Where should we draw the line between a healthy and an unhealthy sports body?
Athletes focus on their weight and carefully control their food intake for obvious reasons. It goes without saying that a long distance runner with a lighter body will run more easily from one point to another.
The longer the distance, the more important the runner’s weight becomes.
Runners in particular suffer more eating disorders compared to the general population, but also dancers and gymnasts are also at risk.
A wealth of research shows that women are also at particular risk of developing eating disorder symptoms including restrictive eating, distorted perceptions of their body, anxiety over putting on weight, and forced exercise.
- BMI and fat percentage
WHO defines a normal Body Mass Index (BMI = weight in kg/height x height in meter) between 18.5 and 25.
A normal fat percentage is dependent on age and gender, but is defined as 21 to 36 per cent in women, and 8 to 25 per cent in men.
The Norwegian model recommends that women and men do not fall below a fat percentage of 12 and 5, respectively.
Are these symptoms part of the game, which the athletes have to live with and seek help for? Or could the sport create some frameworks to reduce the occurrence of eating disorders and contribute to healthier athletes? This is the theme of this article.
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