“Learn to love that empty feeling in your stomach, and when you have hunger pains curl up in a ball.”

“You step on that scale, and read those numbers, it’s not lying — you are FAT.”

“You think you are thin, think again because you could always get thinner!”

“Thinspiration is your best friend. You think you’ve lost weight? Trust me, you haven’t. Just check out the models online and you’ll realize that.”

“Pinch your thigh and see how you don’t need food, because you should be eating YOUR OWN FLESH all away from the inside first, before you are deserving of actual legitimate substance.”

These are some of dozens of tips given to Internet users everywhere by pro-anorexic sites. Eating disorders are endorsed on the Web by those with the disorder, giving tips on how to become a victim of the disease.

Anorexia Nervosa, the way to stay below 115 pounds, is self-inflicted starvation. It may seem like a far-away concern, belonging to celebrities in Hollywood, but one in five women has an eating disorder in the course of her life.

Anorexics go beyond dieting to the extreme; they can survive on 400 to 500 calories a day and use excessive amounts of exercise to help them lose more weight.

Bulimia is a disorder where a person goes on an extreme binge then purges by vomiting, taking laxatives, exercising or fasting — the latter two are not as common. According to The Renfrew Center Foundation, a nonprofit organization advancing the education, prevention, research and treatment of eating disorders, bulimics, during any binge, can consume up to 30,000 calories. That is the amount of calories in 42 Big Mac cheeseburgers.

Unlike anorexics, it is hard to tell if a person is bulimic, because they are commonly average weight or a bit heavier, according to The Renfrew Center Foundation.

Disorders such as anorexia surpass just emotional problems and can lead to physical health problems such as heart palpitations, heart attack, anemia, osteoporosis, bone loss, yellow skin and can even lead to heart failure, as in the case of Karen Carpenter — the singer who died of anorexia in 1983. An estimated 480,000 people die from complications due to eating disorders each year, according to The Renfrew Center Foundation. These disorders do not just encompass females but are also found among males.

As severe as the consequences may be, people still suffer from eating disorders across America, and even here on campus.

Victoria, a freshman in biology, started struggling with bulimia problems when she was in middle school. She, coming from a nationality that is naturally heavier, was always “slightly larger” then her friends, and “weighing more was a horrible feeling” for her.

Victoria said she looked to Hollywood celebrities as her role models on what she should look like. Television and movies promote a certain kind of image leading young girls to believe that is the way they should look, even if their body structure, as in Victoria’s case, does not allow it, according to Victoria. Inevitably, the consequences follow the actions.

“What made me first try it was seeing it on a TV movie,” Victoria said. “I used to get really bad migraines and easily have fainting spells after physical activity.”

Victoria said she started seeing a nutritionist and a therapist for her eating disorder in 2003. For her, unlike other women, she realized the mental consequences that came from her physical actions.

“The whole cycle of bulimia is a psychological roller coaster. You eat and then you feel fat and extremely guilty; so then you make yourself throw up, but then your stomach is empty again and you just want to eat again and it goes around and around,” Victoria said.

Victoria is not alone in her struggles. Marie, a freshman in public relations, has struggled with bulimia for years. Marie started out wanting to shed five to 10 pounds, not realizing that her desire to shed her superfluous weight would turn into a life-threatening eating disorder.

“I was very insecure at the time and thought shedding those unwanted pounds would make me more beautiful to the opposite sex,” Marie said.

For Marie, the bingeing and vomiting became habitual and eventually was difficult to control. She said it may seem silly, but bulimia becomes difficult to stop and no one who is looking in from the outside truly understands.

“I don’t think anyone can relate unless they have an eating disorder; but it was like I was digging myself further and further into this abysmal black hole, and could not for the life of me get out,” she said as her eyes teared up.

Like Victoria, Marie began to see a therapist for her bulimia during high school. She said the therapy helped her to realize she had a problem, which helped her battle the disorder one step at a time. An eating disorder was not something she could easily step away from for herself, and her friends didn’t understand the psychological effects it had on her.

“I stopped with the help of my therapist,” Marie said. “She gave me the tools I needed to conquer what I wanted to achieve.”

The desire to have the “perfect body” is part of what eating disorders stem from, but it is not all. According to The American College Health Association, American culture pushes people to be of self-worth based on body weight and shape, but an eating disorder is “a learned coping skill used to re-channel, avoid or forget emotions that feel too threatening.”

Those who are victims of eating disorders are very susceptible to depression and tend to draw away from social aspects of life. they tend to limit their social lives, not just food.

“The problem is their social lives go down the tubes,” Dr. Alison Friedman, a clinical psychologist and expert on eating disorders for The Renfrew Center Foundation, said.

Friedman and The Renfrew Center Foundation stress educating people about eating disorders. The center believe education, in this case, is the best way to advocate against eating disorders.

Pro-anorexic, or pro-Ana, sites are emerging all over the Web, but are constantly battling against server providers to keep their Web sites up. Most pro-Ana site makers claim it is their right to exercise “freedom of speech.”

Web browsers across the nation are continually shutting down the sites that promote eating disorders, and display tips on how to lose weight by becoming anorexic. Sites offer “thoughts” like, “If you think you are thin, think again because you could always get thinner,” to keep its followers motivated. On most sites, one can find “thinspirations,” which are pictures of bones and translucent skin marked as “beautiful” women with “perfect” bodies.

“We are consistently advocating against pro-Ana sites,” Friedman said.

Others think each site has a right to say what it believes, including Victoria.

Even though she advises against bulimia and other eating disorders, Victoria said she believes the Web sites should be allowed to say what they want.

“It’s just like any other harmful way of life — for lack of a better phrase — like smoking pot is illegal, but there are tons and tons of Web sites out there that support the legalization of it,” Victoria said.

Karl Angermeier, a senior in biomedical engineering, does not like the idea of using an eating disorder to change one’s body image.

“It’s terrible. The idea that being unhealthy to change yourself in order to please other people is just wrong and promoting that is worse,” Angermeier said. “People just need to learn to be happy with themselves.”

Others who have struggled with eating disorders speak out firmly against the pro-anorexic sites.

“Eating disorders are destructive, plain and simple,” Marie said. “We put a surgeon general’s warning on cigarettes, so maybe we should put a warning on those sites that reads: ‘Warning, may cause heart problems, bone loss, severe depression, teeth erosion and even worse, heart failure.'”

Groups who advocate against eating disorders, like Renfrew, may not be able to control what people put out on the Web, but The Renfrew Center Foundation said it will continue to educate about the severity of the disorders with hopes that some will listen.