The number of athletes with eating disorders
continues to rise, especially among those involved in sports that place great
emphasis on the athlete to be thin. Athletes involved in sports such as gymnastics,
figure skating, cheer leading, dancing, ballet, synchronized swimming, diving,
horse racing and ski jumping are at higher risk for developing an eating disorder
than are non-athletes or athletes involved in sports like basketball, football
or weight lifting.
Athletes with an eating disorder may have the same basic
mentality than non-athletes with an eating disorder, but athletes tend to have
different reasons for continuing with eating disorders. The mentality to continue
for non-athletes is looking good. For athletes the mentality is slightly the same.
Any sport that requires thinness
or weight control places athletes at-risk for developing an eating disorder.
Many male and female athletes fall victim to eating
disorders in a desperate attempt to be thin in order to please coaches and judges.
Many coaches are guilty of pressuring these athletes to be thin by criticizing
them or making reference to their weight. Those comments could cause an athlete
to resort to dangerous methods of weight control and can do serious emotional
damage to the athlete.
Body shape and genetics make it nearly
impossible for some athletes to lose weight and remain healthy.
In a way, eating disorders are diets and fitness
or sports programs gone horribly wrong. A person wants to lose weight, get
fit, excel in his or her sport, but then develops obsessive thoughts about food
and training, ultimately losing control and ending up with body and spirit ravaged
by starvation, binge eating, purging, and compulsive exercise. What may have begun
as a solution to problems of low self-esteem has now become an even bigger problem
in its own right.
The female athlete is doubly at risk for
the development of an eating disorder: Girls and women are subject to the
constant social pressure to be thin that affects all females in western countries,
and they also find themselves in a sports milieu that may overvalue performance,
low body fat, and an idealized, unrealistic body shape, size, and weight.
Male
athletes also develop eating disorders but at a much more reduced rate (approximately
90% female; 10% male). Males may be protected somewhat by their basic biology
and different cultural expectations.
Many sports demand low percentages
of body fat. In general, men have more lean muscle tissue and less fatty tissue
than women do. Males also tend to have higher metabolic rates than females because
muscle burns more calories faster than fat does. Women gain weight more easily
than men, and women have a harder time losing weight, and keeping it off, than
men do.
Studies show that participants in sports that emphasize
appearance and a lean body are at higher risk for developing an eating disorder
than are non-athletes or individuals involved in sports that require muscle mass
and bulk.
Studies show that the male sports with the highest number of
participants with eating disorders are wrestling and cross country track. (Wrestlers
may binge eat before a match to carbohydrate load and then purge to make weight
in a lower class.)
Amongst males athletes nervosa and binge eating are
the most common types.
Some girls and women who do sports
or exercise are at risk for a problem called "Female Athlete Triad".
Female athlete triad - also known as female athletic triad - is a combination
of three conditions:
disordered eating,
amenorrhea
(irregular period or loss of period),
and osteoporosis (a weakening
of the bones)
A female athlete can have one, two, or
all three parts of the triad.
Common Characteristics of
Patients Who Have the Female Athlete Triad:
Perfectionist personality,
high expectations for self
Being a competitive athlete
Playing
sports that require you to check your weight often
Exercising more than
is necessary for your sport
Being pushed by your coach or your parents
to win at all cost
Not having time to spend with your friends because
your sport takes up all your free time
Self-critical behavior Low self-esteem
Depressive symptoms
Achieving or maintaining low body weight
and lean physique
Stress fracture without significant change in training
Coaches,
parents, teammates and friends need to be alert to the early signs of eating disorders
among athletes. Often, the eating disorder is well concealed, and the symptoms
are misinterpreted as athletic burn out.
Warning signs
include:
Preoccupation with food and weight
Restrictive
dieting
Repeatedly expressed concerns about being fat - not being satisfied
with one's weight despite being within the healthy weight range or below the healthy
weight range
Fear of gaining weight
Increasing criticism of one's
body
Frequent eating alone
Use of laxatives
Trips to
the bathroom during or following meals
Continuous drinking of diet soda
or water
Compulsive, excessive exercise outside of routine training periods
Complaining of always being cold
Difficulty sleeping
Dissatisfaction with own sporting performance
Moody and depressed
Chronic
fatigue
Fainting
Light-headedness
Withdrawal from
teammates
Avoidance of social events with team or friends
Inability
to complete workouts
Perfectionism
Low self-esteem
Athletes
who punish themselves for eating with vomiting, laxatives, liquorice and excessive
exercise.
