How Team Culture Can Fuel Disordered Eating in Cherry Hill, NJ: What Coaches & Parents Need to Know
Sports have an amazing way of building confidence, friendships, and structure in kids' lives. However, certain team cultures can encourage an unhealthy relationship with competition, disordered eating, and a relationship with self. Coaches and parents play a vital role in these dynamics and in addressing the risks around disordered eating. However, many coaches and parents are not familiar with how team dynamics may contribute to disordered eating and how to talk with kids about these topics.
If you or someone you love is navigating these challenges, eating disorder therapy for athletes is available in Cherry Hill and can offer compassionate, specialized support.
Understanding Disordered Eating in Athletes
Disordered eating is when someone engages in irregular eating patterns that lead to increased anxiety around food or their body. This may include skipping meals, restricting certain food groups, dieting, binge eating, or severely limiting food intake. Disordered eating can take place in any body, gender, culture, or sport, and athletes are at a higher risk of disordered eating than non-athletes. Sports that emphasize weight, appearance, or endurance (such as gymnastics, wrestling, rowing, or cross country) have an even higher risk.
Early Signs of Disordered Eating in Athletes
The earliest sign in young athletes tends to be mood swings or disengagement in social activities or a preoccupation with food, exercise, or body image. You may notice weight changes; however, more often than not, when someone struggles with disordered eating, it is unrecognizable by the look of their body.
Other warning signs may be:
Working out outside of practice times.
Isolation from teammates.
Not eating around others.
Eating in secret.
Using the bathroom immediately after meals.
Refusing to eat certain foods or whole food groups.
GI issues.
Difficulty recovering from workouts or injuries.
Irregular or missing period.
Getting sick often.
Excessive or restrictive water drinking habits.
How Team Culture Can Fuel Disordered Eating in Cherry Hill, NJ
Some sports, such as cross country or wrestling, have myths around faster being better. Comments from coaches or peers about body shape and performance can impact the way an athlete feels in their body and how they fuel. Here are a few examples of myths within sport culture and what is so wrong about the statements.
Elite athletes have a certain body type.
The Truth: Top athletes come in all shapes and sizes because what is healthiest for one body is not necessarily the healthiest and fittest for another body (yes, even within the same sport).
Weight is the best indicator of fitness.
The Truth: Weight cannot tell you how healthy or fit someone is, because fitness has to do with strength, stamina, endurance, and so much more.
You need to cut carbs to stay in shape.
The Truth: Carbohydrates are the primary source of energy in the body, and restricting them can be harmful to overall health, mood, energy, and recovery.
Thinner = faster.
The Truth: Performance is influenced by so many factors, such as strength, endurance, recovery, and mindset. An overemphasis on thinness often leads to under-fueling, which negatively impacts all of the factors above.
Talking about weight motivates athletes.
The Truth: Weight-based victimization has been shown to lead to opposite behaviors, such as decreased physical activity, increased depression, lower self-esteem, and increased risk of eating disorders.
If it works for professional athletes, it must work for youth athletes.
The Truth: Adult athletes have different needs than youth athletes. Different risk factors can occur if youth engage in behaviors similar to pro athletes, without having the high level of support that professional athletes have around them.
Training through hunger builds dedication and toughness.
The Truth: Remember when I mentioned above how restricting causes harm to the body? Fueling consistently is a sign of dedication to your sport!
These rumors are spread around sports culture like wildfires. Mainly because they are believed to be true! As an eating disorder therapist in Cherry Hill, NJ, I am here to help coaches and parents stop the spread of myths and help them focus on factors that are shown to improve performance and overall health.
What Coaches and Parents Need to Know About Disordered Eating
You are all role models, and your words matter. How coaches and parents talk about food and body shapes the team norms. So, how do we make sure we are creating a safe environment?
Avoid using “good” or “bad” to talk about food. Food does not have a moral value.
Shift focus to skill, endurance, leadership, and teamwork and away from body-focused culture.
Avoid weigh-ins, food policing, or aesthetic-based critiques.
Monitor the team culture and the conversations around food and bodies, as well as model a balanced approach to fueling, exercise, recovery, and mental health.
Encourage balance and recovery by teaching the importance of rest, fueling, recovery, and mental health. Seek education around these topics! As a coach or parent, you cannot be expected to know it all.
Collaborate with professionals, such as an eating disorder therapist, registered dietitians, athletic trainers, strength coaches, or physical therapists. Having specialists to go to is going to create trust and openness to hard conversations.
Talk about the hard things openly and often to normalize conversations around food, mental health, and sports-based pressures.
I am often asked how to start these difficult conversations. It is normal not to get it right the first or fifth time you try, but being open about how new these topics are for you shows you are willing to learn together and are open to vulnerable topics. This creates a space that is safe for hard conversations.
Conclusion from an Eating Disorder Therapist Local to Cherry Hill, NJ
A safe and supportive team culture is going to increase athletic and personal development. If the culture is negatively influenced by false messages and judgements around food and bodies, it creates a risk to athletes’ mental and physical health. At Serendipity Counseling Services, we believe coaches and parents can be a powerful tool in cultivating a positive environment and preventing disordered eating in youth sports.
Support Young Athletes in Thriving with Eating Disorder Therapy in NJ
Team culture can shape so much more than performance. It can also affect how young athletes see their bodies and relate to food. If you're a parent, coach, or athlete concerned about disordered eating in Cherry Hill, NJ, know that compassionate support is available. At Serendipity Counseling Services, we specialize in helping athletes untangle harmful messages and rebuild a healthy relationship with food and self.
Here’s how to get started:
Schedule a free 15-minute consultation to share your concerns and see if our approach feels like the right fit.
Book your first eating disorder therapy session and begin addressing the pressures of performance, appearance, and identity.
Create a more grounded foundation for recovery, so your athlete can thrive with strength, balance, and self-confidence.
Additional Ways to Heal with Serendipity Counseling Services in New Jersey
Beyond providing eating disorder therapy for athletes in Cherry Hill, NJ, I offer individualized support for runners, family-based therapy, and actively contribute to shifting the narrative around disordered eating in sports through advocacy and speaking engagements.
I also lead the Retired Athlete Support Group, a virtual space where former athletes can reflect on their athletic experiences, explore life after sport, and reconnect with themselves in a supportive, nonjudgmental environment.
About Kate Ringwood: A Compassionate Eating Disorder Therapist in NJ
Kate Ringwood is a licensed professional counselor and the founder of Serendipity Counseling Services, where she specializes in supporting athletes in Cherry Hill, NJ, through eating disorder therapy. As a former competitive runner, Kate deeply understands the pressures surrounding food, performance, and body image in sports culture.
Her approach blends professional insight with personal experience, offering a compassionate and validating space for clients to rebuild their relationship with their bodies. Outside of therapy, Kate is also a dedicated advocate, often speaking and podcasting on disordered eating, athlete mental health, and identity beyond sport.
