Over the past few years, I've worked with over 250 athletes from all over the world on nutrition. From daily to sport nutrition and everything in between, I've learned that many athletes struggle with food and body image. Often at the root of having a poor body image and unhealthy relationship with food is the belief that "the lighter or leaner I am, the better I'll perform."
Many athletes come to me with good intentions when wanting to change the way that they eat or look. As a Board Certified Sport Dietitian, I can confidently tell you that there are healthy ways to improve eating habits to optimize sport performance by changing body composition. But the methods for changing body composition - especially for a performance boost - should never require dieting, restrictive eating, underfueling and excessive exercise. Sadly, this isn't the case. Far too many athletes are not eating enough to fuel their body for sport performance. Influencing factors for intentional underfueling and overexercising include diet culture, a societal obsession with health and pressure to achieve an "idealized" body composition for sport. Underfueling to try to achieve a competitive advantage in sport or to meet appearance standards for sport or society is not a healthy or sustainable way to achieve success in sport. And when there is a strong desire to "eat clean" to improve health, this can turn into food restriction and rigid dieting, often increasing the risk for binging, disordered eating or a full blown eating disorder.
Interestingly, body image issues don't always have to do with body fat. Sometimes they have to do with "I'm not good enough" or wanting to gain control. It's not uncommon for people to start a diet after a period of stress, struggling to deal with emotions or feeling out of control. Using food and exercise as a way to avoid uncomfortable feelings of imperfection, instability or inadequacy can lead to devastating consequences as it relates to mental well-being and physical health.
Interestingly, body image issues don't always have to do with body fat. Sometimes they have to do with "I'm not good enough" or wanting to gain control. It's not uncommon for people to start a diet after a period of stress, struggling to deal with emotions or feeling out of control. Using food and exercise as a way to avoid uncomfortable feelings of imperfection, instability or inadequacy can lead to devastating consequences as it relates to mental well-being and physical health.
While the performance pressures that athletes experience will likely never go away, athletes now have another stressor in our life.....the constant stress of living during a pandemic. As if you aren't experiencing enough mental and physical stress from the lack of control you feel in the face of COVID-19, adding extreme exercise and restrictive eating to your life will only make matters worse for your physical health and mental well-being The fact that we live in a culture that is constantly pushing restrictive practices of dieting and exercising to improve "health" may drive you toward "normalized" disordered eating behaviors and destructive exercise routines in order to gain control during such an unpredictable time. This is even more concerning for athletes who already have a long-standing history with disordered eating or an eating disorder. Moments of stress like this time in our life require effective coping skills - not dieting and punishing the body through exercise.
The New Year is always the time when athletes feel compelled to get serious about training and healthy eating. For the high-achieving perfectionist, there's an added risk of concern.
The New Year is always the time when athletes feel compelled to get serious about training and healthy eating. For the high-achieving perfectionist, there's an added risk of concern.
Whereas I've spent the last decade trying to spread messages to the athletic population about the importance of developing a healthy relationship with food and the body, I am now even more concerned about the mental and physical health effects that will occur from dieting, restrictive eating and extreme exercise in the New Year. Widespread worry about weight gain and distress of losing fitness during this pandemic will be exacerbated by diet culture - a system that equates thinness to health and moral virtue and reduces food to "good" or "bad" food.
I see it year after year after year - with motivation high, an athlete will resort to restrictive eating and dieting to retain control of the bodies and the situation. Athletes will often boast how great they feel on social media (often with before and after pictures) but results are typically short-lived. A period of food restriction almost always leads to overeating - making you feel out of control with food. This can make you impose more restrictions to regain control due to blame, shame and frustration. Exercise may become punishment or compensation. This vicious cycle of restriction and binging is damaging to physical and mental well-being. For the athletes who obsess over leanness, restrictive eating practices may further result in relative energy deficiency - a condition that affects physical health and performance, further increasing the risk of mental health symptoms and disorders.
As an athlete, you put your body through enough stress and hardship through training. You need a better approach with food and exercise to foster better outcomes for your physical health, mental well-being and training.
Realizing that something needed to be done to protect the whole athlete (not just the athletic being), I took action. After a lot of research, time and work, I created the first ever 6-lesson educational course to help athletes of all fitness levels (in all sports) develop a healthier relationship with food and the body.
I see it year after year after year - with motivation high, an athlete will resort to restrictive eating and dieting to retain control of the bodies and the situation. Athletes will often boast how great they feel on social media (often with before and after pictures) but results are typically short-lived. A period of food restriction almost always leads to overeating - making you feel out of control with food. This can make you impose more restrictions to regain control due to blame, shame and frustration. Exercise may become punishment or compensation. This vicious cycle of restriction and binging is damaging to physical and mental well-being. For the athletes who obsess over leanness, restrictive eating practices may further result in relative energy deficiency - a condition that affects physical health and performance, further increasing the risk of mental health symptoms and disorders.
As an athlete, you put your body through enough stress and hardship through training. You need a better approach with food and exercise to foster better outcomes for your physical health, mental well-being and training.
Realizing that something needed to be done to protect the whole athlete (not just the athletic being), I took action. After a lot of research, time and work, I created the first ever 6-lesson educational course to help athletes of all fitness levels (in all sports) develop a healthier relationship with food and the body.
Although it will require some effort on your part, you can unlearn food rules. You can learn to improve your body image. You can bring back the joy in training. You can learn how to eat without shame, guilt or judgement. You can achieve a performance ready body without dieting. And most of all, you can discover your true capabilities as an athlete.
The better you care about your body, the better you can take care of your body.
The better you care about your body, the better you can take care of your body.
Through The Whole Athlete 6-lesson course, you will unlearn toxic dieting behaviors and the distorted views that you've developed with food and your body. And most importantly, you will replace negative beliefs with practical ways of thinking so you can elevate your performance, optimize your health and protect your mental well-being.