Is Excessive Exercise Linked to Eating Disorders? Here’s What Studies Say

A lot of people find exercise as a healthy practice for both the mind and body. The time spent on cycling, weightlifting, or jogging can boost one's mood, improve heart health, develop targeted muscles, and cause weight loss.

However, a supposed benefit of exercise, weight loss is said to be a major problem for individuals suffering from eating disorders like bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa.

The two eating disorders mentioned are both marked by distorted adverse observations of a person's body and frequently an uncontrollable longing for weight loss.

The Center for the Advancement of Research on Eating Behaviors at the University of Kansas Department of Psychology doctoral student Danielle Chapa has received a grant of $84,900 from the National Institute of Mental Health to study the causes and effects of excessively working out on respondents suffering from eating disorders.

In her report entitled, Function of Unhealthy Exercise in Everyday Life or FuEL Study, Chapa hopes to expand the mechanisms available to help clinicians diagnose and treat the said disorder.

At present, the author is in the process of recruiting 80 individuals to participate in the project. By doing so, she hopes to understand further the emotional function of exercising excessively among people who live with an eating disorder, and what she describes as "moment-to-moment predictors" of unhealthy workouts.

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Eating Disorder

The eating disorders mentioned earlier, and binge eating syndrome, are all considered serious conditions. They can even be regarded as life-threatening diseases associated with great misery, lingering medical occurrences, and even death.

Experts describe anorexia nervosa as an occurrence in which an individual is not eating adequately to retain a normal weight in the body. People experiencing this eating disorder experience fear as well, leading to weight gain.

Meanwhile, bulimia nervosa is a form of binge eating or eating food in large amounts over a short period of time, with an attempt to get rid of weight gain by forcing to vomit, fast, or over-exercise.

Individuals suffering from binge eating disorders or BED overeat but do not over-exercise or force themselves to vomit.

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Excessive Exercise

There are many different terms used to describe an exercise that is beyond 'healthy' or 'normal'. These terminologies, according to studies, include excessive exercise, compensatory exercise, and compulsive exercise.

Excessive exercise means working out more frequently or longer than the ideal frequency and time of exercise. Compensatory exercise, on the other hand, means working out to recompense the amount of calories consumed during a binge, while compulsive exercise means that one needs to exercise and feels distressed if he cannot maintain a firm workout routine.

The Link Between Exercise and Eating Disorders

Increased physical activity has been identified for quite some time now, as a feature for an eating disorder, like for anorexia nervosa, when eating food is limited.

Individuals suffering from anorexia nervosa frequently report that amplified physical activity led to the symptoms of an eating disorder.

However, these people described their physical activity levels as turning out to be progressively compulsive and apparently beyond their control as their disorder progresses.

It is known now that over-exercising plays a vital role in both the development and maintenance of various eating disorders.

Excessive exercise is observed most often in individuals who have anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.

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