Anorexia Athletica

Anorexia athletica, or sports anorexia, also called hyper-gymnasia, is an eating disorder characterized by excessive and compulsive exercise, in which an affected athlete tends to overexercise to gain a sense of control over their body, often because they feel they otherwise have no control over their lives besides food and exercise; once the activity is started it becomes difficult to stop without feeling guilty. Unlike anorexia nervosa, anorexia athletica has less to do with body image than with performance, typically beginning with eating more healthy foods and increasing training before escalating into excessive exercise and caloric restriction. Anorexia athletica and hyper-gymnasia are not recognized as mental disorders in medical manuals such as the ICD-11 or DSM-5, and while studies of its exact prevalence are limited, it has been found more common among elite athletes than the general population.