ipl-logo

Essay On Eating Disorders In Female Athletes

915 Words4 Pages

The Ubiquity of Eating Disorders in Female Athletes Eating disorders can be found in a lot of people, for many unique reasons. Anyone can acquire them, males and females, children and adults. These disorders are extremely morbid and can critically affect one’s health. Eating disorders are one of the leading effects of disordered eating, which can cause body image issues for anyone that acquires one. These disorders have a number of factors that could cause them. However, the prevalence of these disorders unfortunately appears to occur most frequently in female athletes. The pressure of sports and media seems to result in eating disorders in female athletes.
Female teenagers anticipate weight gain during puberty, which can impact their …show more content…

Which can lead to producing nutritional deficiencies. Often, these cases involve getting a medical opinion. Inside of aesthetic sports, physical appearance is key to form a judges opinion. Physical characteristics of this sport may include: long legs, thinness, toned legs, small bust, and small waist. It is also important for coaches to monitor their athletes weight in these sports. Rhythmic gymnastics, figure skating, artistic gymnastics, and dance are all aesthetic sports. Heidi Noelle Gunther, Chloe Luksiak, Nadia Comaneci, Simone Biles, Yulia Lipnitskaia, and Nancy Kerrigan are all aesthetic sport athletes that had eating disorders.
Endurance sports have a certain brutality. These athletes have to consume a crazy amount of calories just to stay energized. If some of these calorie requirements are not met, it could lead to a fatal injury. Endurance sports are distance running, swimming, cross-country skiing, and cycling. Amanda Beard, Dagny Knutson, Alice Merryweather, Jessie Diggins, Amber Schulz, and Allie Ostrander are all athletes in endurance sports that struggled with eating …show more content…

Category one includes biological factors such as: age, genetics, pubertal timing, and the body mass index (BMI). Psychological factors such as emotional intelligence, parental attachment, body image dissatisfaction, negative mood states, low self-esteem, personality traits, and sociocultural factors like peer pressure to conform to an unrealistic standard of thinness, eating disorders in the family and bullying. The second category of potential factors is sports specific. The factors are frequent weight regulation; dieting and external pressure of weight loss; lack of nutrition knowledge, energy requirements, and fluid needs; fast food dining, lack of food prep; overtraining, perfectionism; starting training early; injuries and sports regulations; impact of coaches behavior; and desire to be lean for performance. Body ideals and body norms and myths that exist in the sport are huge factors of eating disorders.
The theme of stereotyping is to the community that supports being skinny and accepts restrictive eating and everexcessive training. Body image dissatisfaction and disordered eating are not put on the individual themselves. It comes from a number of factors and pressure from coaches, teammates, and media. Progressing physical activity and sports science have brought scientists attention to conditioning aids. Old beliefs still exist, but old myths have been dismissed to open new doors for more helpful

Show More
Related
1206 Words | 5 Pages

In the past, eating disorders have been characterized as “women’s problems’ and men have been stigmatized from coming forward or have been unaware that they could have an eating disorder (NEDA, n.d.). Although women’s body image is continually an issue in society, very few are aware that nearly 18 percent of adolescent boys are highly concerned about their weight and body image

Read More
1391 Words | 6 Pages

In “The Globalization of Eating Disorders”, written by Susan Bordo in 2003, the author declares that eating and body disorders have increased rapidly throughout the entire globe. Susan Bordo, attended Carleton University as well as the State University of New York, is a modern feminist philosopher who is very well known for her contributions to the field of cultural studies, especially in ‘body studies’ which grants her the credibility to discuss this rising global issue (www.wikipedia.org, 2015). She was correspondingly a professor of English and Women Studies at the University of Kentucky which gives her the authority to write this article. “The Globalization of Eating Disorders” is written as a preface to her Pulitzer Price-nominated book “Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body” which was similarly written in 2003. Through the use of many logical arguments and evidence, Bordo successfully manages to convince her audience that the media, body images and culture have severely influenced the ‘so-called’ trending standard of beauty and how it leads to eating disorders across the world.

Read More
1104 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout World War I, over 22,000 American women volunteered to join the army as volunteer nurses. Women in the 1910’s were motivated to join the war force for varying reasons: a sense of civic duty, a maternal instinct, and convincing propaganda targeted at women. Whilst under a veil of nationalism and pride these volunteers unknowingly signed up to have their innocence, humanity, and naivety stripped from them. Although the horrors of war were felt by the American soldiers fighting in World War I face-to-face, volunteer nurses were left to cope with the aftermath of battles, sights that they were unprepared to face. The American volunteer nurses and their experiences overseas throughout the duration World War I are a testament to the fact

Read More
1738 Words | 7 Pages

On the flip side of the female athlete triad is the rising obesity one can observe in football players. “Researchers at Iowa State University found nearly half of the offensive and defensive linemen playing on Iowa high school teams qualify as overweight, and one in 10 meet medical standards for severe obesity”(Watkins 46). It is even more likely for high schools in states with more competitive football programs to have more extreme obesity problems. It is absurd to have an athlete be severely obese. Sports are supposed to encourage healthier weights, but this is proof of the opposite.

