Eating Disorders: public or silent enemy?

[DizzyFrenchie]

Thank you for the insite. Very interesting. Much truth there. She is not alone and I have to, in the US, blame our society for its effects here. We were never taught
the truth about nutrician in our schools. Indeed, there is still much to learn.
1. Food is not the enemy. In fact, skipping lunch makes the metabolic rate slow down for the rest of the day. I am guilty of this myself due to time constraints.
2. Good dieticians/nutricianists are hard to find and my wife's insurance company wont even pay for them. Foods effect a whole lot of our body's chemistry and health and this has been accepted by many forward thinking organizations for decades but not by mainstream organizations, unfortunately.
3. You still see trendy diets like the paleo or mediteranian diet...these are designed to make money, not healthy people. Not saying there are not good things in them...but they are not the whole truth. We are taught that the "secret" to being healthy is a new pill...gag vomit.
4. When I stood next to Kaori years ago in the elevator in Vegas, cruel people were calling Japanese skaters "chunky". I still think the camera adds five lbs but there was nothing wrong in my eyes with her way back then.
I am so happy she is learning the truth...it is a sign of intellegence. Any country that starves its skaters and keeps them out of puberty is not my friend.
So Happy for skaters that have been taught the truth....the education should be required. Way to go, Fumie.

I would say, real Mediterranean diet from remote villages here or there is indeed very healthy, but let's not forget that it includes many vegetable and pulse grown on healthy, nutritious, unspoilt (by pesticides etc) soil, lots of real bread made with old varieties of wheat, which dough ferment over 12 hours before being baked (and babies get it only once it's dry after several days stale, then rehydrated in a soup, often a garlic soup, yes), lots of herbs fully grown in this so healthy environment, milk and eggs and meat from free roaming, healthily fed animals, and, mind you, often wine. That's the real Mediterranean diet. What's promoted in media, is supermarket-bought food, full of pesticides, hormones, toxic gluten and the like, it's not a real Mediterranean diet which is so difficult to get nowadays. AND so many generations of their ancestors have made a selection so that those living there are those to whom it does the best. If you switch a Central Asian nomad living mostly on mare milk, mutton and their own herbs and ferments, to a Mediterranean diet among the best, real ones, the results may not be optimal. We are all different!

As to athlete diet, it depends on each individual's metabolism and what they need to achieve in training, travel and competitions? Not forgetting school or job.

Reading a bit of this thread I was very surprised to see how late some really top athletes meet a Nutritionist! How can it be? Would there be so many people meeting eating disorders, should they have met Sports Nutritionists earlier?

 

[sisinka]

....

A similar advice came famously from Yuzuru's nutritionist working for the same company as the one of Kaori,

It seems they all used similar methods to analyse and advise, all working for specialized Japanese food companies with special atllete-support divisions, all analysing lots of daily data from training, and differentiating between daily and competition nutritional routines.

All athletes - Yuzuru, Kaori and RikuRyu - admitted to have benefited greatly from specialized nutritional support.

Having quite a few of their Olympic and World gold medallists cared for and catered to by nutrition specialists on the long-term and regular basis - does it make Japan a leader in the field of healthy eating FS champions?

....

Good mention. Japanese skaters and their nutritionists are sharing their stories and experience publicly, which is very helpful as a good example.

Despite being in an Eating Disorders Thread, I believe that healthy eating habits belong to this topic, as prevention of this disease and helpful educational tool.

I remember some article with Mao Asada and Daisuke Takahashi having nutrition specialist, but I am not sure when the cooperation started. In case of Daisuke it look to be around 2015 (after retirement from single skating).

Facebook

www.facebook.com

- Daisuke Takahashi in 2019
- "...Four years ago I left it to a nutritionist,..."

Yuma Kagiyama mentioned working with nutritionist in time of stress fracture.

Yuma Kagiyama: “I had some worries like, ‘Can I make it back to where everyone else is from scratch?’ But my mindset gradually changed to moving forward steadily at my own pace.”

