There Is A Method to the Madness

Exercise, Eating, And The Line Between

• Rob Maxwell, M.A.

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Welcome to There is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell, and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Program, and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really worked and most importantly why things work. Hence the name, there is a method to the magnet. Before I get started today, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gildan of the Gilding Group ELT Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, whatever time you are listening to this podcast. It is Rob here, and uh it's evening for me or afternoon on a uh Sunday. Had some uh research that I've completed and had some stuff to talk about. So I wanted to uh get in here and get on the podcast while it is fresh. Um did a 5K this morning over in Deltona. They call it the Healthy Heart 5K. A lot of fun seeing um some people I know and getting able to uh run on a fun course and help the American Heart Association, which is a great cause. And uh it's kind of humid, but you know what? Got in a good workout, and really that's what it is all about all about. So I'm gonna talk about kind of a difficult subject um for people, and uh, you know, it's not one of those like fun things, but uh gonna talk about a little bit of um disordered eating patterns and how they affect the fitness population so greatly. All right, and I'm gonna give my spin on this, and uh, you know, it's difficult for us, it's difficult for us exercise physiologists and personal trainers because we run into it quite a bit, and it's not something we can really help with. As a matter of fact, we can uh actually enable it in a bad way, of course. And uh, you know, it it's it's not good for trainers to get involved in these types of things. But I'll get into that in a little bit here as we go on. But first, I want to start with some statistics. So currently, the latest research shows that 9% of the United States population have some form of an eating disorder, and that equates to 28.8 million people. That's a lot of people. Now, the uh what to get diagnosed with an eating disorder, there are three essential eating disorders. One of them you may not think of, and I'll start with that one, but it's binge eating disorder. Now, that's the highest percentage with affecting 1.2 to 2.8 percent of the United States population. Um, you know, I would guess it's probably higher than that. And the one thing about binge eating disorder is what do you classify? I mean, there are some things that the American Medical Association will classify it, but what do you classify it as? Like, I mean, there's been plenty of times when I was in college or even after college where I could eat an entire pizza. Is that binge eating? Well, yeah, I mean, that kind of is, right? So it's a tough one to classify. And the research that I've seen and my experience tells me that really it comes down greatly to context. Like, why are you doing it? What is it replacing, and how is it impacting you? But keep in mind it is classified as an eating disorder, and it absolutely can become problematic. I mean, obviously, it can cause obesity, which can lead to heart disease and other problems. The other two you probably know a lot more about, and that's bulimia and anorexia. And bulimia is when the uh person vomits after they eat to get rid of everything that they put into their body. And anorexia is a form of self-starving. Both of them can be deadly, anorexia can become more deadly, both can be very unhealthy and problematic. And all three of these are psychological and medical disorders, meaning that there's not a trainer or physiologist or life coach that should be trying to help somebody with these things. This requires psychiatric and psychological and medical intervention. We need to look at these as an illness because they absolutely are. Now, bulimia affects women five times more than it affects men. And uh, you might guess why. I mean, we probably know why, but the way that women are portrayed in the magazines and in Hollywood and all of that have those been portrayed to be supposed to be smaller, supposed to be thinner, have to have a certain look. And that is a lot of stress and pressure that we're putting on young kids, young girls. I mean, I hate it. I have a daughter who is 22. Um, to my knowledge, she has not experienced anything like this. Um, I mean, you know, I know she went through a phase where she didn't want to eat as much, but thank goodness she has not had issues with this. Um, but I know thoughts like that have gone through her head and every poor girl's head. You know, they're just this image that they think they're supposed to portray. And social media has not made any of this any better. Of course, it's done nothing but made it worse. And the filtering that can go on has made it worse. So, you know, it's a big problem, and it's one I can't stand. I can't stand when I hear parents berate their kids. Um, I mean, you're just creating