Eating Disorders in Athletes: Restriction, RED-S, and Assessment
Author: Angela Bogdanova · Published: October 10, 2026 · Editorial Policy
Research cluster: Eating Disorders & Disordered Eating · Written by Artificial Sapiens
Eating disorders in athletes are clinically significant eating or feeding disturbances that occur in the context of training, competition, sports culture, and demands on the body. Athletes may restrict food, experience binge-eating or purging behaviors, become trapped in rigid food rules, or exercise compulsively despite illness or injury. These conditions can coexist with low energy availability and relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S, also written REDs), but an eating disorder and RED-S are different clinical concepts. An athlete can be medically endangered at any body size and at any performance level. The International Olympic Committee’s 2023 REDs consensus and the 2025 Female Athlete Triad clinical update provide essential frameworks for recognizing these problems.
This guide explains how sport-specific pressures interact with eating disorders, what low energy availability and RED-S mean, which warning signs merit attention, how clinicians assess medical and psychological risk, and how treatment and return-to-play decisions are made. It is intended for athletes, parents, coaches, athletic trainers, and health professionals seeking an evidence-based explanation rather than a self-diagnosis.
What Are Eating Disorders in Athletes?
Eating disorders are recognized psychiatric conditions defined by specific patterns of disturbed eating or feeding, associated psychological features, and effects on health or functioning. Sports participation may influence their onset, concealment, or course because training often normalizes strict schedules, competition-related body scrutiny, and intense attention to performance. Yet clinically meaningful eating disorders occur in athletes across endurance, aesthetic, weight-class, strength, team, and recreational sports. Their recognition requires clinical history and assessment, not assumptions about what an athlete looks like. For the wider diagnostic overview, see Eating Disorders: Types, Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment and the National Institute of Mental Health's clinical overview.
Disordered eating describes unhealthy eating attitudes or behaviors that may fall short of diagnostic criteria while still causing distress, nutritional impairment, or medical risk. Examples include recurrent compensatory exercise, increasingly inflexible dietary rules, persistent guilt around meals, and avoidant patterns that interfere with training or social life. Restriction can occur intentionally because of weight or appearance concerns, or unintentionally because an athlete underestimates the fuel required for training and recovery. These pathways require different psychological formulations, although both can contribute to low energy availability. See Disordered Eating: Signs, Examples, and When to Seek Help.
How Common Are Eating Disorders and Disordered Eating in Athletes?
A systematic review and meta-analysis published in 2026 evaluated 190 studies involving 58,335 athletes; its meta-analysis included 127 higher-quality studies with 43,006 athletes. The combined prevalence estimate for eating disorders or disordered eating was 20.0%, with a 95% confidence interval of 17.0%–23.0%. This estimate combines clinically diagnosed disorders and screening-defined disordered eating across heterogeneous populations; it should not be interpreted as meaning that one in five athletes meets criteria for a psychiatric eating disorder. Instrument choice mattered: estimates varied substantially across assessment measures. More recent study years and higher female representation were associated with higher prevalence estimates. Nasser et al., 2026 systematic review and meta-analysis.
Prevalence depends on the sport, competitive level, recruitment setting, how symptoms are disclosed, and the method of assessment. Self-report screens can overidentify or miss cases compared with diagnostic interviews, and studies often overrepresent certain countries or groups. Male athletes, younger adolescents, para athletes, and gender-diverse participants have historically been less well studied in RED-S research. A prevalence statistic cannot determine whether a particular person has a disorder, how serious their condition is, or whether their sport caused it.
What Is Low Energy Availability?
Low energy availability (LEA) occurs when energy remaining after exercise-related expenditure is inadequate for the body's wider physiological needs. In practice, a training load can exceed the energy supplied by eating and drinking, leaving insufficient resources for processes such as growth, hormone regulation, bone maintenance, immune function, and recovery. LEA may arise from deliberate dietary restriction, inadvertent underfueling, illness, changing training demands, limited access to food, or combinations of these. Brief adaptive periods and sustained problematic exposure differ; clinicians assess the duration, severity, context, and physiological consequences. The IOC consensus emphasizes this distinction and cautions against a single universal energy-availability cutoff.
An athlete who appears strong, is gaining medals, or has a body mass in the expected population range can nevertheless experience harmful energy deficiency. Competitive success may initially coexist with a physiological deficit; reduced performance often appears later. The relevant clinical picture includes history, rate of change, symptoms, growth trajectory, injury burden, eating behaviors, laboratory findings when indicated, and the individual's sporting environment.