Translation of the interview with Yuma Kagiyama.

fs-gossips.com

- article from 2023
- Yuma: "I was in a condition with my injury, so I couldn’t put too much strain on my left leg. Therefore, I focused on strengthening my upper body core on mats. I regularly had blood tests at the hospital to check for any nutritional deficiencies and received guidance from a nutritionist on nutrients to accelerate bone recovery..."

https://x.com/kagiyamaloops/status/2022760465613385814

- from February 2026
Yuma Kagiyama's "special thanks" list on his latest instagram post: his father, Carolina, Lori, Hayato Sumino & Marcin, Christopher Tin, Toshiaki Asai (his trainer), and Kanna Yoshimoto (his nutritionist!).

 

[sisinka]

...Reading a bit of this thread I was very surprised to see how late some really top athletes meet a Nutritionist! How can it be? Would there be so many people meeting eating disorders, should they have met Sports Nutritionists earlier?

@CoyoteChris wrote:

.... We were never taught
the truth about nutrician in our schools...Good dieticians/nutricianists are hard to find...

I agree with @CoyoteChris.
In my opinion this is a complex problem.
In childhood and teenage years parents are taking care about nutrition of skaters. Later it is skater herself / himself.

I find early years very important because child skaters are developing their relationship with food. Which will influence the rest of their life. And despite the fact it is never too late to change approach towards food to create healthy environment, it is definitely much better to start with healthy eating attitude from the beginning.

I would mention these points:

1. Probably most of parents have no or little knowledge about healthy nutrition. Even parents being former athletes - generations back there was supposedly not much knowledge and science studies about the effect of right nutrition on health and performance.

2. Many coaches advice to lose weight - using "eat less" phrase...or parents themselves connect losing weight with eating less.
I believe it should be replaced with: "Let your body grow and develop in a healthy way...being grown-up find your ideal weight...and overall EAT SMART!"

3. I guess not every coach is recommending nutrition specialist care.

4. Figure skating is expensive itself. And nutritionist is not cheap.

5. If cooperation with nutritionist is not working from any reason...don't give up and find another nutritionist, which will fit you better.

6. Figure skating is not fully accepting the theory of DIFFERENT BODY MORPHOLOGY...forcing all skaters to be the thinnest = having body morphology like most of ballerinas or rhythmic gymnasts (with many of them suffering from eating disorders thanks to "food control").

...Would there be so many people meeting eating disorders, should they have met Sports Nutritionists earlier?

I believe that if there will be a change in a way of thinking about food in a healthy way, it will reduce the number of skaters with eating disorders.
And cooperation with good nutritionist...it can be one of helping tools.

 

[Magill]

@CoyoteChris wrote:


I agree with @CoyoteChris.
In my opinion this is a complex problem.
In childhood and teenage years parents are taking care about nutrition of skaters. Later it is skater herself / himself.

I find early years very important because child skaters are developing their relationship with food. Which will influence the rest of their life. And despite the fact it is never too late to change approach towards food to create healthy environment, it is definitely much better to start with healthy eating attitude from the beginning.

I would mention these points:

1. Probably most of parents have no or little knowledge about healthy nutrition. Even parents being former athletes - generations back there was supposedly not much knowledge and science studies about the effect of right nutrition on health and performance.

2. Many coaches advice to lose weight - using "eat less" phrase...or parents themselves connect losing weight with eating less.
I believe it should be replaced with: "Let your body grow and develop in a healthy way...being grown-up find your ideal weight...and overall EAT SMART!"

3. I guess not every coach is recommending nutrition specialist care.

4. Figure skating is expensive itself. And nutritionist is not cheap.

5. If cooperation with nutritionist is not working from any reason...don't give up and find another nutritionist, which will fit you better.

6. Figure skating is not fully accepting the theory of DIFFERENT BODY MORPHOLOGY...forcing all skaters to be the thinnest = having body morphology like most of ballerinas or rhythmic gymnasts (with many of them suffering from eating disorders thanks to "food control").



