A leading sports dietician has said she has seen a five-fold increase in the number of male cyclists coming to her for help with eating disorders.
Renee McGregor said male cyclists with a will to win and who are often being spurred on to more extreme preparation by like-minded peers were now running into problems with food more often than before.
She added that in 2019 every new client she saw was a male cyclist; a sport where the problem was worsened by ill-informed coaching and a weight loss culture.
Some of those cyclists developing eating disorders have had a 'win at all costs' and perfectionist outlook on life and were looking at others on social media, which was further spurring on their extreme approaches.
"It's a very fine line between being light enough to
perform optimally and being so light that it starts to affect mental and
physical health,” she told Sky News.
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"I don't think enough coaches and sporting teams and
sporting bodies have the information and the education they need, so when that
is line crossed, it's often crossed at the expense of the athlete."
Dr McGregor, who is based in Britain, is a leading dietician with expertise in helping athletes who have developed problems in their relationship with food.
She says she has worked with endurance athletes up to and
including Olympic level, often being called in to help when a top level athlete
has an issue with food.
Oscar Mingay (19) said he resorted to extreme measures
with his cycling preparation because he wanted to lose weight and get onto a
major team.
He was only happy when people told him he looked ill, saying then he felt he must be very lean.
When he seriously restricted his eating at the same time
as training his weight plummeted to just 45kg and he physically broke down.
"When it was at its worst, I would have a small bowl
of porridge, like 20g of oats, go out on a three-hour ride, maybe with a
banana, by this point I'd have had at most 400 calories,” he said.
“(I would) get back from the ride, miss lunch and then
just sleep because I was knackered but I thought if I sleep then I'm not going
to be hungry.”
He believed social media was one of the problems as
cyclists were looking at how lean other cyclists were and then seeking to
emulate them.
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