What Is RED-S, and How Is It Different From an Eating Disorder?
Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S/REDs) is a sports-medicine syndrome involving impaired physiological and/or psychological functioning associated with prolonged or severe problematic low energy availability. Consequences may involve reproductive and metabolic systems, bone health, hematological and cardiovascular health, immunity, psychological well-being, injury vulnerability, and performance. RED-S can affect athletes of any sex. It is evaluated clinically by experienced professionals and is not classified as one of the psychiatric feeding and eating disorders in DSM-5-TR. IOC REDs consensus, 2023.
A diagnosed eating disorder can lead to RED-S, but RED-S can develop through inadequate fueling without an eating disorder. Conversely, an athlete can have bulimia nervosa or binge-eating disorder without meeting a clinician's RED-S assessment criteria. The distinction matters because a RED-S workup must investigate physiology and alternative causes, while an eating-disorder assessment evaluates behaviors, cognitions, distress, and psychiatric diagnostic criteria. When both are present, both require coordinated care. The IOC REDs CAT2 development paper explicitly states that no single test establishes RED-S.
RED-S and the Female Athlete Triad
The Female Athlete Triad describes interrelated disturbances of energy status, reproductive function, and bone health in girls and women who exercise. The 2025 updated Triad science statement incorporates metabolic compensation, ovarian hormonal changes, and bone stress injuries, including an adolescent-specific model. Its companion clinical guideline updates screening, assessment, treatment, and return-to-play decisions. RED-S addresses a broader multisystem set of outcomes across sexes, whereas the Triad framework offers detailed sex-specific guidance for menstrual and skeletal health. These frameworks complement clinical evaluation; they are not interchangeable checklists or standalone psychiatric diagnoses.
Types of Eating Disorders That May Affect Athletes
Anorexia nervosa and atypical anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa involves restriction leading to significantly low body weight in relation to developmental context and health, accompanied by intense fear of weight gain or persistent behaviors interfering with weight restoration and disturbances in weight or shape experience or recognition of the condition's seriousness. In atypical anorexia nervosa, an OSFED presentation, substantial restriction and other core anorexia features occur despite weight remaining within or above what might be considered a typical range. Atypical anorexia can involve serious cardiovascular and metabolic consequences; population BMI does not establish safety. See Anorexia Nervosa and Atypical Anorexia Nervosa. 2025 Triad guideline; SAHM position paper.
Bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder
Bulimia nervosa involves recurrent binge-eating episodes with loss of control and recurrent compensatory behaviors, such as self-induced vomiting or excessive exercise, meeting specified frequency and duration criteria. Binge-eating disorder also involves recurrent binges with loss of control and associated distress, without the recurrent inappropriate compensatory pattern defining bulimia. Athletes may hide episodes while publicly appearing disciplined in training. Associated dehydration, electrolyte disturbances, gastrointestinal problems, and distress can be substantial. A clinician distinguishes a subjective sense of overeating from the full diagnostic criteria, and considers the context of inadequate energy intake that can precede episodes. APA practice guideline; NICE NG69.
ARFID, OSFED, UFED, and other presentations
Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) can involve restriction related to sensory characteristics, low interest in food, or fear of aversive consequences, with clinically significant nutritional or functional impact rather than weight-shape motivation. Sports travel, repetitive team menus, and training schedules can complicate an athlete's access to tolerated foods. OSFED includes other clinically meaningful presentations, including atypical anorexia and some purging-related presentations; UFED is used when information is insufficient or criteria are not fully specified in a clinical context. Pica and rumination disorder require distinct diagnostic evaluation. Orthorexia is a descriptive or emerging research term for problematic fixation on supposedly healthy eating, not a separate formal DSM-5-TR diagnosis. NIMH overview; ARFID guide.
Muscle dysmorphia and body-image concerns may intersect with sports-related eating behaviors, but they have separate diagnostic and research boundaries. Muscularity-oriented restriction, rigid supplementation, and compulsive training can appear in varied body sizes and sports. A sports clinician should determine whether the primary problem involves an eating disorder, body dysmorphic symptoms, an endocrine or nutritional condition, or overlapping processes, rather than using one appearance-based label for all cases.
Why Can Sport Increase Vulnerability?
