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When you’re trying to drop pounds, you might decide to run more, eat pizza in moderation, and even wear a fitness tracker to chart your progress. However, problems may arise when the mission starts taking over your life.
“Engaging in these behaviors can be a slippery slope,” clinical psychologist Stacey Rosenfeld, PhD, author of “Does Every Woman Have an Eating Disorder?” told Health. “It’s easy, especially for people with perfectionist tendencies or a genetic predisposition to slide across the spectrum from ‘normal eating’ to ‘disordered eating’ to ‘eating disordered.'”
Here are some signs that your healthy habits may be swerving into unhealthy territory.
You Weigh Yourself Multiple Times a Day
If you’re stepping on the scale before and after meals, or if you adjust the way you stand on the scale to tweak the numbers, this is behavior that might get worse over time if you do it consistently.
“Unless you have a physician-prescribed reason to get on a scale, weighing yourself once a week is enough,” Bonnie Brennan, senior clinical director of adult services at the Eating Recovery Center in Denver, Colo., told Health.
Weight naturally fluctuates throughout the day, so if you’re inclined to step on the scale daily, Brennan advised doing it first thing in the morning, after going to the restroom, and before breakfast for the most reliable data.
You Count Every Calorie
Journaling meals and snacks is a good way to avoid mindless munching, but at the same time it discourages intuitive eating, so you begin choosing foods based solely on their caloric value, ignoring important vitamins and nutrients and your own sense of satisfaction.
“There’s a fine line between calorie counting and the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors associated with an eating disorder,” said Rosenfeld. “If you already struggle with regulating your eating habits or thoughts, it’s a good idea to lift your focus off calories.”
To eat healthfully, focus on filling half your plate with veggies and whole fruits, one-quarter with lean protein like chicken or fish, and one-quarter with a whole grain, like quinoa or brown rice.
You See Thinness As a Resolution for All of Your Problems
Being focused on weight loss to help resolve health-related symptoms or reduce your risk for health issues (e.g., prediabetes or diabetes, obesity, sleep apnea) is okay. However, if something is telling you that life will be wonderful when you reach some magical weight, or when your thighs stop touching, or when your abs are completely flat, there’s something more to your thoughts on weight loss.
“It’s believing there’s something external we can change that will make us feel good about ourselves internally—that if we can just be thin enough or beautiful enough, everything else will fall into place,” said Brennan. But dropping 5 or even 10 pounds is unlikely to help you land a job or improve your relationships.
Furthermore, this kind of unrealistic thinking could set you up for failure in other areas of your life and prevent you from proactively working on issues in a healthy way.
You Consider Food to Be Good or Bad
Seeing certain foods as only good (e.g., broccoli) and other foods as only bad (e.g., potatoes) could be a sign of focusing too strongly on weight loss.
“The more we use this phraseology, the more susceptible we are to judging ourselves by what we eat,” Christine Peat, PhD, clinical associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told Health. “It gives food too much importance.”
Of course, you don’t want to eat only candy bars or doughnuts, but no food is inherently good or bad, said Peat. However, some foods offer more nutrients than others. Donuts and candy have nutritional value in calories, fat, carbs, and protein. But, they may not provide many micronutrients.
Try to think of foods as fuel for a healthy body. That means getting all the micronutrients, like potassium, magnesium, and vitamin C, as well as vitamins A and B6. Eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables can help give you what you need.
A 2014 article in Preventing Chronic Disease lists the top 41 foods (all fruits and vegetables) that qualify as “nutrient powerhouses” based on how many disease-preventing nutrients they have per 100 grams. Tops on the list were a variety of leafy greens.
You’re Avoiding Most Foods
Our bodies are designed to run on a variety of nutrients, and this includes carbohydrates and fats as well as protein and fiber. If you find yourself restricting calories for reasons that aren’t backed by a healthcare provider or nutritionist’s recommendations, it could be a sign of disordered eating.
“Often restriction begets restrictions, with diets becoming more and more limited over time,” said Rosenfeld. Having “forbidden foods” has the potential to lead you to disordered eating and can even trigger binges as you start to crave the nutrients your body lacks.
You’re Skipping Social Functions
Whether you’re afraid you’ll drink too many margaritas and eat too many miniature hot dogs or that people will comment that you’re not, isolating yourself to focus on weight loss-related pursuits is a red flag that your focus is getting too narrow.
Brennan has had patients who had a really tough time with holidays like Christmas and New Year’s because they feel pressured to eat and see people. But isolation is not healthy.
“When you close yourself off, you become victim to only your own self-deprecating thoughts and messages,” Adrienne Ressler, LMSW and vice president of the Renfrew Center Foundation, one of the country’s top treatment centers for eating disorders, told Health. “You’re not getting any feedback that would challenge those unhealthy beliefs or assumptions.”
You can also feel like you’re alone, which often spirals into depression and eating disorders, added Peat. Some of the most important checks on a budding disorder are friends and family saying, “Hey, I’m kind of worried about you.”
If you’re frequently saying no to drinks, dinners, and parties that might mess with your diet or exercise protocol, it might be time to get in some healthy social interaction—and any support you need.