Exercise bulimia is a subset of the psychological disorder called bulimia in which a person is compelled to exercise in an effort aimed at burning the calories of food energy and fat reserves to an excessive level that negatively affects their health. The damage normally occurs through not giving the body adequate rest for athletic recovery compared to their exercise levels, leading to increasing levels of disrepair. If the person eats a normally healthy and adequate diet but exercises in levels they know require higher levels of nutrition, this can also be seen as a form of anorexia.

Symptoms

Compulsive exercisers will often schedule their lives around exercise just as those with eating disorders schedule their lives around eating (or not eating). Other indications of compulsive exercise are:

• Missing work, parties or other appointments in order to work out
• Working out with an injury or while sick
• Becoming unusually depressed if unable to exercise
• Working out for hours at a time each day
• Not taking any rest or recovery days
• Striving to achieve and master ever more difficult challenges. Forgets that physical activity can be fun.
• Defining self-worth in terms of performance
• Justifies excessive behavior by defining self as a "special" elite athlete

References

• ANRED The Less-Well-Known Eating Disorders
• About.com Exercise & Eating Disorders