Eating disorders encouraged?!?

You should be proud for having the intelligence to recognize this problem. I urge you to bring this to your parents and your healthcare provider and discuss the implications for YOUR OWN health, then decide whether to participate in this athletic program. I speak from experience as the father of an anorexic. A fast runnng time is not worth the years of mental and medical health problems.

What causes the "fruit-breath" smell that an anorexic girl has? Does it mean something dangerous is happening inside their bodies?

I have done some research into the effects of eating disorders, particularly anorexia, on the brain, and here is the scary truth:

Just as your body is eating away at itself in order to survive, so is your brain. The brains of severe anorexic subjects are atrophied, or have lost mass. The research that I read was not certain as to whether this atrophy was reversible.

Maybe it would help some of those who suffer with eating disorders to picture their brains shrinking right along with their bodies. When coaches and/or friends compliment them on their slim bodies, they can reply, "Thanks. My brain is quite a bit smaller than it used to be, too!"

What are you born to do? Eat? come on....give long distance runners a break when it comes to eating disorders. Look at Kenyans for example, they don't run in order to eat. In Fact they eat in order to run.

TO say the least, Kenyans barely eat anything and look at their performances. THey training at a much higher intensity level than most D1 programs and they are far more talented and they don't worry about what it is they eat.

The fruit smell might be bile from the digestive system. Would be an indication of bulimia. Other than that, might be an attempt to hide the other activities (like letting the faucet run loudly when using the bathroom so you can't hear what's going on or eating alone all the time, etc). Might be breath mints to mask something?

I was always told that it was related to ketosis. When on a restricted diet your body runs out of available carbs and starts burning fat, which generates ketone bi-products that are excreted in urine and breath.

Happened to me a lot when I was training hard and not getting enough calories. Doesn't mean you're anorexic necessarily, just not getting enough carbs. Although I'd guess that most anorexics are in a constant state of producing these ketone bi-products in their breath.

Ketonic wrote:

I was always told that it was related to ketosis. When on a restricted diet your body runs out of available carbs and starts burning fat, which generates ketone bi-products that are excreted in urine and breath.

Happened to me a lot when I was training hard and not getting enough calories. Doesn't mean you're anorexic necessarily, just not getting enough carbs. Although I'd guess that most anorexics are in a constant state of producing these ketone bi-products in their breath.

the little bit i have found googling the topic suggests that's the answer. it is a strong fruity-bitter smell. it's very disturbing, it fills up the room when the team is altogether they must all smell it...

That fruity smell is a serious problem. Ever heard of diabetic keotacidosis? That's the same thing. It is actually EXTREMELY dangerous because it changes the pH level of the body. If this happens to you because of training and not having enough calories, you need to learn to read the earlier signs and symptoms of overtraining per calorie intake.

It's not all that dangerous. Eskimos, for example, are more or less constantly in ketosis during the winter. There may be long term health effects, but you aren't going to die of it.

Hey everybody,

this has been a very supportive and informative thread. I just wanted to say that I had a female friend who ran with an eating disorder, but one not yet mentioned here: overtaining. She didn't really worry too much about calories but running was her eating disorder. She had a lot of injuries and eventually quit her college team.

the wikipedia on it is brief but a good overview I guess:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise_bulimia

read Abra Fortune Chernik's "The body politic" for insight

notatrolljustdatroof wrote:

If you are female stop restricting your diet. If you're male welcome to the world of everyone does it no one talks about it.

I think you may have this backwards...

The "fruit-breath" is ketosis. It occurs during starvation diets, anorexia, etc. Since a person is startving, the body breaks down fat stores for energy, producing ketones. Ketones can throw off your acid-base balance and are basically waste products. They also have an appetite suppressant effect.

Ketosis is bad, but not exactly life-threatening. It's good because it's an indicator that you're basically starving yourself and hopefully you can get help. There is such thing as ketogenic diets (high in fat, no protein/carbs), but that's used to treat young people with seizures.

Whoever has this "fruit-breath" that you know should seek medical attention immediately. It's obvious that she has gone into starvation mode.

bump

Thanks for your honest post. Our son is currently recovering from a serious eating disorder that started his freshman year. He was hospitalized briefly and has had many ups and downs since. I believe that his own h.s. coach contributed to my son's poor body image by his (the coach's) own excessive leanness and preocupation with being fast and light. I know some of it must be hereditary because of my brief dance with disordered eating as a college runner (I am a female), but coaches need to be aware of this problem even among males. I wish more male runners were open and honest about this, or my son may not feel so alone with this problem. He has not been able to be competitive for over a year because it's still such a loaded issue for him. Your wife is a blessing!

i'm confused, if you have 10 % body fat and want to get down to 5%, how do you do this without burning fat and having "fruit-breath", i thought burning fat was the whole point if you're not burning muscle or what not, and you're overweight, something has to give, doesn't mean you have a "disorder" if you want to lose some fat;

D-1 runner wrote:

The "fruit-breath" is ketosis. It occurs during starvation diets, anorexia, etc. Since a person is startving, the body breaks down fat stores for energy, producing ketones. Ketones can throw off your acid-base balance and are basically waste products. They also have an appetite suppressant effect.

Ketosis is bad, but not exactly life-threatening. It's good because it's an indicator that you're basically starving yourself and hopefully you can get help. There is such thing as ketogenic diets (high in fat, no protein/carbs), but that's used to treat young people with seizures.

Whoever has this "fruit-breath" that you know should seek medical attention immediately. It's obvious that she has gone into starvation mode.

Manzano is 5'5, 122 pounds.

He seems like a good runner.

to no one in particular but everyone in general. skimmed over most of posts - and didn't see "Female Athlete Triad". Anyway thats what is being discussed here. Look it up - and it seems many D1 women's programs are into the calorie counting and even the 'team' weigh ins - compounding the problem

Bump. I sincerely hope some better education has started to be given to collegiate teams. And I hope the original poster of this thread ended up transferring away. No coach should EVER require their athletes to be weighed, unless maybe it's to ensure they're not losing too much weight!