For most people sitting down for a meal is a time to socialize with friends and enjoy new things. But for the four women in this episode, there’s no such thing as a regular meal.

At the age of 15, Kelie was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and prescribed with the daily regimen of insulin injections. As part of an education of the disease Kelie was facing, her mother thought she would help Kelie feel like she was normal by reading stories about other girls who also had Type 1 diabetes. One of the stories was about a girl who skipped her insulin injections so that she could fit into her prom dress. That story always stuck in Kelie’s mind, and after gaining 25lbs, Kelie decided to start manipulating her insulin, lowering the dosage to lose weight. She lost ten pounds in one week, and since then she’s been on a roller coaster ride with an eating disorder now knows as diabulimia, that will threaten her life is she doesn’t get it under control.

Not everyone with an eating disorder is super-skinny. Just ask Lisa.
Lisa’s problem started at age 5 when her parents broke up. Food has always been her outlet. It has been the only thing she can control and it makes her feel good to eat. She compares it to a drug. Now as a mother and a wife, she desperately wants to get her eating under control, but it is hard. Lisa looks at herself in the mirror and can’t believe how big she is. She is now 5’6 and 284lbs. Her heaviest was 294lbs. She tries the small plate theory, but will fill it 3 times. Now, she’s about to undergo a weight loss program that will hopefully change her deeply embedded beliefs about food.

Most people think anorexia presents itself during the teenage years, but for Tracy it was different. She’s a 49-year-old adult anorexic who didn’t start exhibiting symptoms until her children left for college. With her 5’2” frame, she weighed 76 lbs at her lowest and in 2000, she finally decided to seek medical treatment. Over the past 8 years she’s been in and out of treatment at least 15 times, and now she Tracy is just leaving treatment again. Although she only weighs 104lbs she hopes to gain weight and reach her goal of 110 so she can see her daughter get married and enjoy time with potential grandchildren.

Heather and Adrienne are the closest of friends. They met six years ago in their mid twenties, both in graduate school and on track like so many girls their age for successful careers. Yet there was something different about these seemingly All-American girls. Heather and Adrienne developed eating disorders, more specifically anorexia. Over a collective 25 years, these two girls and their bodies have endured trauma most people go a lifetime without experiencing. Adrienne has triumphantly fought back and is now in recovery. Heather, on the other hand, still struggles and doesn’t believe recovery will happen for her.