I believe that if there will be a change in a way of thinking about food in a healthy way, it will reduce the number of skaters with eating disorders.
And cooperation with good nutritionist...it can be one of helping tools.

Shouldn't it start with basic nutrition knowledge being a part of expertise required to get a licence to be a coach, or run a sport club? And make dietician mandatory part of the staff to keep the licence? They do not need to work there full time, but just make a periodic consultation mandatory for young athelets, just like medical concultations are .
Do not put responsibility on parents, they are much more difficult to reach and educate than the actual coaches.
ISU and national feds should start working on it immediately instead of wasting time on inserting hops into spins and other revolutiony changes like this...

 

[DizzyFrenchie]

@CoyoteChris wrote:


I agree with @CoyoteChris.
In my opinion this is a complex problem.
In childhood and teenage years parents are taking care about nutrition of skaters. Later it is skater herself / himself.

I find early years very important because child skaters are developing their relationship with food. Which will influence the rest of their life. And despite the fact it is never too late to change approach towards food to create healthy environment, it is definitely much better to start with healthy eating attitude from the beginning.

I would mention these points:

1. Probably most of parents have no or little knowledge about healthy nutrition. Even parents being former athletes - generations back there was supposedly not much knowledge and science studies about the effect of right nutrition on health and performance.

2. Many coaches advice to lose weight - using "eat less" phrase...or parents themselves connect losing weight with eating less.
I believe it should be replaced with: "Let your body grow and develop in a healthy way...being grown-up find your ideal weight...and overall EAT SMART!"

3. I guess not every coach is recommending nutrition specialist care.

4. Figure skating is expensive itself. And nutritionist is not cheap.

5. If cooperation with nutritionist is not working from any reason...don't give up and find another nutritionist, which will fit you better.

6. Figure skating is not fully accepting the theory of DIFFERENT BODY MORPHOLOGY...forcing all skaters to be the thinnest = having body morphology like most of ballerinas or rhythmic gymnasts (with many of them suffering from eating disorders thanks to "food control").



I believe that if there will be a change in a way of thinking about food in a healthy way, it will reduce the number of skaters with eating disorders.
And cooperation with good nutritionist...it can be one of helping tools.

Your post reminded me, not in a Sports but so close, and at least as competitive, a student at the Moscow Choreographic School in the early 2010s, who was so thin, and would eat so little, everybody told her that it wasn't healthy but it held on for some years, then she weakened, started not being able to follow classes efficiently, then outright started missing classes, some parents alerted her parents, who during the next months kept saying that she was a child who was naturally thin and there was nothing the matter with her eating habit. I think that she died, and a short time after a Nutritionist was recruited at the school (its "rival" the Vaganova Academy had already recruited a Nutritionist, and the other top integrated Ballet School, the Paris Opera Ballet School, did the same around the same years, after a student had to be expelled, and couldn't be really cured, and died some years later); but many suspected that her parents' attitude (whether just denial, or even push) may have been a factor.
About Anorexy it must be said, that even when it's cured, there are sequels. A very dear friend died in her 60s of the heart complications of a brief (3 months I think?) anorexy she had had as a teenager. I think that prevention is key! For my friend, Nutrition awareness wouldn't have helped I'm afraid, but here we're speaking of eating disorders in Athletes which seem to be triggered by the wrong messages in the matter, as much as with wrong body appearance expectations (by themselves and those around them).

 

[CoyoteChris]

@CoyoteChris wrote:


I agree with @CoyoteChris.
In my opinion this is a complex problem.
In childhood and teenage years parents are taking care about nutrition of skaters. Later it is skater herself / himself.

I find early years very important because child skaters are developing their relationship with food. Which will influence the rest of their life. And despite the fact it is never too late to change approach towards food to create healthy environment, it is definitely much better to start with healthy eating attitude from the beginning.

