Available evidence supports the assumption that stressors in vulnerable adolescence potentially lead to restrictive dieting and imbalances of serotonergic metabolic particularly in females. In conjunction with idealized body images and developmentally characteristic bodily perceptions prone to distortion pathogenetic mechanisms of eating disorders are released. The entities of eating disorders are dimensionally viewed as points of continua a functions and categorized according to ICD-10 or DSM-IV, respectively. Data of our studies on grammar school students, ballet dancers and anorexia nervosa patients emphasize the necessity to differentiate different types of body shape by using the metric index. Facing this background a distinction of "anorexia athletica" appears unreasonable.