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About Ryan Hale
Expertise
I can answer questions specifically geared towards athletes and their eating issues. I would be able to assist parents or coaches with questions or concerns about disordered eating practices often found in the exercise and sports settings.

Experience
I have a bachelor's degree in sports medicine and a master's degree in sport psychology. I am not a liscensed counselor but I am pursing my counseling education currently. I have also worked with athletes at every level for the last 15 years, particularly elite high school athletes and females.

Education/Credentials
bachelor's degree sports medicine master's degree sport psychology currently pursuing graduate degree in counseling psychology

Past/Present Clients
U.S. national team level female athletes High school athletes Semi-pro soccer

You are here: Experts > Health/Fitness > Eating Disorders > Anorexia/Eating Disorders > Eating disorder and dieting and exercising

Anorexia/Eating Disorders - Eating disorder and dieting and exercising

Expert: Ryan Hale - 10/29/2009

Question
My question is, can a person develop an eating disorder while on a diet and exercising regime. About 6 months I underwent a lifestyle change. I have always been big and just got tired of it. I’ve lost about 65lbs and have done it the natural way, working out and eating better and pretty much on my own. I love exercising, always have even when I was a big child I played football and was generally active. I stopped this activity during middle and high school and that’s when most of my weight gain occurred.
My concern with my eating patterns is I fear I could be limiting my food intake too much and not balancing it with my exercise patterns. I have breakfast everyday, I only drink water and coffee, I try to have lunch but I am a college student and my schedule doesn’t always allow for that, I have dinner and I aim to eat before 8pm at the latest. Due to my schedule I cannot workout as much as I did in the past but on average I workout 3 to 4 times a week. I don’t eat much sweets, or dairy (lactose intolerance); I have plenty of fruits and veggies, soy and tofu, and the occasional white meat. However, restricted or limited my diet seems its even more restricted on the days I don’t work out. I only eat certain foods, usual smaller portions, usually no lunch as these days happen to be my busy school days, and lastly I will not eat out on these days. I realized this is past weekend when I was invited to dinner and declined, usually if I am going out I know before hand and can schedule a workout on that day, but on this occasion it was last minute and I was forced to see how neurotic I am over eating food.
I wanted to know is this is usually for people on diet and nutrition regimes or who are very athletic and if any of the behaviors I’ve described are serious and/or symptoms of an eating disorder.
I feel I’m only strict on myself to sustain my weight loss and stick with my plan. I have another 6 months to go as I started out at 270 and now sit around 205, and I feel losing about 50lbs will put me at a healthy weight for my height (5”6) and BMI. Once I get closer to my end goals I believe I will relax on the food monitoring. I just wanted to get an opinion on my current habits so I can know if I need to watch them or see someone about them.
Thanks for you help,
Crys

Answer
Christina- Wow! Congratulations on the weight loss. It sounds to me like you are simply practicing the discipline necessary for a huge life change that you've gone through. It is difficult to turn your life completely around and not think about it 24 hrs a day or be preoccupied by it all the time... then we are told that if we do think about eating and our weight all the time, that we could have a disease. From what you've told me, I don't think you have any problems. It does worry me that you are turning people down for social events. Why change your life if you don't want to enjoy it?

I would suggest that you try to make sure you are still eating the occasional dessert or letting yourself attend a birthday party (even if you only take the smallest piece that was cut from the cake). It just takes planning. Try to get to the super market and pick up food that you can take with you. Currently, I am a graduate student and my classes are at wacky times of the day. I take a lot of food with me... nuts and seeds to munch on during the commute, an apple and and banana for lunch and when I get out at 4:30pm I eat a a snack or early dinner. It takes planning though, and there are plenty of fast food places around campus that are tempting at the end of the day. I try to go to the taco place and get a bowl of beans and rice (no cheese or chips) on the days I am really in a time crunch and can't do anything else.

Try to eat a breakfast that will stick with you during the day. You can go online and look at the diets of endurance athletes to see what they eat on race day for lasting energy. Usually, it is a combination of whole grain, complex carbohydrate and a bit of protein. My favorite bike race morning meal is oatmeal (I dress it up with berries I buy frozen and throw in before I microwave the oats) and a few bites of egg white. The slow burning carbs and the protein combined team up for a slow burning energy that lasts until early afternoon (oat meal has a 30% longer energy release than other cereals).

It's ok to be very aware of situations in which you might be inclined to "cheat" on your diet and to be cautious. But don't avoid them all together. I was working with a kid who was loosing weight during his senior year of high school. Of course once he got to college it was a challenge because everyone's idea of a good time is drinking lots of beer. He said he would be jogging at night and be able to hear the chaos going on in the neighborhood at the parties but felt he "had to do what he had to do" to go this his change. Later, when he was maintaining his weight, he said that he still avoided the parties, but would still go to the ones where he knew friends were going to be or perhaps a girl he was interested in would be attending. But, he said he just didn't try to make it to ALL the parties and drink ALL the beer.

Be careful of the BMI chart, if you are athletic it does not work and you would need to add 2-3 points to be reasonable. Example, a pro body builder who is 300lbs and 3% body fat is considered morbidly obese. For someone athletic, I rely more on body composition or lean body weight. How much of your body weight is lean and what percentage is fat? That's a better measure for athletes.

So, I think with a little planning and just being judicious about which social functions are important to you and which ones you want to go to, you'll be fine. While I work with people with eating disorders and take it very seriously, I also have to remind some clients that in our society, we have a much better chance of eating poorly, being over weight and having heart disease than we do of developing an eating disorder.

I would worry about your weight loss behavior only if it started to run every aspect of your life, not just the aspects related to weight loss, if you found yourself thinking more about weight loss and less about enjoying your new life, if you started practicing behaviors that are harmful (purging, inappropriate use of laxatives or diet pills, fasting, constant appraisal of your body, not enjoying your new body and being even more critical than before your weight loss). Check back in and let me know how it goes.

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