Recently, I have noticed that gyms have been popping up all over the place, and it is getting to the point where I would not be surprised if I went down to the bottom of my garden one day to find that a new branch had set one up in my shed between the empty plant pots and the lawn mower. Obviously I understand the benefits of the gym, getting a bit of exercise is important to keep healthy, and it is nice to have a place that allows you to look sweaty and tired whilst exercising without the potential judgement one would receive were you to start doing press ups in the cereal aisle at your local supermarket. The problem is that while gyms advocate health and fitness, there is often far too much emphasis on the idea that both are achieved by losing weight, which of course, it isn’t. For some people maybe, but the generalisation that weight loss will improve your health is a dangerous one, especially for people with eating disorders, and in my opinion it needs to be addressed by gyms immediately.
When I first joined my local gym I was 16 years old and in my preliminary session with a member of staff I stated that my goal was to lose weight. This member of staff then took my height, weight, and calculated my BMI to discover a number that I will not post specifically, but let’s just say it was towards the lower end of healthy. Despite this information, the personal trainer happily agreed to set me up with a meal plan and exercise regime to achieve my weight loss goals, without any debate or suggestion that my intention to “shed the pounds” was unnecessary and actually detrimental in terms of fitness.
A few months after that preliminary session, I was admitted to hospital on an eating disorders program where I stayed for ten months, gaining back all the weight I had lost on the treadmill.
The day I was healthy and had been discharged, I went back to the gym, not with the intention of losing this time, merely “toning” my new healthy body, but soon enough it became an obsession again and I was there all the time exercising until I was about to pass out. One morning I went to the gym at 6am, the moment they opened. By 9am I had been admitted to hospital again due to my eating disorder and exercise addiction, which combined had made me rather underweight and not “fit” in any sense of the word (unless your sense of the word fit is that it means “to be a weak, dizzy mess on the brink of collapse”, in which case I was REALLY fit). A mere three days before that day, I had been approached by a personal trainer who offered to work with me and help me to lose weight.
Annoyingly, this being a blog post constructed of words rather than expressions displayed on my spectacular visage, you can’t physically see me right now, but as you read that last sentence, please just picture me throwing my hands up in despair and shaking my head at the ridiculousness of that situation.
Now, I understand that personal responsibility for one’s self and one’s actions is important. After all, gyms cannot be asked to dictate the lives of their members, weigh them upon entry, demand they get off the treadmill if they didn’t finish their bran flakes that morning, and cook them a hearty balanced stew for dinner each night (although I would not be adverse to any of these ideas), but when an eating disorder really takes over someone’s mind, that person can have no control, be unable to take responsibility for their own safety, and need people to step in. In part, this is because they may not realise that they are even ill, denial and distorted perceptions being a massive issue in people with eating disorders. The other and in my opinion bigger issue that can result in a lack of control over one’s behaviour however, is the feeling of a lack of permission to look after oneself.
Every time I went to the gym I was terrified and certainly didn’t want to be there at all. I had been told multiple times by doctors, my eating disorder service, nurses in A&E, that I could have a heart attack at any moment, but not going simply wasn’t an option. My head told me I wasn’t allowed to make that decision.
If I pleaded with the eating disorder that I was scared and couldn’t go to the gym, it would scream so relentlessly that I felt I had no choice but to give in, and I would end up on that treadmill whether I wanted to be or not.
Furthermore, the fact that I was continually let into the gym despite being so underweight almost supported the voice of the eating disorder. I had doctors telling me I was physically unwell and looked awful, but when I went to the gym and started rowing on one of those damn machines that is nothing like a real boat experience whatsoever (6 years at that gym and I didn’t see a single duckling), nobody batted an eyelid, so I assumed the doctors were lying and that I must look fine. If I was clearly “so underweight”, then why on earth would a gym let me in and offer me a personal trainer to lose more flab than I had already? Surely this meant they thought I was overweight too? Not saying anything to people who are clearly unwell is one thing, but asking if they want help in making themselves even more unwell in the interest of “fitness” just to make money is a whole new kettle of fish, a very dangerous hot kettle with sharks in it who are able to withstand shockingly high temperatures.
