Student Athletes

PLEASE NOTE: The information in this web site is not intended as a substitute for medical or mental health care advice.

Body Image/Disordered Eating/Eating Disorders

Double pressure

  • Student athletes are often exposed to pressures that affect healthy eating and body image. Many are subjected to both internal and external appearance demands and a performance drive for thinness, leanness, and gender norms.
  • This is prominent in (but not limited to) sports with appearance and form judging, such as gymnastics, figure skating, and diving, as well as weight class sports such as wrestling and light-weight rowing.
  • Similarly, student athletes may struggle with an eating disorder or disordered eating in sports like running, swimming and soccer where the perception of athletes as naturally slender and subject to strict training routines can go unnoticed for some time.
  • Temporarily improved performance due to weight loss can also mask an eating disorder or disordered eating symptoms, but increases the risk of injury.

Discipline and dedication

  • While important and useful in most aspects of student athlete's life, rigid discipline in terms of food and exercise often lead to athletes on the edge of an unhealthy life style, eating and body image concerns. Most eating disorders start simply with a restricting diet...
  • Some research indicates eating disorders affect at least 30% (60% in some sports) of college athletes.
  • Overall, misconceptions such as "lowering body fat" vs. considering body composition (assessed by training, medical, nutrition professionals) are often closely connected to development of disordered eating and eating disorders.
  • The percentage of affected females is higher than for men, but disordered eating and eating disorders are on the rise for the latter. Symptoms often appear differently; male athletes may not strive for thinness, but their drive for lean muscle and being "cut" may lead to similar behaviors of disordered eating and eating disorders that often go unrecognized and untreated.

Teammates and coaches play an important role

  • Don't make food and body image a focus of conversation
  • Encourage student-athletes to utilize the resources available to them, such as the Sport Nutritionist or a Counselor
  • Be willing to intervene if you are concerned, and know how to effectively speak to the issue

Physical health consequences

  • Sleep disturbance
  • Difficulties regulating body temperature
  • Cardiac complications (possibly cardiac arrest and/or death)
  • Loss of bone density
  • Damage to various organs and body parts (kidneys, hair, skin, etc.)

Mental health consequences

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Eating Disorders: Anorexia, Bulimia, Binge-Eating, and others

More information on eating disorders.

Additional Resources