It's not easy to spot a sick or a skinny friend, but being a friend means being concerned over the health of your friend (or friends). Check out these telling signs of sick or just plain skinny friend:
A sick friend...
- pretends to eat. Your friend may deceive you as if she's eating more than she actually does when she scatters her food around the plate (to make it look like the food has miraculously disappeared), when she cuts her food into tiny bits so that a piece may look like more than it actually is, and when she chews her food for a very, very looong time as if she's been chewing the same piece the entire time she spent in front of the table. When your friend pretends to eat, she does not want anyone to notice that she's starving herself too much, and in an unhealthy way.
- exercises too much. Your friend may be eating a lot, but if she's excercising too much, it means that she wants to get rid of all the calories she takes in. She could be religiously working out everyday for more than an hour (with no apparent reason), and she often gets anxious and frustrated (or even scared) when she misses just a single day.
- looks puffed up and pale. Throwing up is one common way of getting rid of the food eaten. Your friend might appear overwhelmingly stuffed with food whenever you're together (and when she's outside), but whenever she's alone, she could be forcing herself to throw up all the food she's eaten. Vomitting makes the throat glands swell, making her more puffed than usual. And if she's not digesting enough food, she would look dull and pale, a sure sign that she's not getting the nutrients that she need.
- is skin and bones. We build muscles by the food we eat, specifically food rich in protein. If your friend has been losing too much weight - a dress size - in less than a month, she could be not eating enough protein to build muscles.
- isolates herself. Your friend may try to avoid you and her other friends if she's too focused with her exercise routine, or just because your friendship spells food - that is, when you hang out at the mall, or just at school munching on your favorite sweets and junks.
A skinny friend...
- works out regularly. It isn't sudden, and you've known her to be like so even before, or she's not overdoing it. Exercising for an hour or less five to six times a week is considered healthy exercise.
- eats like everyone else, or even more. She's eating 3 square meals a day, she's not avoiding her friends when they invite her to eat lunch or dinner with them, and she's eating even more than average because she needs the extra energy to keep up with her metablic rate.
- has always been thin. Her childhood photos show it, her siblings show it, and her parents (or just one of them) show it too. It's probably in her genetic makeup, and you've known her to be skinny even before, so what's there to question?