Sports: Adam Rippon on Body Issues and Eating Disorders
(Photo Credits: Adam Rippon Twitter)
American figure skater Adam Rippon, who has always been outspoken on certain issues concerning the LGBT community, talked about body issues and eating disorders this time around.
It was 2016, he said, when all he ate daily was “three slices of whole grain bread topped with miserly pats of the spread I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter.” Rippon, 28, added he drank three cups of black coffee (each cup sweetened with six packs of Splenda) to go with the bread. He went on to explain how he wanted to have a body like his teenage teammates who were “all doing these quads, and at the same time they’re a head shorter than me, they’re 10 years younger than me and they’re the size of one of my legs.”
Speaking in an interview with NY Times, he said, “It makes me dizzy now to think about it.”
It was when he got injured that he realized his unhealthy eating must have been a contributing factor to said injury. These days he works with United States Olympic Committee sports dietitian Susie Parker-Simmons on his dietary and nutritional issues. Rippon explained how a “fog of fatigue over him lifted” when he started doing so. Adding, “I didn’t realize I was so tired all the time.”
And as to why Rippon had chosen to speak about his body issues, he said he “hopes that by speaking honestly he can help others.”
Eating disorders can affect everyone regardless of their age, sex, gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic group but some tend to be vulnerable to it more than the others. Athletes like Adam Rippon, for one, because of the belief that “lower body weight will improve performance” among many other reasons and then there is the LGBT community. Risk factors identified which may cause eating disorder in an LGBT person include the various stresses caused by (fear of) coming out, discrimination, bullying, and “body image ideals within some LGBT cultural contexts” to name a few.
In America, an estimate of 20 million women and 10 million men “will have an eating disorder at some point in their lives,” National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) reports. NEDA further revealed that “gay men are disproportionately found to have body image disturbances and eating disorder behavior (STATS).” In fact, studies show that 42% of the men who have eating disorders identify as gay—this, even if “gay men are thought to only represent 5% of the total male population.”
For more information on eating disorders, click here. You may contact this on the other hand, if you or anyone you know has an eating disorder.
What about you? Have you, at some point in your life, suffered from an eating disorder? How did you cope with it? Share with us your thoughts and stories in the comments section below.
That is why the emphasis on abs is so heinous. It is unnatural for most men to have six-pack or more. To have zero-percent body fat is unnatural and unhealthy. I remember seeing young men born in the 1980s who were literally afraid to be seen eating food, anything at all. The emphasis on twinks accomplishes the same pressure. At least the opposite pressure exists as well, to be a chub, bear, cub, etc. It’s just more labeling. To be healthy is all that matters, and that is not possible for everyone either. We need to be practicing acceptance of others and of ourselves as well. We should not have to die to find Someone who will totally accept us for who we are. But to accomplish this, you have to stop using porn, stop patronizing businesses that use images to exploit us, that try to shame us into changing ourselves, the entire fashion industry, basically. No supplements, no drugs, and no trainers, or only ones who practice acceptance. Better you should go dancing or take dance classes than work out at a gym. Or swim. Use your brain as well as your muscles. Most of all, don’t pick up the mean jock straight guy attitudes as if they make you sexier, which they do not.
Furthermore: stop thinking of hooking up and think of dating, stop using naked photos as a lure, because you degrade and cheapen yourself by doing that. If you present yourself as a piece of meat, you will be treated like one. You deserve better from yourself. Stop demanding nude photos from others if you do have them out there. That’s your choice, don’t force it on others. That’s bullying. It’s not okay, and it’s not etiquette. It’s not a quid pro quo. A lot of you are young, dumb, inexperienced. That’s no reason to just do whatever the crowd seems to be doing. You must have some values you were brought up with. Being gay does NOT mean dropping them, having no morals, no principles, no manners, no ethics. If anything, it is the opposite.
Well said.
He’s trying so desperately to stay in the media. With ratings for the Olympics having collapsed, his time is almost up. His self-crowning as the speaker of all gay men sickens me, because I am gay, but I am not bitchy, disrespectful, and opportunistic. Just say no to narcissism.
Unfortunately for Adam, he threw his chances away during the last interview I saw. He was the third of three atheletes being interviewed by NBC’s Mike Tirico. The first two spoke professionally about their performance and experience with Mike. Adam hit the interview with an attempted Acadamy Award performance exclaiming how wonderful it was to meet “someone like youuu Miiiiiike” while fawning and gushing in his seat. It was difficult to watch, harder to listen too. Haven’t seen him on camera since.
Yeah, let’s all be clones and act the same.
Some figure skaters are more exuberant, deal with it.
Showing your hate for and intolerance of diverse views as always, Dave. With a dose of insulting Liberal Hate thrown in.
Never said “clone”. If Adam wants to advance his on-camera career, he needs present himself professionally above his peers. Drama and theatrics don’t lend themselves to that.
Can you stop pretending to know what Adam wants?
He said it many times in interview, he is how he is. He is loud and proud, and I applaud him for that.
Why do you always need to dictate what others should do?
FYI he doesn’t want to “advance his on-camera career” he even refused a job at NBC to encourage his US team.
“Why do you always need to dictate what others should do?” asks the guy with an extremely tight and oppressive view of how gay guys should dress, act, think politically, and choose music.
? I love when people don’t like the same stuff as me…
I don’t like people who think that what they listen, believe, wear is better than me…
Big difference. But you cant make the difference I suppose.