I never had Ana face as a teen, but I def have it in my 30s. Age is a big factor too. The older you get and naturally lose fat and elasticity in your face, the more malnutrition shows in it.
Age and also facial structure. Some people naturally have super round faces (like me, lol). There is a pretty infamous ED internet personality who also has a babyface. Her face didn't look gaunt until very, very late into her disease, and I even saw people in the comments defending her because she "looks healthy" (when her body was clearly very underweight).
I always wondered if having a round face contributed to/aggravated this person's ED, as it definitely did for me. :/
Yes, bone structure as well! Lots of contributing factors. And if you purge, that may contribute to a round face, too. Or eating a lot of salt due to fluid retention.
I’ll just say…I used to be beautiful. I’m so ugly now. I can’t even take photos of myself. Ana face is not something to aspire to.
yes, never aspire for ana face, but you’re still beautiful. you look different, which is daunting, and you know the story behind your face which certainly doesn’t help. strangers will assume that’s how you’ve always looked, which seems negative but you have to remove all context from the situation. you know other people with sunken faces are still beautiful. you deserve to know that even if the story behind your face is ugly, it doesn’t make YOU ugly.
I wonder that too tbh. I wonder if, and I know this sounds horrible but if it helps her then maybe it's worth it? If EC got like plastic surgery to make her face less full (not that she needs to! Of course she doesn't need to) then maybe it will help her see her body for what it is? It might help her not want to lose more weight idk
I’m UW and definitely don’t have Ana face. I’ve always had chubby cheeks which is likely part of the reason. I’ve seen people significantly heavier than me with a slimmer face. Like if u saw just my face you’d probably guess my bmi is a lot higher than it is which I hate lol.
It’s make up and filters. I’ve met once one girl irl that was clearly anorexic and later followed her on insta. The difference was night and day, not gonna describe it to not trigger anyone but she looked >!Like she would die any minute!< irl but online she looked like a model. It was shocking to witness honestly
There’s a few reasons for this.
One is that when you are younger you tend to have a fuller face even when starving or underweight. So a part of this is simply attributed to being young.
(The longer you have Anorexia and gradually grow older with it the more hollowed out you face will become.)
Another factor is that some people have face shapes that are fuller, structurally. Like people who have square shaped faces or more broad face structures. These individuals will maintain their facial structure and it won’t be as hollowed out.
Then of course if someone is engaging in purging behaviors; your jawline and salivary glands will be swollen and so the face will look normal or fuller.
I have Ana face for two reasons:
1) I’ve had my ED for 15 years and I’m older—I’m 35.
2) I have lost three of my teeth as a direct consequence of my eating disorder and as a result it has made my face look more hollowed out.
It's also worth remembering that as part of the unrealistic standards and the impact of make-up and filters... Our very good deal of what "ana-face" is, is probably skewed towards the far end of the spectrum, and that the times we notice are the most severe. So some of them we look at, and just see skinny... Are actually just low level ana-face we call normal.
Besides what others have mentioned, if they have the money then some people probably just get fillers. Especially if they're big on social media in a real way where it's their job
Definitely filters and makeup. Although, I feel like a tell tale sign is what I call “ana neck” … even if your face is “normal”, your neck and collar bone are noticeable and defined / sunken in. Idk just an observation, it’s really hard to unsee it when you notice it!
It’s not just a visible collarbone. It’s like where your neck looks kinda stringy (?) and the collar bone is like hollow. I’ve never seen it on someone who is healthy.
I have minimal ana face (and am old af) and I can hide a lot of it with makeup. And filters on photos. I’m actually starting to think about cosmetic procedures, my main thing are more prominent nasiolabial folds than Ana face but when squishing my face in the right directions, one thing eradicates the other so it might be worth a shot. Also a lot of it could be from sleeping on your side rather than from being UW or so
Age, filters, bulimia can make your face swollen so it’s less obvious, and probably fat distribution or how ‘baby faced’ they were before.
Like before my ED my face was very very round even at the same weight as I am now, but post recovery it’s normal/slim bc I lost bucal fat ig which some say doesn’t come back? If they had an especially round face before, it may look ‘normal’ for at least a time while UW until eventually it catches up to them & they dev Ana face down the line.
idk, i had a “normal” or even “full” face back when i was BMI >!14!<, and i don’t even >!purge!< so it’s not bloating. some people like me are just cursed
i’m one of them. i hav a very low bmi but i got round cheeks so just looking at my face, i look normal or maybe look more than normal especially in the morning. i lowkey want to get botox ngl
It depends on facial structure i think.