Eating disorders in an athlete are a serious problem and
can become life threatening if left untreated. Identifying the type of eating
disorder is essential to get the right help.
Many well-known
male and female athletes have had the courage to speak out about their battles
with an eating disorder.
The following men and women are very
courageous to talk about their "dark secret" and I'd like to thank
them for their honesty, courage and openness.
Famous gymnast Kathy Johnson has struggeled with
an eating disorder. At the age of 17, she was told by her coach that she looked
like a balloon and that she had to lose some pounds. She began fasting, counting
calories and started developing an eating disorder.
Gymnast
and Olympic gold medal winner Nadia Comaneci came forward and admitted
struggling with anorexia and bulimia. Today, Nadia successfully recovered and
teaches gymnastics together with her husband at their own academy in Norman, Oklahoma.
For more information, go to Nadia's
website.
Gymnast and 1972 Olympic gold medal winner
Cathy Rigby suffered from anorexia and bulimia for 12 years. She went into
cardiac arrest on two occasions as a result of it. Today, Cathy is free of her
eating disorder, a successful actress and mother of four. Cathy was able to overcome
her problems when she "started to focus on other things that I wanted in my life,
not just something that I thought would please somebody else."
The
pressure resulting from the early success of gymnast Kelly Masey triggered
her eating disorder. "Every time she weighed, she cried. Every time she gained
two pounds, it affected her performance. If you asked her if she'd had enough
sleep, she'd think, 'Do I look fat?' "
Diver Megan Neyer
suffered from an eating disorder for many years. ''My eating habits were a mess.
For six or seven years, I was bulimic. A lot of that was my attitude that I would
do anything to win. When I started elite diving, my role models did that. We didn't
eat for three days and then we'd binge and purge. I'm not going to mention their
names because I don't want to embarrass them. It was no one's fault but mine,
my perfectionism, my need to win.''
Tennis player and two-time
Olympic medalist Zina Garrison developed an eating disorder at the age
of 19. While playing the best tennis of her life during the 1989-90 season, she
was secretly suffering from bulimia. "In addition to the unsual stresses,
I was feeling a lot of pressure about my body image. I tried to solve my problem
by purging the food I ate. It wasn’t until I lost a match to someone ranked 200
below me that I realized that I had no more energy left. I turned on the television
one day, and there was a show on about eating disorders. I saw myself in the people
on the show and decided it was time to do something about my eating disorder and
the stress that was dominating my life."
Cross-country
runner Whitney Spannuth thought that eating less was what cross-country
runners did and she controlled her own body weight to run faster. "My thoughts
were, if I eat less than them, I'll run faster than they will." Her theory
worked for almost two years before it fell apart and her eating disorder nearly
ended her Olympic dreams when she almost didn't make it to the Olympics in 1995.
Dancer and actor Vera EllenWestmeyer Rohe silently
battled anorexia during her career throughout much of the 50s before doctors were
aware of eating disorders.
Jockey Laffit Pincay struggled
with anorexia and for most of his career he fought his weight.
Boxer
Mia St.John , currently female boxing Lightweight Champion of the World
with an extraordinary 42 wins, opened up about overcoming an eating disorder.
Prior to becoming a professional boxer, Mia battled anorexia and was hospitalized
in 1996. "By the time I started boxing, I was already pretty much recovered from
my eating disorder." Mia is now recovered, however still challenged since there
are required weigh-ins that she must take part in before every bout. For more
information, go to Mia St.John's
website.
Olympic figure skater Jamie Silverstein
battled an eating disorder in the past and became anorexic at the age of 15. Jamie
secretly struggled for five years before she decided to get help. Her disorder
began with her rigid ice skating schedule and she started restricting her calorie
intake until she became so weak, she couldn't perform anymore. Jamie is now recovered
and made her successful comeback at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
Olympic
medal winner figure skater Nancy Kerrigan had an eating problem during
her competetive skating days, which she says was due mostly to stress following
the injury she suffered at the hands of a pipe-wielding attacker in 1994, after
which her weight fell sharply. "I know a girl who, because a coach was always
on her case telling her that she needed to lose weight, was throwing up and doing
things to please that coach."
German swimmer and multiple
Olympic medalist Franziska van Almsick, who ended her swimming career at
the age of 26 after the Olympic Games 2004 in Athens, battled anorexia for years
as a teenager. For more information, go to Franziska's
website.
