Why Athletes Feel the Need to Diet & How to Get Out of It

For most of my professional running career, I felt I ‘needed’ to lose weight; from internal and external pressures. The aspiration for a lean body is not uncommon among athletes, whether you think you’ll perform better athletically, you got into running to lose weight, or you simply believe you’ll look and feel better if you’re down 5, 10, or 15 pounds.

Why Athletes Feel the Need to Diet – Perfectionism, Passion, and Disguised Dieting

Many athletes or high-achievers can be characterized as ‘perfectionists’, and many people strive to be perfectionists in one domain of their lives (for athletes, this is our athletic endeavors). To better explain perfectionism and how it applies to sports, there is the Bifactor Model of Perfectionism. This model separates perfectionism into two domains – perfectionist strivings and perfectionist concerns.

• ‘Perfectionist strivings’ show a unique positive relationship with self-confidence, the hope of success, progression towards goals, and performance in training and competitions. In running, perfectionist strivings could be boosted self-esteem from a well-executed workout, consistently doing your stretching pre- and post-workout, and a good rust buster at the beginning of the season.

• ‘Perfectionist concerns’ show a unique positive relationship with competition anxiety, fear of failure, and avoidance of progression towards goals. It is the perceived difference between one’s personal standards and one’s actual performance, doubts about actions, seeking validation from others, and being sensitive to criticism. In running, perfectionist concerns could be only feeling good about a workout if a coach comments on it, focusing on how training ISN’T going perfectly (instead of thinking about all of the great work you’re putting in), and having deflated confidence if your training didn’t go 100% perfectly.

It's important to note the positive associations of perfectionist strivings are often suppressed by the negative association of perfectionist concerns. What does this mean? Many athletes are high-achievers in pursuit of high standards and seek perfection in all aspects affecting their training – training, rehab, nutrition, sleep, and recovery. The athlete’s approach to ‘perfection’ can dictate their mentality, depending on if it leans towards the ‘perfectionist strivings’ or ‘perfectionist concerns’. If you fall into the category of ‘perfectionist concerns’, where there is fear of failure, seeking validation from others (in workouts, comments on how you look, etc.), and being sensitive to criticism, any imperfections with diet and nutrition can seem larger than life, leading you to spiral and feel the need to be leaner, and lighter. This mindset puts you into the ‘failing’ mindset, even before you start, and counteracts any confidence that could be gained from a perfectionist striving mindset! Realizing the difference between perfectionist strivings and perfectionistic concerns is the first step in evaluating how you approach your athletic endeavors with nutrition and weight, and the power you give (in fear of failure, not being perfect, unrealistic expectations) to your weight in athletic performance. There is no perfection in nutrition, and to believe so is setting an unrealistic and unachievable standard that will leave you feeling disappointed and despaired every time.

When Perfectionist is Paired With Passion

Passion! It’s why athletes love their sport, makes it a part of their identity, and according to the Dualistic Model of Passion, could be one of the meditating variables in the relationship between disordered eating, perfectionism, and mental well-being. Between passion and perfectionism, clinical perfectionism represents a dysfunctional belief system in which self-worth is judged by pursuing AND attaining high demanding standards, despite adverse consequences. Fear of failure, frequent and selective attention to performance, and self-criticism are key characteristics of perfectionism that can be directed toward eating and weight. Passion, when coupled with the pursuit of perfection in the name of ‘athletic performance’ (losing weight), exacerbates all efforts, leading to disordered eating behaviors. Our sporting culture emphasizes the ideal that passion needs to be an obsession and a prerequisite for achieving peak performance, which can be seen in the focus on counting calories, monitoring the scale, and the need to lose weight.

The problem with athletes feeling they need to lose weight? It’s never enough (as I emphasized in our blog post a few months ago). Let’s say you lose the 5, 10, or 15 pounds you want to lose. One of two things ends up happening:

• You either still don’t feel the sense of accomplishment, self-worth, happiness, or success you wanted, continue to feel the need to lose weight, and continue to shrink your body, hurting your physiological, biological, and mental health in addition to capping your performance.

• You are happy with how you look and feel, but then always thinking about food and what you’ll eat, fearful of gaining weight, seeking out compliments about how you look, and constantly pushing off hunger to maintain your current weight, often leaving you irritable, emotional, unproductive and unable to be present in social situations.

