Announcements

Student Health Services

Eating Disorders and Athletes

Nutrition to athletes, especially endurance athletes, is a critical part of training. Not only is nutrition important before extensive training sessions, but after as well. A properly balanced diet that provides adequate energy is highly recommended.  An athlete's initial performance improvement (due to weight loss through excessive training and restrictive diets) only acts to reinforce destructive training and eating behaviors. The thought that "more is better" is often used to rationalize behavior. For instance, one might think that if two hours of training is good, then four hours must be better. The same thing happens in rationalizing weight loss. "If two pounds of weight loss improved performance, then four pounds will improve it even more." Beware of this type of thinking.

When an athlete has severely reduced the percentage of body fat through improper dieting or excessive training, performance will markedly suffer. As the weight loss progresses, more severe problems may develop such as increased susceptibility to infections, stress fractures, chemical imbalance and weakness of the heart muscle. Most athletes do not realize what they are doing to their bodies as they continue to lose weight, train, and compete.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has identified the Female Athlete Triad. The triad involves the interrelated components of disordered eating, amenorrhea (loss of menstrual periods) and osteoporosis (disease of low bone mass and deterioration of bone tissues). Adequate nutrition is necessary for bone growth but can be compromised due to disordered eating. Bone loss can result from amenorrhea as well.  Every athlete’s goal should be health and wellness. In general, healthy, well-adjusted athletes will outperform those who are not according to the NCAA. For more information on bone health click here.