Eating disorder recovery easier for male athletes?

8th January 2009

Eating disorder recovery easier for male athletes?

posted in Eating Disorders, Gender and Sexuality |

Multiple studies have documented the prevalence of eating disorders amongst female athletes. A study published last year by researchers at the University of Denver revealed that female athletes and exercisers tend to exhibit eating disorder symptoms more often than those who don’t exercise as regularly. And at least one-third of female athletes have some type of disordered eating, according to two studies of college athletes done by eating disorder experts — for more on these studies, read here.

Now a new report, authored by Dr. James L. Glazer of the Maine Medical Center in Portland warns of the rise in eating disorders amongst male athletes, too. Glazer says that he’s increasingly seeing problematic eating behavior among male athletes in even recreational kinds of activities, like cycling triathlons and Nordic skiing. The problems first arise after an athlete loses a few pounds as the result of training, he explains.

“Often he’ll notice that he’s getting faster and that his placement when he competes is getting higher and better,” he added. “That will change what is a good and a healthy dieting pattern into one that becomes a little problematic and dangerous.”

Eventually, Glazer noted, a man may lose so much weight that his performance starts to suffer. Seeing this change for the worse may be enough to convince him to change his habits for the better, he added.

“Many men can turn things around just with a little bit of increased awareness about nutrition and healthy weight,” Glazer said.

I find Glazer’s quotes here interesting on several levels. The scenario presented mirrors the experiences of many female athletes with an eating disorder, but as Glazer explains it, male athletes with an eating disorder seem to have a much easier time recovering from an eating disorder than their female counterparts. In the cases of disordered male athletes, an eating disorder isn’t a proxy for an emotional issue, insists Glazer, but rather driven by performance and easily resolved once that performance begins to suffer for it.

Perhaps males with eating disorders do represent an entirely new eating disorder beast altogether, but most I know with eating disorders, myself included, are already quite familiar with nutrition basics — we choose just not to practice it for ourselves. If I had spent the countless hours I put into pouring over health and nutrition and weight-loss magazines during my eating disorder days instead into a degree program in nutritional science, I’d probably have a degree in it by now. And I find it difficult to fathom that eating disorder recovery is just a nutrition class away. Nutrition counseling is a part of recovery, but it’s more an adjunct to cognitive therapy.

I am in agreement with Glazer in that the current emphasis on obesity and inactivity has led many health professionals to overlook the potential for eating disorders in not only men, but also women. Not only are current anti-obesity approaches encouraging development of eating disorders, they’re also counterproductively encouraging obesity. But that’s a whole other discussion and one I’ve gone into more detail on here and here.

What do you think about Glazer’s assessment of male athletes with eating disorders? Is he on the mark? Misguided? Share your thoughts below.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 3:35 pm and is filed under Eating Disorders, Gender and Sexuality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On January 8th, 2009, Mia said:

I know a man who is a runner and several years ago, he restricted his intake a lot and lost weight off his already fit frame to increase his time. According to what I’ve heard, once a sports doctor told him that he actually needed to eat carbs to run better, he went back to normal. Just like the quote. But I don’t think he actually had an eating disorder, and I don’t think the men Glazer are referring to did either. Disordered eating, maybe, but it’s not being used to cope with emotional issues yet. Of course, my experience with men with eating disorders is limited. The only one I have met was in fact extremely misinformed about nutrition.

posted on January 8th, 2009 at 4:08 pm

2 On January 8th, 2009, Piffle said:

I honestly don’t know. Men are different from women as a group, and maybe it just shows up differently? I know that men and women exhibit differences in symptoms of heart attacks and depression; I don’t see why they wouldn’t be different for whatever underlying cause drives eating disorders. I certainly think it wise to study how men and women differ in their symptoms and in their recoveries; I think it very wise to ask those questions and I don’t think I know enought to answer them.

I do think some men will be more like most women, and some women will be more like men once it’s all clear.

posted on January 8th, 2009 at 5:50 pm

3 On January 8th, 2009, sannanina said:

If he is correct, one possible explanation might be that there are very different expectations concerning male and female athletes when it comes to nutrition and weight – or at least I think that this is the case. From what I have observed people have a much easier time understanding that a man with average or even above average weight can be a good athlete. This might be partially due to the sports that men and women tend to engage in and/or are stereotyped to engage in.

Also, I remember this one article by an average weight woman runner who called herself a “fat” runner (I think she was a size 12 or 14). I don’t think a man with a comparable body size/ weight would for males would have called himself fat.

posted on January 8th, 2009 at 5:56 pm

4 On January 8th, 2009, sarah-j said:

I think eating disorders in male athletes could be quite a different thing than for females. As,Sannanina says, above, there are different expectations for mens bodies than womens in relation to sporting performance as well as the immense pressure and scrutiny women’s bodies are subjected to for purely aesthetic reasons.

If men’s bodies are judged in relation to weight and athletic performance and how the two are linked, and a man develops a problematic relationship with his body because of this, it is a very different problem to deal with than a woman whose body is judged in athletics but also open to criticism in every other area of social life.

While the comment about nutritional information seems almost naive in light of what women with eating disorders tend to know about food, it could point to important differences in how these kinds of disorder might affect each sex. If better nutrition is conducive to better performance, this may be enough of an incentive to someone who became concerned with their body because of sport, but it might not be nearly compelling enough to someone who is not necessarily under pressure to be sporty or strong but is under constant pressure in relation to her body.

posted on January 8th, 2009 at 9:41 pm

5 On January 9th, 2009, TwistedBarbie said:

I was pondering this very thing when I thought “Hey, wait a second, TB…Why does it matter? The truth is, everybody with an ED is suffering. Why should we catergorize who gets better faster for the sake of understanding? What if there are chronic male sufferers who are then further stigmatized?”
SO…
My answer is…. I understand the curiousity… my own as well… but ultimately, eating disorders cause suffering and may we all recover.

posted on January 9th, 2009 at 3:04 am

6 On January 9th, 2009, Rachel said:

But I don’t think he actually had an eating disorder, and I don’t think the men Glazer are referring to did either. Disordered eating, maybe, but it’s not being used to cope with emotional issues yet.

I’m with you, Mia. I don’t think these men had a diagnosable eating disorder, either. It has been shown that starvation itself causes eating disorder-like symptoms (see the Minnesota Starvation Study), which are then reversible with refeeding. Maybe biological responses to malnutrition are what’s spurring these cases of disordered eating amongst the male athletes referenced by Glazer. It raises the question: Should the emotional aspect be a requirement for the diagnosis of an eating disorder?

Why should we catergorize who gets better faster for the sake of understanding?

Oh, I think this is an issue we ought to explore because it can only help professionals develop recovery programs catered to different demographics of people who develop eating disorders. Eating disorders, at their heart, are very similar in nature, but even so, a program geared for an adolescent girl with an eating disorder probably isn’t likely to be as effective as for, say, someone like me, an independent adult whose ED developed in adulthood.

posted on January 9th, 2009 at 10:12 am