Welcome to NAO Nutrition’s online home. Here you’ll learn how to heal and grow with guidance from someone who has been through it all. Nikki will help you the following eating disorders:

Anorexia Nervosa
People suffering from this disorder are unwilling/unable to keep a normal body weight for their age and height (85% of normal weight is a rough guide). These people will show a fear of weight gain—although they are often drastically underweight. For these people, perception of their weight often wields a dramatic impact on their feelings of themselves. Meanwhile, the very real dangers of drastic weight-loss are often ignored.

There are two types of anorexia, “Restricting,” (where people lose weight by decreasing food intake, and increase exercise compulsively) and “Binge-eating / Purging,” which includes self-induced vomiting, or by using laxatives / enemas. This eating disorder often correlates with low self-esteem and a need to “control” their environment or emotions, such as stress or anxiety. Anorexics often show particular symptoms, including: attempts to overly control their food intake; excessive starving, calorie-counting, or purging. Anorexics may seem to eat normally—but in fact excessively use diet pills or laxatives. They may also often deny being hungry, hide food (while claiming to have eaten it), or purge using the methods described above.

Bulimia Nervosa
People suffering from bulimia nervosa will regularly conduct “binge & purge” sessions, or overeating followed by trying to overcompensating for this eating. While the overeating portion may vary, a large amount of food consumed is usually the constant.

Bulimics feel unable to control their eating, and thus counter it with vomiting, laxative-abuse, excessive reductions in calories, diet pills, enemas, and even over-exercise. Bulimics’ self-thought center around body image, and they are usually unhealthily concerned with weight / shape. Furthermore, if a person meets the criteria for both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa—only a diagnosis of Anorexia Nervosa, binge-eating/purging type is made.

Like Anorexia, there are two subtypes of bulimia nervosa. Purging type includes those who conduct self-induced vomiting, laxative abuse, diuretics, or enemas, while Non-Purging Type involves those who compensate via fasting or excessive exercise.

Binge/Compulsive Eating
Binge, or compulsive eating, is a rather newly-recognized disorder, or sometimes called “compulsive overeating.” Today, many researchers feel that that this disorder is extremely common, affecting millions of Americans. It is similar to bulimia nervosa in that its sufferers will eat a large amount of food—yet is different in that there is usually no purge taking place. Here, eating is characterized by eating a larger-than-normal amount of food within a few hours, an overall lack of control while eating, and a certain amount of guilt or “disgust” accompanying this overeating.

Night-Eating Syndrome
This is another relatively newly-named disorder. It refers to a general lack of appetite in the morning, overeating at night, and sometimes agitation or insomnia overnight. This disorder is particularly worrisome because it involves sleep and moods, too—meaning that this is a real illness, that involves change in hormone levels.

People with this syndrome typically begin their days exhibiting symptoms of anorexia: skipping meals in the morning, and few calories during the day. Throughout the day, their mood grows worse, and they appear depressed. However, at night, the binge eating begins: they will overeat throughout the night. Researchers consider this overeating at night a form of “self-medication” to deal with the ravages of eating less throughout the day.

Other characteristics of Night-Eating Syndrome include a focus on high-carb snacks, and frequent waking or insomnia. Furthermore, it occurs in about 10% of obese people.

Contact Nikki today for a free phone consultation and pricing information.