The misuse of fasted training

The line separating fasted workouts from disordered eating can become blurry for athletes.

Proponents claim that fasted workouts have several significant health and performance benefits. The main reasons why athletes perform fasted training include:

• Increasing the rate in which your muscles use fat for fuel 
• Sparing glycogen stores  
• Increasing mitochondrial density

Fat oxidation refers to the process of breaking down fatty acids. To oxidize fat, you need: 

• Healthy mitochondria (the powerhouse of cells where chemical energy is generated to power the cell's biochemical reactions). 
• Fat molecules (specifically triglycerides) to be broken down into glycerol and fatty acids. Fatty acids are then transported to cells and undergo a series of reactions (beta-oxidation) to produce acetyl-CoA to enter the citric acid cycle to generate energy.
• Oxygen (transported to the muscles by blood). Fat cannot be burned (or oxidized) without the presence of oxygen. 

While there are studies supporting the benefits of fasted training, what may start out as a genuine attempt to become more "metabolically efficient" can become a slippery slope that descends into disordered eating patterns. 

Although working out in a fasted state is not an eating disorder, it can be considered a form of disordered eating. This is because any type of rigid food rule about when you can eat may foster unhealthy behaviors around food and may bring on a hyperfixation on body composition. Telling yourself when you can and cannot eat is telling your body that the cues and signals given from the body aren't important and can be ignored. 

Fasted training may seem like an easy option to improve fat burning potential but if you are working out on an empty stomach in order to improve metabolic efficiency, consider the following when it comes to proper implementation: 

• Fasted training is shifting the eating window an hour or two later in the morning while still maintaining proper energy intake throughout the day to support energy and health needs. 
• Proper refueling is key after a fasted session. Failure to adequately refuel will have harmful effects on health and physiological adaptations. 
• The process of fat burning has several components and regulatory mechanisms. A critical component of fat oxidation is oxygen. Fasted training should only be used during low-intensity, "aerobic" training sessions. 
• Fasted workouts should only be done once or twice a week. When there are limited hours between training sessions to refuel and restore muscle glycogen levels, fasted workouts may impair recovery and workout quality may be compromised.
• The ideal phase of fasted workouts is in the early base period when workouts are of low intensity and low volume. 

Fasted workout reminders......

• Weight loss and body composition changes are not goals of fasted training.
• Only one or two low-intensity, low volume sessions per week should be in the fasted state. 
• You can't see or feel the fat that you use for exercise. Fasted workouts are not designed to specifically change how you look. 
• High intensity and high volume workouts should not be done in a fasted state. 
• Athletes should be cautious with fasted training, especially females. Negative effects include elevated cortisol, potential to break down lean muscle for fuel, slow recovery, increased adipose fat, and hormonal issues. 
• Fasted training doesn't work for everyone.  
• Fasted training should not be performed by individuals who have a history of disordered eating or an eating disorder. 

Fasted training for performance is not.......

• Fasting even when feeling low in energy, weak, lightheaded or hungry. 
• Carrying out all weekday training sessions fasted. 
• Increasing workout volume and intensity in a fasted state in order to burn more calories/body fat. 
• Testing how long or hard you can workout before you need to fuel. 
• Using fasted workouts as an excuse to skip a meal or snack. 
• Carrying out fasted training because you think it will help you lose weight.
• Fasting due to fear of gaining weight (or not burning fat or as many calories) if you eat before a workout.
• Using fasted workouts as a reason to "burn" the calories consumed the day before.

Many athletes are drawn to fasted workouts for performance gains but it's very easy to overuse or misuse fasted training as a way to manipulate body composition due to an unhealthy relationship with food and body. 

In my professional opinion, I am not a fan of fasted training. While fasted training may increase fat oxidation rates, there's little to no evidence that specifically working out on an empty stomach will enhance performance. Fasted workouts will increase the stress on the body in addition to the stress that is caused by life and training. There are many other areas to focus your time and energy on that will bring you far better gains in performance and body composition.

Consistent training (with a fueled body) is an effective way to increase the capacity of fat oxidation. Through training, you generate more mitchondria, more enzymes, more transport proteins, better muscle blood supply and faster breakdown of triglycerides into fatty acids. The end result is a greater capacity to burn fat. In other words: fasted training is not needed to become better at fat burning. 

 
If you have not achieved at least 90% of your athletic potential through years of consistent training, healthy lifestyle habits, good restful sleep, proper recovery and optimizing mental health, you shouldn't be chasing the final 10%. The 90% are the real magic bullets that will help you optimize your health and performance. 

When a cookie becomes so much more than just another cookie

The holiday season is a time of socializing, celebration and reunions. It's a time when families, coworkers and friends gather together around food. For those struggling with an unhealthy relationship with food and the body, the holiday season may not be so bright and merry.

If you experience great emotional stress around the holiday season, you are not alone. Here are some reasons why the holidays can be so stressful when it come to food:

• Fear of weight gain.
• Too many food items available.
• Guilt around indulging.
• Feeling weak or out of control.
• Stress and anxiety.
• Uncomfortable being seen eating food.
• Pressure or comments when eating.
• Worry of offending others.
• Struggling with "normal" food portions.
• Remarks about body weight/size.
• Inability to recognize fullness.
• Eating on another person's schedule.

Having tools to manage triggers and unhealthy thoughts can help you maintain a healthy relationship with food and the body so you can fully enjoy the holidays.

Here are a few tips to help you maintain a healthy relationship with food and your body:

• Identify your triggers for overeating/binging or food restriction, such as going long hours without eating.
• Prepare your responses for conversations about body image, dieting and weight.
• Give yourself alone-time and space during social gatherings.
• It's ok to eat a little more than you normally would.
• Keep diet talk and body image discussions away from the table. Even the standard statement of "you look healthy" or "you look great" can be triggering. Many disordered eating behaviors stem from food control and body image/appearance.
• Avoid statements like "you’ll put on some pounds." There's no need to criticize your body or other people's bodies.
• Avoid all-or-nothing thinking. Eat with a mindset of curiosity and gratitude.
• Listen to your body. Notice feelings of fullness and hunger.
• Set boundaries and be willing to say no thank you.
• Eliminate negative self-talk. 

If someone at your holiday table is suffering with disordered eating, here are a few suggestions to make this individual feel welcomed and comfortable:

• Do not focus on what the individual is eating.
• Make the primary focus of the holiday on something besides food.
• Plan activities that don't involve food - such as games, decorating or spending time talking.
• Offer a dish that this individual would feel comfortable eating.
• Honor agreements to not discuss body image, weight loss, diets or appearance.

Similar to going on a diet, food becomes much more desirable (and craved) if it's only allowed at certain times. If you can only eat a food once a year, there's a good chance you will overindulge due to scarcity.

The truth is that special holidays make foods special. Honoring food traditions instills respect, gratitude and joy for what we are eating.

When it comes to Christmas cookies, pumpkin pie, birthday cake, ice cream or any other food that you only eat during special occasions - special foods should be savored and enjoyed.

Dieting, restriction, guilt and deprivation lead to feeling out of control over the foods you fear you will overeat. A cookie becomes so much more than just a cookie when you have an unhealthy relationship with food.