an eating disorder. If you if you make a fuss over a kid's weight or how they eat as they're trying to grow and develop, you know, setting your own examples of how you eat hopefully healthfully is fine. But when we take it into weight control as a kid, I mean, just know that you're setting them up for a lifetime of eating disorders at the very least. Now, 20 to 40 percent of our United States population has experienced what we call disordered eating. That means it's not quite bad enough to be diagnosed as an eating disorder. Again, there's a lot of fine lines, like there is with all kinds of psychological conditions, you know, who's stating when somebody has crossed that line. But just know that there's a much greater percentage of people who have experienced disordered eating. And what that essentially means is that the person has done some things that are a little bit unordinary when it comes to it. It could be a binge here, a you know, a skip a meal here. Um, you know, again, a lot of it comes down to context, you know, is somebody missing meals because they're like super forgetful and they literally forget to eat. And I know a lot of kids like that. I have high school kids and college-age kids that I've trained that like they really haven't eaten until they came in at three o'clock. And they're not really trying to starve themselves, they literally sleep and then forget to eat. So, you know, that's a little bit different. Again, so much of this comes down to context, which makes it kind of hard to diagnose. But a lot of people have gone through disordered eating patterns. I mean, if you look at, say, kids that are kids or adults, but mostly adolescents, I suppose, that get into weight class style sports in school and they have to make weight. So for a week they are restricting what they're eating and they're spitting in a cup and they're not taking in any fluids. And by the way, they spit in a cup to get rid of any extra water, they pee all the time. That's a disordered eating pattern. If they stayed with that, it would become an eating disorder. Okay, so that's an example of that. Now, when I did my research, I found that disordered eating and eating disorders are significantly more common in athletes than the general population. Let that sink in. Disordered eating or eating disorders are significantly more common in athletes than the general non-athletic population. In fact, disordered eating or eating disorders impact 20 to 40 percent of female athletes. 20 to 40 percent, almost a quarter to a half of female athletes, and 10 to 25 percent of men. The most common sports that we're gonna see this in is bodybuilding, my old sport. And yes, man, it was common. Um, sad to say, but it's just true. It was it was more common, it is more common in the female bodybuilders and physique competitors, but it still went on and goes on with the men as well. The other sport are any weight class sports, such as wrestling, boxing, weightlifting, you name it. Whatever there's a weight class for, there's gonna be more commonality for an eating disorder. And then finally, endurance sports. Those are the three sports that we see a much greater uptick of disordered eating and eating disorders among athletes. All right. Now, I want to talk about the one I want to focus on the most here because I think it resonates with a lot of people, and it's a lot trickier to diagnose. I have had clients in the past that have had diagnosed eating disorder, specifically bulimia. And, you know, so I've seen it, I've had experience with it. And I know the way I treated it was I didn't treat it. I flat out said, look, you've got to get help with this for me to continue to work with you. I have my own research on how we handle those types of situations as a physiologist and a trainer, meaning that we never focus on body weight with somebody with a diagnosed eating disorder. We don't focus on body composition, you know, we focus on strength, we focus on um like doing the exercises, doing them correctly, like why we do them, meaning to feel better, to get stronger. Like there, you know, there's a script that we have to be very careful with. You know, trainers that are going to like have somebody who's recovering from a bulimia and they're gonna sit here and you know, weigh them and stuff, well, they're just clueless, you know. So, anyway, I know how to handle that, but at the same time, the only treatment is going to come from medical intervention. I mean, there's nothing we can do. You know, I once had a trainer say to me a long time ago, and it, you know, it's really true. He said, you know, when somebody reaches a point of obesity, there comes a point, and again, it's it's subjective, it's gray. You know, what is that point? We don't know. But he said, there is a point where there is nothing I can do, and they need to get professional help before I even train them anymore. Because, and I know that feeling, it's like you're trying to help somebody get healthy, and then you realize they're battling demons that you can't touch as a trainer, and you're not doing them