Eating Disorders and Fitness: A Brief Review
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By Sal | February 27, 2009
People affected by disordered eating engage in a range of chaotic and inconsistent eating behaviors such as binging, fasting, skipping meals and, of course, dieting. Disordered eaters under eat or over eat - alternately not giving the body enough calories or more calories than needed - and this behavior short-circuits the body's internal signals that results in the loss of the ability to control hunger and satisfaction.
Disordered eating is also referred to as disconnected eating, where eating occurs without regard for,
- Feelings of hunger or satiety
- Normal function of fueling the body
- Providing energy
- Health and enjoyment
Disconnected eating occurs when people eat according to a pre-determined schedule based on the time of day and unrelated to hunger.
Restrained eating is another feature of disordered eating. Dieting is restrained eating and dieting is disordered eating. Diets dictate that people eat less than the body needs and many diets restrict specific foods and entire categories of calories. And you can't have disordered eating without externally regulated eating; dieting is classic externally regulated eating.
Externally regulated eating is eating by controlling what, when and how much a person eats according to a set of rules that have nothing to do with an individual's needs or preferences. Disordered eaters - dieters - try to use the mind to control food intake, thus minimizing/ignoring the body's signals of hunger and satiety.
Disordered eaters don't trust themselves to know when and how much to eat because, through dieting, they have lost the ability for their body's instinctive mechanisms to work. To truly understand disordered eating you must be familiar with the concept of an attuned eater.
An attuned eater,
- Listens to their body
- Knows what, when and how much to eat without consulting a schedule or list of foods
- Enjoys eating
- Eats all foods
PersonalTrainerCoach.com members can learn more about disordered eating by reading the Game Plan that discusses this subject in more details. If you aren't a member and would like to access this Game Plan, click here to start the process.
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