Give yourself permission. Honor your body's cravings. Taste the flavors. Trust yourself around special foods.

Developing a healthy relationship with food takes time. The holiday season is the perfect time to practice.

Every time you give yourself permission to indulge responsibility, you move closer to a place where you don't feel controlled by food. The cookie no longer becomes such desirable yet scary, worrisome and fearful food. Take your power back over cookies.

The restriction and deprivation stops. The guilt and shame goes away. The fear is removed. You feel in control and the cookie becomes just another delicious cookie.

------------

Contact the NEDA Helpline (1-800-931-2237) for support, resources, and treatment options for yourself or a loved one who is struggling with an eating disorder. Helpline volunteers are trained to help you find the support and information you need. Reach out today!

You can always leave a message for the Helpline if it is not currently available, and they will return your call or message promptly.If you are in a crisis and need help immediately, text “NEDA” to 741741 to be connected with a trained volunteer at Crisis Text Line. Crisis Text Line provides free, 24/7 support via text message to individuals who are struggling with mental health, including eating disorders, and are experiencing crisis situations.

Accepting your "ideal" body composition

Height, hair color, eye color, skin color.

We can't control or determine these things when we are born. Yet we are taught that we can (and should) force our bodies to achieve a specific shape, weight, size and appearance.

We are fed information that our weight matters, even if it comes at a cost of our mental and physical health.

But not all bodies are set to be at a specific body composition.

Every human has a specific weight range for their body to function optimally.

If you've forgotten or failed to learn the importance of maintaining a healthy weight, you may be familiar with the difficulty and frustration of restricting food in an effort to change your body composition.

Trying to achieve or maintain a body composition that goes below your body's set point often by restricting energy or over-exercising impairs the functioning of your body.

No matter how hard you fight, your body will fight back to stay within a range where your body operates and functions optimally.

The body slows metabolic rate, it shuts down non-essential functioning and eventually bone, immune system, well-being and cardiovascular health become compromised.

Enough with trying to achieve or maintain an idealized image.

It’s not that you shouldn’t care about your weight. But your thoughts and behaviors around food, your body and exercise matter so much more than an image.

Backlash over the athlete body

It's been interesting to hear the reactions to Kara Goucher's recent Facebook post which was a response to the body shaming within Oregon's Track and Field program).

From "amen" and "enough is enough" to "she's so thin, what is she talking about" and "she has body dysmorphia if she thinks she has fat" the feedback has been mixed. I assume that most reactions to the Oregon situation of fat shaming and eating disorders are outrage and sadness whereas some people are finding it hard to believe that an athlete like Kara Goucher would have body image issues - especially when the pictures she posted were what appeared to be a lean and fit athlete.

There's a lot to unpack here but I will try my best without writing a book on this topic. Although I've probably written over a hundred articles/blogs on this topic so I could very well turn that into a book. Nonetheless, here we go.....how did we get here?

Diet Culture
Diet culture is a system of beliefs that values health, well-being, thinness, appearance and shape. Diet culture conditions people to believe that thinness equates to health, fat is unhealthy and achieving the idealized body makes you more morally superior than others. Diet culture offers programs and products to help you achieve an ideal of what is considered "healthy" or "fit". If you don't match up with an idealized image, diet culture wants you to spend an excessive amount of time, money and energy trying to change the way that you look. Diet culture demonizes certain foods and styles of eating and praises others. This makes you feel guilt and shame for eating certain foods as diet culture emphasizes "good" versus "bad" foods (which change by the season), encourages you to restrict calories and normalizes critical self-talk. Diet culture teaches you that your self-worth is measured in pounds and you are only as good as your size. Diet culture doesn't need you to "be on a diet" to be caught up in the culture of dieting. Diet culture needs you to be insecure about your body (ex. cellulite, stretch marks, weight, rolls, skin, wrinkles) for diet culture to profit. And how do these insecurities arise? Often from social media, television, advertising.

Idealized Body Image
There's a good chance that as you scroll through social media, browse through a magazine or watch TV, you instantly start to compare your body to others. Somehow, you have a picture in mind of someone who has a perfect body and you envy that body (or what that person has achieved because of that body). Where did this ingrained idea of a "perfect" body come about?
Throughout history, we as a culture (and society) have been obsessed with size. It's become attached to our identity. This obsession with size has created a construct of the "ideal" body. From curvy and thick to thin and childlike, this image has changed many times throughout history. Unfortunately, as this ideal changes, people (primarily women) try to conform to the "ideal." Interestingly, the highest prevalence of disordered eating occurs at a time when the "ideal" woman is thin. With a strong divide in the way bodies are presented on the media, thinness is celebrated whereas larger bodies are highlighted as unattractive and unhealthy. When we are inundated with images of a particular body type that is viewed as healthy, attractive, healthy, successful and beautiful, we are taught to believe that this particular body type is ideal. This matters because constant exposure to images promoting thinness, muscularity or both contributes to body dissatisfaction and low self-esteem. Aspiring to this ideal figure can cause people to engage in disordered eating behaviors such as restrictive eating or purging or excessive exercising. With so many images reinforcing a similar type of body, this sends the message that a certain body is more preferred than others.

Body Shaming Athletes
Diet culture and the idealized image always go together. Given that so many people are dissatisfied with body image, diet culture is there to help you do things (ex. weight loss, dieting, exercise) to help you achieve that image – all with the promise that you will be healthier, more attractive, happier and more successful when you meet that idealized image. Although media plays a vital role in formulating what is attractive in society, comments made by coaches, journalists and commentators can lead to body dissatisfaction. Many authority figures are predisposed to an aesthetic bias that thinner is better. Lighter is faster. Fat is slow. Imagine two runners showing up to practice. One is curvy around the midsection and the other is lean and defined. Due to society’s idea of “fit” and healthy, the curvy girl is more likely to be told by coaches, commentators and the media that she doesn’t fit the expectations of an ideal runner’s body. She may be told to lose weight to improve her chances of being successful at races or she may be told that she’s great for a “bigger” athlete. We don’t need society/coaches/commentators to put athlete bodies and sizes into boxes to label, objectify and to discriminate. But there’s a good chance that you may already do this. How many times have you looked at an athlete at the start of a race and assumed that this athlete was “fast” based on their body composition? Athletes are stereotyped every day. Far too many coaches (typically male) assume that diet and exercise are the only factors that contribute to a person’s weight or size. Instead of celebrating that everyone is born with a body that is unique to them and to encourage them to embrace their unique qualities, body shaming is common in many sports. One of the many reasons why athletes become dissatisfied with their bodies is because of body shaming. Inappropriate, negative or attitudes towards a person’s weight or size is wrong and unfair. When your coach adds pressure on you to lose weight or to look a certain way, you become fixated on achieving that image. Nothing else matters. And this isn’t limited to curvy athletes like the example above. Even lean athletes that meet an “idealized” image can feel dissatisfied with their bodies. Again, we are mislead to believe that thinner = happier and healthier. 

