Eating Disorders Blog

According to an article appearing this week in the student newspaper of Lewis University, campus health officials are seeing an increase in male athletes with disordered eating behaviors. The behaviors are linked to the athletes' goal of achieving a "competitive advantage" over other athletes. Jill Siegfried, Director of Student Recreation, Fitness and Wellness at Lewis, believes that these behaviors are on the rise among male athletes because of unhealthy social messages that young men are receiving. She believes that male athletes have developed a "notion that thinner will equate to having a competitive advantage."

One popular form of disordered eating that has been observed by Ms. Siegfried and other officials is compulsive exercising as a way to purge calories. Ms. Siegfried explains, "compulsive exercising is a problem when people schedule their lives around exercise just like people who have eating disorders schedule their lives around eating or not eating."

Siegfried believes that unhealthy social messages encourage "body image distortion" and the development of eating disorders in male athletes. "[There's] the whole consumer marketing buzz to six pack abs and all. People see that image and think it could be them. They'll starve themselves or 'over train' to get there. The obsession is [even] starting now with young boys."

Labels: manorexia, athletes

Posted By: Aspen Education Group