Chinese woman suffers pancreatitis after 6-day starvation, binge-eating once weekly

A 25-year-old woman in China has been diagnosed with acute pancreatitis after she followed an extreme weight-loss regime which consisted of eating once a week and hardly eating a thing for the remaining six days.The woman, who uses the alias Qingqing and lives in Hangzhou, eastern Zhejiang province, is 1.55m tall.She previously weighed 55kg, the Xinmin Evening News reported.However, months ago, she made a rigorous plan to get slimmer.A woman binge eating a burger, fried chicken, doughnuts and other desserts. Photo: ShutterstockThis involved eating little for six days a week and eating whatever she liked on the remaining day.During the six starving days, she barely consumed staples, eating only water-boiled vegetables, chicken breast and low-sugar fruits, aiming to control her daily energy intake to within 800 calories, the report said.For her “indulgent” one day, she ate various savoury foods, including hotpot, fried chicken, hot chicken-flavour noodles, milk tea and nuts.Her efforts paid off; she lost 7.5kg in just a month, reaching a low weight of 47.5kg.A woman standing on a black, analogue bathroom scale on a light wooden floor. Photo: ShutterstockOn May 14, Qingqing embraced her “indulgent day” after dieting for six days.She ate a big bucket of fried chicken at noon and two packs of hot chicken-flavour noodles in the evening.In the late evening, she suddenly felt very uncomfortable in her stomach, waist and back. She also vomited a lot, but the pain persisted.Qingqing was rushed to The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, where she was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis and admitted.Healthy option: A range of fresh vegetables on display at a grocery shop. Photo: ShutterstockDoctors told the media that there is an increasing number of young patients like Qingqing who have developed acute pancreatitis because of extreme dieting plus revenge eating.Further Reading“In an attempt to slim, many people eat only one meal for a day, believing they could become thinner. However, this method would easily drive the pancreas to the brink of collapse,” a doctor from the hospital, whose name was not disclosed in the report, was quoted as saying.This is because long-term dieting causes the pancreas to stay in a “low load standby” status.Binge eating food which contains high oil, high fat makes the organ secrete a large amount of digestive enzymes over a short time.These enzymes spill over and eventually destroy the pancreas, according to the doctor.An overweight woman wearing sporty fitness clothes exercises at a gym. Photo: ShutterstockThe doctor also pointed out that this extreme slimming method would lead to other health problems.Qingqing is not the only person in China who became ill from striving to lose weight.Earlier this year, a 20-year-old university student in central Hubei province had her gallbladder removed after reporting fierce pain in her stomach.She told doctors that she had lost 25kg over several months and did not consume any carbohydrates during that period.