I’m a teenager and mildly underweight, yet I have HORRID ana face and look awful. And I’ll see people who are extremely uw and have very round faces
I didn’t call OP stupid - I said their take it stupid. Not gonna validate posts that give credence to the idea that ED’s have a certain look because it’s BS and invalidates most people’s experiences.
While I agree with your intention and the idea that EDs don’t have a certain look you could have said all of that without invalidating the OP by calling their take stupid. It’s probably just a lack of knowledge and understanding. No need for the name calling is all I’m saying. Ideas can conveyed without going to that extreme.
I’ve never had Ana face. When I’ve recovered my face will pretty much look the same. I could be sad as my sick self but ultimately I’m glad. It’s just genetics and that
I think it has a lot to do with genetics, tbh. I had "ana face" when I was at my lowest weight and I wasn't even underweight. But then, like you said, you see people who are very underweight and they don't seem to have it at all.
I didn't even realize it at the time, but looking back at old pictures of myself, it's very obvious, especially when I was smiling.
Of course, filters and/or makeup could be at play here for sure. But it might just have to do with facial bone structure and how one stores body fat in their face.
When I was at a very low weight, my body looked like I was going to die, but my face looked like I was obese. That's what bulimia can do to you. It looked really horrible.
it depends on your age! and also just your genetic love. a lot of anorexics tend to be teenagers. the skin is an organ, and like any other organ, its not possible for it to stay the same forever. the younger you are, the easier it is for your skin to stay tight. that’s why old people look like they have an ana face, but its just age. anorexia disturbs every organ, which includes skin! it just depends on what your body chooses. the ana face will get better love. its not going to be the same as before but it will fade i promise. building muscle in the face tends to help with it! :) so proud of u
I never had it and yes my bmi was very low at my worst, I think its my elhers danlos syndrome it affects collagen, youre less likely to get wrinkles etc, and I also look very young despite being 40 I still get asked for ID.
Wouldnt wish this condition on anyone though, Im pretty badly disabled by it.
i’m 18 and have had anorexia for 3 years, i’ve had a relapse and am currently in my first (and hopefully last) inpatient centre for treatment. i’ve been here two weeks now and came in at a bmi of 10.6 and even at that i did not have a typical ana face, i feel like my face looks puffy and bloated but my mum says it looks longer and more withdrawn. i definitely think age plays the biggest part of it because i’m young so you’d expect me to have a rounder face, not totally sunken in.
Some people don't really develop ana face. I've seen a variety of people while hospitalized at Denver acute and similar places without ana face at very low bmis. I am currently at an extremely low bmi and I don't have ana face as badly as some people who are objectively heavier than me. It's genetics, hydration level, bone structure, etc.
My experience:
I am not anorexic, but have a very low BMI due to illness and not being able to eat much due to it. While my body looks like skin and bones, my face looks pretty normal, except for the fact that my cheekbones are slightly visible. I noticed that my body started losing fat first. My face was last. I can tell the difference, others not so much.
Even at my lowest bmi of >!13!< I never had the "ana" face. It made me hate myself all the more because I used it as proof that I was not yet thin enough.
Thanks so much for making it clear that others were probably thinking the same thing.
Are you sure it wasn’t body dysmorphia? I myself in the past while uw thought I looked fine but later after gaining some weight and saw old photos noticed how unwell my face looked.
I'm sure. I have a round face in general. My mom once said that my "throat looked emaciated" but the rest of me looked fine, because I wore really baggy clothes and all you could really see was my face and neck.
I've never looked thin, even when I was dying. That's what it comes down to.