Athletes experience the same broad genetic, psychological, developmental, and social contributors to eating disorders as other people. Sports environments can introduce additional maintaining factors: team culture that praises weight loss, frequent comparison, selection pressure, judging based on appearance, weight-class rules, pressure surrounding uniforms, injury-related identity threats, misinformation about body composition, and inadequate access to appropriate nutrition. Associations are not proof that a sport causes a particular disorder. The 2025 Triad recommendations specifically address the influence of unsafe coaching messages and institutional pressures.
The greatest relevance of an environmental risk factor is often how it interacts with an individual's biology, history, mental health, and circumstances. An athlete who begins restricting to meet a team expectation may later experience escalating rigidity, fear, or loss of control even after the performance demand passes. In other cases, a high training volume and chaotic schedule lead to underfueling without weight-shape psychopathology. A good assessment investigates both experiences without assuming the athlete is being deceptive or lacks discipline.
Which sports are affected?
Concern is often heightened in endurance sports, judged or aesthetic events, weight-class disciplines, and sports that emphasize leanness. However, team sports, power sports, adaptive sports, and recreational exercise also present cases. Male athletes can experience underfueling, hormonal changes, and bone consequences; menstrual screening alone will miss them. Some athletes disclose distress only after repeated injuries, stalled progress, or interpersonal conflict. The 2023 IOC statement describes the need for sex-inclusive assessment while acknowledging research gaps.
Warning Signs: Behavioral, Psychological, and Physical
Eating and training behaviors
Behavioral signals may include persistent avoidance of shared meals, anxious reactions to changes in food plans, increasing restrictions that interfere with ordinary life, secrecy about eating, episodes of loss of control, purging behaviors, unexplained use of compensatory methods, compulsive training in response to eating, and difficulty honoring rest or injury limits. These patterns matter especially when the athlete experiences guilt, panic, shame, or loss of flexibility. No single behavior proves a diagnosis. See Early Signs of an Eating Disorder and Compulsive Exercise and Eating Disorders.
Physiological and performance changes
Potential signs of inadequate fueling or an eating disorder include recurrent illness, persistent fatigue, cold intolerance, dizziness, fainting, decreased concentration, unexpected performance decline, reduced recovery, repeated or slow-healing bone stress injuries, menstrual changes, delayed puberty, reduced libido, and changes in endocrine or hematological markers. Some signs may arise from medical conditions unrelated to eating disorders or RED-S. Importantly, menstrual bleeding induced by hormonal contraception does not reliably demonstrate that energy status has normalized. IOC consensus; Triad clinical guideline.
An athlete may appear outwardly functional for months while accumulating bone, cardiac, or hormonal risk. Normal routine laboratory results do not rule out malnutrition, and athletic bradycardia must not automatically be interpreted as a benign training adaptation when restriction, dizziness, rapid weight change, or other concerning findings coexist. A clinician evaluates the entire pattern rather than treating a single laboratory value or BMI as a pass-fail threshold. NICE NG69; SAHM medical-management position paper.
How Are Eating Disorders and RED-S Assessed in Athletes?
Assessment begins with a confidential, respectful interview that addresses eating patterns, body-image concerns, training load, changes in performance and injury, recovery, mental health, growth or menstrual history as applicable, food access, medication and supplement use, and pressures within the team. Clinicians ask about loss of control, compensatory exercise, vomiting, and other behaviors without requiring the athlete to disclose details to a coach. A medical examination can assess vital signs and orthostatic changes, hydration, development, signs of malnutrition, and injury patterns; laboratory studies, an ECG, hormonal testing, or bone imaging are selected based on clinical findings. 2025 Triad clinical guidance; APA guideline.
Eating-disorder screening tools versus diagnosis
Instruments such as the EDE-Q, SCOFF, and athlete-oriented questionnaires may identify a need for more detailed evaluation, but they do not diagnose anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating disorder, ARFID, or RED-S by themselves. Interpretation depends on validation for the age, sex, sport, language, and population being assessed. Symptoms may be concealed when athletes fear deselection or restrictions on participation, making a thoughtful interview essential. NICE NG69 instructs clinicians not to use a screening score as the sole diagnostic decision. The 2025 Triad guidance discusses use of the EDE-Q and BASE-10 for identifying risk.
The IOC REDs CAT2 framework
The IOC REDs Clinical Assessment Tool, version 2 (CAT2), proposes a three-step process: initial screening and clinical interview; an assessment of primary and secondary RED-S indicators that informs severity and risk classification; and physician-led differential diagnosis and management planning. Its four-color risk framework informs training and competition decisions within an individualized assessment. It is intended for qualified practitioners, not athletes or coaches to self-score. Validation is evolving, and evidence is thinner for athletes undergoing puberty, para athletes, and some other populations. IOC REDs CAT2 rationale and validation; published correction to the 2023 IOC material.
