College Athletes and Eating Disorders

Sometimes the most unlikely people suffer the most in some situations. We all assume that athletes have it easy because they work out all the time so they can eat whatever they want and they have the preferred body image. This assumption is completely wrong. Information taken from many studies shows that college athletes are the most likely group to fall into an eating disorder category.

Like most people, athletes do not want to admit that they have an eating disorder. Some athletes believe that they can not continue their sport with treatment for their eating disorder. They are very aware of the signs and symptoms but they continue to ignore them because they are trying to achieve that perfect body image. There are many famous athletes who have admitted to having eating disorders and sought help for them. Some of those athletes are Nadia Comaneci (9 time Olympic gold medalist as a gymnast), Mia St. John (boxer, lightweight champion of the world), and Cathy Rigby (Olympic gymnast). Athletes are more likely to have an eating disorder because of their psychological profile. Most of their profiles are similar in the fact that they are drive, they strive for perfection, competitiveness, self-expectation, and a distorted body image. Men are also likely to develop a disorder, however, some staggering statistics have shown that women are more at risk.

Warning signs in this area are very prevalent. If an athlete is constantly dieting or trying to lose weight that is a red flag. Any rapid gain or loss of weight may also be a sign. If they are constantly weighing themselves to the point where they become obsessive about their weight that is a warning sign. Many of the sports that are offenders of asking their athletes to be at a certain weight are wrestlers, jockeys, and gymnast. Wrestlers are constantly crash dieting to make a weight and then binge after they make weight. Jockeys do a similar exercise in order to make a certain weight for a race. There are many people under the impression that gymnast gain more points from being skinnier and more petite because it is preferred by the judges. Even football players can be described as having an eating disorder if they binge eat in order to reach a certain goal weight that is unhealthy.

It is sad that our world has turned into this. Nobody is safe from the negative body image that is portrayed by they media, not only does it effect athletes and college students but it is becoming very common among young teens now as well.

NEDA Blog

Hellmich, Nanci (2008). Health and Behavior: Athletes’ hunger to win fuels eating disorders. retrieved from: http://www.usatoday.com

Hunter, Jamie (2008). The Sport Journal: Eating Disorders Among Female College Atheltes, retrieved from: http://www.thesportjournal.org

Cardio vs. Weight Training

Which is more beneficial in weight loss lifting or cardio? Which is more beneficial in keeping the weight off lifting or cardio? These questions will be answered for you here shortly, but first consider your workout routine. Is it all cardio or all lifting? Do you intermix the two at all?

Cardio definitely has its positives but it is necessary to do it for a long period of time for it to be very effective. When doing serious cardio you are changing your body but you are basically making your body a smaller version of what you already have. Cardio mainly just burns fat. Running long distances can actually slim down your leg muscles, again making a smaller body shape from start to finish. Long sessions of cardio can burn tons of calories, that is definitely a positive! There are also some major long term health benefits in cardiovascular health.

First of all, weight training does not make you bulky unless you are truly trying to bulk up, just to clear up that myth. Weight training is essentially reshaping your body. According to Shannon Clark in Far Loss Wars: Cardio Versus Weight Training: Yes, lifting is going to build muscle but it is going to give your metabolism a major boost. Lifting is creating more lean muscle mass. Lean muscle mass is what is going to boost your metabolism, more muscle mass means more calories burned during the regular day when you aren’t even working out! Burning some serious calories when your not even working out, that is everyones dream! This is why men can eat more because they have more muscle mass on their bodies, thus, burning more calories throughout the day. Weight training has been shown in studies to be more effective in long term weight loss. Muscle takes twice as long to lose as it does to build so that is a major positive!

I enjoy running and do not enjoy lifting as much. When I work out I mix and match. I try and do a little weight training at least 3 times a week and cardio as much as I want. I have found that it works best for me and where I want to be. Try new things and mix your workouts up a little and do what works for you!

This blog was inspired by a great Nerd Fitness blog that also discusses cardio training vs. weight training. Check it out for more info!

