The two harmful ideas of the modern society that serves the culture are “Looking good” and “being how you look.” Not every one can look either super model reed thin or flex that muscled “cut” look of the super athlete. Getting there sometimes drives people to resort to life threatening binge eating and purging behavior. Athletes at Risk - Intense Body Image Perfectionists Gone Awry. Imagine that over 70% of all gymnasts are advised to “drop some weight” or they’ll never get the highest marks. People pleasing, competitive and performance perfectionists by nature, athletes are especially vulnerable to binge eating disorders when these “positive” performance-oriented attributes become dangerously focused on body image.
Body Fat Restrictions: “Making weight”, “reducing body fat percentages” or creating a more sculpted body image are only some of the pressure points routinely applied to male and female athletes by coaches and judges every day. Think of the wiry bones-and-muscle only physiques associated with the major “endurance sports” such as cross country running, cycling.
Body Weight and Body Image Sports: Who’d have guessed that over 50% of dancers, ice figure skaters and gymnasts suffer from eating disorders? In like fashion, you don’t have to drill too deeply into weight-specific sports like horse racing jockeys, wrestlers or varsity crew rowers in order to l...
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