Eating Disorders!! HELP!!

Maybe you should eat less. You're looking kinda fat. Or, purge after every meal. Hope this helps!

I think when it comes to running, it is because women have a naturally higher body fat percentage and this contributes to the increase in eating disorders. It is more difficult for them to have low body fat and they resort to more extreme behaviors.

For the general population there is such an emphasis on being skinny for women, much more than men. Also, women tend to me more obsessed with their outword appearance, than men.

These of course are my opinions.

My intuition tells me that anorexia is an OCD issue, so maybe check out whether OCD afflicts women more than men. Bulimia seems more related to body image so it makes sense that more women have this. Our society puts way more emphasis on how a woman looks than how a man looks. (Men can be fat but if they're rich, then they are hot!)

I think a big part of it is that women with lower levels of bodyfat are perceived as being much more attractive than women who are overweight. Most women with eating disorders, (aside from the ones trying to be better athletes) usually have it in thier heads that they are unattractive, or fat, and have a pathological drive to lose bodyweight, even if they are already very thin.

Men don't tend to have this same drive(other than athletes), probably because a man doesn't become all that more attractive as he loses weight. His ability to attract women is more dependent on his behavior and aspects of his appearance that he can control, like clothing and hygeine.

That's my theory anyway.

Women compete against each other at one thing - they way they look. It's ground into females from the moment they are old enough to understand that the better they look, the better their chances are of being popular among the boys. It's as simple as that.

Men compete because they like to beat up on others and win. It's a macho thing. Men get angry when they lose. Women hardly even notice when they lose as long as they look good after.

You might not be able to use any of that for your paper but this is the truth.

Of course, this does not apply to the three women who are going to blast me for stating the truth.

The best thing to do when you're trying to understand the causes of eating disorders is to recognize that there is no single cause for any of them. Obsessive behavior, control issues, body image issues, athletic performance, and a bunch of other things can contribute to a person developing an issue.

Speculation as to the single most important factor is pretty futile. Just because you have a favorite explanation doesn't make it statistically significant. I thought I knew a lot about the cause of eating disorders until I got to know people who have them.

I think people are missing the point of the original poster.

I'm guessing that drops in weight in women has a greater effect in performance than men. I think this has to do with the differences in BMI. Guys are naturally more efficient runners due to hormones and muscle mass. Girls are less efficient - maybe because their bodies have more non-running related organs (breasts, wider hips, etc). So changes in women's bodies (drops in weight) that make them more efficient runners - leads to greater gains.

Bigger guys like Solinski and Mottrum would probably run slower times if they were skinnier... But bigger girls would probably run faster times if they lost body fat. It's a little unfortunate because it leads to health risks but shit happens...

puberty screws up your body. you freak out, why can't I run fast anymore, it must be due to me getting hips and bodyfat (true). but in order to stave off this process and reclaim successful form you get pretty desperate, so binge purge starve overtrain... injury cycle starts...

In addition, I've heard that running is kinda a lightning rod for possible anorexics to join, as they anticipate being thin like a runner.