In addition, studies have shown that improvements in psychological well-being associated with weight loss are just as futile and temporary as the pounds lost and regained. The self-confidence and self-esteem diminish with regained weight, and existing issues of self-worth and general well-being return to initial levels when the weight is regained.

How do I get out of this need to lose weight?

Getting out of this spiral all starts with shifting your mindset. Athletes are often drawn to a ‘quick fix’ (lose a few pounds) without considering the long-term implications (below), which can exacerbate the problem rather than solve it.

1. Realize the damage that comes with trying to lose weight: Dieting or restricting your calories in pursuit of weight loss increases your chances of bingeing, slows down your metabolism, increases your risk of premature death and heart disease from the inevitable weight cycling (losing weight and regaining it), and decreases your ability to listen to your internal body cues. In addition, dieting or restricting your calories is linked to eating disorders, may increase stress, and is correlated with feelings of failure, and lowered self-esteem. Dieters are often vulnerable to losing control around food and overeating, and restricting your calories rather than listening to your hunger cues gradually erodes self-trust.

2. Be aware of diet-mentality traits and thinking:

   1. You may see this all over social media- fitness influencers talking about their willpower, discipline, and self-control with their appearance and daily habits. Everyone blames willpower, and while self-control is a powerful internal tool, it is not a tool when it comes to weight because of the hormonal and biological shifts that happen when we restrict our calories.

   2. Control: your hunger and fullness can change from day to day, and to treat it as stagnant with a diet or restrictive eating rules in any attempt to lose weight is unsustainable. Ignoring your initial hunger cues (growling stomach, thinking about food, distracted) can make you feel ‘out of control’ around food when really, your blood sugar has dropped and your body wants to get the quickest source of energy that it can. Listening to your hunger cues and eating when you start to get hungry helps regulate those feelings of being ‘out of control’ around food.

   3. Even if you have decided you won’t follow a diet to lose weight, your thought processes can stay the same, which continues to hurt your relationship with food and keep you in the mindset that you need to lose weight. Counting calories, only eating foods that you believe are ‘healthy’, only eating at certain times of the day (ex. waiting until 12:30 to have lunch when you start to get hungry at 11:45), making up for eating a perceived ‘bad’ food by skipping breakfast the next day or overcompensating with exercise, or limiting carbs. As long as you are in the mindset that you can’t freely eat around food, you’ll continue to have cravings, overeat, and feel controlled by food.

3. Get rid of the external validation – the scale!

High achievers often want evidence of the work they are putting in; using the scale can seem like a ‘measure’ of how well your nutrition is going. Ironically, a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ scale number can both trigger overeating, whether it’s celebrating how well you followed a diet or feeling bad about yourself, overeating, and deciding to ‘start again tomorrow’. The scale devalues days, weeks, and months of progress and gives power to this arbitrary number. 

• When a pound isn’t just a pound: Many factors can influence the number on the scale (hydration, menstrual cycle, stool passing, hormones, excessive sodium intake). The number on the scale is affected by water retention or release of water- anytime the scale suddenly changes, it is usually because of a fluid shift in the body. Even eating more carbs retains water in the body. However, how easily do people believe they did something wrong or are on top of the world when the scale shifts? Also, the scale does not reflect body composition- muscle is 70% water. So increased muscle mass, while metabolically more active, weighs more than fat. Constant weigh-ins can leave you frustrated, impede your progress, and won’t help your relationship with food. Let go of the scale. 

4. Practice self-compassion. Nutrition is not something to perfect. Thinking that it is will only hurt your relationship with food, lead to disordered eating habits, and place you in the ‘perfectionist’ mindset, leading to feeling guilty or anxious around food. ANY guilt felt by eating certain foods is misplaced perfectionism. Eating is not a success or failure, foods are not ‘good’ or ‘bad’, and all foods are neutral.

The need to lose weight can be a hard mindset to get out of, and breaking out of this mental construct won’t happen until you're cognizant of your internal dialogue around your food, body, and weight. Rather than eating to lose weight, eat to fuel – to strengthen yourself, to be productive, to reach your goals, and to be present in everything that can happen in your life.