Bone and reproductive health assessment
Repeated bone stress injury, low-trauma fractures, menstrual suppression, delayed puberty, or hormonal symptoms should prompt targeted assessment. Depending on age and findings, a clinician may consider bone-density evaluation or injury imaging, using age-appropriate interpretation and considering skeletal sites at high risk of complications. Menstrual disturbance calls for evaluation of pregnancy and other endocrine explanations when relevant. Hormonal contraception may obscure spontaneous cycle changes. Recovery of menstrual regularity does not necessarily signal complete restoration of endocrine and skeletal health. Triad science update; Triad clinical update.
Medical Danger Signs and When to Seek Urgent Care
Fainting, chest pain, palpitations with weakness or dizziness, confusion, seizures, inability to stay hydrated, major dehydration, suspected severe electrolyte disturbance, signs of organ dysfunction, or suicidal intent require immediate medical evaluation. Significant bradycardia or abnormal blood pressure, rapidly deteriorating condition, severe malnutrition, and ongoing purging can warrant urgent assessment even if an athlete wants to keep training. If symptoms are severe or an immediate emergency is suspected, use local emergency services. NICE clinical guidance and the IOC consensus both describe indications for urgent medical evaluation. See When Is an Eating Disorder a Medical Emergency?.
Athletes recovering from significant restriction can also require supervised nutritional rehabilitation because changes in fluid balance and electrolytes may occur during refeeding. The safest setting depends on medical stability, weight-change trajectory, behaviors, comorbidity, and the availability of monitoring rather than appearance alone. For adolescents, growth and developmental history are central to clinical interpretation. SAHM position paper.
What Conditions Can Resemble RED-S or an Eating Disorder?
An experienced clinician considers other causes of fatigue, menstrual disturbance, weight change, reduced performance, dizziness, gastrointestinal symptoms, and bone injury. Depending on presentation, the differential can include endocrine disease, pregnancy, thyroid dysfunction, gastrointestinal disease, iron deficiency or other anemia, infections, overtraining syndrome, medication effects, anxiety-related food avoidance, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and neurological or metabolic conditions. Some of these may coexist with inadequate fueling. The IOC consensus defines RED-S evaluation as requiring exclusion of other explanations for relevant indicators.
For psychiatric differential diagnosis, clinicians distinguish restriction motivated by fear of weight change from sensory or fear-of-choking avoidance, eating rituals associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and genuine gastrointestinal intolerance. A screening questionnaire cannot replace a diagnostic interview. An athlete with obesity can have a restrictive eating disorder, and a thin athlete can have a medical cause of weight change without an eating disorder. See How Are Eating Disorders Diagnosed? Assessment and Criteria.
Treatment: What Works and Who Provides Care?
A coordinated multidisciplinary team
Recommended care typically involves a physician familiar with sports medicine and eating-disorder medical risk, a registered dietitian experienced in sports nutrition and eating disorders, and a licensed mental health professional with eating-disorder expertise. Athletic trainers, physiotherapists, family, and coaches can participate where clinically appropriate and with consent, while privacy and conflicts of interest are protected. Goals may include medical stabilization, adequate fueling and recovery, reduction of dangerous behaviors, treatment of psychiatric symptoms, bone and endocrine follow-up, and a realistic plan for sport participation. This structure is strongly endorsed by the 2025 Triad clinical guideline and the American Psychiatric Association practice guideline.
Nutrition rehabilitation and psychological care
Nutrition treatment addresses the energy deficit, supports growth or restoration of health where needed, and develops sustainable fueling across training and rest. It should be individualized and supervised when medical risks exist. Psychological intervention is selected by diagnosis and age: enhanced cognitive behavioral approaches have evidence for several eating disorders, family-based treatment is a major approach for adolescents with restrictive eating disorders, and disorder-specific interventions address binge eating, bulimia, and ARFID. Athletes may additionally need help with sport identity, perfectionism, pressure, fear of losing a place on a team, and boundaries around body assessment. Sport-tailored modifications are clinically sensible, although comparative athlete-specific treatment trials remain limited. NICE NG69; APA practice guideline; 2025 Triad guideline.
