What Eating Disorder Treatment Statistics Reveal About Healing

Monte Nido’s 2025 Outcomes Report tells a story of recovery that extends far beyond the numbers. It shows that compassionate, inclusive, and evidence-based care can lead to lasting healing. Across thousands of clients, seventy percent left treatment with mild or no eating disorder or depression symptoms, and many continued to improve in the months that followed. These outcomes are more than progress on a chart. They represent people finding safety in their bodies, reconnecting with food, and rediscovering a sense of self that once felt out of reach.

The data also challenge long-held ideas about who develops eating disorders and what recovery truly looks like. Our clients represent every background, body size, and identity, reminding us that healing is not confined to any one profile. This year’s report underscores a simple truth: when care is grounded in empathy and guided by science, people do not just get better, they stay better. The full report offers a deeper look at these outcomes and the many human stories behind them.

‍Why Eating Disorder Outcomes Matter: Data Integrity and Meaningful Measures

Monte Nido’s outcomes program was built on a commitment to transparency and rigorous methodology, ensuring that the data we share reflects real change in our clients’ lives. Our findings are based on validated, gold-standard tools used across behavioral health, such as the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-5). These measures track progress in areas like eating disorder symptoms, depression, anxiety, trauma, and overall quality of life.

By collecting and analyzing this information at admission, discharge, and follow-up, we gain a clear picture of how clients heal across time and across levels of care. Each data point also has a purpose beyond research: it informs treatment planning, supports clinical decisions, and helps our teams personalize care in ways that make recovery sustainable.

Our outcomes are not just numbers on a page. They represent a continuous cycle of improvement where research and compassion work together to ensure that every client, regardless of diagnosis, body size, or background, has access to care that is both effective and evidence-based.

Challenging Harmful Norms: Redefining Who Can Recover

For too long, eating disorders have been viewed through narrow cultural and clinical lenses that overlook the diversity of those affected. Monte Nido’s 2025 data tells a different story, one that challenges stereotypes about who develops eating disorders and who can recover.

Challenging Age and Weight Biases

Across thousands of clients, nearly half entered treatment at normal or higher weight, based on CDC criteria, and both adults and adolescents in larger bodies recovered at similar rates as their peers. These findings confirm what we have long seen in our work: eating disorders do not have a “look,” and healing is possible for people of every body size and age. By rejecting weight-based assumptions, we continue to build treatment spaces where all clients are seen and supported. It is important to note that, at Monte Nido, we recognize that size and weight encompass more complexity than what is captured by CDC categories. However, in order to compare our data to other established findings, those are the categories reported here.  

LGBTQIA+ Outcomes

Among our LGBTQIA+ clients, who make up two in five of those we serve, the data show positive recovery trends that reflect the power of affirming, identity-safe care. Adults and adolescents identifying as LGBTQIA+ reached the same levels of symptom remission as their heterosexual and cisgender peers, demonstrating that belonging itself can be a powerful force for healing

The Importance of Culturally Responsive Care

For clients of color, culturally responsive care remains essential. Half of our BIPOC clients met criteria for PTSD, and many waited nearly a decade before entering treatment. Yet their outcomes reveal meaningful reductions in eating disorder symptoms and strong engagement when treatment reflects cultural context and lived experience.

Each of these findings affirms a central truth: recovery thrives where inclusivity and evidence meet. By creating spaces that honor every identity, body, and background, we continue to redefine what recovery looks like and who it belongs to.

Supporting Recovery at Every Level of Care

Recovery is not a straight line, which is why Monte Nido offers a full continuum of care designed to meet clients where they are and guide them every step of the way. Our programs include Inpatient, Residential, Day Treatment (PHP and IOP), and Virtual Care. Each level provides a unique balance of structure, support, and autonomy, ensuring clients receive the right care at the right time

Clients who begin in higher levels of care often arrive with significant medical and psychological needs. Through residential treatment, they rebuild stability and begin learning the skills needed for long-term healing. As clients transition to day or virtual programming, they continue practicing those skills in real-life settings with ongoing clinical guidance. This individualized step-down approach reinforces progress and promotes confidence, helping clients sustain recovery beyond discharge.

Our data show that clients who engage in multiple levels of care experience stronger and more lasting outcomes. Eating disorder, depression, and anxiety scores improve significantly across each phase of treatment and remain stable at six-month follow-up, underscoring the impact of a connected system of care

At Monte Nido, recovery is supported through relationships, structure, and compassion that evolve alongside each client’s needs. By integrating evidence-based treatment within a seamless continuum, we help clients not only get better, but stay better at every level of care.

Get Better, Stay Better: The Benefits of Staying Connected to Care

Recovery is not just about getting well. It is about staying well. Monte Nido’s data show that clients who remain within our network of care, moving from inpatient or residential treatment into day or virtual programming, continue to make measurable gains long after discharge. This continuity allows clients to strengthen new skills, deepen therapeutic relationships, and maintain the progress they worked so hard to achieve.