Health at Risk
Diet culture, an idealized image and comments made by coaches/commentators have made you believe that your body isn’t good enough. In an effort to fit the body ideal, diet culture sweeps you up and reminds you of all of the tips and tricks for changing your body composition - all of which are extreme and unhealthy. Whereas you may have started with good intentions to change your diet to become a better athlete, trying to meet a body ideal is almost always damaging to mental and physical health because the focus is on the image of your body - not on the function or health of your body. Your genes play a very important role in determining how much you weigh throughout your life. More or less, you have a genetic code for your body type and that blueprint is a weight range that is one that you can healthily maintain. If you try to step too far outside of that range (ex. weight loss) your body systems will make changes to try to get you back into that weight range. Fatigue, hunger, cravings and headache are a few symptoms that you may immediately feel. But that is why the diet culture has taught you tricks on how to boost energy through coffee, curb cravings with sugar-free foods and fight hunger with willpower and water. Your body will always defend your set range to keep you healthy. This is why so many athletes experience short and long-term (and often career-ending) health issues as a result of insufficient caloric intake relative to energy expenditure. For most athletes, to achieve an “idealized” image that you are told (or you think) will make you a better athlete, you are approaching a losing battle as you attempt to fight evolution – your biology, your brain, your organs, your immune system, your digestive system, your hormones, your metabolism. It’s important to remember that you are not just an athlete, you are a human being. 

With so much more that I can unpack as it relates to diet culture, an idealized image and disordered eating I’d like to leave you with this. 

Many athletes have an unhealthy relationship with food and the body. Many athletes develop disordered eating or an eating disorder. 

As the narrative continues that “lighter is faster” and “thinner is better” it’s critical that we – as a society - control for disordered eating. When an athlete improves performance because she lost weight, are we celebrating her weight loss as a result of an eating disorder? Is anyone looking after her mental and physical health? Are we looking after long-term health? Was this weight loss induced by fat-shaming and weight stigma? Are there warning signs for an eating disorder? Is this athlete maintaining a normal menstrual cycle? Is this ‘perfect’ athlete body being referenced and glamorized something that is universally achievable and realistic? What kind of messages are being sent to athletes with "normal" bodies? Encouraging or celebrating weight loss reinforces that fact that athletes are judged by their body image.

You are more than a view of your body. Respect your body. Don't diet. Don't self-deprecate. Workout because you love what you can do with your body - not because you feel you need to change it.

If you maintain a healthy relationship with food and your body, you nourish and fuel your body and you train in a systematic and smart way, your body will naturally transform into the perfect YOU for optimal performance.

Trust me.
Why?

Because there are far too many testimonials of athletes who have tried to optimize performance through dieting and/or over-exercising and it's never the fairytale story that we are made to believe by diet culture and the media. 

Need to eat more but scared of weight gain?

An eating disorder distorts the way you think about food and your body, causing you to eat and exercise in a way that can be harmful to your mental and physical health.

A critical step in eating disorder recovery is working through counterproductive and destructive thoughts, emotions and behaviors - not just relating to food and the body but also with self-esteem, confidence, control and perfectionism.

To fuel, nourish and train in a way that will optimize performance and to become more comfortable and confident with your body image, it's necessary to break away from unhealthy food and exercise-related behaviors and to challenge and fight against disordered thoughts.

Keep in mind that the weight/body image that you think you need to perform well in sport will likely be different than the body composition/weight that allows you to train and race in a way that supports your physical and mental health.

An eating disorder is not about food.

Body weight is also not the issue.

The body composition insecurities and overwhelming food-related decisions are symptoms of a problem, but not the problem itself.

Therapy is critical. Don’t let yourself give up - even if it feels like you aren't making progress.

A huge part of the recovery process is accepting that your body and mind will change. Your body and mind may heal at different times. Learning to let go of control can also be hard.

Once you restore your physical and mental health and strengthen your relationship with food and the body, you will physically feel better, your decisions around food and exercise will begin to work for you (and not against you) and any body composition changes will never be as visible as you fear/believe.

Although the road will be bumpy at times, trust the process and journey ahead of you.

Your body is worth the time and effort. 💕

Body image struggles?? Read this.

Whether you're a casual jogger or an experienced athlete, you may believe that changing your body composition to reduce body fat levels will help you reach your athletic goals, improve your self-worth or feel more like an athlete. After all, how many times have you heard that lightening-up will speed you up?

Don’t be quick to believe everything that you hear.

With any type of sport, it’s normal to look to others and see where you stack up based on performance, training volume, and body type. Although exercise can be a great activity to improve your overall health, there’s a downside to competitive leanness.....chasing the idea that weighing less will enhance performance can deprive you of the fuel and nutrients you need to optimize performance and maintain great health.

The media is oversaturated with images of athletes with six-pack abs, low body fat levels, lean arms, and long slender legs. Constant exposure to these images can make you believe that you're not good enough —increasing body consciousness, lowering self-esteem, and intensifying body dissatisfaction. Constant bombardment by images of an unrealistic body type can make it easy to slip into unhealthy or disordered eating behaviors, which increases your risk for sickness, hormonal disturbances, mood changes, injury, an energy deficit, and burnout.

Success looks different on everyone. You don't need to strive for the perceived "athlete body." Instead, learn to embrace your unique traits and strengths. To enhance your fitness journey, don’t let your body image define you. What matters most is what you can do with your body, not what it looks like. Not every human body is going to look the same.

Run because you love to run. Wear a swimsuit that makes you feel proud of your body. Keep showing up because working out is fun. You get to define your own success - your body is not an object that defines you. If you avoid signing up for a race because you fear being judged for how you long, crush those mental demons. Let go of comparison and be proud of your physical strengths. Never let your insecurities define you.

Instead of bashing your body, thank your body. 

Be proud of what your body can do and all that it’s capable of achieving. How you perceive yourself largely influences your actions. 

Discard the bathroom scale if it leads to self-destructive thoughts. 

Wear clothes that make you feel good when you exercise. 

Create goals that make you feel proud of your body. 

And most of all, figure out how you need to eat, sleep, and train in order to stay healthy for the long term. 

How you need to look to perform at your best may be different than how you think you need to look.

The process of developing a positive body image takes time, but to love your body in motion is worth the patience and hard work. Athletes come in different shapes and sizes. If you watch any race—from 5K or marathon to a sprint or long distance triathlon—you’ll see racers of all different body types celebrating across the finish line.

Sport doesn’t care what you look like. Your body belongs at any workout or race.

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Busting 6 eating disorder myths

“The goal of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is to shine the spotlight on eating disorders by educating the public, spreading a message of hope, and putting lifesaving resources into the hands of those in need.”

According to the the Alliance for Eating Disorder Awareness, 29 million Americans will experience a clinically significant eating disorder during their lifetime. Yet, only one-third of people with eating disorders will ever receive treatment. Eating Disorders Awareness Week was developed to reduce the stigma, raise awareness and provide better access to support for those suffering from an eating disorder.

In a field where marginalized communities continue to be underrepresented, it's important to welcome conversations on raising awareness, challenging systemic biases, and sharing stories from all backgrounds and experiences (NEDA).

If you or a loved one is currently struggling with an eating disorder, it’s important to know that you are not alone. Know that a life of full recovery is possible. It's worth the effort to create a life worth living.

How undereating impacts your health and fitness

 

Should we be surprised in our diet crazed, body image obsessed society?

