If your children are among the more than 233,000 teenagers participating in sports in Minnesota, you’ve probably seen the benefits: They build self-esteem. They learn about teamwork. Their health improves.
Becoming competitive in a sport often goes hand-in-hand with learning how to stay in shape and eat the right foods. Unfortunately, the pressure to achieve a certain weight is causing many teen athletes to develop an unhealthy focus on their weight.
National organizations are taking note of this growing trend and warning parents, educators, and doctors of the dangerous behaviors some teens are engaging in for their sports.
Slimming down and bulking up
Adam Biegert is a junior at Osseo Senior High who competes on both the football and wrestling teams. Because football places an emphasis on bulk, while wrestling favors lean competitors, Biegert’s weight fluctuates by 30 pounds between the two sports.
“During football, I weight lift more and I can eat pretty much anything. During wrestling, I only eat healthy foods – no pop,” Biegert says. “Our [wrestling] coach doesn’t force us to lose weight; we all do it on our own,” he says.
Adam’s mother, Lisa, is aware of her son’s weight-control measures. “When it comes to wrestling and he’s trying to lose weight, he eats more fruits and vegetables – if he eats,” she says. “Lots of times, two days before a meet he doesn’t eat a lot. I just keep watch to make sure he’s eating something.” She adds, “I’ve never worried about him cutting weight because I think he knows how far he can go.”
In December 2005, the American Academy of Pediatrics updated its policy on weight-control practices in young athletes, stating, “Children and adolescents are becoming more involved in sports in which weight control is perceived to be advantageous for the individual and/or team. In their attempt to lose weight and body fat or gain weight and muscle mass, some athletes resort to unhealthy weight-control practices, which can potentially be harmful to their performance and/or their health.”
According to the AAP, sports such as cheerleading, dancing, gymnastics, and wrestling emphasize leanness or thinness as a competitive advantage, prompting some athletes to engage in unhealthy practices such as food restriction, vomiting, diet-pill use, and voluntary dehydration. On the other hand, sports such as football, rugby, and basketball emphasize increased muscle mass, motivating some teenagers to try to gain weight (or “bulk up”) by overeating, taking supplements, or using steroids.
The revised policy encourages more frequent assessment of athletes’ weight and body composition for sports in which weigh-ins are required, and stricter regulations around weight-control practices in athletics. The National Federation of State High School Associations has made similar changes to its weight management rules for wrestlers, which will take effect for the 2006-07 school year.
Just how big a problem is this? A study of adolescent eating behaviors at the University of Minnesota found that more than one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys are engaging in unhealthy weight-control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives.
“A large percentage of teenagers – particularly teenage girls – have unhealthy concerns about their weight,” says Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, Ph.D., who led the research study and published the findings last year in her book, I’m, Like, SO Fat! (The Guilford Press, 2005).
“If you compare athletes to nonathletes, you see that athletes can be at higher risk for unhealthy weight-control behaviors and excessive weight concerns,” she adds. “If [a teen is involved in] a sport that they feel places a lot of emphasis on weight, then they’ll be at higher risk for those behaviors.”
It’s easy to see the issues these teen athletes are facing. At a time when insecurities about their bodies may already be at their peak, participating in a sport that emphasizes weight provides yet another reason to scrutinize their bodies.
“You’re in a little short skirt and leotard in front of your peers, so you want to look your best,” says Megan Gabel, a junior at Fridley High School, who is captain of her dance team. “We hear stories of how some [dance] teams keep a log of what they eat and they have to make sure they only eat this many calories during the season,” Gabel says. “Our team is pretty lax on that – you just eat in a way that makes you feel good about yourself.”
But for some athletes, weight is tied to more than just athletic performance – it can determine whether or not they will get to play at all.
“The bigger kids were the starters,” says Charlie Garnaas, a former football player for Eden Prairie High School, who now plays lacrosse at the University of Minnesota. “The smaller kids, the kids who didn’t have any muscle mass, were on the bench. If you were under 185 [pounds], you probably weren’t going to play.” Garnaas says that keeping his weight up for football wasn’t an issue, however, as he ate constantly anyway. “If I was hungry, I was going to eat. I wouldn’t sit down and eat 10 hard-boiled eggs or anything,” he says, “but I do know kids who would do that.”
Shifting the focus
While there are healthy ways for teens to lose and gain weight, Neumark-Sztainer encourages parents to examine their children’s motivation for wanting to change their weight before condoning the practice.
“I think it’s really important for parents to take the focus off the weight and talk to their child about why they want to make that change,” she says.
“You want to focus on the behaviors: ‘How do you want to gain [or lose] weight? What kind of foods should you be eating?’ It’s important to send the message, ‘I would like to help you have healthy eating behaviors and have healthy physical activity behaviors, and then it’s really important for you to accept whatever your weight is.’”
In addition to talking to your children about their behaviors, Neumark-Sztainer stresses the importance of parents modeling positive behaviors themselves. Avoiding dieting, eating healthy foods, and getting regular exercise are a few ways parents can set the right example for their teens, but sometimes words speak louder than actions.
“You don’t realize what a strong impact your words can have on your child,” says Neumark-Sztainer. “Even a comment like, ‘Oh gosh, I look so fat in these pants!’ [can have an impact]. Comments that you make to your child about his or her weight, or comments about your own weight or anyone else’s weight – those should be eliminated.”
But the most important thing parents can do to help their teens? Insist on family meals. “It can be really hard with teenagers – you don’t have time, they don’t have time,” says Neumark-Sztainer. “But the findings have been so strong showing associations between family meals and dietary intake and the psychosocial well-being of teenagers. It’s really important to take a look at your schedule and their schedules and figure out one more time per week that you can eat together.”
