Eating Disorders in Athletes

How would you feel if your life was based around a sport? How would you feel if you were told by your coach that the only way you would improve was if you lost a considerable amount of weight? This very thing happened to me, and has happened to many other athletes all around the world. Eating disorders are very prevalent among people who are heavily into sports. The results are fast and rewarding, but the effects can have tremendous downfalls.

Sports can put pressure on people, causing some of them to resort to habits that can cause eating disorders. Some doctors believe that an athlete that feels they cannot control their performance or improvement in a sport sometimes feel better if they can be in control of something they can get results from in their life, in some cases, their diet. The biggest eating disorders among athletes are anorexia nervosa, which is a pursuit of thinness by not eating enough or at all, and bulimia nervosa which is characterized by binge eating fallowed by self induced vomiting.

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Athletes in all sports are susceptible to eating disorders, but it is found in some sports more than others. Athletes that are most prone to eating disorders are ballet dancers, gymnast, cheerleaders, long distance runners, figure skaters, divers, wrestlers, and swimmers. The ones that are at the most risk are the ones who diet at an early age and those whose diets are unsupervised. It's healthy for someone in a sport to eat healthy, but it is even more important to get enough food to give them the energy their bodies require to do their workouts. Eating disorders can cause health problems such as stomach problems, heart problems, kidney problems, irregular periods or no periods, Fine hair all over body...