Eating disorder?

Check out this news post on Cyclingnews about a master's student in Colorado looking for cyclists to participate a study regarding eating disorders in the sport. It doesn't provide any details other than he's looking for people to take confidential questionnaires, but it goes on to give an email address contact.

I would expect his email box to become swamped with cyclists willing to participate, especially racers. Let's face it, we all have eating disorders to some extent. The prevalence among serious racers is glaringly obvious, at least to me. Anyone who argues this point flat out has their head in the sand.

What you might could argue is that it's not a disorder, but rather an "order" that's unique within the sport. As a friend states about OCD, it's not "obsessive compulsive disorder" but "obsessive compulsive order" she suffers from!

Afterall, what is normal? What you see walking around in the mall, or what you see from Hollywood in movies? Talk about your two extremes with cycling somewhere in between.

I will definitely eat what I want when I want, but I do go through periods of denial and purposeful calorie deficits to lose a few pounds. When you're 25 to 40 pounds heavier than your competitors weight loss can occupy your thoughts occasionally.

Damn gravity.....