The soaring rise of eating disorders: ‘Once I started restricting, I couldn’t stop.’

It was while Kate Cronin was at university that she discovered she could track her eating habits on an app.

What went into her food wasn’t something she had actively thought about before, but watching her new housemates carefully curate meals, taking photos and entering macros on their mobiles, she felt a self-consciousness that wasn’t there before.

‘It was the first time I heard the words “calorie deficit”‘, Kate tells Metro.

Soon following suit, she started small; cutting back on eating and ensuring she walked 10,000 steps a day. But things quickly spiralled, with Kate falling into increasingly restrictive and disordered habits.

‘At the time, I felt pleased,’ she explains. ‘Loose jeans felt like a reward, and I got more compliments on my appearance.’

Now 24, Kate still has photos of herself from that time – and finds them uncomfortable viewing. ‘When I look back, it was an eating disorder,’ she says.

‘I thought I was big, but I was so clearly underweight. I couldn’t see it at all – I had body dysmorphia.’

Disordered eating on the rise

Kate is far from an outlier, with the latest figures from BEAT estimating that 3.5 million people in the UK suffer from an eating disorder – around one in 20 people.

It’s a number that has nearly tripled since their 2017 estimate of 1.25 million, despite growing awareness and education surrounding the issue.

While social media might be an easy target to blame for this rise, the source is far more nuanced, believe experts.

‘There has been a significant increase across all ages and genders,’ Nicola Armstrong, BEAT’s National Lead for Northern Ireland explains.

‘Figures from NHS England show that one in eight people aged between 17 and 19 had an eating disorder in 2023, and that’s up from less than 1% in 2017. The Lord Darzi Report highlighted an 82% increase in hospital admission for children and young people with eating disorders since 2019-2020.

‘Eating disorders are hugely under-researched, so there’s so much more work that needs to be done in determining what has seen such a significant rise.’

Of course, there’s no doubt social media plays a part  – particularly where body image is concerned – and is strongly linked to low self-esteem, with 55% of adolescents globally expressing appearance dissatisfaction tied to screen time.

Research also indicates people who spend more than three hours on social media daily are twice as likely to develop eating disorder symptoms.

When Kate was in the grips of some of her most severe disordered eating, she remembers seeing increasingly harmful content online. ‘Social media gives the narrative that being slimmer is just better,’ she says.

‘Even if it was framed as getting ‘lean’ and going to the gym, it still spoke to some quite toxic narratives about weight. It feels inescapable.’

Risk factors

However, for Nicola, it is reductive to attribute the complex nature of eating disorders to one cause.

‘They are very complex mental illnesses, which means it can be difficult to accurately pinpoint the sole reason for the increase,’ she explains.

Research by King’s College London found that people who exhibit certain character traits are more likely to develop anorexia nervosa and bulimia.

Their study suggests those who have neurotic personality traits (defined as an individual’s tendency to experience negative emotion) could serve as early risk factors for future anxiety and dieting behaviours.

It’s something Hannah, 37, faced when she was in the grips of her eating disorder.

Having had a difficult childhood, she struggled with negative emotions, coupled with the pressures of being an academic high-achiever. ‘I had such a sense of hopelessness at the time, my diet was the only thing I could control,’ she tells Metro.

‘Once I started restricting what I was eating, I couldn’t really stop.’

The impact of lockdown

Food as a sense of control echoes with Kate. Her restrictive approach to eating began during the coronavirus pandemic, when the mundanity of everyday life was replaced with an uncertain ‘new normal’.

‘I had no control over other aspects of my life,’ Kate recalls. ‘But I could control what I ate, and this became very addictive.’

Nicola explains that the pandemic may have caused a significant escalation in people who may have had tendencies towards disordered eating.

‘Eating disorders are, by their nature, very isolating. One symptom is that people can withdraw because of the need for secrecy for the illness to take hold. The pandemic made that very possible,’ she says.

