Perceived signs and symptoms of eating disorders (EDs)
| Signs and symptoms | Frequency stated | Supporting quotation |
| Binge eating and purging | 8 | Bulimia is sort of binge eating then like purging it by making yourself throw up (Shaun, 19) |
| Vomiting without binge eating | 12 | The one where it makes you sick (Chelsea, 22) |
| Calorie counting | 4 | A person controls the amount of food they eat either by how many calories they have and they set like certain routines of how many calories they can have (Katie, 19) |
| Odd food behaviours | 3 | Weird food habits, cutting food into small pieces and like not chewing properly or taking too long to chew, hiding food (Katie, 19) |
| Commenting about food | 3 | They might like complain about something or like complain about the fact they haven’t, oh I’ve ate such rubbish today, I’ve like had a bag of crisps today or oh yeah, it’s like very trivial things that no one else cares about (David, 21) |
| Fussy eating | 2 | Often people are picky, picky eaters, but that might not just be them being a picky eater, it might sort of be a deep set in of not enjoying certain types of food (Andrew, 19) |
| Under-eating | 12 | You choose not to eat, you chose to eat very little (Joshua, 20) |
| Not eating in-front of people | 2 | Some people don’t enjoy, or don’t like eating in front of other people (Andrew, 19) |
| Over-eating | 8 | Eating disorders can also be at the other end of the scale when somebody would over-eat as well (Abigail, 18) |
| Missing meals | 3 | Avoiding things like mealtimes (Abigail, 18) |
| Exercise | 2 | If they over-eat the amount of calories that they’ve like set for themselves then they have to like exercise to work it off (Katie, 19) |
| Weight loss | 6 | Extreme weight gain or weight loss, so big changes in someone’s life to do with weight or food (Grace, 22) |
Perceived signs and symptoms of EDs alongside frequency stated by participants and a supporting quotation.