**4. Links between Obesity and EDs**

In the presence of obesity in the pediatric age, disordered eating behaviors are highly prevalent, increasing the risk of developing EDs. The EDs that have been most frequently observed in subjects with obesity are BN and BE, both of which are characterized by abnormal eating or weight-control behaviors [39,40]. The typical characteristics of BN and binge-eating disorder (BED) are recurrent BE episodes, defined as losing control over eating amounts of food that are objectively large. While attempts to prevent weight gain through inappropriate compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting is characteristic of BN, BED does not share this characteristic [40,41].

Both obesity and EDs are generally studied and treated as independent disorders; however, obesity and EDs can have a bidirectional impact. Among the different EDs, BE is the one with the highest prevalence of comorbid obesity, followed by BN, and almost 30% of female patients with EDs had lifetime obesity [42].

Several mechanisms linking obesity with EDs and vice versa have been proposed, among other environmental and individual risk factors.