Read More
823 Words | 4 Pages

There are many different opinions regarding eating disorders whether they are genetic, ethnic, cultural problems, or a culturally reactive problem. Stereotypes from the past believe that white middle class adolescents have the most related problems to eating disorders because of their anglo-saxon cultural backgrounds. Research has shown that imagery of the ideal Western body has had a chain reaction of body shape and eating habit conflict between all ethnicities, cultures, and sexes. The issue between the two viewpoints is whether the problems associated with eating disorders is cultural or culturally reactive.

Read More
554 Words | 3 Pages

Dissatisfaction amongst today’s youth regarding their personal body image is increasingly common, warranting a necessary change in the norms and behaviours that are portrayed to Canadian youth. The necessary change that must be implemented moving forward is the portrayal of healthy and attainable body images through media. A 2012 ABC News article stated the average model weighs 23% less than the average woman (Lovett, 2012). Such an appalling statistic is something that must be tackled as we progress toward the future seeing as it showcases to the youth of today that anorexia and unhealthy body weight is seen as desirable or attractive. The relation between such a statistic and anorexia is clear.

Read More
478 Words | 2 Pages

Kirk, Ginger, Kusum Singh, and Hildy Getz. " Risk Of Eating Disorders Among Female College Athletes And Nonathletes." Journal Of College Counseling 4.2 (2001): 122. Academic Search Premier.

Read More
893 Words | 4 Pages

The Renaissance or “rebirth” was a time when humans began to rise intellectually from the Middle Ages. During this rebirth, artists, scholars, physicians among other professionals began to look into the ideals of the ancient philosophers of the classical world, a time known for its high standards and human achievements. They did this to reshape their thinking. This meant that they began to deviate from the religious point of view and began to conform into a secular one. Moreover, the interest these men took in altering their way of thinking led to the ideology of Humanism.

Read More
293 Words | 2 Pages

Swimmers may not be people that are often thought of when thinking about athletes who have eating disorders. However, because of the outfits that must be worn, and the fact swimming is an endurance type sport, there is a higher rate of eating disorders than normally expected. The suits that are worn are skin tight, and often times women and even men feel insecure about wearing them, especially if they are not thin. Also, since swimming is dependent upon how fast a person is, many times swimmers believe if they lose weight they will be able to swim faster. In some cases, swimming can have just as high a prevalence as gymnastics when it comes to eating disorders.

Read More
3496 Words | 14 Pages

Transgender Women Competing in Women's Sports There are many examples of transgender athletes causing problems in elite sports. Transgender athletes are taking away opportunities from women who worked hard. One of the most controversial examples is Lia Thomas who swam competitively in the NCAA. The NCAA Policy on Transgender Student-Athlete Participation (2022)made new changes for the accommodation of transgender gender athletes.

Read More
1322 Words | 6 Pages

There are numerous beliefs that people are perceived to be a certain way. People are supposed to look a certain way and behave a certain way. Internet, television, movies, magazines and social media applications that allow individuals to share content, known as media, is considered to be a major cause in the increase of disordered eating which leads to eating disorders. According to the National Eating Disorder Association, “…research is increasingly clear that media does indeed contribute and that exposure to and pressure exerted by media increase body dissatisfaction and disordered eating” (NEDA). Multitudes of college athletes have inspirations and people that they look up to.

Read More
2152 Words | 9 Pages

Most women's exposure is not related to sports but to their attraction and looks. Female athletes are often portrayed in the media in a way that differs from their male counterparts. This was discovered by a 2018 study from Sports Illustrated Magazines “Female athletes are more likely to be depicted in sexually objectified ways” (Sports Illustrated Magazines). They are frequently sexualized and objectified, with a greater emphasis placed on their physical appearance and fashion choices than their athletic ability. The media also tends to highlight female athletes' personal lives and relationships, while male athletes are primarily judged on their athletic

Read More
1071 Words | 5 Pages

EPIDEMIOLOGY Eating disorders and related behaviours are a common problem in pre-adolescents and adolescents. A recent study on a large sample of American young people (aged 9-14 years) found that 34% of boys and 43.5% of girls had some eating disorder trait. The pivotal effect on health has led to the inclusion of eating disorders among the priority mental illnesses for children and adolescents identified by WHO. The lifetime female prevalence rates (percentage of the population) are approximately 0.9% for AN, 1.5% for BN, 3.5% for BED, and 10% for subclinical disorders.

Read More
1525 Words | 7 Pages

They often have an intense fear of fat and gaining weight and often have distorted views of their own body image (Shapiro 2). Thus, they resort to severe food restriction, periods of fasting and even various purging methods for weight loss (Grilo 5). On the other hand, Bulimic patients often binge-eat and then looking for methods to get rid of the food due to guilt by various purging methods (i.e., self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives or diuretics and excessive exercise) (Grilo 5). Although many say that the media causes eating disorders, studies have shown that the media is not the main cause of eating disorders. The media does have a part to play in causing the rise in eating disorders in today’s society.

Read More
552 Words | 3 Pages

SSP: The media has a strong hold on people's perceptions of what beauty is supposed to be. Because of this, many people have experienced eating disorders like bulimia. 1.1 to 4.2 percent of females experience bulimia at some point in their lives, according to "Nutrition Health Review" Subpoint: Anorexia is an obsession about weight and how much they eat. People limited the number of calories they consume.

Read More

More about Essay On Eating Disorders In Female Athletes

Related Topics

Open Document