Orthorexia Athletica

Welcome to our page dedicated to Ortorexia Athletica.

What is Orthorexia Athletica?

The term “Orthorexia Athletica” was introduced by Yvonne Lin (MSc) and Anatoli Grigorenko (PhD) as an evolution of Steven Bratman’s Orthorexia Nervosa (1996). The term Orthorexia Athletica came about as a result of observations and research within the field of health-related exercise and healthy lifestyles. After working with research through the 90th, the first treatments were offered at YLAB in Stockholm since late 2000s.

An orthorectic person’s aim often is to get “highest possible” health benefits and a certain body ideal and desirable looks. For reaching their goals they employ excessive exercise and strict eating which, when combined, often can go to the extremes and thus harm health.

Some warning signals for Orthorexia Athletica are, but are not limited to:

• eating fewer foods (less variety)
• excluding foods that are considered “unhealthy” 
• exercising more and more
• anxiety over skipping exercise
• not being honest about amount of exercise and food consumed
• inability to be spontaneous
• following rigid rituals and specific programme for diet and exercise

Important to point out that Orthorexia Athletica is different from Orthorexia Nervosa, introduced by Steven Bratman, which is characterised by obsession with ”healthy eating” only. Furthermore, Orthorexia Nervosa is not about dieting for weight loss, body shaping or body image but only for the sake of body cleansing.

Orthorexia Athletica treatment

The Ylab clinic in Stockholm is currently the only clinic that specializes in treating Orthorexia Athletica. The standardised treatment method has been developed after rigorous internal research, and consists of education, exercise-, and food regulation, behaviour training and individual counselling. The staff are former elite athletes with formal relevant medical education and specially trained in Ylab’s Eat & Exercise 12 step program.

Please contact us if you wish to find out more about our treatment method or if you have any other questions about orthorexia athletica.

About Ylab

Ylab is a health and training lab & centre in Stockholm, Sweden. Ylab was founded in 1994 by Yvonne Lin and Anatoli Grigorenko and was at that time solely active within education for health and exercise professionals. Today, it is a full-service health & training centre offering individualised health and training coaching, rehabilitation services, and eating disorder treatments. There is a lab in-house for carrying out functional (e.g. VO2max), metabolic (RMR) and Body composition tests (Bod Pod) using highly reliable instruments (Cosmed). 

To read more about Ylab, please visit www.ylab.com (the website is currently available in Swedish).