This morning brought with it wires and monitors. I have been hooked up, taped down, and activated in order to participate in the first comparative phase of one of the many studies. The device they have me tethered to really isn’t all that obtrusive. Mildly annoying and slightly awkward at best what it does is monitor movement and activity. The study, which consists of two parts, is one that is exploring the expenditure of energy in a person who is underweight versus a person at at least 90% of their natural body weight. The little tabs and wires I’ve got on will only be with me for 48 hours this time and then again for another 48 much farther into my stay here, once weight stabilization has been reached.

Although the findings from this haven’t begun to get analyzed, being only a year running so far it is still in its baby phases, there are some interesting theories that come from nature behind it. In a natural basic environment history has shown that a person or animal of a low body weight, despite lack of energy, actually moves quite bit more than they do at a higher weight. It would make sense that their lack of food would give their bodies the drive they need to actively seek nourishment. The question is: Is there such a compulsion in eating disordered patients? How do we move and when?

If bulimic the drive to find food would presumably be there due to the binge aspect of the illness, but what about anorexic patients? There is no conscious desire or need to go forage because of anorexia’s defining restrictive nature.

The hope is that, through this, we may find out if there is any excess movement when underweight due to the subconscious need to satisfy hunger. If so it would lead to theories having to do with the excessive exercising that so many eating disordered patients partake in under the possibly superficial guise that they are trying to burn off extra calories. Could the many long hours spent at the gym and walking the streets be actually due to the body’s misplaced need to seek nourishment? Only time will tell. This study still has years left to it but I’m already intrigued to learn what the findings from it are. In the meantime, though, I can definitely say that I won’t miss the device I am wearing once they take it off Wednesday morning. So far 8 hours down – 40 to go.