If the front desk staff at your gym know more about you than your co-workers, you might be spending too much time there.
The biggest sign that your exercise habit is actually unhealthy is if you’re exercising too often and intensely in order to compensate or punish yourself for your daily food intake, or what you perceive to be true about your body.
You work out to make up for meals or body parts you don’t like While the continuum of compulsive exercise is broad, being able to identify signs early may help you stop the cycle before it reaches the level of addiction.ħ signs your gym habit is coming from an unhealthy place 1. In fact, the link is so strong that some researchers say they can’t exist independently from one another at all. However, the link between compulsive exercise and disordered eating often go hand in hand. The cycle, explains Seltzer, broke when he “burnt out.” It’s been a journey, but he says exercise now is about enjoyment and the process - not because he feels compelled to do it.Įxercise addiction isn’t an official mental disorder. “It negatively impacted my life to the point where I would panic if I had to cut a workout short by even five minutes or go out to dinner where I couldn’t control my food,” he tells Healthline. But like any other addictive behavior, Seltzer quickly realized he needed more and more to get the same effect.
Charlie Seltzer says he had to hit rock bottom before he could see the exhausting cycle of exercise addiction he was in.Īt one point, Seltzer was averaging 75 minutes of cardiovascular exercise a day, six days a week, and living on minimal calories.