‘People were spending more time at home – even doctor appointments were done online. This could have led to primary healthcare professionals missing opportunities to pick up on early warning signs.’

Nicola adds that the nation’s attitude towards food was rapidly altered by the conditions of lockdown.

‘A lot of people were experiencing difficulties in accessing food, which resulted in some people stockpiling. This could be very challenging for somebody at risk of binge eating.

‘If someone was struggling with an eating disorder, not having access to certain foods could really throw somebody into a tailspin.

‘The NHS was under such huge pressure during the pandemic dealing with Covid cases, which meant resources could have been taken away from other areas.’

The journey to recovery

The steep rise in people struggling may be worrying, but it is possible to recover from even the most severe eating disorders.

At the time of her 30th birthday, Hannah says she had time to reflect. ‘I was at the age where my friends were getting married and having children. ‘And I was living this small life where I didn’t eat and exercised five hours a day. I really wanted to move forward,’ she explains.

‘I didn’t want to lose my chance at motherhood. I wanted to be able to have a baby and take them to McDonald’s and not worry. I didn’t want to pass on my attitudes towards food to my child.’

Kate’s road to recovery was similar. ‘I was miserable,’ she says. ‘When you restrict what you eat, you end up restricting everything else you do. Going out for dinner was uncomfortable; I’d not eat and then everyone around me would get upset.

‘I had a lot of therapy which saw me address my issues around food. I slowly started eating foods that had scared me; I remember eating a bagel, and being like ‘that was really tasty, and nothing bad happened.’ I found pleasure in things again.

‘Some days it is still hard, but I just fight the negative thoughts. You have to have the strength to push past it.’

Both appreciate that recovery can be difficult, particularly considering the current climate around weight loss.

GLP-1 weight loss injections have become increasingly popular since they were rolled out in 2023 – an estimated 1.6 million adults in the UK are taking GLP-1s, with a further 4.9 million interested in using them.

In June 2026, the Wegovy pill became available to purchase from private medical providers.

For Hannah, the prevalence of this new diet culture in Britain is ‘disgusting.’

‘I thought we’d moved on from having to be rail thin,’ she says. ‘The availability of these medications doesn’t help the landscape. I know people who are already slim who are taking them, when it’s not designed to be used for people of that weight. It should only be for people who are really overweight or diabetics.’

Nicola agrees further safeguards should be in place. ‘We’d like to see a tightening up of psychological screening at the prescription stage of weight loss medication. It is surprisingly easy for people who at risk of an eating disorder to obtain these medications.’

Helping friends and family

So what can be done if we are concerned about a loved one who seems to be at risk of developing an eating disorder?

Its complexity can lead to well-intentioned help resulting in symptoms worsening.

‘Sometimes, I felt like I wanted people to notice the weight loss,’ Kate explains. ‘It felt like a reward for people to see.

‘When it was Easter, people didn’t give me chocolate and instead would give me a candle – but that just further reinforced to me that chocolate was bad.’

For Nicola, it is necessary that people intervene – but in a way that is productive.

‘There is a misconception that people with eating disorders always lose weight, but this isn’t always immediately the case. You can never tell if somebody is unwell just by looking at them,’ she says. ‘You’re much more likely to spot behavioural or psychological signs first.

‘If your loved one is maybe seeming more irritable, struggling to concentrate or having difficulty sleeping, these tend to be the first symptoms to appear.

‘Anxiety around eating can be another thing, and fixation around food and exercise.

‘We’d encourage anybody worried about themselves or loved one to reach out to a GP and ask for an urgent appointment. Try and talk to the person you’re concerned about in an environment away from food, and try not to ask about food immediately, as it can make people defensive.

‘Eating disorders can have a huge impact, but people can get better. The sooner someone reaches out for help, the better their chance of a full and sustained recovery.’

If you’re worried about your own or someone else’s health, you can contact Beat, the UK’s eating disorder charity on 0808 801 0677 or beateatingdisorders.org.uk  

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