Eating disorders on the rise for female athletes

By Crystal Degen

Decembe 10, 2007 | Many girls feel the pressure to look thin. Some become obsessed with losing weight taking drastic measures to reach perfection. Eating disorders in female athletes are becoming more common.

Female athletes are considered to be role models and are constantly judged by their coaches, teammates and peers. Sometimes they develop an eating disorder because they feel a need to maintain a certain image. As a result of their rigorous schedule they may develop poor eating habits and lose weight as a result of training. Many female athletic team uniforms can be tight and revealing. Many turn to weight loss or begin to overexert themselves in order to feel comfortable with the way they look.

The National Eating Disorder Association maintains a website devoted to informing people about eating disorders and offering them advice. "Female athletes reported attitudes and symptoms placing them at risk for anorexia nervosa. More female athletes are at risk of an eating disorder with sports that emphasize appearance and weight requirements like gymnastics, diving, and bodybuilding. These sports also portray an inaccurate belief that if they lose body weight, their performance will be improved. Low self-esteem could also affect their weight loss."

According to Mirror-Mirror , a Web site devoted to eating disorders, "Female eating disorders are on the rise. Coaches really affect what happens to their teams and how their girls feel about themselves. Many coaches are guilty of criticizing their athletes and making reference to their weight. This can cause serious, emotional damage."

"Sandy," 21, has been involved with gymnastics since she was three years old. Sandy said she grew up feeling the pressure to look a certain way. Sandy participated in gymnastics from that young age through the collegiate level. Sandy said this was when the pressure finally affected her.

"The coach would always tell us to lose a few pounds. To be a gymnast you have to look toned and slim, not muscular, which I was,"said Sandy.

Sandy's team would meet regularly with a nutritionist to make sure all the girls were eating. The nutritionist made the team break down what they were eating to make sure that they were eating six meals a day. This would help improve their metabolism, Sandy said.

However, some girls on the team still lost weight.

Sandy said, "I started losing weight because my coach told me personally I needed to. If you are a weak person, and start listening to what your coach says, it is going to affect you."

After a few meetings with her coach, Sandy started losing weight by not eating as much as she used to. Sandy said her teammates and coach noticed she had lost a few pounds and praised her. They told Sandy she looked great and more like a gymnast.

"After people kept telling me how great I looked, it made me feel bad about myself. I just kept thinking that I must have been really fat before I lost the weight," said Sandy. She said the team was also being trained too hard which added to her weight loss.

Everything was going great for Sandy at first, but then not eating slowly started to affect her gymnastics. "I wasn't as good as I had been in the past," said Sandy.

Sandy claims that even her social life was affected by losing weight. "People started accusing me of have an eating disorder. They would talk behind my back, but I would always find out."

As a result of this, Sandy eventually had to quit the team and hasn't participated in gymnastics for almost two years. Looking back Sandy said, "I was trying to do my best. I was doing more than my body could handle. I always felt overexerted."

"You have to look a certain way in gymnastics and if you don't you figure out a way to." A lot of female athletes on gymnastics teams feel the pressure to look "thin and fit." Sandy feels eating disorders could be prevented if the coaches and team were more supportive.

Sandy said her coach would break down the girls' self-esteem by telling them they needed to lose weight.Sandy said at one point she knew that she had an eating disorder, but by that point she felt the only way she would be able to help herself was by quitting the team.

Sometimes athletes have an eating disorder and they don't realize it until much later. Jessica Clayton, 20, was a cheerleader for four years. She started losing weight her senior year.

"I would wake up at 4:30 a.m., go to class from 6 a.m. till 2:30 p.m. I would then go to cheer practice till 9 p.m.," said Clayton.

The team practiced a lot because they had set a goal to win a national championship. Clayton said,"I really didn't have time to eat. I never went home till late." When the team would get breaks to eat lunch, Clayton would only eat half a grapefruit.

"We would always have to tumble and if I ate, it would cause me to throw up,"said Clayton.

Clayton's coach never told the team to lose weight, and although Clayton felt no pressure to lose weight, she was just working too hard. "I started losing tons of weight, but I didn't think I had an eating disorder."

Since Clayton looked so malnourished, her friends and family started noticing her weight change. Her mom even sat down and talked to her about having an eating disorder. Clayton told her mother what she felt was the truth, and thought she was fine. Clayton even had irregular periods, but it hadn't dawned on her that she had an eating disorder.

"I wasn't consciously starving myself, but I did notice how I looked."

When cheer season ended and Clayton graduated, she said she started gaining all her weight back. "I gained 30 pounds and the cheeks on my face became huge after I stopped cheering," she said. That is when Clayton realized she had an eating disorder.

Clayton has never returned to cheering. She now makes sure she eats regularly and doesn't overexert herself.

These are two examples of eating disorders that could happen to anyone. Both girls had eating disorders,but not every athletic program that females participate in cause them to lose weight.

Loni Pilcher has been playing volleyball since she was in high school. Pilcher's coach never made comments about her weight. "I never felt like I needed to lose weight. I just focused on the game and improving my jump." Pilcher said the team worked out together every day, but it wasn't overexerting.

Coaches need to stay positive and help their athletes feel good about themselves said Pilcher. "If more coaches were supportive and regulated their workouts for female athletes, it could possibly help eating disorders in female athletes decrease," said Pilcher.

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