Weight and diet preoccupation and addictiveness: The role of exercise

Abstract

It has been suggested that bulimia nervosa and, to a lesser extent, anorexia nervosa, may be forms of addiction. Because there is considerable evidence of an association between assiduous physical activity and eating pathologies, and because ‘physical fitness’ has become a social obsession, at least in North America, it is of interest to examine relationships between addictive personality traits, weight preoccupation, and exercise participation, in a non-clinical population. Ninety-six subjects were classified as ‘exercisers’ (n = 53) or ‘non-exercisers’ (n = 43) on the basis of the degree to which they engaged in a regular exercise regimen. Within each group the Addiction Scale was correlated with the Eating Disorder Inventory subscales. Results indicate that addictiveness is positively correlated with all the weight and dieting variables, and with perfectionism, in the exercise group, but not in the non-exerciser group. Exercisers reported a greater degree of body image focus, but did not differ with non-exercisers on any of the other variables of interest. Results are discussed in light of the several possible causal interpretations. It is suggested that these findings have health implications which relate to the increasing social pressures on women to exercise and to achieve a low body weight.