Identity and Eating Disorders in Ultramarathon with Maddy Palermo | KoopCast Episode 174
Episode overview:
Maddy is a 5th year doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at the University of South Florida, where she is working with Dr. Diana Rancourt within the DEPTH lab. Her dedication to understanding disordered eating behaviors among athletes began while completing a joint BS/MS degree at Drexel University. Maddy will be transitioning to complete her clinical internship year this July at the UCSD Eating Disorders Center. Currently her research interests include: 1) examining identity as a risk factor for maladaptive exercise behaviors and 2) understanding the role peer exercise norms on the development of maladaptive exercise. Her long-term interests include furthering eating disorder research and treatment by developing identity-focused interventions for use with both athletes and individuals with maladaptive exercise.
Episode highlights:
(15:09) Over-identification: clinical flags, how your athletic identity manifests in your life, maladaptive behaviors to reinforce identity, athletic identity is less likely to cause issues than exercise identity
(24:04) Manipulating diet to improve performance: a slippery slope, attitude towards eating behaviors is more significant than the behaviors themselves, investigating the rigidity, stress, and duration of behaviors
(29:15) Advice for athletes with unsustainable exercise habits: examples of maladaptive behaviors, taking a small step back, building a healthier relationship with exercise, progressive de-loading
Our conversation:
(0:00) Introduction: bringing in experts like Maddy to discuss disordered eating, connections between identity and eating disorders, previous discussions with Dr. Kate Bennett, relevance to ultramarathon runner
(2:24) Maddy’s Clinical Psychology PhD: the academic and internship process, combining clinical therapy and research
(4:30) Research overview: DEPTH lab, disordered eating and maladaptive exercise, focus on identity, related lab projects
(5:42) Relationships between exercise and eating disorders: traditional perspectives that exercise is a behavioral tool to burn calories, Maddy’s theory that maladaptive exercise can exist independently of other symptoms of eating disorders
(7:21) Identifying extreme exercise in an ultramarathon setting: ultramarathon exercise is already clinically extreme, challenges of identifying disordered exercise
(8:47) Athletic and exercise identity: eating disorders meet clinical criteria, disordered eating behavior are disruptive but less severe, frequency is not indicative of compulsive exercise in an ultramarathon setting, identity and mindset are more relevant, examples
(11:28) Identity in ultrarunning: trail running culture is identity-centric, measuring athletic identity, sport-specific metrics, defining exercise identity, issues with over-identification, discussing Maddy’s previous foundational study
(15:09) Over-identification: clinical flags, how your athletic identity manifests in your life, maladaptive behaviors to reinforce identity, athletic identity is less likely to cause issues than exercise identity
(18:58) Translating studies on college students to adults: sports science and psychology both heavily utilize college students as research participants, theorizing how differences between collegiate and adult life affect identity
(21:51) Athletic identity and competition: higher athletic identity and lower competition levels correlate with more eating disorders, unfulfilled identity can fuel maladaptive behavior
(24:04) Manipulating diet to improve performance: a slippery slope, attitude towards eating behaviors is more significant than the behaviors themselves, investigating the rigidity, stress, and duration of behaviors
(27:52) The peanut gallery: athletes and community members who want to help but lack the toolkit to do so, the importance of individuality
(29:15) Advice for athletes with unsustainable exercise habits: examples of maladaptive behaviors, taking a small step back, building a healthier relationship with exercise, progressive de-loading
(32:18) Contextualizing exercise: example of removing 10% of training, the ability to let go
(33:23) Resources for athletes: the Academy for Eating disorders, looking for psychologists and nutritionists who have athletic backgrounds, the Female Athlete Conference, links in the show notes
(36:08) The future of the exercise space: Maddy’s goals, introducing athletic identity and exercise identity to clinical treatments for disordered eating, coaches are more equipped to address physical training than psychology
(39:09) Wrap-up: where to find Maddy and learn more about the DEPTH lab, Twitter banter
(41:08) Outro: giving thanks, links in the show notes to resources for disordered eating, share the KoopCast
Additional resources:
Twitter: @maddy_palermo
Lab Website: https://sites.google.com/view/depthlabusf/home
Academy for Eating Disorders: https://www.aedweb.org/expert-directory
Female Athlete Conference: https://www.femaleathleteconference.com/
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