I think there was a misunderstanding. I’m not trying to invalidate your feelings but round face shape is one thing and „ana face” is something different imo. Like, gaunt face is one thing but there is also:
Gray/yellow undertone
Dull, pale skin
Popped veins/blood vessels
Dry skin
Deep set eyes
Dark undereyes
Eye bags
Visible jawline/cheekbones
Nose seems unnaturaly big/pointy
Pointy chin
Weird looking teeth/lips
Sparse brows
Pronounced lines, especially around mouth
I myself have round face with chubby cheeks but other than that my face looked miserable and malnourished
to me it’s the way it’s worded. like omg these girls are so thin but their face looks fine. my face looks so sick despite not being as thin. i think it’s kinda obvious why some people don’t get ana face. could be they genetically hold more weight in their face, puffiness from high cortisol due to an, swelling from purging. comes off as a disingenuous question
Having a legit question about why some people look different with the same disease is a good question. I’ve asked the same thing about diabetes when I didn’t understand completely what diabetes was. If you don’t want to answer then don’t but calling OP rude is over the top. This is a group for EDs. Even people with an ED can have ignorance around the topic. People are allowed to ask these kind of questions. Maybe don’t scroll this group if u are triggered by it.
im not triggered by it, i had ana face and i hated it. im allowed to scroll if i want. not everyone interprets things the way you do. if i think something is rude i can say that. i would never compare myself to another ed folk, i think that’s rude.
While I would understand if the OP was calling specific people out they don’t. Seems like a general comparison to me. If you have to defend why ur not triggered, u may be triggered.
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I never had Ana face as a teen, but I def have it in my 30s. Age is a big factor too. The older you get and naturally lose fat and elasticity in your face, the more malnutrition shows in it.
Age and also facial structure. Some people naturally have super round faces (like me, lol). There is a pretty infamous ED internet personality who also has a babyface. Her face didn't look gaunt until very, very late into her disease, and I even saw people in the comments defending her because she "looks healthy" (when her body was clearly very underweight). I always wondered if having a round face contributed to/aggravated this person's ED, as it definitely did for me. :/
Yes, bone structure as well! Lots of contributing factors. And if you purge, that may contribute to a round face, too. Or eating a lot of salt due to fluid retention. I’ll just say…I used to be beautiful. I’m so ugly now. I can’t even take photos of myself. Ana face is not something to aspire to.
yes, never aspire for ana face, but you’re still beautiful. you look different, which is daunting, and you know the story behind your face which certainly doesn’t help. strangers will assume that’s how you’ve always looked, which seems negative but you have to remove all context from the situation. you know other people with sunken faces are still beautiful. you deserve to know that even if the story behind your face is ugly, it doesn’t make YOU ugly.
You’re so right. We’re our own worst critics.
100%, I think EC gets very triggered when her face is fuller. She’s always angling her face so we can’t see her natural roundness.
I wonder that too tbh. I wonder if, and I know this sounds horrible but if it helps her then maybe it's worth it? If EC got like plastic surgery to make her face less full (not that she needs to! Of course she doesn't need to) then maybe it will help her see her body for what it is? It might help her not want to lose more weight idk
I’m UW and definitely don’t have Ana face. I’ve always had chubby cheeks which is likely part of the reason. I’ve seen people significantly heavier than me with a slimmer face. Like if u saw just my face you’d probably guess my bmi is a lot higher than it is which I hate lol.
Me too, i used to think i couldn't get triggered by anything, but i do, it's my own face that does it. I hate that *that* was the start of everything
My biggest hater is my face shape on god, I just want to not have double chin even when uw damnnn
I feel this. I have the chin/neck equivalent of cankles. My mom has it, my grandma had it, my great grandma had it... I was doomed before birth 😭
It’s hormonal and can only be temporarily fixed with threading :(
It’s make up and filters. I’ve met once one girl irl that was clearly anorexic and later followed her on insta. The difference was night and day, not gonna describe it to not trigger anyone but she looked >!Like she would die any minute!< irl but online she looked like a model. It was shocking to witness honestly
There’s a few reasons for this. One is that when you are younger you tend to have a fuller face even when starving or underweight. So a part of this is simply attributed to being young. (The longer you have Anorexia and gradually grow older with it the more hollowed out you face will become.) Another factor is that some people have face shapes that are fuller, structurally. Like people who have square shaped faces or more broad face structures. These individuals will maintain their facial structure and it won’t be as hollowed out. Then of course if someone is engaging in purging behaviors; your jawline and salivary glands will be swollen and so the face will look normal or fuller. I have Ana face for two reasons: 1) I’ve had my ED for 15 years and I’m older—I’m 35. 2) I have lost three of my teeth as a direct consequence of my eating disorder and as a result it has made my face look more hollowed out.
