Exercise bulimia is a compulsive behavior in which a person exercises excessively to maintain or reduce weight, causing temporary and permanent damage to health and affecting responsibilities. Excessive exercise can cause damage to the body and is not the best way to achieve desired results. Symptoms include working out for several hours a day and not meeting other responsibilities. The condition is often seen in individuals with high expectations and a compulsive desire to succeed. Treatment involves helping people understand how their perfectionism is unrealistic and harmful.
Exercise bulimia is a compulsive behavior in which the sufferer exercises excessively in the hope of maintaining or reducing their weight. It’s often a form of elimination: Just as a person with bulimia nervosa might force themselves to vomit or use laxatives after eating, a person with exercise bulimia will engage in strenuous exercise after eating a meal. Exercise bulimia can significantly affect the lives of sufferers in a variety of ways, including temporary and permanent damage to their health, invading their time in ways that affect their responsibilities to their families and employers, and create significant feelings of failure if they are unable to meet daily exercise goals.
In an age of obesity, it’s hard to conceive of “too much exercise” as a health issue. Excessive exercise, however, can put a strain on the body and can cause damage to joints, ligaments and other body systems. Many exercise advocates stress the importance of taking rest days and allowing your muscles to recover. Ironically, binge exercising may not even be the best way to achieve the type of body the exercise bulimic desires. Unfortunately, because exercise bulimia is a compulsive behavior, these facts may not convince someone with the condition to change their behavior.
Symptoms of exercise bulimia vary, but typically include working out for several hours a day, working out while sick or injured, not meeting other responsibilities due to the need to exercise, and engaging in vigorous exercise in response to binges. The difficulty in diagnosing exercise bulimia is that some of its symptoms, observed alone, are within the range of normal human behavior. For example, many athletes, both amateur and professional, spend several hours a day training for events. Many people also work out as a way to manage stress and may do so during difficult times in their lives when it may seem to others that their time could be better spent in other activities. A trained professional can examine a person’s behavior and look for patterns that indicate compulsive exercise rather than a dedication to exercise as a professional obligation hobo.
The causes of exercise bulimia also vary, but the condition is often seen in individuals who have very high expectations of themselves and a compulsive desire to succeed. Treating exercise bulimia is often a matter of helping people understand how their perfectionism is unrealistic and harmful to themselves and others. Individuals with the condition may also be evaluated for other eating disorders, such as compulsive overeating, as well as affective disorders, such as depression or anxiety. A person with exercise bulimia may choose to enter a residential treatment program or seek private therapy to help them determine ways to respond to stress and develop realistic expectations of themselves.
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