Research shows that almost 75% of athletes do not eat enough calories to fuel workouts and to perform to full capabilities on event day. Some of this is unintentional as many athletes underestimate how much food/calories are needed to keep the metabolic processes functioning well with the added load that exercise brings to the body. But undereating is not always unintentional. For a large number of athletes, undereating is intentional and purposeful. 

Asking your energy-deprived body to perform doesn't make much sense but sadly, far too many athletes intentionally restrict food intake (specifically carbohydrates) - often to lose weight, become more metabolically efficient or to change body composition. 

Although it's clear that committing to adequately fuel your body can improve performance, reduce the risk for injury and enhance well-being, far too many athletes are more motivated to undereat - than to fuel for performance - in hopes of losing weight, changing body composition and decreasing body fat. In other words, intentional insufficient fueling is almost always related to a strong desire to look differently.... change body composition. 

Underfueling is a form of stress and that alone can negatively impact training, mental well-being and physical health.

A well-planned diet, with enough energy (calories) and nutrients to fuel the body and help it recover from workouts is critical to fitness gains and overall health. Food is the best (and easiest) way to provide the body with the nutrients it needs to rebuild and repair muscle tissue, replace glycogen (carbohydrate) stores, maintain immune health, and to keep vitamin and mineral stores stocked.

Let's look into some of the consequences of intentional underfueling and not eating enough to support your body and exercise regime.

Can you be too driven to succeed?

Drive is often the fuel that keeps you motivated to achieve a goal. But a powerful need to succeed can be driven by a fear of failure or constantly comparing yourself to others (or a past version of yourself). The more successful you become in each step of your athletic journey, the more afraid of failure you can become. As a result, you may find yourself compromising your values - and your mental and physical health. The state of being driven can become addictive. 

Being intrinsically motivated is required in any successful individual. To work hard and relentlessly pursue a goal with determination is a great quality. 

Although drive can be a great thing (when you use it in the right ways), it can also lead to a single-focused mindset. When you are too driven, it can be difficult to switch "off" which can make it difficult to respect your health and well-being. 

As an athlete, the competitive nature and strong discipline that can make you a great athlete may also place you at risk for obsessive exercise and disordered eating. 

Athletes tend to exhibit unique traits that help them succeed in sport. For example, self-discipline, obsession, driven to succeed and motivation are admirable characteristics that keep you working hard for a goal. However, individuals with these personality features may also be predisposed to being perfectionistic and self-critical. Athletes with these features may compare appearance and current fitness status against unrealistic standards. Although many athletes are self-critical and want to live up to their own ideals, expectations and goals, it's not uncommon for athletes to be heavily concerned about what other people (athletes, coaches, friends, family) think of them.

Being too driven can increase the risk rigid eating and over-exercising. Your drive to succeed can become an obstacle that stands in the way of your success.

It's not uncommon for driven athletes to become hyper-focused or obsessed with food and with the idea of controlling eating to reach a performance, health or body composition goal. Inflexible thinking increases the tendency of making decisions with an all or nothing, black or white mentality. As a result, any deviation from self-imposed rules becomes an unacceptable failure. With a strict set of standards that you strive to meet, your constant drive to improve can lead to a dissatisfaction when you fail to meet your high expectations and goals. As a result, this adds fuel to the fire and perpetuates a stronger drive toward perfection and control. It can be difficult for the highly driven athlete to accept suggestions or advice from well-meaning professionals - keeping you in a cycle of self-sabotage. 

There's nothing wrong with being motivated, driven and dedicated. But when a level of perfectionism shows up in your eating habits and exercise regime, being too driven can do more harm than good. Add in the pressure of wanting to be lean due to sport and societies obsession with thinness and you can understand how your good intentions can lead to unhealthy outcomes. 

Taking health risks for a perceived competitive edge will make you lose in the long run. No matter your athletic goals or fitness level, you should not have to prioritize your athletic development over your well-being. 

If this speaks to you, I create a program to help you get more out of your training without compromising your mental and physical health. Through The Whole Athlete 6-lesson course, you will learn how diet culture, a societal obsession with health and the chase for an ideal race weight are negatively impacting your training, mental well-being and physical health. Once you understand why you think how you think about food, health and your body, you can fix the distorted views that you've developed with food and your body. 

Learn more HERE. 

The holidays and disordered eating

 

Picture source. Holly Harris. 

The holidays can be a stressful time for those in eating disorder or disordered eating recovery. The current pandemic certainly adds another level of stress, anxiety and worry during this holiday season. 

Holiday meals can be triggering for those who seek control over food and have (or had) an unhealthy relationship with food and the body. Eating with others (even virtually) may bring an overwhelming amount of uncomfortable feelings. Whether you are afraid of gaining weight, trying new foods or binge eating, you dread the uneasy body image and diet conversations with family or you fear being unable to "burn off" the calories with your typical early morning T-day workout, you may find it hard to be kind to yourself during this holiday season. 

Although I am not advocating eating with members outside of your household (remember - we still have a deadly and highly contagious virus spreading quickly throughout our country), here are a few tips to help take the focus away from food during the upcoming holiday: 

• Food should never make you hate yourself. 
• Identify your triggers for overeating/binging or food restriction. For example, rather than going long hours without food or randomly eating something that you are not comfortable with, plan snacks and meals for yourself. 
• Prepare your responses for conversations about body image, dieting and weight. 
• Give yourself time and space during social interactions. 
• It's ok to eat a little more than you normally would. It's also ok to use the tools that help you eat in a responsible way that supports your physical and emotional health. 
• Keep diet talk off the table. You don't need to help others. You don't need to be helped over the Thanksgiving table. You don't need to debate over certain diets, not to mention starting an exercise plan with the goal of losing weight.
• Keep body image discussions away from the holiday season. Even the standard statement of "you look healthy" or "you look great" can be triggering. Many disordered eating behaviors stem from food control and body image/appearance. 
• Statements like "you/I put on some pounds" are also unacceptable. There's no need to criticize your body or other people's bodies. 
• Holiday eating is not a socially acceptable time to binge. Working out just to eat is not healthy. Compensation after eating is an eating disorder behavior. The talk of restriction or overexercise to compensate for a meal is not a healthy strategy. 
• It's physically healthier never to diet. It's emotionally healthier not to try to control body weight through a diet. A diet mentality leads to body dissatisfaction and an unhealthy relationship with food. All diets can be considered disordered eating. 
• Avoid all-or-nothing thinking. Eat with a mindset of curiosity. 
• Express gratitude when you feel anxious. 

You are not born hating your body

We live in a society where we are constantly being told that losing weight is good and gaining weight is bad. Although segments of the population may benefit from dietary changes that will promote healthy weight loss to reduce the complications from metabolic syndrome, many individuals (particularly athletes) are constantly striving for a smaller version of themselves. 

Often times - as a result of undereating, dieting, overtraining and underfueling - physical health gets destroyed and emotional well-being becomes compromised. 

