How is Excessive Exercise Related to Eating Disorders?
The society places emphasis on the ideal body size via media advertisements in various and product lines, especially Victoria’s Secret. As a result, many women and even some men become obsessed with their images. They try all sorts of exercises in order to lose weight. Some of them lose the weight and at the same time create more health problems for themselves. Those who do not lose the weight are tempted to find some other means of losing the weight off and keeping it off. As a result, they develop eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia and compulsive overeating. These disorders, if left untreated, will cause permanent health problems and even death.
Let us look at the disorders in detail and see how they are linked to excessive exercise.
Anorexia nervosa refers to the condition suffered by persons who are determined and desperate to lose weight, where they eat very little food, even when they sometimes are already underweight. Persons who suffer from this condition often think of themselves as being too fat, even when they appear skinny to others. Some persons’ bodies are unable to keep the weight off; just thinking about food results in them putting on weight and as a result, they exercise excessively along with eating very little, just to drop a few pounds.
The next disorder on the list is bulimia. Bulimia occurs when persons go on a eating binge (meaning that they eat large amounts of food, including junk food) and then purge themselves of it, whether by self-induced vomiting or by taking laxatives. When they do this, they are causing more harm to their bodies in that they are depriving themselves of valuable nutrients and causing an imbalance in the body’s mineral balance. The result of this is the risk of heart problems, even heart failure.
When bulimic persons exercise, their appetite is increased. As a result, they eat more food to cover this need. After stuffing their bodies with food, they force themselves to vomit and with the constant vomiting taking place to rid themselves of all the food, they are more at risk of developing lung cancer. It also becomes impossible for them to maintain their fixed weight.
The final disorder that we will be looking at is compulsive overeating. It involves persons eating large amounts of food and then exercising excessively for long periods. Compulsive overeating is not as dangerous as anorexia and bulimia. However, it also will lead to psychological and physical problems as they are overusing their body’s muscles and other organs.
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