Thursday, April 26, 2007

Factors that prone females to Female Triad

Those who are prone to get Female Triad: Most girls have concerns about the size and shape of their bodies, but girls who develop female athlete triad have certain risk factors that set them apart. Being a highly competitive athlete and participating in a sport that requires you to train extra hard is a risk factor.
Girls with female athlete triad often care so much about their sports that they would do almost anything to improve their performance.
Participation in sports where a thin appearance is valued can also put a girl at risk for female athlete triad. Particular sports may result in more female athletes with this condition due to the different types and levels of compitition. For expample: martial arts, rowing, ballet, cheerleading, gymnastics, figure skating, diving, and distance running. These types of sports are the kind that value a thin, lean body shape and classify athletes by weight class, so focusing on weight becomes an important part of the training program and can put a girl at risk for disordered eating. Some girls may even be told by coaches or judges that losing weight would improve their scores.
Even in sports where body size and shape aren't as important, such as distance running and cross-country skiing, girls may be pressured by teammates, parents, partners, and coaches who mistakenly believe that "losing just a few pounds" could improve their performance.
The fact of the matter is that losing those few pounds generally doesn't improve performance at all. People who are fit and active enough to compete in sports generally have more muscle than fat, so it's the muscle that gets starved when a girl cuts back on food. So if a girl loses weight when she doesn't need to, it interferes with healthy body processes such as menstruation and bone development.
For some competitive female athletes, problems such as low self-esteem, a tendency toward perfectionism, and family stress place them at risk for disordered eating, a part of female triad.

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