What’s worse is that my experience is by no means unusual or a sign that I clearly had a bad gym, as it is something that happens to loads of people in loads of gyms all across the country.
Now again, I am not asking gyms to approach skinny people in the gym, catch them with a giant net and fling them violently out of the window. Such a code of practice would be futile due to the important fact I have stated in previous posts, that not everyone who is skinny has an eating disorder and not everyone with an eating disorder is skinny. Indeed, someone could be severely unwell, on the brink of death or a heart attack and look a healthy weight or overweight. What I am asking for, is personal trainers and other staff to be made more aware of people with eating disorders, and how to support or help them when they are in a destructive relationship with the gym. They need to be able to spot various symptoms or unusual behaviours, be trained to have a grasp of eating disorders and exercise addictions, or be aware of someone’s motivations in losing weight if there are signs of any underhand eating disorder suspiciousness going on.
At the very least, if they measure someone and know someone is already a healthy weight or underweight, they shouldn’t give them a weight loss meal plan or ask if they want to pay you to help them shed the non existent rolls of fat they are complaining about just to make some cash in the name of “fitness”. When someone has an eating disorder, such suggestions are more like offers to assist in suicide for the price of £20 an hour. BARGAIN.
I know that it is a massive pain to say gyms have to spend extra money on funding training, especially when it may be that such training may be irrelevant for the majority of the time when it comes to healthy members.
Nevertheless, I would still say that it is less of a pain to be aware of sufferers and deal with them whilst having slightly lower profits, than to have to deal with a law suit and a hell of a lot of guilt when someone who clearly shouldn’t be exercising dies on one of the treadmills. I may not be a personal trainer, but that certainly doesn’t sound like fitness to me.
Born without marbles 
Unfortunately, gyms = big money. Ick.
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BIG ICK XX
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Katie, have you been reading my mind?! This is something I’ve been saying for ages. The recent boom in the fitness industry really bothers me because, as you point out, it is primarily focused on money making and not health. Something I’ve noticed recently is gyms being opened and called ‘health clubs’ – another way of subtly implying that if you want to be healthy you should be going to the gym. Unfortunately, gym going seems ubiquitous in our society – everyone I know seems to belong to a gym, even if they don’t really go (and this is where can gyms really make their money – when people sign up before their holiday/after Xmas, use the gym for a few weeks never to return but not cancelling their membership). And don’t even get me started on the ridiculous protein bar/shake hype – another way of extorting money from gullible/vulnerable people who believe the lies that it is necessary to consume such ridiculously overpriced goods after a workout.
I am not against people using gyms at all – indeed, they can be a great way to keep fit and destress – but I share your view that gyms have some kind of duty of care to their clients, and therefore should not promote financial gain over the wellbeing of their members.
I will be sending this link to all the gyms near where I live to make them more aware of the issue.
Thanks for another great blog post!
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Well if I have been reading your mind then you have certainly been reading mine because I agree with everything you just said there! Hooray for telepathy! Would love it if any gym out there sorted themselves out a bit by reading my blog or at least one personal trainer. I actually have another blog post about the fitness industry coming up too (less about why gyms need to be aware of eating disorders, more why the fitness industry is causing exercise addictions), so I hope you will like that one as well! Thank you so much for being lovely to me yet again, for supporting my blog and for making me smile. Have a wonderful day xx😊
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My very dear Katie!
Another brilliant post! How on earth do you do it?! I can barely scrape a sentence together on this topic.
That said, I just want to add my support and bear witness to the fact that gyms are indeed, negligent and irresponsible when it comes to people with eating disorders and exercise addictions.
My own Anorexia was triggered when I started getting ‘fit’ (at the grand age of 30). DW (name and shame) did nothing but encourage me (dubbed ‘the Duracell Bunny’) and it was the members themselves who eventually, began to point out that I wasn’t well enough to be exercising.
Gyms should and COULD have rules regarding membership and a person’s Body Mass Index. Although not easy to ‘enforce’, there should be some clause in a user’s contract and gym staff should be trained to question members if they are obviously a cause for concern.
