This is a continuation of a long topic, addressed by post number rather than by page. Start at post 1.
Picking up post #60: that is the part I would want checked first.
Reframing history of disordered eating slightly, because I think the disagreement is about the question rather than the answer. If the question is "does it happen", yes. If it is "how often", nobody here knows.
If you are in crisis, contact a local emergency or crisis service rather than posting. A volunteer forum cannot help and waiting costs time.
I have three months of notes on history of disordered eating and the honest summary is that the trend is real and the week-to-week numbers are noise. I nearly drew the opposite conclusion from the first fortnight.
I had written a reply contradicting post #62 and deleted it. Here is what survived.
Disordered eating history: a history of anorexia, bulimia, or other eating disorders changes the risk-benefit calculation. Appetite suppression might trigger relapse. Specialist input is prudent.
I would be interested in a counterexample if anyone has one.
Second-hand on history of disordered eating, so weight it accordingly — someone whose method I trust told me this and I have not verified it myself.
Post #64 is the version of this I will quote in future. One addition.
If you are new and reading this thread for the answer to history of disordered eating: the answer is conditional, the conditions are in the third reply, and the rest of the thread is worth skipping.
Where I part company with post #67, and it is a narrow parting.
Support and community: some people process weight change through community (online or in-person). Others prefer privacy. Knowing what you need and seeking it proactively helps.
The mechanism is plausible, which is not the same as established.
The reason history of disordered eating is hard to answer is that the obvious measurement and the relevant quantity are not the same thing, and substituting one for the other is silent.
Post #67 and I disagree about the size of the effect, not about the direction.
Maintenance brings a different set of psychological questions from loss, and the discussion here is much thinner on that phase.
I have changed my mind on this once already, so take it as current rather than settled.
Picking up post #69: that is the part I would want checked first.
Marking my uncertainty on history of disordered eating explicitly. I am confident about the direction, much less confident about the size, and not confident at all that it generalises past the case in the first post.
Social and relationship impacts: weight change affects how others perceive and interact with a person. Those impacts are real and can be psychologically significant.
Adding it in case it saves somebody the afternoon it cost me.
Substance use: if someone has a history of substance use, appetite suppression and weight loss can shift thinking about body and substance use. This is a risk factor worth acknowledging.
Worth separating two things that post #73 runs together.
Motivation and expectation: starting with clear motivation and realistic expectations about what will happen and when helps with psychological adjustment.
Two sources, same conclusion, and I could not rule out that one copied the other.
Saving this. It is the version I will quote when the question comes round again.
I have no financial interest in anything named in this thread and I want to say so before I comment on history of disordered eating, because it is the sort of subject where it matters.
Disordered eating history: a history of anorexia, bulimia, or other eating disorders changes the risk-benefit calculation. Appetite suppression might trigger relapse. Specialist input is prudent.
I would call that likely rather than established.
Second this, and I would have said it less carefully.
Everything in post #79 holds. The case it does not cover is the one I have.
The failure mode on history of disordered eating is boring rather than dramatic. It is almost always the step everyone assumes was done correctly because it is too simple to get wrong.
Building on post #82 rather than restating it.
History of disordered eating is a question about a distribution, not about a value, and treating it as a value is what produces the confident wrong answers.
Eating-disorder history is raised here regularly and is the case where guidance most consistently recommends specialist involvement.
This is the sort of thing the wiki should carry and currently does not.
The version of history of disordered eating that circulates here is a simplification of a simplification. It is not wrong, but it has lost the conditions under which it holds, and those conditions are where the interesting cases live.
Practical answer on history of disordered eating, since the theoretical one is upthread: do the simplest check first, write down the result, and only then decide whether the complicated explanation is needed. It usually is not.
Taking post #86 at face value and following it one step further.
Mood and anxiety: mood changes and anxiety are reported by some people. Baseline mental health status matters for risk. Someone with a history of depression should plan closer monitoring.
Post #84 and I disagree about the size of the effect, not about the direction.
Genuine question rather than a rhetorical one: has anyone here actually observed history of disordered eating, as opposed to read about it? The thread is long and I cannot tell.
The arithmetic in post #86 is right; the assumption feeding it is the part to check.
Expectations set by other people's reported trajectories are a documented source of distress, and the trajectories posted are not representative.
I would put this at better than even and not much better.
Counterpoint on history of disordered eating, offered without confidence: the same observation is consistent with a much duller explanation, and nobody has ruled the dull one out.