I would mention these points:

1. Probably most of parents have no or little knowledge about healthy nutrition. Even parents being former athletes - generations back there was supposedly not much knowledge and science studies about the effect of right nutrition on health and performance.

2. Many coaches advice to lose weight - using "eat less" phrase...or parents themselves connect losing weight with eating less.
I believe it should be replaced with: "Let your body grow and develop in a healthy way...being grown-up find your ideal weight...and overall EAT SMART!"

3. I guess not every coach is recommending nutrition specialist care.

4. Figure skating is expensive itself. And nutritionist is not cheap.

5. If cooperation with nutritionist is not working from any reason...don't give up and find another nutritionist, which will fit you better.

6. Figure skating is not fully accepting the theory of DIFFERENT BODY MORPHOLOGY...forcing all skaters to be the thinnest = having body morphology like most of ballerinas or rhythmic gymnasts (with many of them suffering from eating disorders thanks to "food control").



I believe that if there will be a change in a way of thinking about food in a healthy way, it will reduce the number of skaters with eating disorders.
And cooperation with good nutritionist...it can be one of helping tools.

ITA. Unless you want to create "throwaway" skaters, the above should be the norm. But there is a long history of old thinking. I was at the Friends of Figure skating breakfast at Lake Placid , 2009, SA, when someone asked Pairs skater Brooke Castile what was the worst thing about pairs skating...and I will never forget this....she looked at her partner Ben Okolski in a pleading, hurtful manner and said, "Well, Ben won't let me eat..." and many there laughed but I wasnt laughing. I saw her eyes....
And who amoung us does not remember a certain dance lady who was roasted two years ago by the fan base for putting on a few pounds?
Sadly, we as a society have gone beyond giving our kids Fruit loops for breakfast and now let the kids buy "big gulp" sugar drinks up to 64 oz.
I have never been to Japan but google says this is the typical Japanese traditional breakfast.
A traditional Japanese breakfast (choushoku) is a nutritious, balanced set meal structured around steamed rice, miso soup, and grilled fish, providing sustained energy. Often served with green tea, it emphasizes umami flavors and small portions of diverse, seasonal sides, commonly including tamagoyaki (rolled omelet), fermented soybeans (natto), pickled vegetables (tsukemono), and nori seaweed.
I think somewhere some one cares about their kids.

We love you, Kaori...Is that Mai too?

 

[sisinka]

...
Do not put responsibility on parents, they are much more difficult to reach and educate than the actual coaches.
ISU and national feds should start working on it immediately instead of wasting time on inserting hops into spins and other revolutiony changes like this...

This Thread is not about putting blame to anyone.

It is about finding solutions to make a figure skating world a safe place, where healthy approach towards body and mind is preffered.

Skaters are sharing their experience with eating disorders or eating troubles. One of reason is to help other skaters to protect their health better.

It is long-term run unfortunately.

In ideal case cooperation of coach and parents should secure healthy eating habits for a child.

Shouldn't it start with basic nutrition knowledge being a part of expertise required to get a licence to be a coach, or run a sport club? And make dietician mandatory part of the staff to keep the licence? They do not need to work there full time, but just make a periodic consultation mandatory for young athelets, just like medical concultations are ...

For example in Czech Republic you can study coaching (with figure skating specialization) at Masaryk University in Brno (there is another University in Prague). It has a subject Nutrition.

As to nutritionist being a part of sport club. Good idea. It would be nice for coaches to have contact on more nutritionists, as one nutritionist may not work for all skaters.

Skating Club's Seminars for parents and skaters AND online Figure Skating Federation's seminars for coaches, parents and skaters would be a good idea. Nutritionist leading the seminar, of course.

 

[Magill]

This Thread is not about putting blame to anyone.

It is about finding solutions to make a figure skating world a safe place, where healthy approach towards body and mind is preffered.

Skaters are sharing their experience with eating disorders or eating troubles. One of reason is to help other skaters to protect their health better.