any service if you just continue to kind of enable them, and you know, they need to get the help on that, all right. But what we see more commonly is this disordered eating pattern of like exercise-related bulimia, and man, that's a tough one right there. And the statistics have shown that 60 to 80 percent of our population have had some sort of compens compensation type behavior with exercise and food. Again, 60 to 80 percent, that's a huge number. What that means is if somebody says something like, here's the real warning signs, I really have to go out and burn off what I ate, or they might panic over missing a physical workout. I mean, panic. They might really train through injury, meaning you know they're injured, but they won't stop exercising. Now, again, this is a gray area, that's why like the number is so high, 60 to 80 percent. Because well, where do you gauge that? I mean, I can remember being a little kid growing up in a pretty healthy home regarding this stuff. I mean, what you know, we had other issues, don't get me wrong. I think everybody in the family was recovered alcoholic, so there was problems there, but um, you know, recovered, so that's cool, right? So, anyway, but like food issues and stuff like that really weren't the deal. I mean, for the most part, everybody was of a normal average, good weight or fine, you know. Um, I've shared before I went through an adolescent stage where I was chubby, you know, but that that actually kind of I think sparked me into a good career. But for the most part, this kind of stuff, although I must say I definitely went through some binge episodes when I didn't know better. But for the most part, everything was was fairly healthy here. So when I give this example, you might be able to relate to it. But I can remember like, you know, living up in New York and be like, well, my mom would say, Yeah, after a meal, you know, let's let's go walk off our dinner, right? Think, well, that's not that abnormal, right? It's and no, so that's probably not, right? I mean, so this is a tough one to figure out. That's why I'm gonna go back through these warning signs again, because that's the key. I think when people say things like that, that's not so bad. I mean, that kind of helps digestion. But I think what the statistics are showing, and that's why they're so high, is that when somebody is using exercise as their binge episode, that can get really dangerous. And that's something like as a trainer, I spot, and it makes my job harder because I'm trying to give somebody a workout plan and I know they're not following it because of this, you know, because they want to do more, more, and more. And I'm really caught. Like, well, you're not gonna get more fit doing this, but then it's the same time, I'm not gonna call somebody out on this if I don't know them very well. So we get caught in a tough spot, but we can recognize it, but it happens a lot, all right? So five to 15% of the general population has admitted to using exercise temporarily to work off excess calories. Okay, that's not a big high number, but let's focus back on that 60 to 80 percent, right, of avid exercisers. I mean, that's a pretty high number. And again, as I'll say it again, there could it could be perfectly innocent. Like, I would just want to kind of walk off my dinner. I feel kind of full. Let's take a walk around the block. If you're up in New York, let's take a walk around the block, look at the Christmas lights. Okay, that's a little different than putting on your Nike running shoes and going for a five-mile run with a full belly. I mean, that's a little bit different, right? So context does matter in this case, but let's look at these warning signs. When somebody says, I have to burn off what I ate, and you almost see or can feel the obsession in there. Like they can't seem to think about anything else until they do their exercise. Like it's an obsession, like an OCD type of thing, or an alcoholic when they're obsessing over that drink and they can't get the drink out of their mind. You know, it's like that. Okay, that's problematic. Well, who can read that? Only the person. Like, that's why it's really hard. Like other people, they can't there's only one of these symptoms, I think, that you can really look at and go, okay, that's a problem. And that's the belief that they have to exercise through injury. Like when somebody is injured, you know, and I see this so often with endurance athletes, you know, they have an injury, like a chronic injury. And the only thing that is going to cure a chronic injury is rest. I mean, that is it. There are modalities that you can do that are gonna help, no question. Heat is gonna help. Ice is going to help. Um, massage, chiropractic, uh, cryo, whatever you're into, is going to help. Once the pain is gone and the injury is healing, working on the imbalances of the muscles is going to help. Yes, all this is true. But really, it's rest, time, time, and time. And there are some athletes that get hurt like that. And of course, you want to keep moving. I mean, yeah, I mean, I