Total Body Movements

Everyone is always looking for the next best workout routine. Many of the top workout routines that are very successful in selling their products have one thing in common: full body movements. Full body movements are exercises that use many muscle groups at one time, thus, making your body work harder. As an athlete in college that is training for a sport I would say that specializing in one muscle group at a time is as important if not more important than full body movements. However, as a non-athlete that is not specializing in a single sport and as someone that just wants to get in shape and look good I have found that full body movements are the way to go. There is really no need for me to specialize in my vertical anymore because, well I do not play college basketball anymore and I am not as concerned with being able to jump out of the gym. Instead I am going to do a hard workout in the quickest amount of time possible. Some full body movements involve squatting, straight arm planks, push-ups, Burpees, Power cleans, mountain climbers and Deadlife-to-overhead press. Swimming is also very beneficial for total body workouts. Just think about it. When you swim everything is moving. I have found that Insanity, Insanity Asylum, and T25 are very beneficial. The majority of the time your entire body is workout seldom are isolations done. Even when push-ups are being done they are moving! Another workout routine I have used that uses many full body movements as well as isolation movements is Cross-fit. The more movement the better. I am not saying muscle specialization is not beneficial, because it is, it all depends on what your trying to do with your body and what you are training it for. If you are not sure the logistics to full body movements and you feel as if you are not doing them right there are tons of certified trainers who use Youtube to get themselves out there and teach inexperienced athletes how to work their bodies correctly. Get off the couch and move!!

Another great blog for full body movements is Fitmixer. Check it out!

Healthy Snacking

You make it through an extremely healthy breakfast. You feel pretty good about this because a good start is all you need for a solid day of eating healthy, right? Then comes the afternoon hunger. You did not pack any snacks because you did not know what to pack that was healthy that you would really wanna eat when the afternoon hunger craving strikes. When this happens your cravings are peeking and it becomes harder to say not. The key to a healthy effective diet is PREPARATION and PLANNING! The two p’s do not seem like the magical weight loss tool everyone was waiting for but if implemented into your weight loss program it will do wonders for your body and healthy lifestyle!

It is obvious that healthy meals are planned but what about healthy snacking? This also needs to be planned. Even planning the snacking step to a diet is hard. When I think snack I think “crackers, brownie, chips, ect” these are maybe not some of the best choices depending on what kinds of these food groups you are eating. Here are some snack ideas:

Hard boiled eggs
nuts
fruit
celery
granular bar

Here are a few of the healthy snacking ideas from Women’s Health Magazine:
Starbucks tall skinny latte
strawberries
popcorn
Turkey Jerky
Dark Chocolate

Kate Morin also shares many healthy protein packed snacks in her blog: “31 Healthy and Portable High Protein Snacks“. Many of her snacks require preparation as there is more than one ingredient in them. I have tried a few of them and they are next to amazing!

Nike Fuel Band

We all love having the newest gadget. Technology is steadily creeping into the fitness world more and more. I have found one piece of technology that I absolutely love using. It does not help me train harder or eat better but it shows results the second after a tough day of working out. I can see my hard days work on my phone! This particular gadget is a nike fuel band.

Of course the nike fuel band is a watch. It would be a little silly to make something that goes on your wrist for working out if you couldn’t tell time on it so that is a little convenience I appreciate because I love wearing watches! Also, it is very stylish and comfortable to wear. It is not a huge gaudy watch that looks like your going to use it to sonar a ship into harbor. These, however, these are not the coolest features of the nike fuel band.

The nike fuel band counts each step that is taken through the day…

Nike fuel is a way to make a movement and activity measurement. Fuel is what competitors and athletes use to compare activity during the day. It is basically activity points as nike “fuel” and it is a fair way for people to compete with each other online.

My favorite feature is the fact that the nike fuel band counts burned calories. This is based on activity based caloric burn not metabolic caloric burn. It is calculated using and algorithm based on expended energy based on movement.

After the nike fuel band is purchased it is so easy to set it up. Nike has a step by step process that personalizes the watch to the person wearing it. When I set mine up I set the time, my hight, weight, and my goal to reach for nike fuel points. Nike connect has a few different ways to customize your nike fuel band.

At the end of everyday I use bluetooth to connect my fuel band the Nike+ app on my iPad or iPhone and it measures my activity levels throughout the day. I can also look at a graph and see my most active times of the day and the times when I was napping.

