exercise bulimia

n.

Compulsive behaviour in which people count the calories ingested during a meal, and then tailor a workout to burn off the same number of calories.

—exercise bulimic n.

Example Citation:

Exercise bulimia, the abuse of exercise to control body weight, is believed to afflict several million American women and a smaller number of men, few of whom are thought to seek professional help. Instead of purging by inducing vomiting or taking laxatives, exercise bulimics run themselves into the ground to expend the "excess" calories they consume. It would not be unusual for an exercise bulimic, for example, to take two hour-long exercise classes a day in addition to running for 40 minutes, swimming for half an hour and biking for an hour.

—Jane E. Brody, "Personal Health," The New York Times, August 21, 1991

Earliest Citation:

Less studied, but perhaps more common today, is a phenomenon that some therapists have dubbed "exercise bulimia." ... Instead of vomiting or taking laxatives, however, some bulimics purge by burning off calories with huge amounts of exercise.

—Leonard Bernstein, "Perils of exercise, diet addicts," Los Angeles Times, April 16, 1987

Related Words:

boomeritis

chairobics

core training

diabulimia

exercise widow

orthorexia

Categories:

Food and Drink

Health and Fitness