do. I mean, I've injured myself a few times, you know. I injured my hamstring a couple weeks ago in a 5K, but you know what? It's healed. It's 100%. Why? Because I rested it, because I knew not to do the things that were hurting it. Now, that doesn't mean that I didn't do some form of exercise. I was still working my upper body with weights. I was still even doing some of the lower body exercises that didn't hurt it. I was able to bike a little bit on the life cycle, but I really couldn't run with any intensity. So I didn't run. I let it rest and it healed. I mean, that's the key, you know. So if you can do that, it's like, you know, that's good. But so many people can't when you tell them the rest, it means don't do those things that's bothering the joints. And so if if they won't give up the running and cycling because, you know, they burn the most calories or whatever, like that is a problem. Or swimming, if it's a shoulder injury, whatever. I mean, those are calorie-burning sports. I mean, that is like the biggest sign. Now, you know, they say ignorance is bliss. Well, when you're not ignorant on subjects, you don't even think about this stuff. But when I see a lot of people who they, you know, on social media, everybody's posting all their achievements and accomplishments left and right, you know. I mean, I really don't know how I feel about that. I mean, I think there could be good, I think there could be bad. You know, I don't know. I think a lot of people are mixed on that. Um, and I'm not even going to weigh in on that. But when I see this stuff, I can't help but wonder, it's like, well, are they doing these super long distance training and races? I'm talking super long. I'm not talking about your local 5K or whatever. I'm talking about your constant marathons, your Iron Man trathlons, your ultra marathons, your, you know, your super long calorie burning things, you know. Are they doing that because they really want to accomplish this milestone? I mean, in some cases, it's yes, right? Again, how do we know we don't? But in some cases, it's obviously yes. And then in some cases, it's like, well, it's a lot easier to sell this to people out there that I'm training for this rather than confess that I'm just not happy with my body. I'm just not happy with my weight, and I'm just not willing to eat healthy or whatever it might be to accomplish that. So I'm going to do this because then I'll get a lot of pats on the back. But in reality, it's a disguise for something sinister beneath, right? Do we know that? No. And I'm just throwing it out there. I see it a lot. I don't say anything. It's not my place to say anything. But it makes you wonder. And it makes you wonder when you happen to know like the person might experience a lot of injuries. I mean, you know, like in Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, if you've ever known anything about any of those groups, like you see some people that. Have been pretty darn beat up by life when they get there. And you're like, okay, I think this person seems pretty darn ready to not do this stuff anymore. You know, or you can take other kind of mental health crisis things that we see out there. Well, it's kind of the same with some of the athletes too. It's like, man, oh man, like, how many surgeries are they going to have? And how many times are they going to have to put a cast on their leg? Or how many times are they going to be in a soft cast? Or, you know, how many times are they going to be told that they have stress fractures? And how many times are they going to be told they probably should give it up? Only to go, man, you really take a beating, you're not going to stop. I mean, it's common. So it's common in kind of both things in both areas. There's that obsession. I mean, there is a big time correlation with the mind of somebody who's abused substances and the mind of somebody with the eating disorder. So it's really darn common. Again, the outsider can't really look at that and be able to tell. But putting stuff out there like this, and hopefully other people talk about this stuff, you know, may make the person listen to it and go, hmm, okay, you know what? Maybe I am doing this not for the most intended reasons. And I know some folks with some disordered eating patterns who will say, yeah, I've got to be real careful with this because I think I could end up doing too much of this if I'm not careful. You know, that's a really healthy way to look at it because they can see it. It's the ones who like are lying to themselves so bad that they don't see it that you really kind of have to worry about or really worry about the people that care about them because they might run themselves to death, you know. And again, it comes down to motives with that. So what do you do? I mean, when it gets back to trying to always be at a healthy weight for those people who really struggle with this kind of thing. I mean, we have to remember number one, it comes down to if you're battling this kind of body dysmorphia, if you're thin and you don't think you are and you're going to