Eating disorders come in all shapes and sizes.
Brittany Burgunder, a 27-year-old Californian who wasted away to a skeletal 56 pounds at the height of her anorexia, was at the verge of death before she weighed in at 210 pounds just a year later, after months of bingeing on snacks and sugary foods.
Brittany is a now a healthy weight after surviving the debilitating disease and is on a mission to share her heart-wrenching story with the world.
In her memoir titled “Safety in Numbers: From 56 to 221 Pounds, My Battle with Eating Disorders,” Brittany details how she struggled with anorexia, exercise addiction, bulimia, and also used laxatives and colonics to stay unnaturally thin.
Brittany’s battle with eating disorders began when she was just 13 after years of torment by bullies at school.
Left feeling alone and confused, Brittany suffered with depression, anxiety and OCD, which led her to find comfort in the only thing she could control in her life — her weight.
She told Caters: “Before I knew it I was stuck, I excessively counted calories, only eating foods that came in a package, and overexercised.
“It took my mind away from feeling rejected from my peers and the pressure of unrealistic standards.
“My parents, Susan, 59, and Lee, 61, soon realized something was wrong, but encouraged me to attend college in the hope it would be the break that I needed.
“But my eating disorder got worse, I had three different gym memberships so the same people didn’t see me going three times a day, and I starved myself through the day and only ate in the middle of the night.
“I would pace around my dorm room in the hope of burning extra calories and was eventually forced to leave as my health had deteriorated too quickly.”
Brittany was admitted to a hospital weighing just 59 pounds, was forced to undergo a blood transfusion, suffered liver near-failure and lost most of her hair.
Doctors told her parents that their daughter was going to die and that they should start to make arrangements for her funeral.
Miraculously, Brittany survived, but was kicked out of treatment for noncompliance and was discharged at only 82 pounds.
‘I would pace around my dorm room in the hope of burning extra calories and was eventually forced to leave as my health had deteriorated too quickly.’
- Brittany Burgunder
After leaving the hospital, something in her flipped and she found herself desperately consuming all the foods she once feared more than anything. At one point, she said, she was eating up to 20,000 calories per day and wouldn’t stop until she went into a food coma.
Brittany told Caters: “At home I didn’t know what to do with myself, so I started eating all of the foods that I had forbidden myself from eating for seven years.
“I started eating everything in the house; it felt amazing, but also scary because I didn’t know how to stop.
“I had traded anorexia for binge eating disorder and no longer recognized myself as I piled on the pounds.
“I could easily eat a dozen doughnuts and that was just a start, I would binge on pure junk food and wouldn’t stop until I fell into a food coma.
“I was gaining weight so rapidly that in 12 months I had gained nearly 160.
“I started entering fat camps in the hope of losing the weight I had so quickly gained, but it was a very poor and desperate choice on my behalf.
“Looking back as I was so focused on my external appearance rather than on focusing on healing my mind.
“Towards the end I also suffered with bulimia, I would binge and take laxatives and I soon became addicted.
“This lasted for three years until I realized that what I was doing to myself wasn’t right.”
After packing on the pounds and spiraling into an unhealthy pattern of bingeing and self-loathing, Brittany slowly started to heal.
“I continually went in and out of eating disorder treatment centers before I finally started getting better.”
Brittany started to focus on the positives in her life, such as her passion for horse riding and tennis, and was recently accepted into Cal Poly University, where she is studying psychology.
She added: “I try not to weigh myself anymore; I just focus on staying healthy.
“I want to raise awareness to get rid of the stigma attached to eating disorders, and even though my eating disorder was visual, it doesn’t mean all are.
“I survived and I want to show others that they can too, I have all of this life experience that I want to share and even if I can help just one person, it would all be worth it.”