You are not born hating your body. You are not born fearing weight gain. You learn to feel fat. Thanks to a society that believes that gaining weight in any context is shameful, unhealthy and bad, you grow into hating your body. Society is constantly trying to sell you the idea that you will never be good enough the way that you are. That you would be happier, healthier or fitter if you weighed less, had less fat around your stomach or toned up your arms and legs. As you buy in to the damaging and deceiving messages from the media, you learn that any type of weight gain will negatively affect you socially, physically and psychologically. You have been told that if you gain weight (or maintain your weight), you will look worse, you are not a good person, you are lazy or you are unhealthy. 

I know this mindset shift is challenging. It will take time, it will feel like an everyday task and you may need help. It can be extremely difficult to learn how to love your body what you have spent so much time hating your body. But you must fight these thoughts in order to restore your health and to heal the damaged relationship with your body and food.

It won't be easy but the ultimate goal is to learn to really love yourself and to detach your value and self worth from your appearance. Continue to challenge negative talk. Surrender to your fears. It's time to put more energy into what's most important to you in your life. There is so much more to you than your body image. Learn to love and to accept yourself. Your body is amazing. 

Stress and disordered eating

We are all experiencing challenges during which words just can't describe what we are feeling.

Politics, police brutality, a pandemic and an international human rights movement - alongside other ongoing issues like global warming, animal rights, LGBTQ discrimination, wage inequality, homelessness, human trafficking, disability discrimination, deforestation, weight bias, air pollution - may make it impossible to make sense of our emotions.

No matter how hard you try, you can't avoid stress. And sometimes it gets the best of us. Stress can become a problem when you are unable to cope. Without a productive and healthy outlet, stress levels can escalate.

Poor body image and an unhealthy relationship with food can cause stress but it also works the other way around. The relationship between stress and disordered eating is a vicious cycle.

When you feel overwhelmed or out of control, it's natural to find ways to cope with those unpleasant and uncomfortable feelings. Feeling stressed and overwhelmed can trigger disordered eating behaviors, which are used as a coping mechanism. In turn, compulsion, obsession, fear, stress and negative thinking raise stress levels. You can trick yourself into thinking you are alleviating stressful emotions, feelings and thoughts but in reality, those issues are exacerbated. Disordered eating can cause stress levels to spike. When you are so fixated on food, weight and your body, it can overtake everything in your life.

Because people who struggle with disordered eating habits are highly susceptible to stress (and the other way around), stress can contribute to the development of an eating disorder.

In case you missed it, I recently had the opportunity to have a healthy conversation with Registered Dietitian and elite runner Kelsey Beckman on body image, dieting and disordered eating. I hope you find it helpful. I provided a few options for your listening/viewing pleasure.

If you are struggling, please reach out for help. You don't have to suffer alone.

Facebook discussion 
YouTube discussion 
Audio only 

A healthy conversation about body image, fad diets and disordered eating

In our body-image obsessed culture - supported by a multibillion-dollar industry that profits from body dissatisfaction, the idealized body image, dieting and fear of fat - creating a healthy relationship with food and your body can be incredibly difficult. Sadly, even in a global health crisis, weight loss, appearance and body image are still priorities for many people, athletes and businesses.

The diet culture is constantly reminding you that you are not good enough at your current weight and being a bit thinner or more toned will improve your health and happiness. In other words, changing what you look like will make you happier, more successful or will make people like you better.

What starts as an innocent attempt to eat a bit healthier or lose a few lbs can easily spiral out of control. When body image dissatisfaction is present, "healthy" eating can quickly turn into dieting which can turn into disordered eating. For many, it doesn't stop there. Dieting is considered to be a precursor to eating disorders due to its restrictive and controlling nature. When we restrict what we eat, we deny our body and brain what it needs. This restriction doesn't just cause weight loss but it can result in malnutrition, nutrient deficiencies and starvation. At a neurobiological level, this can trigger an eating disorder.

As an athlete, fitness enthusiast or health conscious individual, you have a very close relationship with your body. If you have a disordered relationship with food or unhappy thoughts or feelings about your body, you may not be aware of (or care about) the long-term damage that can occur by manipulating your eating and training in order to change your body image.

Social media is oversaturated with images of athletes with six-pack abs, tight glutes and strong, slender legs. Constant exposure to these images can make you believe that you are not built like an athlete - increasing body consciousness, lowering self-esteem and intensifying body dissatisfaction.
Chasing the idea that weighing less will enhance performance can make it easy to mistakenly slip into unhealthy, extreme and disordered eating behaviors.

Successful athletes come in all shapes and sizes. To be successful, you need to be healthy and strong. You need to be consistent with training and you need to take care of your mental health, just as much as your physical health. Restricting food, eliminating food groups or overexercising does not make you a better athlete. It makes you weaker and more fragile.  It takes work to embrace your unique traits, strengths and qualities but the process of developing a positive body image is worth it.

If you would like to learn more about body image, fad diets and disordered eating, mark your calendars for Friday May 29th at 10am EST. Head over the to Trimarni Coaching and Nutrition Facebook page where I will be having a live conversation with Kelsey Beckmann RD, LDN. Not only are we both dietitians who specialize in working with athletes but we are both competitive athletes. With considerable personal and professional experiences between us both, we will be sharing our perspective on these three very important topics so that you can learn how to nourish, fuel and train your body while maintaining great health and a great relationship with your body.

Social distancing and disordered eating

We typically view food as a form of fuel, nourishment, comfort and pleasure. But when you are social distancing, under a strict quarentine, worrying about the outside world and struggling with the unknown, it may be easy to combat stress levels with your food choices.

Anxiety, stress and loss of control can bring on a lot of different emotions, which can affect how you eat. Emotions like sadness, fear, lack of productivity, finacial stress, boredom and loneliness - especially with fewer social interactions and a change of routine - may lead to an increase (or development) of disordered eating behaviors.

If you've recently found yourself looking to food and exercise as an outlet to cope with stress and uncertainty, it's important to be compassionate and kind to yourself during this time. Restriction, mindlessly snacking or using alcohol to numb emotions doesn't solve problems. Long term it may cause serious physical and mental health problems.

To help you maintain a healthier relationship with food and your body during this time, here are a few tips:

• Don't label shelf-stable foods as ‘bad’ or ‘unhealthy'. Be neutral about foods. 
• Express gratitude if you feel worried about having "too much" food (especially carbs) in the house at one time. 
• Remind yourself that you don’t need to do an intense or long workout to earn your food. You still need eat, even when you are doing less-than-normal training. 
• Use this time to look differently at your body. Now - more than ever before - you should be thanking your body daily for what it allows you to do. 
• Explore thoughts such as "shame" or "guilt" when you eat. What makes you feel this way?
• Use self-compassion exercises when you feel stressed or overwhelmed. 
• Stay hydrated throughout the day (with water).
• Establish a new routine (and be ok that it may look different than what it did a few weeks ago). Try to eat on a regular schedule (snacks and meals) and follow a regular sleep and exercise routine to keep you feeling happy and healthy. 
• Stay connected. During this time of social distancing, there’s no need to feel alone or isolated. Reach out to a professional, friend or family member for help. 

Don't believe everything that you see on social media

Within the endurance sport world, it's not uncommon to see/hear of athletes manipulating training and the diet in an effort to change body composition, to improve health or to boost performance.

Although endurance sports welcome all body shapes and sizes and training approaches, many athletes accidentally fall into the mindset that to be successful, an extreme style of eating and a rigorous training plan is necessary This begs the question "is training for an athletic event just a socially acceptable way to disguise an obsession with exercise and disordered eating habits?"