Medical treatment, hormones, and bone health
Some athletes need inpatient or structured day treatment for medical stabilization, electrolyte correction, or supervised refeeding. Hormonal abnormalities often improve with sustained resolution of energy deficiency, but bone recovery can lag behind symptom improvement. Pharmacological treatment of selected eating disorders or bone and endocrine complications requires diagnosis-specific, age-specific clinical judgment. Hormonal contraceptives should not be prescribed solely to restore bone density in energy-deficient female athletes, and their use may mask spontaneous menstrual return; the 2025 Triad guidance discusses carefully selected endocrine treatments for particular circumstances. No medication substitutes for treating inadequate energy intake and the psychological drivers of an eating disorder. 2025 Triad clinical guidance.
Can an Athlete Keep Training or Competing During Treatment?
Sport participation is a medical and psychological risk decision, not a reward for eating or a punishment for developing an illness. A qualified clinical team weighs cardiac stability, nutritional status, injury risk, mental health, compensatory exercise, capacity to participate in treatment, and the demands of a particular sport. Some athletes can remain active with close supervision; others require modified training or temporary removal from competition to protect health. The IOC REDs CAT2 and 2025 Triad return-to-play guidance provide clinician-directed frameworks rather than a universal clearance rule.
A thoughtful return-to-play plan includes recovery markers beyond body weight: stable medical findings, behavioral progress, adequate intake for changing training demands, psychological readiness, bone and menstrual or endocrine monitoring where relevant, and a support plan for renewed pressure. Clearance may be revised as conditions change. An athlete should not use symptoms, scores, or a self-calculated energy balance to grant themselves clearance.
Special Considerations by Age, Sex, and Sporting Context
Adolescents and student-athletes
During adolescence, inadequate fueling can interfere with expected growth, pubertal progression, peak bone acquisition, cognition, and emotional functioning. A stable weight can conceal a failure to grow as expected. Clinical assessment should use individualized growth history and developmental stage rather than adult BMI assumptions. Families often play a meaningful role in supporting meals, treatment engagement, and safe participation, alongside the athlete's autonomy and privacy. The SAHM guidance and the 2025 adolescent-specific Triad guidance address these needs. See Eating Disorders in Teenagers.
Men, gender-diverse athletes, and para athletes
RED-S and eating disorders occur in male athletes and in athletes whose gender identities or bodies do not align with conventional female–male assessment categories. Low testosterone, reduced libido, recurrent bone injuries, restrictive fueling, distress about muscularity, or compulsive exercise may be pertinent in some patients. Hormonal markers and menstrual history require individual interpretation, especially during gender-affirming treatment. Evidence-based protocols for para athletes and some gender-diverse populations remain less mature; clinicians should adapt assessment to the individual rather than exclude them because a screening tool was developed elsewhere. IOC consensus; IOC REDs CAT2 validation review.
What Can Coaches, Teams, and Families Do?
Support begins with noticing changed eating patterns, injuries, fatigue, or distress and asking privately about the athlete's experience. Discuss functional health and well-being rather than appearance, body measurements, or moralized food rules. Take expressed concerns seriously, avoid public confrontation, and facilitate confidential access to an eating-disorder-informed medical team. Coaches should avoid prescribing weight-loss plans or making medical clearance decisions. Where a team culture contributes to distress, institutions should address those practices rather than place the entire burden on the athlete. NCAA Mental Health Best Practices supports institutional screening, licensed professionals, and routine and emergency referral pathways.
Parents and close supporters can help arrange appointments, provide practical meal and transportation support when appropriate, respect clinical boundaries, and support rest and rehabilitation. A useful first conversation might be: “I've noticed training and eating seem stressful and you've been dealing with injuries. I care about how you're doing, and I can help you speak with someone who understands athletes and eating disorders.” Clinical care should remain athlete-centered and culturally responsive.
Prevention in Sports Organizations
Preventive efforts are more credible when sports organizations ensure adequate access to food, suitable recovery time, confidential reporting, medically supervised return-to-play pathways, and education that treats nutrition as part of health. Staff should review harmful weight-centric comments, compulsory weigh-ins, inappropriate body-composition assessments, and incentives that reward underfueling. Body-composition measurements, when clinically justified, should be performed with clear purpose, informed consent, qualified oversight, and attention to psychological effects. The IOC consensus includes guidance on safer body-composition assessment, while the NCAA best practices emphasize organizational responsibility for athlete mental health.
