Does chocolate-covered Katie have an eating disorder?

In this blog post, we shall answer the question “does chocolate covered Katie have an eating disorder” and look at who Katie is, her take on excessive exercise and the signs and symptoms of excessive exercise. We shall also look at what ‘thinspiration’ is and how it contributes to the development of eating disorders.

Does chocolate-covered Katie have an eating disorder?

No, chocolate-covered Katie dispelled rumours that she was suffering from an eating disorder. In a long post on her healthy dessert blog, she addressed the elephant in the room that she had ignored for a long time of her having an eating disorder.

She expressed the weirdness of being called both too thin and too fat in one post. She points out one comment where she was called pregnant and anorexic on the same post. She also addressed the girls using her photos for ‘thinspiration’ (we will talk about this later). Before we look at what Kate had to say about claims of her having an eating disorder, let us look at who chocolate covered Katie is.

Who is chocolate covered Katie?

Chocolate covered Katie is one of the top 25 food websites in America. The owner, Kate Higgins, is known for her love of chocolates that she can have for breakfast. Her blogs skyrocketed to become the number 1 source of healthy desserts and comfort food recipes. Her website gets up to 8 million views monthly.

She has been featured by The Today Show, USA Today, Time, CNN, The Food Network, Bon appétit, Cooking Light, People Magazine, MSN, Yahoo, and AOL homepages, and the ABC 5 O’clock News. amazon chose her debut cookbook as one of the top 20 cookbooks of the year. 

The Huffington Post also selected her as one of the best healthy food eating Instagram accounts to follow. 

Chocolate covered Katie anorexic?

Just like many other people in the limelight, Katie had decided not to address rumours and accusations that she was suffering from an eating disorder. However, due to an increase in the number of weight-related comments, she decided to address it. She was concerned that top searches of her name brought up the issue of eating disorders.

She denied having an eating disorder but brought up another interesting issue. She has had an unhealthy relationship with exercise in the past that affected her physical and mental health. She thought ‌the exercises were making her healthy but instead, over-exercising was sabotaging her efforts to get the curves she wanted and she never once thought that was the cause of her weight loss.

Katie, however, later realized that over-exercising was unhealthy and had become a major source of stress that was affecting her mood and appearance. She quit over-exercising and was able to gain 10-15 pounds. 

She also pointed out how wrong it was to judge someone from their physical appearance. She especially cautioned women against bullying each other using anonymous online names and writing words they wouldn’t be comfortable saying in real life. She said that the trolls made her realize that her worth needed to come from something other than the opinions of strangers.

Katie also clarified that it was untrue that her blogs promoted eating disorders and instead focused on food with whole grains, healthy fats, real-food ingredients and not artificial ones.low-calorie and sugar-free options are available in consideration of her readers with medical needs.

Excessive exercising 

Exercise bulimia is a form of obsessive or compulsive exercise as a way of cutting calories from binge eating or even regular eating. Exercises are done as a way of controlling weight.

This disease mostly goes unnoticed, as onlookers may interpret excessive exercise as a way of being focused on health and fitness. The weight of a person with excessive exercise may not be necessarily low as the body compensates for the extreme exercises by slowing down metabolism.

Warning signs of excessive exercises

Katie presented with some of the signs we will discuss below. The warning signs of excessive exercise include:

• Missing work or social engagements so as to focus on exercising
• Working out even when you are feeling tired or sick or injured
• Being irritable, depressed or irrational when you don’t find time to work out
• Prioritizing exercises over relationships
• Never feeling satisfied with your workout achievements or level of fitness
• Experiencing guilt and anxiety when you are unable to work out
• Valuing yourself in terms of your physical fitness, appearance and workout achievements instead of your inner strengths
• Closely tracking how many calories you lose when working out
• Seeing your body differently than others do
• Becoming angry, aggressive, or defensive when people comment that you are working out too much
• Women can experience amenorrhea (lack of menstrual periods) due to over-exercising

Effects of excessive exercise

Studies have shown that exercising too much can cause abnormal remodelling of the heart and put patients at risk of developing arrhythmias. Other negative effects include:

Physical effects

The physical effects of excessive include:

• Dehydration
• Osteoporosis
• Increased risk of joint, ligaments and tendons injuries
• Arthritis
• Dehydration
• Fatigue
• Heart problems
• Reproductive and hormonal disturbances,i.e. Low libido, irregular or lack of menstruation
• Poor physical and mental health
• You become prone to respiratory and other infections

Psychological effects

The psychological effects of excessive exercise include:

