Persons with bulimia are not as successful at dieting as anorexics. They may successfully deny their hunger and restrict their food intake for several days or weeks at a time. However, sooner or later, often when they feel emotionally upset, persons with bulimia lose control over their dieting. They begin to eat and cannot stop eating until they have stuffed themselves. Such overeating is thought to compensate for the prior caloric restriction.
Many bulimics report that they have trouble feeling full, unless they eat large amounts of food.
Who Gets Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa Eating disorders seem to be most prevalent in industrialized societies, especially those in which thinness is considered the attractive ideal. About 90 to 95 percent of the cases of anorexia and bulimia nervosa occur in females. Anorexia usually develops in adolescence, between the ages of 14 and 18, while bulimia is more likely to develop in the late teens or early 20s. It is estimated that anorexia occurs in about 0.5 percent of adolescent girls, and bulimia in about 1 to 2 percent, although various symptoms and milder versions of these disorders occur in about 5 to 10 percent of young women. The large majority of women with eating disorders are white, although in recent years the disorder has been increasing in minority women.