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Signs of Anorexia and Bulimia: What to Look For

LAR Coaching Editorial Team · 26 March 2026

Signs of Anorexia and Bulimia: What to Look For

Eating disorders rarely announce themselves. Here is what to look for — in yourself or someone you love — and what to do next.

Eating disorders rarely announce themselves. They begin as small adjustments — a missed meal, a "clean eating" phase, a workout regimen — and progress quietly until they have reorganised someone's entire life.

This guide gives you the signs to look for, in yourself or someone you love.

Signs of anorexia nervosa

  • Significant, unexplained weight loss
  • Pre-occupation with calories, food labels, weighing food
  • Avoidance of meals or eating in public
  • Intense fear of weight gain even at low body weight
  • Distorted body image — seeing fat where others see thinness
  • Excessive exercise, often rigid in pattern
  • Wearing layered or baggy clothing to hide weight loss
  • Loss of menstrual periods (women)
  • Cold sensitivity, fatigue, hair thinning
  • Withdrawal from social meals and gatherings
  • Signs of bulimia nervosa

  • Episodes of binge eating (large quantities, sense of loss of control)
  • Compensatory behaviour: vomiting, laxatives, fasting, excessive exercise
  • Frequent bathroom visits after meals
  • Knuckles with calluses (Russell's sign — from induced vomiting)
  • Dental erosion
  • Swollen cheeks (parotid gland swelling)
  • Mood swings, secrecy around eating
  • Weight often within "normal" range — bulimia is far less visible than anorexia
  • The psychological core both share

    Eating disorders are not really about food. They are about anxiety — about control, body image, self-worth, identity. The disordered eating behaviour is a coping mechanism for an underlying anxiety state that often pre-dates the eating behaviour by years.

    This is why eating-disorder recovery so often falters when treatment focuses only on weight, food and behaviour. Without addressing the underlying anxiety architecture, the relapse rate is high.

    Where LAR Coaching contributes

    LAR Coaching does not replace specialist eating-disorder treatment. It complements it by addressing the sensitised anxiety response that powers the eating disorder's emotional engine.

    For clients receiving specialist ED care (NHS or private), the addition of LAR-led anxiety recovery work is repeatedly reported as the missing piece — the part of the puzzle that finally allows the eating-disorder behaviour to fall away.

    The next step

    If any of this resonates, book a free 30-minute Recovery Call with one of our LAR Coaches. No pressure, no obligation — just a real conversation about what is happening to you and whether the LAR programme is the right fit. Sessions are delivered worldwide via Zoom, Phone or FaceTime.

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    Across the Linden Group

    Further recovery resources

    If this article has been useful, you may also want to look at the full Linden Method online recovery programme or the independent Linden Method reviews archive. Both sit inside the same Linden Group of evidence-based anxiety recovery brands and draw on 30 years of clinical and coaching experience.

    For wider context, readers regularly recommend the UK residential anxiety recovery retreats alongside the Mental Stealth recovery podcast. You can also explore Charles Linden's own account of recovery.

    See the full network of recovery brands at The Linden Group.

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