Dedicated or Disordered?: Assumptions that bodybuilding is an eating disorder harms both bodybuilders and those with disordered eating

Weighing spinach by the gram, bringing premade meals to restaurants and hour-long cardio sessions are part of the daily routine of a bodybuilder. 

Some may view these habits as signs of anorexia or orthorexia – an eating disorder where one is unhealthily obsessed with a healthy lifestyle, often resulting in severe malnutrition and an ultra-thin frame. While calorie restriction, exercise obsession and an extreme focus on your body are signs of an unhealthy relationship with food, there are key differences between your sport versus doing it out of disordered eating. As someone who has been on both ends of the spectrums — counted calories due to disordered eating and counted calories to prepare for bodybuilding competitions — I know that these beliefs impair both bodybuilders and those suffering with disordered eating by placing stigmas and misinformation around both. 

One of the major differences between the two is that when prepping for a bodybuilding competition, competitors usually have a coach. These coaches are certified professionals who create meal plans and workout routines for their athletes on their road to competition.  But athletes only follow these extreme diets and routines for 16-20 weeks per year.

This lifestyle shouldn’t be confused with disordered eating. 

Those with disordered eating habits don’t normally have coaches and oftentimes eat only what they feel like they have “earned” that day. They also tend to follow their low calorie or unhealthily healthy diets until they are able to fix their relationship with food. Whereas athletes gradually increase calories to an amount that supports a healthy weight after their competition.

Athletes utilize “building” phases where they eat in a calorie surplus to gain weight and muscle. Some even transition to an intuitive phase where they don’t count calories or follow a strict workout regime at all as part of their training routine.

Assuming that bodybuilding prep is an eating disorder creates a stigma and hesitance to compete out of fear of developing disordered eating. For those wanting to compete, this confusion also makes it difficult to get support. Minors need a guardian’s consent to compete, but many adults hesitate due to the sport’s stigma. While bodybuilding prep isn’t sustainable or healthy long-term, it’s unfair to prevent someone from exploring a passion based on misguided assumptions.

These preconceptions also enforce the idea that those struggling with disordered eating are always underweight, since a large reason many believe bodybuilders have eating disorders is due to their overly thin physique. But people struggling with disordered eating don’t necessarily look like they are. Focusing on competitors’ temporary unhealthy eating styles can take the focus away from those who are truly suffering.

While bodybuilding prep may mean cutting down body fat and eating abnormally for a short time, it’s a sport — not a serious or life threatening mental illness.