In my opinion it’s a cool device for workout junkies. A little expensive but personally I think it is worth it.

Emotional Eating

When trying to drop a few pounds, taking care of your body is half the battle. Some of the stresses in life are unavoidable but there are ways to work through the emotional stages without eating everything in sight. Heart ache, stress, lack of sleep, and physical/Emotional pain all make our body crave some kind of a reward to make us feel better or to satisfy they pain momentarily.

Many people use food as pleasure and look forward to each meal everyday because they are constantly thinking about food. The dieting struggle is real with you are an emotional eater. Eating sugars and fats release opioids in the brain. Opioids are similar to the active ingredients in some narcotics. These opioids make use feel satisfied and emotionally better for a while.

A good way to bring up your mood and avoid eating is by working out. While working out our bodies release endorphins. Endorphins are feel good hormones that make use feel as if we are on a momentary happy high. Endorphins connect with receptors that reduce the perception of pain within the brain. This is why it is important to work out when we are going through emotional stages. Endorphins trigger the positive feelings within our bodies that we may need at that time. Music is also another distractor that triggers positive feelings (if it is the right music) within the brain, it has a more profound effect on women but there is an effect non the less.

Jennifer Kromber at Psychology Today explains that hating your body will not help the emotional eating because it can be the cause of it. Some look at themselves and hate their bodies and eat the hate away. This is obviously not helping the situation. Love the body you have! Know the improvements that need to be made but love the body you are in.

Moral of the story, love the body you are in and love it enough to make improvements. Love it like it is the only thing that can not be taken away from you. Get sleep and try to avoid stress and pain. I realize some of this is unavoidable. If you come to a sticky spot in life allow yourself to work through the pain and feel it. Do not try avoiding it by eating your pain away.

Coffee, good or bad?

For coffee being the most commonly consumed psychoactive substance in the world I feel that it is important to point out the pros and cons of this substance for us adamant caffein addicts. Since I am a coffee lover I will start with the good news first!

According to Popular Science Coffee can make us smarter. Science came to this conclusion because through a pathway coffee enables the effects of dopamine and norepinephrine. Coffee makes us feel alert and awake which can also improve ones mood. As our bodies fall into sleep mode our mood drops along with many other functions such as memory retention and reaction time. Since coffee allows the body to feel more awake all of these factors are improved. Coffee is a stimulus that also increases metabolism and who doesn’t want a fast metabolism? There are also nutrients and antioxidants in coffee which is also nutritionally valued within the health community. As I stated in a previous blog the effects of caffeine help me feel more awake and alive during my workouts. This allows me to be more active than I would be without it, I drink this caffeine in the form of spark. Of course everything good also has bad with it.

The consumption of coffee dehydrates our bodies. So it is very important that we drink and ample amount of water to counter the effects of coffee. If done right this will have us running the the bathroom every 3.5 seconds but at the end of the day it is much better for our bodies if we choose to be coffee drinkers. Many complaints people have about coffee is that it causes the jitters. For people who do not consume coffee frequently this is very likely. My suggestion would be to start small, don’t over do the coffee consumption especially if your body is not use to it. Most people do not drink their coffee black. Many people add sugar, creamer, and many other substances that drop the nutritional value of the drink, also, adding extra calories. When all of the extras are added coffee becomes nutritionally bad for us depending on what is added and the amount. My suggestion would be just to add skim milk to your black coffee, this makes the coffee not as bitter and the coffee still has its nutritional value. If you must add flavor sugar free is preferred. The caffeine in coffee at some point can become addictive. Smithosnian.com explains that caffeine blocks adenosine receptors that causes the adenosine molecules to float freely around the brain. The excess adenosine that does not have a home on a receptor triggers chemical pathways that cause glands to secret adrenaline and other stimulants. Over time the brain grows more adenosine receptors which allows for greater tolerance from frequent coffee drinkers. The brain gets use to the regular consumption of coffee so when the coffee is taken away the chemical equilibrium is disrupted causing withdrawal like symptoms.

Here are the facts, I will let you to decide the verdict!

