Some Die-Hard Fitness Buffs Would Rather Gain Weight Than Lose It

March 7, 2000

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Use it and lose it is lost on exercise fanatics who lament that they can’t put on a few pounds, a new University of Florida study shows.

“We found that individuals who are exercise-dependent are dissatisfied with how they look, but they actually want to put on weight — which is completely opposite of what most people think,” said Heather Hausenblas, a UF professor of exercise and sports science who did the study with graduate student Danielle Symons.

Surveys of nearly 2,400 Gainesville men and women ages 18 to 30 who exercise regularly found that about 9 percent were so obsessed with workouts that they experienced anxiety, fatigue and other withdrawal symptoms when they quit, she said.

But rather than dreaming of losing weight, these fitness addicts actually hope to gain an average of four pounds, Hausenblas said.

“It could be that they were exercising so much that they had a very thin physique, so they wanted to put on weight,” she said.

The study did find gender differences in that males were more likely to want to put on weight and females to lose it, she said.

In contrast, the study participants who were not exercise-dependent reported that they wanted to lose an average of six pounds, she said.

To determine which participants in the study were exercise-dependent, Hausenblas and Symons applied a test that measures for substance dependence. People who were exercise-dependent reported a variety of physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms when they did not exercise, including irritability, stress, tension and anxiety.

In addition to the 9 percent of the study participants who were exercise-dependent, about 40 percent experienced some symptoms of the condition, Hausenblas said.

The study also found that exercisers who fell into the dependent category were likely to be perfectionists. They couldn’t help themselves from striving for superior performance and to be the best at whatever they did, she said.

Recognizing exercise’s potential as an addiction is sometimes difficult because the public is so accustomed to thinking of it in positive terms, Hausenblas said. “Exercise is a really healthy thing to do, but some people overstep that boundary to where it becomes unhealthy,” she said.

They may exercise to the point of getting injured, refusing to stop despite their injuries and risking further damage to their health, Hausenblas said. Or they may not perform well on a job or at school or give up social engagements because they spend so much time working out, she said.

“Their whole life is organized around exercise and that’s where it becomes a problem, when, like anything else, it becomes all-consuming,” she said.

During the past decade, as exercise has emerged as an increasingly popular pastime, a growing number of health magazines such as Shape, Women’s Sport and Fitness, and Muscle and Fitness have featured articles on exercise obsession, Hausenblas said.

Over the years, exercise dependency has been known by a variety of names.

“At first, researchers stated that excessive exercise was a positive addiction because of the many positive benefits of exercise on self-esteem, mood and anxiety, for example,” Hausenblas said. “And then some researchers saw an increasing number of overuse injuries, and social and occupational problems due to excessive exercise, so it became a negative addiction. And then it went through a whole host of terms, like obligatory exercise,’ pathological exercise’ and fitness fanatic.’”

Lola Haskins, a lecturer in UF’s computer and information science and engineering department and a widely published poet, said she has withdrawal symptoms if she misses her exercise routine of running four to six miles a day, lifting weights and rowing once a week. “I get depressed if I don’t exercise, and I also have less energy,” she said.

Haskins, who is 5 feet 8 ½ inches tall and weighs 125 pounds, said her husband occasionally suggests she gain weight, and although she would not mind putting on five pounds, it is not a factor in her exercising.