Even if you are not obsessed with training miles, body image or the marginal gain approach, it's still rather easy to become extreme with your choices when training for an endurance event - especially if you are following the journey of another athlete. There are many athletes who have been forced away from the sport due to injury or health issue (mental or physical), only to spend years trying to put together all of the broken pieces that occurred from a body that was damaged by extreme choices - such as restrictive eating and overtraining.

Endurance sports often attract a specific personality type - driven, hard-working, competitive, perfectionist, type-A, etc. It's not uncommon for individuals with underlying eating, body image and obsessive-compulsive behaviors to enter the world of endurance sports - only to realize that these issues are exacerbated when training gets more serious. Behind the hidden lens of social media, it's difficult to know if a driven, dedicated and hard-working individual - who is sharing his/her tips, giving advice or sharing his/her personal journey - could be a person who has a very unhealthy relationship with food, exercise and the body.

With so much misinformation circulating over the web, via word of mouth, on YouTube and on social media, often given by inexperienced, unskilled and qualified "experts," I caution you to not believe everything that you see, read or hear. Athletes and experts are not always transparent and this can have a detrimental effect on you, the "follower" or "client." Social media provides a very skewed reality.

And this isn't limited to athletes. Coaches are also to blame. Inadvertently, a coach may reference weight as a limiter to performance, suggesting that a way to improve health, performance or body composition is to weigh daily, cut out certain food groups and avoid carbohydrates at certain times of the day. The coach may then blame athletes for lack of progress or compliance if results are not achieved. Instead of flexibility and freedom, your life becomes an obsession of food, numbers, results and data.

Is it socially acceptable to diet if you are an athlete?

Since my first Ironman in 2006, I've developed a strong connection to my body. Rather than seeing it for what it looks like, I constantly thank my body for what it allows me to do. While it's not easy in a body-image obsessed society, Karel and I spend no time discussing body image in our house. We don't weigh ourselves so we couldn't tell you what our "race weight" was at any of our past races.  There's no dieting, restrictive eating, watching what we eat or cheat meals. I'd say that our house is a very good place if you'd like to eat where there are no food rules, off-limit foods or controversial food discussions. While our dedication to sport, love for an active lifestyle and enjoyment for wholesome eating greatly influences the way we look, we have never fallen victim to the idea of "competitive leanness"  - that the leaner we are, the more competitive (or faster) we will be in sport. We've never tried to change the way that we look through diet or exercise. 

In light of a recent video of a professional male triathlete discussing his recent dietary change and current struggle of body image relating to performance, I feel this provides a great platform to once again discuss the pressure that most athletes feel when it comes to body weight/body composition and the extreme shifts that occur with diet and exercise. Even without the performance component, many athletes put great emphasis on how they look - which can contribute to great psychological and physical stress, not to mention the risk for health issues and a performance decline. 

We live in an interesting time where it has become socially acceptable not to eat. In other words, it's not uncommon for an athlete to restrict food/sport nutrition and it's accepted, encouraged or advised. Some athletes are afraid to eat "bad" foods while others are afraid to eat "too much." There are tricks, rules and games that athletes play as it relates to food - all in an effort to keep, obtain or achieve a different look or weight. Athletes are fasting, eliminating food groups, strategically choosing the training sessions that deserve fuel and hydration and avoiding/reducing carb and calorie intake and it's often applauded as a way of taking control over health, being dedicated to sport or having a passion for healthy living. To me it looks like a miserable way to live but to others, it's become viewed as the right thing to do. I'm shocked to see how many endurance triathletes will train for hours at a time, only to eat a few hundred calories for fear of "eating too much." 

To the outsider, certain athletes may look fit, lean, strong, healthy and happy but it's very easy to hide behind a photo on Instagram or Facebook or boast amount recent performance and health improvements from a recent extreme dietary change. It isn't until an athlete admits that there is an issue or is forced to back away from the sport due to a health issue, the dieting athlete is often praised and admired for his/her dedication (watchers are tempted to copy similar diet changes), even though this athlete has created a socially acceptable type of disordered eating. With an overvalued belief that a lower body weight will improve performance, coupled with society emphasizing leanness, performance anxiety, athletic self-identity, low self-confidence and a negative self-evaluation of athletic development/performance, it's not surprising to hear that so many athletes suffer from eating disorders and mental health issues.

Our society has a very dysfunctional relationship with food and body weight/image but things only get worse when it affects athletes who place tremendous stress on the body. A super strict, rigid and controlled way of eating often comes at a huge emotional and physical cost and takes up a lot of mental space in daily activities and food-related decisions.

It's a common misconception that the dieting athlete is lean and ripped, skinny or emaciated. This is far from the truth. You can also be very lean or skinny and be very well nourished, fueled and healthy. This is why you can't "look" at an athlete and make assumptions about health, fitness, happiness or performance. Eating disorders and disordered eating isn't a look. There are many athletes out there who are restricting and obsessing over foodwhile spending an exhausting amount of time and energy on body image and getting praised for their "healthy" efforts or being envied for looking so fit. How many times have you looked at an athlete and assumed "wow - he/she must be so fast." 

Because athletes can easily hide under the umbrella of being very dedicated to healthy eating and extreme exercise because they are training for an athletic event, it's important to ask yourself if you are eating and fueling adequately for health and performance improvements or suffering from disordered eating (or an eating disorder).

There's a common saying "are you eating to be thin or eating to win?" Changing your diet and/or exercise regime in an attempt to achieve an "idealistic" body type fights against your current biology and places you at risk for physical and mental health, hormonal and performance issues. There's nothing wrong with changing the way you look for health or performance but the methods of your strategies should optimize health and performance.

Regardless of your fitness level, I'm here to tell you that it's ok to not have a body that fits into your sport specific body "ideal". Fuel for performance and eat to nourish your body. And above all, be proud of the way you look, especially when you can do awesome things with your body. 

Drive for athletic leanness

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For much of my career as a Board Certified Sport Dietitian with a Master of Science in exercise physiology, I have spent a great amount of time and energy helping athletes with their relationship with food and the body. Knowing that athletes feel a strong relationship between food and body composition relating to athletic success, I have never refrained from speaking about this topic openly and honestly for many years in an effort to help athletes stay healthy throughout a sporting career (and for many more decades to come). I have even reached out to many magazines (and publishing companies) to write more about the topic of body image and athletes but my pitches are often denied and in exchange, I am asked to write about the latest diet fad or nutrition strategy to help athletes gain the competitive edge.

In light of another recent social media post involving a professional athlete discussing body image struggles and restrictive eating measures, I am reminded that I have a very small voice in the big world of athletics as it relates to being heard but I refuse to stop expressing my thoughts and concerns as to how athletes eat and fuel for endurance sports as there is a safe way to achieve athletic excellence without compromising health and performance.

Sadly, our culture is obsessed with leanness. It's far too often that an athlete is praised for being lean and competitively fit, which drives the athlete to assume that leanness is the key to athletic success, self-confidence and notoriety. On a daily basis, athletes receive persistent spoken/written/viewed messages about body composition and performance/fitness from social media, magazines, books, notable athletic figures, coaches and other experts which reinforces the need to look a certain way - often at any cost (health, performance and quality of life).