Recovery and Long-Term Outlook
Recovery may involve restoration of nutritional and medical health alongside a gradual change in eating-related fears, compulsive behaviors, and identity pressures. Improvements in energy, training tolerance, menstrual or hormonal function, and bone health can proceed at different rates. Some athletes benefit from sustained follow-up after return to sport because competition periods, injuries, and changes in coaching can reactivate old patterns. Mental health and physical health need coordinated monitoring. See Eating Disorder Recovery: Stages, Challenges, and Support and Eating Disorder Treatment: Evidence-Based Therapies and Care.
What the Research Can and Cannot Tell Us
The field has several strong evidence anchors: multisystem effects of problematic low energy availability; the relationship of Triad risk factors to bone and menstrual outcomes; established medical risks of restrictive and purging eating disorders; and clinical guidelines for assessment and coordinated care. Important limitations include varied definitions of LEA, difficulty measuring actual energy availability in real-world training, imperfect sensitivity and specificity of screening tools, heterogeneous study populations, and a smaller athlete-specific psychotherapy evidence base. IOC consensus; Dvořáková et al. biomarker review; 2025 Triad clinical update.
RED-S and Triad risk frameworks are guides to structured professional judgment. They do not convert all fatigue or amenorrhea into RED-S, establish an eating-disorder diagnosis, or eliminate the need to investigate alternatives. Likewise, a pooled prevalence estimate drawn from mixed screens and diagnoses should not be converted into a definitive clinical diagnosis rate. Strong practice depends on accurately describing what each evidence source actually measured. Nasser et al. meta-analysis.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can athletes have eating disorders at a normal or higher weight?
Yes. Restriction, purging, and other eating-disorder behaviors may cause significant physical and psychological harm at any body size. Atypical anorexia and other disorders are especially easy to miss if clinicians use low BMI as the gatekeeper for care. Recent guidance explicitly emphasizes medical evaluation based on symptoms, clinical instability, and trajectory rather than appearance alone. Triad clinical guideline; NICE NG69.
Is RED-S the same as anorexia nervosa?
No. RED-S describes a sports-medicine syndrome associated with problematic low energy availability, while anorexia nervosa is a specific psychiatric eating disorder. An athlete can experience either condition, both together, or neither. The clinical history and examination determine which diagnoses and problems apply. IOC statement.
Can an athlete have RED-S without wanting to lose weight?
Yes. Training demands and access to food can create an energy deficit without body-image motivation or intentional restriction. Some athletes have substantial difficulty matching intake to changing workloads. Evaluation should explore intent, behavior, and physiological consequences. IOC statement.
Do missed periods always mean RED-S?
No. Menstrual changes have several possible causes and require a clinical evaluation. Conversely, an athlete with regular periods may still have concerning symptoms or low energy availability. Hormonal contraception can obscure natural menstrual patterns. Triad guideline.
How are eating disorders diagnosed in college athletes?
A licensed clinician combines a detailed history and diagnostic assessment with appropriate medical evaluation; screening questionnaires can help identify athletes needing review. Athletic departments should have confidential referral routes to licensed mental health providers and medical care, independent of coaching judgments. NCAA best practices; APA guideline.
Will an athlete need to stop exercising?
The appropriate activity level depends on medical stability, injury, behaviors, and psychological readiness. Some circumstances call for temporary training restriction and ongoing monitoring; others permit modified participation. These decisions belong to the treating clinical team using individual risk assessment. IOC REDs CAT2.
Are nutrition apps and wearable estimates enough to detect RED-S?
No. Energy needs and expenditure estimates can be imprecise, and compulsive tracking can intensify distress for some athletes. RED-S diagnosis depends on professional assessment of symptoms, history, risk indicators, and alternative causes. IOC consensus.
What should I do if I am worried about myself or a teammate?
Arrange an assessment with a qualified physician or eating-disorder specialist, particularly when restriction, purging, fainting, repeated bone injuries, or an inability to rest is present. Approach the person compassionately, preserve confidentiality, and use urgent services for acute medical danger. Read the emergency warning signs guide.
Related Articles
Eating Disorders: Types, Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment · Disordered Eating: Signs, Examples, and When to Seek Help · Early Signs of an Eating Disorder · How Are Eating Disorders Diagnosed?
Compulsive Exercise and Eating Disorders · Eating Disorders in Teenagers · Eating Disorder Treatment · Eating Disorder Recovery · Eating Disorder Medical Emergencies
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