How College Athletes Can Prevent Disordered Eating and Uphold Body Respect
A post inspired by Julia Oliver’s presentation to athletes at Georgetown University:
College athletes across the DMV including Baltimore, Maryland based colleges, Maryland University, Georgetown, and beyond face immense pressure to perform at their peak, often compounded by the demands of their sport and the prevalence of diet culture. Beyond the natural pressure that stems from involvement in competitive sports, these athletes are subject to the cultural messages from grind culture and diet culture that glorify overtraining, under-fueling, and achieving an “ideal” body to optimize their aesthetic and performance in sport. These influences can lead to disordered eating and eating disorders, jeopardizing both mental and physical health.
In this guide, we will explore how to prevent disordered eating in student athletes by taking a close look at contributing factors and calling out the early signs and symptoms of under-fueling. We will then dig into protective factors such as supportive nutrition, intuitive eating, and body respect that can lead to a healthier relationship with food, body, and sport.
What is Disordered Eating in Athletes?
Understanding Disordered Eating in Athletes
Disordered eating includes a range of unhealthy eating behaviors that may occur as athletes attempt to manipulate their body weight, shape, or size. For college athletes in Maryland, these behaviors supported by diet culture (such as calorie counting, cutting out entire food groups, etc) are often worsened by societal and athletic pressures, making it critical to address these issues locally.
Key Contributors to Disordered Eating in College Athletics:
Diet Culture: Promoting the idea that exerting control over food or eating in a very specific way for the sake of manipulating body weight, shape, or, size will equate to better performance.
Grind Culture: Reinforcing that more training and less rest are the keys to success. This mentality also thrives off of comparison.
Weight Stigma: Equating thinness or leanness with health and performance, even at the expense of well-being. Weight stigma may show up when coaches, trainers, or teammates hold assumptions about an athlete’s ability or health status based on their body weight, shape, or size.
These factors can result in harmful outcomes such as energy deficiencies, increased injury risk, and mental health struggles. If you or someone you know is suffering from disordered eating or an eating disorder, take the first step toward support by reaching out to us today.
The Risks of Under-Fueling
The Risks of Not Eating Enough
College athletes in Baltimore and beyond who fail to meet their energy needs are at risk of developing Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S), which impacts both health and performance. This condition affects various systems in the body and can have severe consequences including:
Consequences of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S)
Physical Health: Increased risk of stress fractures, weakened immunity, gastrointestinal issues, and reproductive dysregulation.
Mental Health: Higher levels of clinical anxiety and depression, mood swings, and social isolation.
Performance Decline: Reduced endurance, strength, and recovery capabilities alongside diminished motivation to train.
Under-fueling can also perpetuate the dieting cycle, trapping athletes in a constant loop of restriction, chaotic eating or bingeing, and guilt.
Supportive Nutrition & Intuitive Eating: A Path to Prevention
As a college athlete, getting enough food to support basic human life and the energy demands of training in the midst of a busy college schedule can be anything but intuitive. This is primarily caused by a high concentration of attunement disruptors, or variables that impact your ability to sense the body’s innate cues. For example, hunger cues are often dampened after intense training despite the need for post-training nutrition to support optimal recovery. Likewise, a chalk-full day of classes can lead a college student to be so busy keeping up with the day that hunger signals are missed or pushed aside. This is why we emphasize the importance of understanding your baseline nutritional needs by talking with the sports dietitian on staff or a dietitian in your community who specializes in intuitive eating and disordered eating prevention. From there, you can learn to prioritize your nutritional needs even in the absence of body signals.
The Freedom of Intuitive Eating
Only after the foundation of meeting nutritional needs is established will the concepts of intuitive eating be applied. Intuitive eating provides Maryland athletes with a sustainable and empowering alternative to restrictive dieting, helping them meet their unique physical and mental demands. By learning to listen and respond to internal signals, athletes can better support their body’s needs without falling into harmful patterns.
Core Principles of Intuitive Eating:
Rejecting Diet Mentality: Letting go of food rules and weight-focused goals.
Honoring Hunger: On top of meeting nutritional needs irregardless of hunger, athletes will learn to notice and respond to hunger and better fuel their life, activity, and recovery.
Making Peace with Food: Allowing all foods into your diet without judgement knowing that both energy dense and nutrient dense foods have a role to play (like 2 different positions on the same team!)
Respecting Your Body: recognizing that your body’s needs and capabilities are unique, and rejecting harmful comparisons or ideals.