Across thousands of clients, the results are consistent. Eating disorder symptoms, depression, and anxiety all decrease sharply during residential treatment and continue to improve through step-down levels of care. Six months after completing treatment, average scores remain within the remission range, showing that sustained recovery is possible when clients stay connected to care. This trajectory reflects the heart of our philosophy: lasting change comes from ongoing support and integration, not from a single stage of treatment.

Continuity across levels of care also builds trust and stability. Clients work with coordinated teams who understand their histories, strengths, and challenges. As they move through treatment, they learn to apply coping tools in different contexts, first within a structured environment and then in their daily lives. Each stage builds on the one before it, reinforcing resilience and self-efficacy.

At Monte Nido, healing is viewed as a lifelong process of connection. Our programs are intentionally designed to make transitions seamless, ensuring that every client feels supported, understood, and equipped to navigate recovery beyond treatment. Staying connected does more than sustain progress. It strengthens the foundation for a future built on self-trust, confidence, and the knowledge that recovery is both achievable and enduring.

Longstanding Eating Disorders: Progress Is Still Possible

For many clients who have lived with an eating disorder for a decade or more, recovery can feel out of reach. Monte Nido’s outcomes tell a different story. Adults who entered treatment after ten or more years of struggle arrived with more severe symptoms than those with shorter illness duration, yet both groups made similar progress by discharge. This finding reinforces what we see every day in our programs: healing is possible at any stage of the journey.

Clients with longstanding eating disorders often carry years of fear, frustration, and exhaustion. Many have cycled through treatment before or lost hope that change is attainable. At Monte Nido, recovery begins with rebuilding trust in the process, in one’s body, and in the possibility of a life not ruled by the disorder. Through evidence-based therapy, nutritional rehabilitation, and relational support, clients experience  meaningful shifts.

Our data captures measurable progress, but the numbers only tell part of the story. Recovery for those withlong-term eating disorders is not a return to who they were before. It is a movement toward a fuller, freer version of themselves. Progress may start quietly, but it is always possible and always worth pursuing.

Adolescents and Adults of All Sizes: Healing Across Generations

Monte Nido’s outcomes reveal that healing does not belong to any single age, size, or stage of life. Our clients range from ten to eighty-one years old, reflecting the reality that eating disorders can emerge at any point in the lifespan. Recovery, however, is possible at every age when care is tailored to the individual and grounded in inclusion and respect.

Adolescents in our programs made significant gains in eating disorder symptom reduction and mood stabilization, and 85 percent of client families described as highly engaged in treatment. Early intervention helps prevent symptoms from becoming chronic, while family participation strengthens recovery for the entire system.  

For adults, outcomes show that even after years of struggle, measurable progress is possible. Clients in larger bodies, who often enter with more severe symptoms, achieve similar recovery rates as their peers, underscoring that healing does not depend on weight or appearance.

Our treatment model adapts to each life stage. Adolescents benefit from structure, family integration, and skill development that supports emotional regulation. Adults are guided through deeper work on identity, trauma, and self-trust. Across all programs, body diversity is celebrated, and interventions are individualized to meet each person where they are.

Monte Nido’s approach reflects that recovery is not limited by age, size, or diagnosis. It begins when care is compassionate, personalized, and inclusive of every body.  

‍The Monte Nido Treatment Model in Action

At Monte Nido, recovery is guided by a philosophy that blends full recovery, compassion, evidence, and inclusivity. Every client is met with empathy and respect while engaging in treatment that is both personalized and grounded in research. Our model integrates proven approaches such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and trauma-informed interventions like Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT). These evidence-based methods work together to address the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions of eating disorders.

We know that recovery thrives in environments where relationships and belonging are prioritized. A relational focus allows clients to rebuild trust in themselves and others, while culturally responsive and identity-affirming care ensures that every client feels seen and understood. This comprehensive approach leads to measurable progress across symptom reduction, emotional well-being, and self-efficacy.

Looking Ahead: Evolving the Conversation Around Recovery

Monte Nido’s 2025 Outcomes Report represents a collective effort to understand what recovery truly looks like, and how to make it accessible to everyone who seeks it. As the field continues to evolve, we remain committed to expanding the science of eating disorder recovery.

Our outcomes highlight the power of compassionate, evidence-based care that reaches across identities, body sizes, and levels of care. They also remind us that research is not static. Each new year of data adds dimension to what we know about healing, helping us refine interventions, strengthen training, and ensure that our programs meet the needs of an ever-changing population. By examining thousands of client experiences, we continue to test and improve the effectiveness of our model, advancing the field’s understanding of what lasting recovery means.

Looking ahead, Monte Nido will continue to lead with transparency, publish peer-reviewed findings, and use data to challenge the outdated assumptions that have long defined eating disorders. Our goal remains clear: to help every person who walks through our doors move toward a life of connection, balance, and self-trust.

To explore the findings in more detail, we invite you to view or download the full 2025 Outcomes Report