It is long-term run unfortunately.

In ideal case cooperation of coach and parents should secure healthy eating habits for a child.

It is a misunderstanding. By "putting responsibility" I did not mean blame. I meant expecting parents to be somehow knowledgeable about proper nutrition and seek info on their own. Some of them will, some of them won't. I do think it is a task for the sport institutions ta take this responsibility upon themselves, and it is much easier to put certain educational requirements on coaches and clubs than on individual parents. Without the institutional outreach, it is much more difficult to reach families with information and advise which now they are mostly expected to seek on their own, or are even misled by ill-educated coaches who advise young athletes to restrict their food intake and keep losing weight,. We all know such coaches exist.

 

[sisinka]

Your post reminded me, not in a Sports but so close, and at least as competitive, a student at the Moscow Choreographic School in the early 2010s, who was so thin, and would eat so little, ...

Warning! Depressive content in part of my post below.

As you describe extreme case of student (probably not the only one) caused change - nutritionist in ballet schools.
Some months back I read biography of our Czech famous retired ballerina Daria Klimentova, she also mentioned nutritionist in their ballet school.

Luisel Ramos - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"...Louisel Ramos died of heart failure caused by anorexia nervosa while participating in a fashion show during the Montevideo Fashion Week... She died at the age of 22. Ramos' father told police that she had gone "several days" without eating...

In the wake of Ramos' death, the Madrid Fashion Week (held in September 2006) set a minimum BMI of 18 for all models.[3] In December that year, Italian fashion designers banned size zero models from walking down their catwalks..."

Christy Henrich - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"...Christy Henrich tied for second place on uneven bars at the USA Gymnastics National Championships in June 1990, but soon after, her battle with anorexia took such a toll on her health that she was no longer strong enough to compete, and she was asked to leave GAGE. She retired from the sport in January 1991. Henrich died of multiple organ failure on July 26, 1994 (caused by anorexia).

Henrich's death brought the problem of eating disorders in women's gymnastics into the spotlight. Gymnasts such as Kathy Johnson and Cathy Rigby admitted to having periods of disordered eating that resembled anorexia and bulimia, and other U.S. National Team gymnasts stepped forward and went public about their own eating disorders and disordered eating.

The focus on gymnast wellness was addressed with several programs on both the national and international levels, such as educational videos, nutrition counseling and classes, to varying degrees of success.

Additionally, television channels broadcasting gymnastics competitions, such as NBC-TV and ABC-TV, stopped commenting about or listing gymnasts' weights in captions in the mid-1990s."

... I think that prevention is key! For my friend, Nutrition awareness wouldn't have helped I'm afraid, but here we're speaking of eating disorders in Athletes which seem to be triggered by the wrong messages in the matter, as much as with wrong body appearance expectations (by themselves and those around them).

I fully agree! Prevention, understanding the problem, NOT undervaluing the problem are important things.

 

[sisinka]

I was looking for some science studies focusing on skaters' eating habits, sufficient energy intake and macronutrients / micronutrients intake. I indeed found few studies. They were all done in USA many years ago.
You may take a look:

1.

Eating attitudes and energy intakes of female skaters - PubMed

Although the measured indices of nutritional status were normal, adolescent athletes have higher energy needs than does the general population. Depending on energy expenditure levels, energy and nutrition intakes in the low normal range may put some athletes at risk for undernutrition.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

- scientific study from 1998 - EATING ATTITUDE AND ENERGY INTAKES OF FEMALE SKATERS
- 21 competitive female figure skaters
- 11-16 years of age, mean weight 50,3kg, mean BMI 19.9 kg/m2, mean body fat 19.9%, mean energy intake 1781kcal/day

- "...Body weights and estimated energy intakes were all within normal range for this age group. Higher EAT scores were associated with lower micronutrient, but not lower energy intakes. Menstrual status and iron status were normal."


2.