I’ve now ended up saying rather a lot (apologies… Perhaps I should be writing this on my own blog!)
Sending you lots of love and hoping that you are becoming more well..?
firefly
(kate)
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Gah! It disgusts me that you have had a similar experience in gyms, I really think this is a serious issue that needs to change as from the feedback I have received on this post I am clearly not alone! Maybe I will tweet this to my local gym aka the one that inspired this post…maybe they will take the hint and sort something out. I will have to quote your comment because you have good ideas! Thank you so so much for being so kind and supportive of my blog yet again, I really appreciate it and it gives me a little boost on the days I have “I need to stop blogging” crises! Missing you loads and really hope that you are doing well on the outside. Remember I am always here if u need, loads of love xxxxx
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Bless you. I do think of you often. I’m doing okay on the outside… tough going though… x
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Just throwing in my 2 cents on some comments: I don’t think gyms should screen people based on BMI. BMI is basically crap.
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BMI is indeed a load of bollocks and cannot be trusted BUT still if it is used and someone is shown as underweight then even if it is unreliable the gym should have a word xxx
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this is LITERALLY my experience too! I’d been in quasi-recovery for an eating disorder for a few years, a low healthy weight when I joined the gym to ‘tone up’. When I joined the only screening I had was to declare if I had any medical conditions as I submitted a form with my details, of course I decided not to put my eating disorder history on there. On induction I was shown all the different machines, how to target different areas and given contacts for all the personal trainers. A couple of months later I was obsessed- I had to drag myself out of bed kicking and screaming to go to the gym, would cry the whole way there on the train because I didn’t WANT to go, but I had to. I used to go to the exact same machine, for the exact same amount of time, an exact amount of days per weeks. I literally used to put the timer on the machines counting down till I would be finished and ‘allowed’ to get off. I got so so sooooo ill at the gym yet no-one said a thing whenever they walked round. I look back on pictures of myself in gym gear and am literally disgusted that no-one said or even tried to say anything? I can’t believe they even let me in the gym, nevermind slog my guts out on a treadmill for however long several days a week. A few days before I entered treatment I was offered a free personal trainer session involving kettlebells and HIIT… I was like mate I can’t even stand up without feeling dizzy?? It’s just so incomprehensible how this happens…. And like you said, it’s such a fine line as they can’t just go quizzing every thin or underweight looking person, but there should be more information available, more health check ins, and definitely more awareness of disordered behaviours!! I definitely feel if someone had stepped in earlier, things may not have got as bad!
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Oh my goodness that makes me so angry to hear that you have had the same experience! I relate to you so much when it comes to dreading the gym and counting down the minutes until I was allowed to get off the machine! I have never spoken to anyone else who felt the same! This madness needs to stop! I really hope that you are doing better now at least and that you have good people supporting you rather than stupid personal trainers offering you kettle bells! Take care of yourself ok!? Xx
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thank you! I wouldn’t touch a gym with a barge pole now as I’m so wary of them, I much prefer doing classes like yoga and Pilates which makes me feel better about my body yet there’s no calorie burning goal in mind and the general mindset is so much more positive!
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I had a trainer approach me in a gym saying that I should participate in comps (bikini/figure etc) and when I was open and honest about my eating disorder as I was at an obviously low weight, he told me he could ‘work around it’ which is so alarming. Thank you for this post!
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Urgh this gets me so angry! I feel I am going to have to go around the country with print outs of my blog to wave in the face of these silly personal trainers! Thank you for sharing your support and I am sending a big hug to try and make up for the fact you had to deal with this nonsense! 💕 xx
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Pingback: Why Gyms Need To Be More Aware Of People With Eating Disorders - Adios Barbie
An eating disorder does not go away, you can find ways of living with it but it will always still be there, and that’s where a lot of people get misinformation I think. I’ve been told by several doctors over the years that if I just change my diet my problems will go away, but that was never the case. The only thing that I’ve found that works, is to honestly start loving yourself and the body that you have, flaws and all.
https://www.mygymfamily.com/
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I could not agree more, I truly think that even with recovery an element of the ED will always be there. It is a shame but it is the truth! Hope you are well and thank you for sharing your experience xxx
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