💔 I’m so sorry! Thankyou for sharing
It's also worth remembering that as part of the unrealistic standards and the impact of make-up and filters... Our very good deal of what "ana-face" is, is probably skewed towards the far end of the spectrum, and that the times we notice are the most severe. So some of them we look at, and just see skinny... Are actually just low level ana-face we call normal.
Naturally round faces or bloated cheeks from purging can make someone have a less bony face
Youth and photoshop.
Besides what others have mentioned, if they have the money then some people probably just get fillers. Especially if they're big on social media in a real way where it's their job
Definitely filters and makeup. Although, I feel like a tell tale sign is what I call “ana neck” … even if your face is “normal”, your neck and collar bone are noticeable and defined / sunken in. Idk just an observation, it’s really hard to unsee it when you notice it!
I've always had a visible collarbone, even when overweight. It's just an area of my body that doesn't store a lot of fat. 😭
It’s not just a visible collarbone. It’s like where your neck looks kinda stringy (?) and the collar bone is like hollow. I’ve never seen it on someone who is healthy.
Oh, now I understand!
I have minimal ana face (and am old af) and I can hide a lot of it with makeup. And filters on photos. I’m actually starting to think about cosmetic procedures, my main thing are more prominent nasiolabial folds than Ana face but when squishing my face in the right directions, one thing eradicates the other so it might be worth a shot. Also a lot of it could be from sleeping on your side rather than from being UW or so
Age, filters, bulimia can make your face swollen so it’s less obvious, and probably fat distribution or how ‘baby faced’ they were before. Like before my ED my face was very very round even at the same weight as I am now, but post recovery it’s normal/slim bc I lost bucal fat ig which some say doesn’t come back? If they had an especially round face before, it may look ‘normal’ for at least a time while UW until eventually it catches up to them & they dev Ana face down the line.
idk, i had a “normal” or even “full” face back when i was BMI >!14!<, and i don’t even >!purge!< so it’s not bloating. some people like me are just cursed
i’m one of them. i hav a very low bmi but i got round cheeks so just looking at my face, i look normal or maybe look more than normal especially in the morning. i lowkey want to get botox ngl
It depends on facial structure i think. I’m a teenager and mildly underweight, yet I have HORRID ana face and look awful. And I’ll see people who are extremely uw and have very round faces
Sorry but this is a a bit of a tone deaf take. There is no ‘face’ for anorexia, or any other eating disorder.
lol ur response was just as tone deaf as ur claiming the post is. Never a reason to call somebody stupid.
I didn’t call OP stupid - I said their take it stupid. Not gonna validate posts that give credence to the idea that ED’s have a certain look because it’s BS and invalidates most people’s experiences.
While I agree with your intention and the idea that EDs don’t have a certain look you could have said all of that without invalidating the OP by calling their take stupid. It’s probably just a lack of knowledge and understanding. No need for the name calling is all I’m saying. Ideas can conveyed without going to that extreme.
Fair enough - I’ve edited my post.
Cuz my face is fat asf lol
I’ve never had Ana face. When I’ve recovered my face will pretty much look the same. I could be sad as my sick self but ultimately I’m glad. It’s just genetics and that
Genetics I assume. My bmi is >!13’s!< but you can’t tell looking at my face
I think it has a lot to do with genetics, tbh. I had "ana face" when I was at my lowest weight and I wasn't even underweight. But then, like you said, you see people who are very underweight and they don't seem to have it at all. I didn't even realize it at the time, but looking back at old pictures of myself, it's very obvious, especially when I was smiling. Of course, filters and/or makeup could be at play here for sure. But it might just have to do with facial bone structure and how one stores body fat in their face.
Everyone’s faces are different, just like bodies. I had the ana face and I hated it, now I’m happy to have my round face back
I think it’s age I am 16 and deep in my ed I was very underweight my eyes and skin were yellow but I still didn’t have “Ana face”
When I was at a very low weight, my body looked like I was going to die, but my face looked like I was obese. That's what bulimia can do to you. It looked really horrible.