Without even the slightest disclaimer that there can be great physical and psychological damage that stems from being strict, ritualistic, rigid and anxious about eating when training for an athletic event, athletes literally feed off the reinforcement given by society when the body becomes more athletically "acceptable" in terms of body composition.

Every time an athlete is glorified for experiencing athletic success while achieving/maintaining a lean, toned and fit body composition, there's a good probability that society is rewarding unhealthy eating and training behaviors. Eventually resulting in low energy availability (RED-S), there are great health and performance consequences to overtraining and undereating.

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There's no denying that a fit and strong body is what every athlete strives to achieve come race day and to achieve a body that can survive the demands of race day, training and nutritional adaptations can be made to foster performance improvements. But without optimal health, the body image that you achieve is all for nothing if you can't do much with it on race day.

What's the point of having a lean body if you can't do anything with it when you are asked to perform at your best?  Far too many athletes are training and not eating for an image competition instead of an athletic competition.

Although more and more athletes are speaking openly about personal struggles with eating and body image, there is still a strong taboo with disordered eating and eating disorders. There are some brave athletes who openly admit to some type of body image struggle or disordered eating/eating disorder habits during or at the end of a sporting career (often concurrent with a serious health issue, debilitating injury or mental health disorder) but we can not overlook the fact that a great amount of athletes are secretly training with a very restrictive diet in an effort to change body image, often encouraged, inspired and counseled by a coach or nutrition expert.

Knowing that goal-oriented, highly disciplined and competitive athletes who like to feel control in life and base self-worth, athletic readiness and confidence on a certain body image, are at greatest risk for an eating disorder, it's critical that coaches and professional experts address their own personal relationships with food and the body prior to delivering nutrition advice. I personally believe that due to the many uncredible nutrition experts and weight-focused coaches providing unethically safe advice to athletes, athletes are led to believe that the best/only/most effective way to experience performance gains is to change body composition through dietary/fueling manipulation and training.

Because there is such a very thin line between maintaining your health, having longevity in your sport and maintaining quality of life and achieving athletic excellence on race day with a forced body composition change, if an athlete has even the most smallest struggle or occasional thoughts about body image or restrictive eating strategies in an effort to improve performance or to change body composition, it's highly recommended and encouraged to seek help from a trusted, credible and sport dietitian who specializes in your sport and understands how to counsel athletes who suffer from poor body image thoughts and a tendency/desire to intentional restrict food/fuel.

Before a serious health issue negatively affects your performance, now is the time to ask yourself....

What's driving your need for athletic leanness? 

Why I never tell my athletes to lose weight

There's not a day that goes by that I don't thank my body for what it allows me to do.
I may be an athlete, but I am also a coach.

As a triathlon coach and Board Certified Sport Dietitian, my job is to help athletes optimize performance for race day. Although many factors contribute to performance improvements, many coaches (and nutrition experts) believe that losing weight will aid in performance improvements.

Unhealthy weight control/loss practices are a serious problem in sport, especially in the two sports that I specialize in - triathlon and running. Too often, athletes are pressured by media, coaches and competitors to change body composition in order to boost performance. If losing weight was a guarantee to performance improvements, than any athlete who has lost weight would find it easy to succeed in sport. But this is far from the truth.

Many athletes are told (or assume) that they would be more successful in a sport if they lost weight or changed body composition. Regardless of whether or not weight loss may contribute to performance improvements, athletes who are asked or told to lose weight or change body composition are more likely to engage in unhealthy behaviors such as fasted workouts, skipping meals, replacing higher calorie foods for calorie-free/diet foods, fasting/cleansing/detoxing, using weight loss supplements, diuretics or laxatives and/or overexercising. These methods are not healthy or performance enhancing. Yet athletes feel pressure from coach to "lose weight."

So how do we break this cycle of brainwashing athletes that weight loss = performance improvements.

First off, it starts with the coaches, or those who are directly related to an athlete's ability to improve. Many coaches and experts wrongly place their own attitudes, thoughts, strategies and personal experiences with weight, dieting and body image on their athletes. Understanding that athletes need good role models that promote a positive self-image and healthy dietary and fueling strategies, I strive to be the change that athletes need to boost self-confidence when it comes to body image and performance.

Secondly, weight is a sensitive and personal issue for many athletes. Unfortunately, many coaches and nutrition experts do not realize how words can hurt or stick with an athlete. When a coach suggests to an athlete that weight loss may/will improve performance or if a coach makes comments about weight, the athlete is no longer able to recognize his/her individual strengths, improvements or skills but instead, feels a significant amount of pressure to change the way that he/she looks, often at any cost.

Coaches should consider how an athlete's lifestyle choices, mental and physical health, emotions and individual development can contribute to performance. Assuming that if an athlete weighs less that he/she will become a better athlete is not only wrong but it is on the verge of being unethical. There are so many other ways that an athlete can become a better athlete. We must stop assuming that when an athlete looks differently, he/she will become faster, fitter, stronger or better.

When I work with athletes (coaching or nutrition), I always consider the possible outcomes of my advice. I do this through getting to know my athletes as much as possible. I listen to my athletes to understand where they are at in their individual journey and their current relationship with food and the body. I explore every outlet possible to help an athlete improve performance and to get the most out of their body, without placing the focus on the body. Many times, athletes will come to me with a weight loss goal and without focusing on weight, they unintentionally lose weight because lifestyle habits have changed. While a coach or nutrition expert may mean well, telling an athlete to lose weight/change body composition can do more harm than good when coaches do not take careful consideration of the risks and benefits for each athlete that he/she suggests to lose a few lbs. Additionally, most athletes do not seek out professional guidance and support when starting a weight loss journey so no one is there to watch over an athlete for extreme behaviors, reduce misinformation and to debate against unhealthy dietary practices that can sabotage performance and health.

As a coach and nutrition expert, I take performance very seriously but more so, I take eating disorders and the health of my athletes very seriously. I don't believe in targeting weight as the limiter or best next step toward athletic success. Instead, I focus on the many ways that an athlete can improve performance and sometimes this results in a favorable yet unintentional change body composition, like eating "enough", fueling properly, timing food with workouts, strength training, mental strength, quality sleep, good recovery practices and consistent training. While weight loss may lead to performance improvements, we can't assume that reducing body fat will benefit every athlete. There are no shortage of cases where athletes have experienced a temporary boost in performance in the initial phases of changing body composition but it's no uncommon for these athletes to eventually experience eating-disorder/disordered eating symptoms, overtraining, hormonal issues, menstrual irregularities (female athletes), low bone density, a weakened immune system, chronic injuries and a performance decline (or a sporting career cut short) overtime.

Sports are designed to build self-esteem, boost confidence, promote physical strength and endurance, improve skills and teach life lessons. Being an athlete should not involve great psychological and physical stress, especially as it relates to body image. We have too many athletes spending far too much time trying to weigh less because a coach, trainer or nutrition expert suggested to do so.

