Nutrition Facts - Diet And Nutrition - Free Diet Plans

Athletes with eating disorders II

September 2nd, 2005

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. So women, who in general carry more body fat than men, with slower metabolisms and smaller frames, require fewer calories than men do.

All of these factors mean that women gain weight more easily than men, and women have a harder time losing weight, and keeping it off, than men do. In addition, women have been taught to value being thin. Men, on the other hand, usually want to be big, powerful, and strong; therefore, men are under less pressure to diet than women are — and dieting is one of the primary risk factors for the development of an eating disorder.

* Special concerns: wrestlers and quick weight loss

Everyone who uses drastic and unhealthy methods of weight loss is at risk of dying or developing serious health problems, but the deaths of three college wrestlers in the latter part of 1997 triggered re-examination of the extreme weight-loss efforts common in that sport. Athletes in other sports have died too; runners and gymnasts seem to be at high risk. The deaths of three young men in different parts of the U.S. in the late 1990s has put the problem once again before the public.

News reports say that the three were going to school in North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Authorities believe they were trying to lose too much weight too rapidly so they could compete in lower weight classes. The wrestling coach at Iowa State University has been quoted as saying, “When you have deaths like this, it calls into question what’s wrong with the sport. Wrestlers believe that, foremost, it’s their responsibility to make weight, and that mind set may come from the fact that they find themselves invincible.” They share that mind set with others who use dangerous methods of weight loss, both athletes and non-athletes.

Two of the young men were wearing rubber sweat suits while they worked out in hot rooms. One died from kidney failure and heart malfunction. The other succumbed to cardiac arrest after he worked out on an exercise bike and refused to drink liquids to replenish those he lost by sweating. One was trying to lose four pounds, the other six.

Wrestlers share a mentality with people who have eating disorders. They push themselves constantly to improve, to be fitter, to weigh less, and to excel. They drive themselves beyond fatigue. One coach reports that “wrestlers consider themselves the best-conditioned athletes that exist, and they like the fact they can go where no one’s gone before. The instilled attitude among these kids is that if they push and push, it’ll pay off with a victory.” No one expects to die as a consequence of weight loss, but it happens.

When a clamor arose for the NCAA to do something, to make rules prohibiting drastic methods of weight loss, a representative said, “We could make every rule in the book, but we can’t legislate ethics. That’s where the wrestlers and coaches have to put the onus on themselves.”

What price victory? It takes wisdom indeed to realize that in some circumstances the price is too high.

Entry Filed under: Sport Nutrition, eating disorders

Athletes with eating disorders I Children and picky eating I