Recreational athletes feel healthy but unhappy with their bodies

New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has revealed a striking disconnect between how recreational athletes perceive their health and fitness, and how they feel about their bodies. 

The research found that while 69 per cent of recreational athletes that participated in a survey considered themselves healthy and 62 per cent believed they were fit, only 26 per cent reported being satisfied with their body weight and shape. 

The findings confirm a concerning trend that athletes, particularly those engaged in regular or structured physical activity, are statistically more likely to experience disordered eating and exercise behaviors than their non-athlete counterparts, ECU's Dr. Valeria Varea said. 

"There is significant research available that shows athletes are at more risk of presenting with eating disorders, compared with non-athletes, particularly those who participate in sports that focus on lean bodies, such as gymnastics, or those that have weight categories." 

Dr Varea and colleagues noted that 67 per cent of the recreational athletes that participated in the survey also reported feeling some level of anxiety or distress if they did not have access to food that they consider to be healthy, and 88 per cent reported feeling some guilt after eating food they consider to be unhealthy. 

Dr Varea said a focus on fueling the body could potentially translate into eating disorders such as Orthorexia Nervosa (ON), which is a fixation on righteous eating. People experiencing ON become anxious if they do not have access to their specific healthy foods, leading them to feel out of control. 

ON differs from anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders in the way that people who experience it are worried about the quality of the food, rather than the quantity. 

Some athletes are also at risk of Orthorexia Athletica (OA), which is characterised by the compulsive use and abuse of healthy food, and obsessive exercise, as athletes in essence, cross the line from a healthy approach to their eating and training, to an unhealthy obsession with both food and exercise. 

Vice Chancellor's Professorial Research Fellow Professor Dawn Penney affirmed the dual concerns at play. 

The simultaneous concerns with both quality of food and compulsive exercise are what distinguishes OA from ON where the concern is only with the quality of food. Athletes are regarded as a population group particularly at risk, with several sports and sporting cultures associated with regulated healthy eating regimes, high levels of training and/or a "slim to win" orientation."

Professor Dawn Penney, Edith Cowan University

Adding to the complexity, however, is the fact that there is currently no medical diagnosis for either OA or ON, Dr Varea said. 

"There is no way for athletes or recreational exercisers to really know when they are crossing the boundary from healthy eating into ON, or from healthy exercise into OA." 

Professor Penney said this only further highlighted the need for expanded approaches to education, particularly for everyday athletes participating at the peripheries of, or outside of formal club structures and support. 

"With diversification in how people engage in sport participation and how information about participation is communicated, there is a need for further research to explore how health education can be most effectively framed to minimise incidence and the risks associated with eating and exercise disorders for a broad spectrum of people," she said.