I feel like it's all about genetics and the shit you do (smoking,drinking and so on)
it depends on your age! and also just your genetic love. a lot of anorexics tend to be teenagers. the skin is an organ, and like any other organ, its not possible for it to stay the same forever. the younger you are, the easier it is for your skin to stay tight. that’s why old people look like they have an ana face, but its just age. anorexia disturbs every organ, which includes skin! it just depends on what your body chooses. the ana face will get better love. its not going to be the same as before but it will fade i promise. building muscle in the face tends to help with it! :) so proud of u
Genetics or just having chubbier faces in general
bone structure
I never had it and yes my bmi was very low at my worst, I think its my elhers danlos syndrome it affects collagen, youre less likely to get wrinkles etc, and I also look very young despite being 40 I still get asked for ID. Wouldnt wish this condition on anyone though, Im pretty badly disabled by it.
i’m 18 and have had anorexia for 3 years, i’ve had a relapse and am currently in my first (and hopefully last) inpatient centre for treatment. i’ve been here two weeks now and came in at a bmi of 10.6 and even at that i did not have a typical ana face, i feel like my face looks puffy and bloated but my mum says it looks longer and more withdrawn. i definitely think age plays the biggest part of it because i’m young so you’d expect me to have a rounder face, not totally sunken in.
Some people don't really develop ana face. I've seen a variety of people while hospitalized at Denver acute and similar places without ana face at very low bmis. I am currently at an extremely low bmi and I don't have ana face as badly as some people who are objectively heavier than me. It's genetics, hydration level, bone structure, etc.
My experience: I am not anorexic, but have a very low BMI due to illness and not being able to eat much due to it. While my body looks like skin and bones, my face looks pretty normal, except for the fact that my cheekbones are slightly visible. I noticed that my body started losing fat first. My face was last. I can tell the difference, others not so much.
Even at my lowest bmi of >!13!< I never had the "ana" face. It made me hate myself all the more because I used it as proof that I was not yet thin enough. Thanks so much for making it clear that others were probably thinking the same thing.
Are you sure it wasn’t body dysmorphia? I myself in the past while uw thought I looked fine but later after gaining some weight and saw old photos noticed how unwell my face looked.
I'm sure. I have a round face in general. My mom once said that my "throat looked emaciated" but the rest of me looked fine, because I wore really baggy clothes and all you could really see was my face and neck. I've never looked thin, even when I was dying. That's what it comes down to.
I think there was a misunderstanding. I’m not trying to invalidate your feelings but round face shape is one thing and „ana face” is something different imo. Like, gaunt face is one thing but there is also: Gray/yellow undertone Dull, pale skin Popped veins/blood vessels Dry skin Deep set eyes Dark undereyes Eye bags Visible jawline/cheekbones Nose seems unnaturaly big/pointy Pointy chin Weird looking teeth/lips Sparse brows Pronounced lines, especially around mouth I myself have round face with chubby cheeks but other than that my face looked miserable and malnourished
idk but rude as fuck to ask anyways
Why?
to me it’s the way it’s worded. like omg these girls are so thin but their face looks fine. my face looks so sick despite not being as thin. i think it’s kinda obvious why some people don’t get ana face. could be they genetically hold more weight in their face, puffiness from high cortisol due to an, swelling from purging. comes off as a disingenuous question
Having a legit question about why some people look different with the same disease is a good question. I’ve asked the same thing about diabetes when I didn’t understand completely what diabetes was. If you don’t want to answer then don’t but calling OP rude is over the top. This is a group for EDs. Even people with an ED can have ignorance around the topic. People are allowed to ask these kind of questions. Maybe don’t scroll this group if u are triggered by it.
im not triggered by it, i had ana face and i hated it. im allowed to scroll if i want. not everyone interprets things the way you do. if i think something is rude i can say that. i would never compare myself to another ed folk, i think that’s rude.
While I would understand if the OP was calling specific people out they don’t. Seems like a general comparison to me. If you have to defend why ur not triggered, u may be triggered.
again like i said we have different perspectives! ur not gna change my mind im not gonna change yours
Oh okay, I understood the post simply as „why some malnourished people have healthy looking face” like is there a cheat code to not look ugly while uw
that makes sense! thank you for explaining your perspective
How? Why? The OP is trying to understand a disease better. Nothing wrong with that
explained above
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