Eating behavior and reasons for exercise among competitive collegiate male athletes.

PURPOSE: Research concerning eating disorders among adolescent and young adult male athletes is limited compared with female counterparts, but increasing evidence indicates that they may be at unique risk for unhealthy exercise and eating behavior. The current study aimed to characterize unhealthy exercise and eating behavior according to competitive athlete status, as well as per sport type. METHOD: Collegiate male athletes (N = 611), each affiliated with one of the 10 National College Athletics Association (NCAA) Division I schools in the United States, completed an online survey, reporting on eating and extreme weight control behaviors, and reasons for exercise. RESULTS: Competitive athletes endorsed increased driven exercise and exercising when sick. Baseball players, cyclists, and wrestlers emerged as the sports with the most players reporting elevated Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire scores in a clinical range, and basketball players reported the highest rates of binge eating. overall, baseball players, cyclists, rowers, and wrestlers appeared to demonstrate the greatest vulnerability for unhealthy eating and exercise behavior. CONCLUSION: Findings revealed differences between competitive and non-competitive male athletes. Among competitive athletes, results identified unique risk for unhealthy eating and exercise behavior across a variety of sport categories and support continued examination of these attitudes and behaviors in a nuanced manner. LEVEL II: Evidence obtained from well-designed controlled trials without randomization.

Evaluation of the DSM-5 severity ratings for anorexia nervosa in a clinical sample.

We examined the validity and utility of the DSM-5 severity ratings for anorexia nervosa (AN) in a clinical (treatment-seeking) sample (N = 273; 95.6% women). Participants classified with mild, moderate, severe, and extreme severity of AN based on their measured body mass index, differed significantly from each other in eating disorder features, putative maintenance factors, and illness-specific functional impairment (medium effect sizes). However, they were statistically indistinguishable in psychiatric-disorder comorbidity and distress, demographics, and age-of-AN onset. The implications of our findings, providing limited support for the DSM-5 severity ratings for AN, and directions for future research are outlined.

Norms for the rigid and flexible control over eating scales in a United States population.

Westenhoefer [(1991). Dietary restraint and disinhibition: Is restraint a homogeneous construct? Appetite, 16, 45-55] argued that dietary restraint may not be a homogeneous construct but instead a combination of rigid control (RC) and flexible control (FC) over eating. These concepts hold promise for understanding some of the conflicting data in the restraint field. Scores on measures of RC and FC are often subjected to a median split, resulting in a less powerful and less informative dichotomous variable. It may, therefore, be useful to develop normative ranges of scores on these measures from very low to very high restraint. Such normative ranges have been developed in a German population but may not be applicable to men and women in the United States. To that end, the current study subjected the RC and FC scales to standardization in a college population.

Are you currently on a diet? What respondents mean when they say "yes".

Male and female university students were asked the questions "Are you currently on a diet to lose weight?" and "Are you currently on a diet to maintain your weight?" Respondents were asked to clarify positive responses by listing weight-control behaviors in which they were engaged. Responses were coded into 12 categories of dieting methods. Results indicated women and men who diet to lose weight engage in a wider variety of weight-loss behaviors than those engaged in dieting to maintain weight. Findings further indicated differences in dieting methods between individuals dieting to lose weight as opposed to dieting to maintain weight.