Tirz + Eating disorder

[LettuceEater]

I've searched this forum like a maniac but barely seen anything related to eating disorders. I have EDNOS and can easily fast 48-72hr at a time and quickly fall into binge/purging cycle afterwards. I'm looking into tirz to eliminate the food noise and cravings that triggers the bingeing but I'm afraid starving will simply become too.. easy.

I'm not as young as when my ED first developed and I'm not trying to become anemic/faint/shit myself in public. I plan on continuing taking supplements (multivitamin, probiotics, just vanilla OTC stuff) and focusing on protein when I DO eat...

But yeah anyway anyone have any experience related to mixing EDs and GLPs?

 

[Beardboost]

With Triz you wont want to fast for 48-72h periods, but instead creating a diet around the Injections, immediate fasting for 14-16 hours each day rather than going for such a huge time frame, giving yourself 8 hours within the day to have 3 meals, Prioritizing protein, fibre and healthy fats. GLP1's help with cravings, In 10 weeks its been easy to not have anything with unhealthy amount of sugar, I resorted to food to cope with depression, gained 40kg in 3 years, so I know all about eating disorders, I set alarms to eat, 12pm - 3pm and 6pm even though I'm not hungry I still make sure to get my nutrition, GLP's gave me this strange mindset I thought Id never have.

 

[N Sharp]

Thank you for making a post about this, I'm glad you're doing research & being mindful about your specific scenario.

I was never diagnosed with an ED, but I did struggle with a similar pattern of fasting and binging - totally fine without food, but eating flipped a switch that made me feel out of control!

Never purged, but I could sense myself headed down a bad path and I desperately wanted a life without food issues - so I turned to Tirz as an opportunity to just reset and WOW! Food noise/fear/anguish/frustrations - gone!

It was incredibly eye-opening because I realized my personal issues were self-inflicted in a lot of ways (restriction, self-sabotage, etc.)

Tirz helped me learn how to eat smaller meals without the emotional anguish of my brain or physical punishment of hunger - which was exactly my goal and I'm so happy & grateful!

So with all this said, the important question now is what would you like your experience to look like? What is your goal with a GLP? If you achieve that goal & stopped taking a GLP, does that world look like what you want? These are just some questions I asked myself before starting my own journey, so figured I'd share for your own research too.

 

[Grogu]

BED or another ED diagnosis is generally one of the exclusion criteria on clincial studies for this class of medications, so there is limited research on using these medications in those with eating disorders. Anectdotal evidence, however, suggests that glp-1s are associated with reduced binge eating in individuals with obesity or overweight.

Although you've never been diagnosed with an ED, not eating for such a long period of time and then going on a binge/purge cycle clearly sounds like an eating disorder. Your fear that with lack of food noise to trigger cravings and thus causing yourself to starve is exactly why practitioners have been reluctant to prescribe glp-1s to people with eating disorders.

Over the last couple of years, I've come across many posts of people with EDs getting some relief with tirzepatide. So, in addition to all the supplements you list to keep you from fainting in public, you might also consider adding some therapy into the mix, if you aren't already seeking treatment.

Pharmacological Treatment of Binge Eating Disorder and Frequent Comorbid Diseases - PubMed

Binge eating disorder (BED) is the most common specific eating disorder (ED). It is frequently associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, bipolar disorder (BD), anxiety disorders, alcohol and nicotine use disorder, and obesity. The aim of this narrative review...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[5byfive]

This is one of those "I'm an ED therapist but I'm not your therapist" posts.

For Binge Eating Disorder, it seems likely that GLPs could be helpful, but BED really functions more like a substance abuse issue than what we normally think of as an eating disorder.

For other EDs, its much less clear. Realistically, there is some things that they do that would seem likely to help and some things they do that seem more likely to make the issue worse. At this point, there is just no way of knowing if they will be a net benifit or a net harm until we see research.

In a case like yours, it may be worth trying under the supervision of a licensed and experienced professional. This is really not a case where you want to lab rat yourself without support.

 

[randompersonrandom]

This is weigh-in but not advice; something I had to be mindful of because of both history and family history (I have BED and am prone to body dysmorphia, and have both anorexia and bulimia fairly well represented in my family) is that I had to do everything by numbers instead of my own judgement. I'm glad I did.

I'm 128 pounds and 5'5" now. I'm objectively normal going on slim, and most days I look terribly fat to myself. My compromise is that I'm aiming for dead-center of lower half of normal BMI, but no less. That means I'd end up at 121 pounds.

I doubt when I get there that it will look like enough, but I'm not going to go below that no matter what I think; what I think can't be trusted, I don't have reason to believe it would EVER be enough, and if I let my own not-quite-well eyes be my guide, I'll end up hurting myself.