There are several different kinds of eating disorders. While each has its own symptoms, they all focus on issues related to weight, food, and eating. Explore the symptoms here. Here are some of the most common signs of an eating disorder:

• Excessive weight loss
• Avoiding eating in public
• Worrying about food, weight, calories, or dieting
• Excuses to avoid mealtimes
• Refusing to eat certain foods
• Difficulties concentrating
• Stomach cramps
• Consistently feeling cold
• Dizziness
• Sleep irregularities

There are many different signs to look for if you think someone has an eating disorder. They may constantly discuss food, weight, and calories or remove entire food groups from their home. Overexercising and extreme or rapid weight loss can also be symptoms of an eating disorder.

Difficulties communicating, focusing, or socializing can also be signs that someone is undernourishing their brain. Avoiding social situations, disappearing from a group before or after eating, and the inability to eat with other people are all signs someone has a negative relationship with food.

Someone doesn’t have to massively gain or lose weight for them to have an eating disorder. While weight changes are often evident, it’s the actions of the person that defines whether or not they have an eating disorder.

Disordered eating patterns aren’t the same thing as eating disorders. Disordered eating patterns are abnormal eating habits that don’t meet the criteria of an eating disorder.

The major difference between the two is the degree and severity of symptoms. People with disordered eating patterns often display the same behaviors as people with eating disorders, but the symptoms occur less intensely and severely.

Disordered eating patterns restrict food intake, limit food choices, cause physical discomfort, create a sense of being in control, and can result in negative feelings, such as guilt and shame. When left unaddressed, disordered eating patterns can progress into a clinical eating disorder.

Three of the most serious eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder.

Anorexia nervosa is when people think they’re overweight, even if they’re actually dangerously underweight. They seriously restrict their calories and the food they consume. Over time, anorexia nervosa can result in thinning bones, infertility, multiple organ failure, and death.

Bulimia nervosa occurs when people eat large amounts of food they would normally avoid in short periods of time. They then vomit, use laxatives, use diuretics, fast, or excessively exercise to combat the calories. Bulimia nervosa can cause an imbalance of electrolytes, resulting in a stroke or heart attack.

Binge eating disorder is similar to bulimia nervosa but without the purge. People with this condition consume unusually large amounts of non-nutritious food in short periods and feel completely out of control. This can increase their chances of type 2 diabetes, stroke, and heart disease.

The parts of the brain that deal with reward, pleasure, and memory are in part responsible for food cravings. An imbalance of hormones, like serotonin or leptin, may also cause you to crave food.

People who menstruate often experience food cravings in different parts of their menstrual cycle, due to hormonal fluctuations. Food cravings are also incredibly common during pregnancy, as a result of major hormonal changes.

It’s not just hormones that can cause you to crave food. Emotions can contribute to cravings, too. If you’re feeling sad, you may crave comfort food to make you feel better. If your body is lacking nutrients, it may make you crave the type of food it requires to stay healthy.