Nutritional and physiological status of U.S. national figure skaters - PubMed

This study assessed the nutrient intake, body composition and biochemical indices of National Figure Skating Championship competitors. Four-day diet records, fasting blood samples, and anthropometric measurements were obtained 2 months after the National Championships from 41 figure skaters...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

- science article from 1999 - NUTRITIONAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL STATUS OF U.S. NATIONAL FIGURE SKATERS
- 41 figure skaters (National Figure Skating Championship competitors) -
- from 11 to 18 years of age

- "...the athletes had: lower intakes of vitamin E and B12, the mean intakes of magnesium, zinc, and iodine by the male skaters were below the recommended levels, as were the mean intakes of calcium, iron, phosphorus, magnesium, and zinc by the female skaters.
- ...vegetable, fruit, dairy, and meat groups were below the recommended levels
- ...plasma electrolyte concentrations were indicative of potential dehydration status
- The results suggest there is a need to develop dietary intervention and educational programs targeted at promoting optimal nutrient and fluid intakes by these athletes to maintain performance and improve long-term health status."


3.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0271531701003207

- science article from 2001 - DIETARY INTAKE OF ELITE FIGURE SKATING DANCERS
- 7 females and 7 males (US National Figure Skating Dance Team)
- from 20–26 years for males and from 17–24 years for females
- male dancers had a height range from 173–188 cm, weight range from 67–77 kg
- two out of the seven female dancers (29%) reported irregular menstrual cycles, i.e., no menstrual cycles in the past six months
- female dancers energy intake (1416 kcal/d, 339 kjoules/day)
- male dancers energy intake (2837 kcal/d, 679 kjoules/day)

- "...total energy intake of female dancers (1416 kcal/d) was considerably lower than the dietary recommendations... male dancers appeared to have adequate energy intake (2837 kcal/d)
- ...carbohydrate intake of both male and female dancers was below the recommendations, 44% and 51%, respectively, whereas total fat and protein intake of both male and female dancers were higher than the dietary recommendations
- ...folate and zinc intake of the female dancers were 68% and 62% of the recommended values
- The results of the present study suggest that these elite figure skating dancers, especially females, may not be consuming adequate amounts of energy-yielding nutrients and those that influence bone health. Future studies are needed to examine the effects of nutritional status on performance of these figure skating dancers and to develop strategies to improve the nutritional status of these elite dancers."


4.

Energy and macronutrient intakes of elite figure skaters - PubMed

High consumption of sugars and fat by elite athletes was not associated with overweight or excess body fat. Although recommended diets are usually built around complex carbohydrates, dietetics professionals can address the increased energy needs of elite athletes by recommending energy-dense...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

- science article from 2001 - ENERGY AND MACRONUTRIENT INTAKES OF ELITE FIGURE SKATERS
- 81 females and 80 male figure skaters (participants of training camps in Colorado between 1988 and 1995),
- mean age of 16 years for females and 18 years for males
- female energy intake - 1,545 kcal/day
- men energy intakes - 2,329 kcal/day

- "...Energy intakes were below recommended values for sex and age
- Applications: High consumption of sugars and fat by elite athletes was not associated with overweight or excess body fat. ...Sugars and fats are efficient sources of energy per unit volume."


5.

https://www.jandonline.org/article/S0002-8223(02)90086-6/abstract

- science article from 2002 - NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF TEENAGE FEMALE COMPETITIVE FIGURE SKATERS
- 18 female competitive figure skaters
- age range from 14 to 16 years
- energy intake over the 3 seasons: (mean preseason: 1,678 kcal/day; competitive season, 1,630 kcal/day; off-season: 1,673 kcal/ day)

- "Results: ...the skaters had intakes less than 67% of RDA (reccommended dietary allowance) for folate, iron, and calcium ...
- Conclusions: The results indicate that teenage female skaters have relatively low energy intake and inadequate intakes of certain nutrients, which may account for some of the observed seasonal variations in blood markers of nutritional status. These findings point to the need for nutrition education for these athletes, especially during their competitive season when nutritional status may be compromised."


