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NEDA TOOLKIT for Coaches and Trainers Nutritionists’ stories Dealing with weight, weight limits, and recruiting in the athletic setting Talking with Marcia Herrin, EdD, MPH, RD, Founder, Dartmouth College eating disorders program and co-author, The Parent’s Guide to Eating Disorders: Supporting Self-Esteem, Healthy Eating & Positive Body Image at Home In sports where there are weight restrictions, I like the approach that one small New England liberal arts college takes. Coaches hold unscheduled, random weight checks so that an individual athlete might get weighed once or twice a season. The weight check only evokes a response from the coach if the athlete is losing weight. This approach is positive (to safeguard the health of athletes) and not punitive (to punish them for their weight); athletes know it’s just a routine check that is part of being on the team. Even in sports with no weight limits, my advice to coaches is to be so careful and circumspect about broaching the topic of size and weight that before you approach the athlete, you ask yourself whether the athlete’s current body size makes them a good fit for the team. If you feel the athlete weighs too much, she may be in the wrong boat, or the wrong sport. Weight is what it is, and it’s up to the coach to position athletes appropriately, instead of having athletes strive to manipulate their weight. Although eating disorders are in part genetically determined, meaning one can inherit a predisposition to them, there can also be a kind of “contagion effect,” a spreading of eating-disordered behaviors among teammates. What I see even more than this, though, is the kind of stress an eating-disordered member can create on the team. I see team members really worried about a fellow athlete. They may be asked to keep secrets, or cover for the eating-disordered person in some way. This can be very anxiety-producing for team members and is another reason to carefully consider adding an eating-disordered member to your team. Reconciling an eating disorders recovery meal plan with athletic life, the dangers of weigh-ins Talking with Andrea Kurilla RD, LD, MPH For athletes, one of the hardest parts of battling an eating disorder is following a meal plan when the athlete has not talked about the problem with his or her coach and teammates. Recovery meal plans are pretty structured and include at least one dessert a day, which helps to normalize eating and de-stigmatize forbidden or “binge” foods. Often, though, this directly contradicts the coach’s nutritional advice to the team to cut out sugar in an effort to enhance performance. Athletes are caught between the conflicting philosophies of their treatment team and their coaches. Team dinners, where there is constant talk and comparisons made about food and eating, can also be hard. The best thing for you to do as a coach or trainer is to foster an environment where an athlete feels safe and able to — if not openly share his or her eating disorder with the team — at least have your support. You might not feel able to tell your team, as we do, that “no food is forbidden,” but you can at least support your athlete in following his or her meal plan. As a former college lightweight rower, I know that in some sports weigh-ins are inevitable. If that is the case with your sport, try to keep them as free of stigma as possible. An athlete may just need to lose a few pounds to make the team, but it’s very easy to slip into a dangerous mentality about food and weight. A health professional or a trainer should initiate and monitor weigh-ins, and, if they are part of team protocol, food records. Although I believe food records are more dangerous than not, if you do use them make sure that it is not a teammate who is monitoring them, but a trainer or dietitian. There is a difference between promoting healthy eating and promoting restriction; a trained expert can counsel athletes who are not getting adequate amounts of iron, protein, fat or calories. Young female athletes, in particular, often don’t believe their calorie requirements are as high as they are. Try setting a minimum standard for food intake rather than a punitive upper limit. Page  | 36