My Fitness Pal

Counting calories is not for everyone, however, it has been known to be a very successful weight loss system for many. Apps make everything easier, if you know the general ins and out of a small amount of technology. The best part about this app is it is completely free! Nothing beats free. My fitness pal is downloadable on your phone, tablet, or computer. The app itself gets all your weight loss information and goals then helps the user keep track of their food intake throughout the day. Based on body composition and personal goals the app will set a reachable goal and keep the user within a healthy range of food intake or calorie intake. If not enough food is taken in the program will tell the user that they have not consumed enough calories to complete a healthy day. If the user consumes to many calories it is evident because the user goes over his/her daily goal. Basically, it is a food diary right on your phone! When I go to consume food I click “add to diary” or “add” and use the barcode scan option or I search the food on my fitness paI. If I can not find the food (rarely does this happen) I can creat a food. If there are meals that I consume frequently I save them so I may go back and add them easier the next time I choose to do so. If the user chooses to do so they may weigh themselves everyday or every once in a while and my fitness pal has a built in progress chart. The user may also adjust the amount of protein, fat, and carbs that the user will consume.There is also a chart to track this information throughout the day as well. For example, as an athlete I want to take in more protein everyday to repair my muscles after strenuous exercise so I adjusted the intake chart from the generic settings to taylor an eating plan specially for me. Easy to use and easy to access, why not try it?

Breakfast

We constantly look for ways to lose weight fast, easy, and as painless as possible. Fooling our own mind and body is half the battle. So maybe don’t try and fool your body, work with it and give it the nourishment that it wants and needs to accomplish a healthy lifestyle change in the meantime. I can not stress this enough, it is so important that we eat breakfast. I use to be a huge offender of this rule. For me it was so much easier to sleep in and extra ten minutes and skip breakfast, as opposed to getting up ten minutes earlier, especially in college. College kids need their sleep, however, they need their breakfast more! Eating breakfast kickstarts your metabolism, and for once we are getting told to eat more so to me, it is a no brainer, EAT! Taking into consideration what we eat for breakfast is also important. Maybe try and stay away from Daylight donuts, save that for the weekends or a special occasion. However, breakfast does not have to be a disgusting bland protein shake, make it exciting. It may take a little more effort to cook up some eggs and turkey bacon but it is so worth the effort. Bottom line, skipping meals is bad for our bodies not only that, but it makes us crave more food. When lunch time comes along we end up consuming twice to three times as much food as we normally would if we were eating breakfast regularly. According to Yanjan at Naturalnews.com Eating breakfast has other important heath benefits such as Preventing Heart Attacks, decrease LDL cholesterol, and it Boosts energy levels throughout the day. Breakfast is not worth sleeping through because it has way to many health benefits that will carry us one step closer to a healthy lifestyle change.

Cravings

Everyone craves food at some point during the day. Talk about throwing a wrench into any diet plan. Food cravings are hard to ignore! As humans we are programed to crave foods high in calories that can be stored as fat. Where is the reprogram button!?!? I wish it were that easy. Hopefully some of these tips will help in long-term reprogramming.

First, try and satisfy the craving with a healthy alternative. If our bodies are craving sugar, eat some fruit. If carbs are what you are craving, have a healthy carb loaded alternative such as a baked potato or sweet potato. There are many alternatives that are healthy. If eating something healthy does not work the best thing to do is wait it out. Cravings build and eventually peek and then are gone. We must suffer through urge to get past the cravings. While I am waiting out my cravings I find something to do so I am not sitting around thinking about that s’mores blizzard from Dairy Queen, that sounds absolutely amazing. My distraction usually ends up being some kind of a workout or I read a book, because it is hard to eat and turn pages of a book at the same time. I definitely DO NOT sit down and watch tv because that makes my cravings even worse specially if I’m watching the food network, which I do a lot. Something about sitting and watching TV really gets the cravings going for me. Just do something, workout, read a book, do homework, listen to music, or go outside and take advantage of the beautiful summer! Last but not least try and keep your stress levels as bay. Stress triggers the hormone cortisol in our body triggering cravings for something tasty.

To sum it all up, avoiding cravings is not easy. Find a good distraction and go with it. Something that is more enjoyable than eating food. Just do something and before you know it the craving will be gone.