, and where I had to have three milkshakes a day, etc. I was 'prescribed' a haircut by my pediatrician because my hair was too heavy for my skinny little neck. My ribs showed in detail, my knees and elbows stuck out, my belly was concave, and it was a big game in school for kids to wrap their fingers around my wrists, because you could almost do it twice.

When I got older, I tried other things, too. I used to make myself drink beer to put on weight, I'd eat massive amounts of nuts and cheese and junk food, and nothing worked. I'm about 5'7", and I'd fluctuate between about 95 and 105#. I had my son at 21, and was amazed and a little disoriented at my fatness when he was born--I actually had a pair of 'fat pants' that were size EIGHT--but it dropped right off and I settled in at about 110.

Then, magically, in my 30s, I started gaining weight. And you know what I discovered? I have NO IDEA how to diet. I'm still not fat or anything, but I'm not skinny anymore, either. And I have zero skills and experience watching what I eat. (Luckily, I like vegetables, so I'm OK, but if I didn't, I would be SO screwed right now.)

And the fact is that, even if you don't get a big ass from eating buckets of lard all day, it can still kill you. In retrospect, I don't think the minor weight gain was worth the cost, the effort, and the potential health risks of overeating.

Also, just FYI, the fact that thinness is considered by some to be an ideal doesn't make it OK to accuse skinny people of having eating disorders, or to make nasty comments about it. I know I didn't choose to be built like a lollipop, and it genuinely used to upset me when people would accuse me of being bulemic, or tell me I needed to put on a few pounds. As though I hadn't noticed.

Scotty

Gosh, I thought I was bad when I was hitting between 3k and 4k a day intake. Sheesh.
Now, if I have over 2k that is gaining weight at 230 (I lost 60lbs).

Now I would have to eat 1.5k and excercise like crazy to lose the rest. Must be interesting to be able to eat that much (I never really ate that much in one sitting though, mine was just all day eating).

I am sure she doesn't eat 8k calories every single day though, but my brother used to eat a whole loaf of bread with meat and cheese in one sitting, every day plus normal meals. He weighed 140 at 5'11" for a long long time.
Not anymore, but he is still in good shape (smoked for 20 years or so, started in the 5th grade, finally quit).

Now I need another 40-50lbs to go away, with no effort...

-Scott

Ensign Steve

CX is right, Bree. There is something missing from this equation. Okay, everybody already knows I'm a binge-eater, so I'll put that embarrassing tidbit up in public again but I am also pretty thin. I don't purge either. I just don't binge all the time. The rest of the time, I eat a very balanced diet and exercise.

So my question is, does she really eat like that every week? If she does, she just started, and she will gain weight. If she doesn't, she probably just makes up for it the rest of the time.

Did you pay attention to whether she actually finishes that food? My cousin orders the ultra-mega-nachos and then eats like two chips and has them take the rest away. I could strangle her!!

For anyone keeping score, I eat about 1400/day on my good days, and upwards of 10000 on my bad days, and I wear a size 8.

Godless Dave

If I can derail slightly, I had an experience similar to Lisarea's. From when I was a little kid to about age 18 I could eat just about anything, Homer Simpson style, and was still skinny. In college I was on the all you can eat meal plan and bulked up from 150 to 165, still on the skinny side for a 6'1" male. By the time I was 22 I was holding steady at 175-180, and still eating like a horse. This was back before McDonald's had the double quarter pounder with cheese, so I would just get a quarter pounder extra value meal with another quarter pounder on the side. A 12 inch pizza was single-serving as far as I was concerned. And I drank more beer then than I do now: 3-4 beers a day, every day, sometimes more on weekends. Never gained a pound.

Until I was 28. Then BOOM. Before I knew it I weighed 240. I didn't realize it until I went to buy some boxer shorts to sleep in. I got a 34 waist so I'd have a little extra room but they were way too small. Four years later I weighed 280. And since I'd never, ever given a thought to what or how much I ate, changing my eating habits was (and is) a big deal.

I guess the lesson is, eat sensibly even if it doesn't seem like you need to.

HaysooChreesto!

My brother in law is one of those that no matter what he eats he doesn't gain weight. My sister says that he actually sweats in his sleep and has to use massive amounts of deoderant to keep from smelling like a horse. He's also a professional chef and so he's always around food and is constantly preparing high calorie but really great food at home.
He just has a haul ass metabolism.
Me, I struggled to lose about 30 pounds in the last year. I really have to watch what I eat and I have to work out or else it comes back quickly. Oh well. At least I don't have to bath in Right Guard to keep the horse stable smell off me.

christ-on-a-stick

Bree,

Are you *sure* she's doesn't purge? Not all who purge "binge" in the "textbook" sense (consuming a truly HUGE quantity) - one of the EDNOS (eating disorder not otherwise specified) types is the
bulimarexic - one who purges regular or slightly large but not HUGE meals or as someone else mentioned alternately binges/starves to maintain or more rarely, binges and "purges" through overexcercise/laxatives/diuretics to maintain normal weight.

If none of these are the case, she may just be an incredibly unusual case but 8,000 calories EVERY day seems pretty insane.

LianaLi

*coughs* I could believe it. A typical day of eating in high school would consist of a bag of nantucket choclate chip cookies (8 cookies) and a glass of milk. Or sugarloaded coffee. I probably would have a candy bar around 10 or 11 am. For lunch, I'd have something like pudding, or more junk from the snack machine, since I point blank refused to risk eating the food from the school's cafeteria. Add in a nice coca cola. I'd follow this healthy regime with more candy in the afternoon, and something resembling a normal meal in the evening. Naturally, it had to be heavy on the meats, and light on the veggies, since I'd hated vegtables ever since the day my parents tried to make me vegetarian. And the next day, I'd do the same thing. I ate consistently like this, in the vain hope it would help me gain weight.

Sadly, to say I didn't. I hovered around 90 and 95 lbs until I started soccer, whereI gained 5 lbs, and finally broke 100. Weight training in soccer kicked me up to 105. Kung fu kicked my weight up to 115, a limit I haven't managed to break. Granted, I'm only 22, so I don't think the metabolism will slow down any time soon. Actually, martial arts kicked it up again. I get hugnry every 3 to 5 hrs now. I've started to eat healthier, by replacing breakfast with a real breakfast like cereal or eggs and toast, and things like that. Snacks have become fruits, and I've learned to like eating veggies again. And I've discovered the joys of organic food. The weight gain has been something a little strange to adjust to. I gained muscles in my butt of all places, and went up from a size 1 to a size 6 in jean sizes. And I can't button 3/4 sleeves around my forearms anymore. I can comfort myself that it's not fat, but muscle definition is not exactly the defintion of feminine.

An odd counter-rumination.

-Liana

Godless Dave

I'm sorry Liana but I have to disagree with that statement in the strongest possible terms.

Dave (whose favorite Olympic event is women's diving