OT Eating Disorders In Cheer

[HeatUniqueJ]

So how do you best deal with eating disorders as a Coach? Do you pay attention to your athletes weight, i don't mean by noting down their weight in numbers but just paying attention to their physique? And if you see a drastic weight loss in an athlete do you adress it? Are ED's a topic at the gym when it comes to educating Staff/Coaches? I recently had to deal with an incident like this and it has been a topic in the past so i was wondering how other gyms/coaches handle it.

 

[DaniV]

Luckily, I've never had any athlete of mine drastically drop weight to the point of concern. I have had athletes get dizzy or feel like they are going to faint and the first question I always ask is "when/what did you eat last? and how much water have you had today?" They typically respond with they haven't eaten anything since lunch (and it is now 7pm) or that they have only had starbucks and junk food snacks. At this point, I talk with them about what a healthy snack is and on practice days they need to eat more because they are working out harder and burning more energy (I avoid the word calories even though they are units of energy).

If it is something that becomes a reoccuring issue, I will email or set a meeting with the parents to discuss proper nutrition or if I feel that I have a concern that their child is withholding food for image reasons. Recently, the only time I've had to do this is to stop parents from taking their youth aged child to ice cream before every practice. Currently, I have an athlete on my prep team who almost fainted at practice and when talking to her dad, he mentioned that she has not been eating very much lately. I have been keeping an eye on her but so far nothing else has popped up that has raised any alarms.

We used to have a sports nutritionist come to talk to my competitive gymnastics team when I was growing up and I wish we had the opportunity to do that for cheer. I learned so much valuable information that I still remember and use all the time when emailing parents about eating before competitions and practice.

 

[CheerTeamNerd]

We had an issue with a girl on my team who was bulimic (let's call her Jane to make it simple). Our coach would not have been able to tell (just by looking at her) that she had any kind of eating disorder. One of the girl's teammates approached Coach in confidence and in turn I know Coach had some conversations with Jane regarding her diet, habits, etc. I think a lot of her issues were stress and school related. I'm not sure what the overall outcome of the whole thing was. The coach definitely tried to offer support and help Jane as subtly as possible, without involving the whole team or embarrassing her.

Since this was a high school cheer team, our coach was probably bound by the school policy to take specific actions. I'm not sure if she had some kind of training or seminar regarding female athletes and womens health.

 

[shorttpai]

So how do you best deal with eating disorders as a Coach? Do you pay attention to your athletes weight, i don't mean by noting down their weight in numbers but just paying attention to their physique? And if you see a drastic weight loss in an athlete do you adress it? Are ED's a topic at the gym when it comes to educating Staff/Coaches? I recently had to deal with an incident like this and it has been a topic in the past so i was wondering how other gyms/coaches handle it.

This isn't from a coaching perspective, but as a cheerleader who has struggled with one I think that concerns would be best going to the parents first, not the athlete. I would ask if the parents have noticed anything in the athlete's behavior and attitude, if grades have been dropping, and ask about the eating patterns.

 

[dawgshow]

We had an issue with a girl on my team who was bulimic (let's call her Jane to make it simple). Our coach would not have been able to tell (just by looking at her) that she had any kind of eating disorder. One of the girl's teammates approached Coach in confidence and in turn I know Coach had some conversations with Jane regarding her diet, habits, etc. I think a lot of her issues were stress and school related. I'm not sure what the overall outcome of the whole thing was. The coach definitely tried to offer support and help Jane as subtly as possible, without involving the whole team or embarrassing her.

Since this was a high school cheer team, our coach was probably bound by the school policy to take specific actions. I'm not sure if she had some kind of training or seminar regarding female athletes and womens health.

The bolded part is something worth repeating. So often people imagine that only drastically skinny people have eating disorders. An eating disorder has more to do with a person's feelings about food rather than quantity eaten. Many people with ED's don't look the part.


Sorry, didn't answer the question but I had to chime in.

 

[HeatUniqueJ]

The bolded part is something worth repeating. So often people imagine that only drastically skinny people have eating disorders. An eating disorder has more to do with a person's feelings about food rather than quantity eaten. Many people with ED's don't look the part.


Sorry, didn't answer the question but I had to chime in.

That is true, it's really hard to tell if someone who is not anorexic ( which is the only really obvious ED) might have another kind of ED , i should have probably named the thread differently but i couldn't think of any other title. I think finding out about other kinds of EDs is nearly impossible as the people tend to be very good at hiding it.
The thing is also, where does the ED start. These days everyone and their mom seem to be so obsessed with food, fitness and healthy lifestyle. Whenever i look at my Instagram i see loads of people praising different diets and showing their weight loss pictures, that makes it even harder to determine whether the person is healthy or not

We have had athletes in the past showing odd behaviour when it comes to food and eating.
As a coach who has lost a friend to an eating disorder in the past i am very sensitive when it comes to the topic and i really want my athletes to be healthy and make good choices for themselves. So this is where i ask myself what can i do as a coach whenever i see/feel that one of my girls is struggling , or what is my duty as a coach in a sport like this which is a very difficult surrounding for young girls with possible body image problems

 

[retiredl5cheer]

My college coaches pulled me aside a few years into my cheer career to inquire about my rapid weight loss, dizziness, and lack of energy. They recommended I see the psychologist available to athletes at my school. I think a couple of my teammates had mentioned something to them. It definitely made me realize that I was in pretty deep, and I ended up going to see a psych and the doctor for some anti-anxiety medicine.

I think that anytime you're in a mentor position, you're in a great place to make a difference.

 

[oncecoolcoachnowmom]

The bolded part is something worth repeating. So often people imagine that only drastically skinny people have eating disorders. An eating disorder has more to do with a person's feelings about food rather than quantity eaten. Many people with ED's don't look the part.


Sorry, didn't answer the question but I had to chime in.

As someone who always got the "Anorexic! Do you ever eat?" thing as a teen, this is so true. Some folks are just, small.

 

[Official OWECheer]

As someone who always got the "Anorexic! Do you ever eat?" thing as a teen, this is so true. Some folks are just, small.

This is a really prevalent stereotype. It always irritates me when people refer to models as anorexic, as if their height and natural build have nothing to do with their thinness.