run because you need to be thinner, that's body dysmorphia. You need to get some professional help, and there is professional help out there. Number two, for anybody, you know, maybe you just suffer a little bit of disordered eating, or maybe you just aren't sure what to do. I wrote a book, and no, I'm not trying to sell my book. I don't make any money off my books. I mean, if anything, I've lost money publishing these books, and it's okay because I like writing them. But I wrote a book that's called You Cannot Run a Poor Diet. And what this means is there's no exercise in the world, no matter how much you're gonna do, that's gonna make up for any of that. Like, we really just have to find a way to eat healthy, healthy portions, meaning we don't starve ourselves, we don't binge. It can be hard, but it can be done. Like we have to learn that. There's no substitute for healthy eating. I promise you that. When I've done bodybuilding shows in the past, like I thankfully didn't get involved in the real, you know, massive, massive cutbacks and all this kind of thing. I mean, I created a caloric deficit and took a lot of the crap out of the diet to drop some body fat to compete. Yes, of course, I had to create a caloric deficit to do that, but I didn't get carried away and I don't get carried away. And I promise you, with this is what's so funny about it. The cardio I did was like minimal. Like, that's not how we burn body fat. Like, I wasn't, oh my God, oh, I'm pinching an inch. I better get on the life cycle for another two hours. No way. The most cardio I did for my first show in my 20s was 50 minutes. Like we, me and my friend Jimmy built up our cardio time to 50 minutes. For some people, you might be going, wow, it's a long time. For most, they're going, 50? That's like a recovery day for me. Yeah, we started at 10 minutes. And over the course of three months, we built it up to 50 minutes of cardio. That was the longest we did at level one on a life cycle. I kid you not. I think towards the end, I increased it to level two. Like, that's it. Out of how many levels? 12, 24? I don't even know, but I just know I was spinning my wheels literally. It was just super, super easy. We spun and warmed up. We'd sit up there at the old gym we worked out at, me and him, and we'd talk and we'd go down and we hit our weights. And then we ate a somewhat restrictive diet. But there was never over cardio. Like, I don't, thankfully, I can't relate to that. There's only so far and so long I ever want to go. Like, it's just that's not an obsession for me. Thank goodness. It's it's just not. So, how do we learn to do it? We have to learn, number one, if we are suffering from body dysmorphia, there's not a food, there's not a diet, there's not a workout plan that's gonna heal that. You're gonna have to get professional help. If other people look at you and tell you that you're healthy and thin and fit and beautiful, but you see something different, you need to get some help with that. Number two, we then have to learn that we can't abuse exercise and food. We have to just learn to eat healthy and exercise for good, healthy motives. What are those motives? To be healthy, to be fit, to increase our activities of daily living, to have a healthy heart. I started this podcast talking about I did the healthy heart 5K. I mean, that means everything to somebody who doesn't have a healthy heart. Like we have to think, what is the reason we're really doing this? And I think if we go into it with the right motives and we get the help we need, we're really, really gonna feel better about things. All right. These are just my thoughts with some research behind it. So, you know, hit me up all you want, and I hope you have a great day. Thanks everybody for listening to today's show. I want to ask you to please hit automatic download from wherever you get your podcast from. It really helps me and it really helps the show. Now I'd like to take a second to thank our sponsors. Without them, we would not be able to have the podcast. First overhead door of Daytona Beach, they are the area's premier garage door company. They have the best product and the best service. I personally vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk. They are great people. If you have any garage door needs, please give them a call. 386-222-3165. Now I'm very, very happy and excited to announce we have a new sponsor, Procharge Liquid Protein Enhancer. Each container has 40 grams of protein. And what's really cool about this is it's very portable. You can throw the tiny little containers into a suitcase, take it wherever you go. Now you don't have to worry about spilling. And you know what? It tastes really, really good. Just open up the cap, suck down the protein. It's that easy. If you want to try it out, you can check it out at my website, fittothemax.net, and click on Procharge Liquid Protein Enhancer, or you can go directly to their website at www.prochargeprotein.com.

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Rob Maxwell

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