To learn more about intuitive eating, you can go straight to the source with the Intuitive Eating book by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch.
How Intuitive Eating Enhances Performance:
Supports Athletic Performance: Intuitive eaters are more likely to consume the variety of food groups needed for sustained energy and muscle repair including carbohydrates, protein, and fats despite diet culture spreading harmful messages about avoiding certain food groups entirely only to the detriment of the athlete.
Promotes Mental Clarity: When athletes fuel adequately, they experience better focus, improved decision making, and reduced overall anxiety in additional to reduced anxiety about their body and food.
Fosters Long-Term Health: A flexible approach to eating helps prevent chronic under-fueling and the associated risks of RED-S and other deficiencies.
By adopting intuitive eating, athletes can create a balanced, respectful relationship with food that aligns with their physical demands and personal goals.
Upholding Body Respect
Body respect means valuing and caring for your body as it is, even in the midst of challenging emotions that may be directed at your body. Through body respect, we learn to be in relationship with our bodies rather than treating our body as a project to manipulate or change.
Respecting Your Body in Sport and Beyond
Practices to Promote Body Respect:
Acknowledging Inherent Diversity: Recognizing that athletic ability comes in all shapes and sizes, and rejecting the notion that a specific body type defines success.
Focusing on Functionality: Shifting focus to what your body can do instead of how it looks while doing it. In day to day life this looks like healing from illness, moving you through the world, and communicating emotion. In sport, this could look like running, leaping, diving, or anything in-between. For sports that focus on aesthetic as a component of the competition, this may be a call to advocate for change.
Whole-Person Viewpoint: Honoring yourself and your teammates as multi-dimensional human beings beyond athletes. Your worth, purpose, and pleasure can be so much bigger than your role as an athlete. Remember to dedicate time and attention to practices outside of sport!
Challenging Harmful Narratives: Actively resisting and speaking out against cultural messages that equate worth with appearance or weight. This may also look like challenging diet talk or body comments made by teammates, coaches, or family.
Benefits of Preventing Disordered Eating
Breaking free from the grip of disordered eating offers numerous benefits for Maryland athletes, including:
Key Benefits:
Improved Physical Health
Fueling adequately supports bone health, better immunity, muscle recovery, and overall physical resilience.
Enhanced Mental Health
Reducing food-related stress and guilt leads to better focus, mood stability, and self confidence.
Sustained Performance
Meeting energy needs optimizes endurance, strength, and recovery, helping athletes excel in their sport long term.
Presence and Connection
Developing a healthier relationship with food fosters allows individuals to be fully present during social interactions and more at peace during eating experiences.
5 Tips to Prevent Disordered Eating in Athletes
Improved well-being starts here
Recognize the Signs: Be aware of behaviors like food restriction, overtraining, and preoccupation with weight. Early intervention is key.
Challenge Diet Culture: Educate yourself and others about the myths surrounding food and weight loss
Prioritize Energy Intake: Focus on reliable, consistent timing with meals and snacks. Ensure you are getting enough carbohydrate, protein, and fat to support your body’s needs at baseline (as a living, breathing human!) and to meet the demands of your sport. Working with a registered dietitian can help you better understand how to meet your body’s unique energy needs.
Practice Flexible Eating: Allow room for variety and convenience, such as packaged snacks and fast food without judgement. Doing so will help you accomplish #3 by ultimately meeting your energy needs regardless of your chaotic schedule or during the long day of travel for an away match/game. Remember, fed is best and all foods have a place. You might even consider how variety in food represents variety needed amidst the different positions on the same team. Each food, just like each position, has its’ own ability and purpose to aid in accomplishing the ultimate goal.
Work with a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist in Maryland: Partnering with a Baltimore-based registered dietitian, like those at Rooted Recovery, ensures personalized guidance tailored to the demands of our local college athletes. We are in contact with the student health and athletic departments of most local colleges in Maryland and the DMV, and we would love to come alongside you as a part of your team. Not locat to Baltimore or the DMV? No problem! We we can offer virtual nutrition services regardless of your location.
Take the First Step Today
For athletes in Baltimore, Maryland and beyond
Preventing disordered eating starts with awareness and action, especially for athletes in Baltimore and Maryland looking to sustain their health and performance.. By rejecting diet culture, fueling adequately, and embracing intuitive eating, you can support your health, performance, and long-term well-being.
If you are curious about how you can reclaim your power and heal your relationship with food, body, and sport, contact us at Rooted Recovery today. Together, we can help you build a balanced and empowered approach to nutrition.