To ensure athletic success, I advise coaches, nutrition experts and trainers to stop advising athletes to lose weight and instead, focus on good lifestyle practices to help athletes optimize performance. If you think that your athlete may be taking extreme measures to change body composition in an effort to become a "better" athlete, here are some of the warning signs to watch out for:

• Eating too little, exercising/training too much
• Increased focus on weight, body composition, size, appearance
• Using caffeine or boosters to get through workouts
• Sudden change in mood
• Feeling the need to be perfect, persistent feelings of inadequacy
• Rapid/notable weight loss
• Significant energy deficit during advanced training
• Injuries (stress fractures) and overuse injuries
• Symptoms of overtraining 
• Hormonal/health issues

Coaches - let's help athletes build a better relationship with their bodies and with food. With proper education, support and guidance, athletes are more likely to improve performance and maintain great enjoyment for the sport for many years to come when they don't feel pressure to look differently.

Athletes - love your amazing body and be sure to thank it daily. Rest it, respect it, nourish it and fuel it. 

Disordered eating

We live in a culture that emphasizes, rewards, worships and celebrates lean, toned and fit bodies. Individuals with an unhealthy relationship with food and the body may seek extreme events to train for and restrictive methods of eating and fueling in an effort to control weight and to justify excessive exercise patterns.  

Many athletes succeed in sports (especially endurance events) because they are great at doing things in extreme. But extreme thoughts, attitudes and beliefs about food and the body (especially as it relates to performance improvements) can become obsessive and may lead to more serious disordered eating habits.

If your self-imposed rules, regulations and guidelines about what to eat and not to eat around and during workouts are taking precedence of what your body actually needs (and even with alarming symptoms like low blood sugar, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, blurred vision, headache, dehydration manifesting into your workout or day), you are manipulating your diet in a restrictive way as a coping mechanisms for not dealing with feelings about your body, relationships or in life, needing to feel more control, or you want to please others or you hate the way you look, don't wait for a serious health issue or a massive performance decline or blood tests to demonstrate an underlying issue. Get help now.

We live in a society where it's easy to get stuck into one style of eating and then to jump from one style to another when you no longer find success in one diet. 

Sadly, many athletes believe that the thinner and leaner you are, the better you will perform and the happier you will be. And when you don't succeed with your weight goals, the blame is often put on you that you "failed" the diet and that you didn't give it "enough time". You then scratch your head because you simply don't understand how the method that apparently works for everyone else (as claimed by social media, forums and word of mouth) is not working for you, despite every article and scientific research study proving that this is the best way to eat.

Athletes are exceptional at adhering to guidelines and rules and can believe that there's only one right way to eat, thus assuming that everything else (ex. sugar, carbs, sport nutrition, hydration, salt, grains, dairy, etc.) are "bad".

We live in a world where seeing is believing. 

What if the fitness experts, coaches and athletes (of all levels) that you look up to and follow are engaged in disordered eating? These disordered beliefs, attitudes and behaviors around food or exercise make onlookers and followers (YOU) believe that these depriving and restricting methods are "normal" or even required in order to be healthy and to perform at your best.

Athletes can easily hide or rationalize disordered eating behaviors under the claims "I'm training for an event and I need to get leaner" or "I'm improving my performance by becoming a better fat adapted" or "I can't eat that because it will ruin my health" or "I need to exercise more to get into better shape."

While every athlete can welcome a healthier style of eating and should consider working with a sport dietitian to master performance eating and fueling, extreme methods or unrealistic weight or performance goals can can easily foster unhealthy eating habits and disordered body image thoughts. These eating habits cause also cause great stress, anxiety and social isolation.  

To develop new skills and dietary habits that actually improve your health and performance you must be willing to welcome positive messages about food and your body.

The more rules, plans, experts, diets and nutrition information overload that you welcome into your life, the more likely that your your eating patterns (and thoughts about your body) will become more distorted and obsessive which will ultimately sabotage your performance and health goals.

If you are struggling with your relationship with food and the body, get professional help.
Let food enhance your life, not control your life. 

Athletes and body image - your body deserves fuel

Many athletes feel personal struggles with body image. Eating disorders and disordered eating habits are evident in athletes in all sports (and in non-athletes) and in all ages but specifically in sports where leanness associates with an improvement in performance (lighter = better). 

It's extremely upsetting to hear of nutrition "experts" advising athletes to restrict food around workouts and to intentionally not fuel or hydrate during workouts as a way to improve performance or to lose weight. 

Due to a society that has a poor relationship with food and overemphasizes leanness as the 'ideal' image for athletes, more and more athletes are becoming more and more dissatisfied with their bodies. 

Athletes may experience strong feelings before, during and after workouts as if they do not have "an athlete's body" and ultimately underfuel in an effort to lose weight. Rather than fueling for success, good health and a stronger body, athletes chase a body image. Workouts become haphazard as the ultimate goal becomes to train more and to eat less.
Going back to these nutrition "experts" who are anti food, carbs, water and sport nutrition, athletes are now lead to believe that the human body doesn't need fuel to function. 

This thinking is absolutely wrong!!!

The outcomes of an underfueled/undernourished body are not advantageous for it's only a matter of time when an athlete who is restricting food/fuel experiences serious health and performance detriments. 

If you have been told to not fuel before, during or after a workout OR you feel you are chronically undernourished OR you are occasionally severely restricting your food/sport nutrition intake in an effort to lose weight in order to become faster/stronger/leanner, you may be putting your body at an increased risk for injury, illness, anemia, menstrual/hormonal disturbances,chronic fatigue and reduced longevity in the sport that you love to train for. 

There are a few ways that we can help athletes who struggle with eating and body image. 

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First off, we must continue to reduce the stigma of disordered eating/clinical eating disorders in athletes so we can create a positive environment where athletes can feel comfortable admitting there is an issue and ultimately, feel comfortable reaching out and talking with a professional who specializes in disordered eating among athletes. 

Secondly, we must stop the information that is coming from these body-image (not health) obsessed "experts" who are brainwashing athletes to believe that sport nutrition, carbs and even water are "bad" for athletes. Restricting fuel around/during workouts or restricting carbohydrates (your body's prime and preferred energy fuel) is simply dieting for athletes. Dieting and athletes should never be used in the same sentence. 

Diets are very common in our culture but sadly, dieting can increase the risk for an eating disorder. 

For athletes, this can be extremely serious and can cause serious health issues when the body is asked to train/perform without adequate nutrients, fluids or energy. 

Athletes are naturally disciplined, focused, competitive and hard working individuals. Whereas a healthy lifestyle change in the diet can be safe enough to change body composition without compromising energy/performance, athletes often seek the most extreme and significant change possible for the quickest and easiest result. 

Third, every athlete should include a sport RD on his/her athlete-in-training team. Just like you would consider hiring a coach, personal trainer, physical therapist or sport psychologist to help you take fitness to the next level OR to stay consistent and healthy as an athlete, you should find great relief that there is a professional (aka sport dietitian) who can help you understand how to fuel your body in motion so that you do not have to feel anxiety, concern or overwhelmed with all the information that is out there on sport nutrition and healthy eating. 

If you have concerns with your body image, eating or performance as it relates to your weight, seek help now. 

The ultimate goal for any athlete who works with a professional is to optimize health and performance so you can do amazing things with your amazing body in motion.