‘There were measures that seemed unachievable for different body types’: cricketer Sarah Coyte says constant skinfold and weight checks in elite sport were a ‘big trigger’ for her eating disorder. Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/The Guardian
Eating behaviours in elite sport fall across a spectrum, from optimised nutrition – in which an athlete is supported through a specially created plan for peak performance – through to clinically diagnosed eating disorders. The oft-murky grey area between is referred to as “disordered eating”, defined by the‘I struggled silently with all this for about four years’: Netballer Nat Butler developed a ‘very disordered’ relationship with food in 2010.
“There was a lot of weight loss and I had a very disordered, unhealthy relationship with food,” she says. “My depression was significant and I struggled silently with all this for about four years.”“I was the kid who would order chicken and vegetables with no vegetables,” she says. “Then when I got a cricket scholarship at 17, I decided to get a gym membership and I started to eat a bit better. Really quickly I started losing weight and all my fitness results were going up.
Eating disorders are not a choice, they are a disease – I wish more people knew how treatable they are | Xavier MulengaWhile there are genetic factors that contribute to an individual’s likelihood of developing an eating disorder, there are also environmental and neurological factors that play a role – and this is where athletes are particularly susceptible.
“Only around 10% of sport and exercise research since 2014 focuses on female-only studies,” she says. “We don’t know what we don’t know. However, anecdotally, it is clear we need to retrain some longstanding culture and beliefs on body composition monitoring.”