Most students would not think of their 6-foot-1-inch tall 160-pound peers as being “fat kids.”

However, Tim Nellis, a USI junior of such stature, struggles with the perception that he is, in fact, a fat kid.

Nellis is one among many young adults on a quest to achieve his ideal body weight.

However, unlike some, Nellis has approached his quest in a healthy manner.

Many Americans aren’t as fortunate.

The South Carolina Department of Mental Health reported 50 percent of females between the ages of 11 and13 see themselves as overweight, and an estimated 8 million Americans have an eating disorder.

Sarah Phillips, who works in the counseling department, organized an eating disorder screening day here at USI last Thursday for National Eating Disorder Awareness Week.

The aim of the screening day was to talk about healthy ways to lose weight and how to deal with the issues that surround eating disorders.

Many of the individuals who Phillips sees suffering from eating disorders indicate their disorders originated in a “need to not be fat”, she said.

Media, she said, is also a major contributing factor to many eating disorders.

“The need to feel pretty and fit the model image of health and fear of being overweight,” Phillips said, is the biggest concern she hears from eating disordered students.

USI Counseling Center offers counseling for students suffering from an eating disorder.

However, if the disorder is so severe that the student needs intensive therapy he or she may be redirected to either Deaconess Hospital or Architects of Awareness, a counseling firm located in Evansville.  

Nellis, who has not struggled with an eating disorder, can relate to the perception of being overweight.

At his heaviest, Nellis weighed 240 pounds. He was 18.

“I was like a vulture. I was eating everything and anything, even eating off other peoples’ trays at lunch,” Nellis said.

Nellis confessed to consuming an average minimum of 4,500 calories a day.

Now he said he’s reached a maximum of 1,600 calorie intake.

Walking and running, two newfound hobbies, have also helped him shed the pounds.

Nellis attributed his success in losing weight to simply being more conscious of what his food consumption was and walking more.

“I haven’t been to a public pool since I’ve lost all that weight, but that’s my goal for this summer: to go to a public pool,” Nellis said.