Look — human to human, here’s the deal.

I was anorexic as a kid and young adult. When I got sick with what turned out to be a whole collection of things, I gained weight and I’ve never lost it. I didn’t lose weight when I worked out every day; I didn’t lose weight when I went 3+ days in a row without eating.

I personally wouldn’t call myself anorexic, because I think that’s best left as a medical diagnosis for people who are dangerously underweight. But I also can attest to the fact that it is possible to be a large woman without necessarily eating the way you might expect.

For some people, weight is about calories in/out. For those of us who’ve been starving ourselves since we were 13, it’s different. And it’s important to talk about our health and our dangerous eating patterns. It’s important to break the habit of assuming that weight and overeating go hand in hand.