• Irritability
• Black and white thinking
• Low self-esteem
• Perfectionism
• Social withdrawal
• Rigidity
• Avoidance and withdrawal from relationships
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Inability to enjoy eating or exercising

Relationship between excessive exercise and eating disorders

Excessive exercise can be a consequence of the following eating disorders:

Bulimia nervosa

Excessive exercise works as compensation for binge eating in patients with bulimia nervosa. Other methods of compensation include self-induced vomiting, use of laxatives, diuretics and intermittent fasting. This is what Jamie was ailing from as she opened up in an interview and said, “I have something called exercise bulimia, which is where you rid of your calories by over-exercising. I ended up starting at a routine which was, you know, 20 minutes in the morning and cutting back a little on my calories. And it snowballed into six or seven hours a day of exercise,”.

Anorexia nervosa

Katie was thought to be anorexic and this could have been caused by her excessive exercises. A study done showed that people with anorexia are hyperactive and have an increased aptitude for movement. This is because the patient feels very light and active and uses over-exercising as a way to maintain their lean figures.

 Many patients with anorexia describe exercise as being compulsive and they ignore physical fatigue so as to continue training.

Muscle dysmorphia

This illness mostly affects bodybuilders. It is also called reverse anorexia. People with muscle dysmorphia have a belief that they are not muscular enough. They use over-exercising as a way to increase musculature and use steroids and supplements.

Among men with muscle dysmorphia, 71% lift weight excessively, while 64% exercise excessively.

You can administer a Compulsive Exercise Test on yourself or a loved one to determine if you are suffering from excessive exercise. Alternatively, if one or more of the following statements are true, then you should consider finding professional help:

• My exercise interferes with important work or socializing
• I experience guilt or stress when I do not exercise
• I exceed three hours of exercise per day
• I continue to exercise despite feeling fatigued or when I am injured or ill
• I exercise at inappropriate times and places and I am not able to suppress the behaviour

Treatment of excessive exercise

The first step in recovering from excessive exercise, or any other illness, is acceptance. After Katie accepted and realized what excessive exercises were doing to her, that is when her treatment began. 

You can then speak to your doctor about your eating and exercise habits and they will ‌direct you to helpful resources that will help in recovery. You can also reach out to your therapist or psychiatrist to help in the treatment of the psychological aspect.

Your therapist will use cognitive behavioural therapy to help with negative body image and how to overcome negative views about yourself. S/he will also guide you on how to keep track of your eating habits, identify triggers and how to develop healthy workout plans.

Thinspiration

These are pictures of thin women, especially celebrities like Katie, who are extremely thin and have protruding bones. They encourage also members to post thinspirations to motivate other members. Photos of plump women are also posted, but to elicit disgust and motivate them to cut weight. 

Many people believe thinspiration glorifies eating disorders, while thinspiration bloggers defend themselves by saying that it promotes healthy weight loss. Katie warned those using her pictures for thinspiration, saying, “If you want to use me as thinspiration, keep in mind that the thinspiration you are using is a healthy woman who eats a balanced diet heavy in calories, healthy fats, and carbs.”

Conclusion

On this page, we discussed chocolate covered Katie’s eating disorder. We also talked about excessive exercise and treatment options for the same. In addition, we talked about the causes, symptoms and risk factors for various eating disorders. We hope this information was helpful.

If you have any questions or comments, please let us know.

Frequently asked questions: Does chocolate covered Katie have an eating disorder? 

What are three examples of disordered eating behaviours?

● Chronic weight fluctuations

● Feelings of guilt and shame associated with eating

● Having anxiety associated with specific foods or meal skipping

● Frequent dieting

● Isolation from others when eating

What are the three warning signs of anorexia?

● You complain a lot about benign fat

● Pretending not to be hungry when you really are

● Constantly worrying about dieting, weight and calories

● Having a strict and excessive exercise routine

What does ANAD stand for?

The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. It is a non-profit

organization that is dedicated to the prevention and alleviation of eating disorders. It was formed

in 1976.

Citations

American Psychiatric Association, (2013). Eating disorders in Diagnostic and statistical manual for mental disorders (5th edition). American Psychiatric Association.

Chocolate covered Katie. Chocolate Covered Katie Anorexic?. Chocolate covered Katie. Retrieved from: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/chocolate-covered-katie-anorexic/

Single care team. (February, 15, 2022). Eating disorder statistics 2022. The check up by single care. Retrieved from https://www.singlecare.com/blog/news/eating-disorder-statistics/