German figure skater Eva-Maria Fitze, who became the
youngest ever German champion at the age of 14, suffered from an eating disorder.
Her career was interrupted by bulimia after the 98/99 season.
German golfer
Martina Eberl struggled with an eating disorder and after successful treatment
she won her bulimia battle. After her recovery she has made a very successful
comeback. For more information, go to Martina's
website.
German ski jumper Sven Hannawald struggled with anorexia
in the past after adopting a radical weight-loss program. Competitors described
him as looking like "a skeleton" - coaches finally convinced him to
change his eating habits. Sven seems to have overcome his inner demons and erased
any doubts about his abilities. For more information, go to Sven's
website.
Austrian ski-jumper Christian Moser battled an eating
disorder in 1996 and was hospitalized, after which his career went downhill.
Swiss ski-jumper Stefan Zünd struggled with an eating
disorder in the past and had to end his ski jumping career.
2004 Olympic diver Kimiko Hirai Soldati suffered from
bulimia secretly for 1½ years, feeling "shameful and embarrassed"
about what she was doing, before she sought out a psychologist
who specialized in eating disorders. "It would be hard
to find a female athlete in the aesthetic sports — gymnastics,
diving, cheerleading, figure skating, dancing — who isn't
preoccupied with body image and somewhat obsessive about what
she is eating," says Soldati, who is in her 30s, who is married
to Purdue diving coach Adam Soldati. Since her recovery, Kimiko
has spoken to hundreds of women who struggle with eating disorders
and body image issues. For more information, visit Kimiko's
website.
Sadly,
many eating disorder sufferers don't survive their battle.
World class gymnast Christy Henrich died at the age of just 22 on July
26th, 1994, from the effects of anorexia. Multiple organ failure was listed as
the cause of her death.
Gymnast Helga Brathen died at the age of
29 from effects of anorexia after struggling with her eating disorder for many
years.
Boston ballet dancer Heidi Guenther died at the age of 22
in 1997 as the result of an eating disorder. After Heidi's tragic death of anorexia,
an eating disorder program to fight eating disorders among dancers was created.
German
rower and 1988 Seoul Olympic eight gold medallist Bahne Rabe died at the
age of 37 on August 2nd 2001 as a result of an eating disorder. He had been suffering
from anorexia for several months and starved himself to death. Bahne was struck
down by a lung infection that his weakened body was unable to fight. Bahne retired
from rowing before the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 when he saw that he was unlikely
to qualify. According to a German newspaper, after ten years under strict training
regime, with yearly goals to achieve, Rabe found it hard to manage his everyday
life on his own. He had always been very aware of his body but in the past year
had started to lose weight dramatically and visited a clinic in March for the
first time.
The Athletic Woman's Survival Guide: How to Win the
Battle Against Eating Disorders, Amenorrhea, and Osteoporosis by Carol
L., M.D. Otis, Roger Goldingay
Publisher: Human Kinetics
Publication Date: September 2000 ISBN: 0-736-001-212
There
is a hidden epidmic among athletic women today. It is silently affecting their
health and performance now, and it could erupt like a time bomb in the future.
This book is a very thoughtful and thorough
guide that addresses the most alluring and dangerous methods commonly used by
today’s dedicated athletic women: restrictive dieting and rigorous, sometimes
punitive training to attain the perfect body and the perfect performance. The
Athletic Woman’s Survival Guide is full of useful information and advice on how
to get beyond the false magic of the misused numbers of body weight, body composition,
and unreal ideal body images.
Compulsive Exercise And The Eating Disorders -
Toward An Integrated Theory Of Activity by Alayne Yates M.D.
Publisher:
Brunner/Mazel Publication Date: April 1, 1991 ISBN: 0-876-306-30X
This groundbreaking volume provides the first in-depth study
on the many similarities between eating disordered individuals and compulsive
athletes and advances the provocative theory that both are part of a larger category
- the activity disorder.
Disordered Eating Among Athletes by Katherine A.
Beals
A Comprehensive Guide For Health Professionals
Publisher:
Human Kinetics Publication Date: April 2004 ISBN: 0-736-042-199
Provides a wealth of both scientific research and practical information
that will enable personal trainers, athletic trainers, and other health and fitness
professionals to work with and counsel athletes with eating disorders.
This book will increase your
understanding of eating disorders among athletes and give you the practical information
you need to manage athletes in need. The book synthesizes, integrates, and evaluates
the latest research on disordered eating as it pertains to both male and female
athletes.