6.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07315724.2002.10719203

- science article from 2002 - CONTRIBUTION OF MEALS AND SNACKS TO NUTRIENT INTAKE OF MALE AND FEMALE ELITE FIGURE SKATERS DURING PEAK COMPETITIVE SEASON
- 46 male and 48 female figure skaters (participants of 1999 U.S. National Figure Skating Championships)

- "Conclusions: These elite figure skaters appear to be starting their day with low energy reserves and therefore need to be educated about the benefits of consuming breakfast. These athletes also need to be educated about consuming adequate calories throughout the day in order to meet the energy needs of their activity. It is thus important to monitor eating patterns throughout the day to ensure adequate energy intake to sustain the physical and mental aspects of the athletes’ training and performance."


7.

Eating attitudes and food intakes of elite adolescent female figure skaters: a cross sectional study - PubMed

Although these highly active young women compete in a sport that prizes leanness, they had appropriate weights. The athletes reported dietary intakes that were far below estimated energy needs and were at moderate risk of disordered eating. Anticipatory guidance is warranted to improve their...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

- science article from 2012 - EATING ATTITUDES AND FOOD INTAKES OF ELITE ADOLESCENT FEMALE FIGURE SKATERS: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY
- 36 elite competitive adolescent female figure skaters (participating in a nation training camp)
- mean age 16 ± 2.5 SD years
- mean body mass index (BMI) was 19.8 ± 2.1 SD
- mean height 158.6 ± 5.8 SD (cm)
- mean weight was 48.5 ± 6.6kg SD (kg)
- mean energy intake (EI) was 1491 ± 471 kcal/day (range 566–2654 kcal/day)

- "...reported dietary intakes were high in carbohydrates but low in total energy, fat, and bone-building nutrients
- Conclusions: ...The athletes reported dietary intakes that were far below estimated energy needs and were at moderate risk of disordered eating. Anticipatory guidance is warranted to improve their dietary intakes, particularly of bone-building nutrients."

------
It is great that specialists and figure skaters found time for research.
More science studies suggest that education and guidance for skaters is recommended, more studies mentiones too low energy intake as well as micronutrients intake per day.

Some new science studies would ve definitely a good idea.

 

[sisinka]

Based on stories of skaters with eating disorders it looks that coaches need to re-think their approach to nutrition as well, laerning to encourage their skaters to stay healthy instead of forcing the idea of thinnest body and prepubertal state of body.

@Magill points out the importancy of coaches and other specialists having education about right nutrition.

There are few examples of coaches who do care about right nutrition.

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2021/05/02/des-impacts-pour-toute-la-vie
- article from 2021 with Marie-France Dubreuil

- "...Whether we're talking about injuries, concussions, or nutrition, Marie-France is unequivocal: the body must be respected. Medical protocols shouldn't be neglected, athletes must eat well before and after training, and it's essential to communicate with athletes to break down taboos.

"The way you approach a subject is very important. Above all, you have to encourage them to be healthy. Skaters need to understand nutrition well [...] The girls know that if they eat poorly one weekend, it won't be noticeable when they return to the ice, but their performance won't be as good," she explains.

In other words, you need to eat well to perform well, not to look good.

She hated being weighed.

As for weighing herself, Marie-France admits she's always hated it. She remembers girls crying as teenagers when they had to step on the scale. In her case, she was even once asked to gain 20 pounds because she was considered too thin. She was only 13 years old.

Today, she leaves the weighing to the professionals, if necessary.

"We already weighed two couples to ensure that the weight difference between the two athletes did not endanger anyone during the lifts. I was afraid to work on certain technical feats if there wasn't enough of a difference between the two."

«Чтобы не наделала глупостей». Фигуристка Федичкина рассказала о реакции тренера Мишина на лишний вес у учениц - 9 июня 2022 - Sport24

Бывшая фигуристка Алиса Федичкина рассказала о реакции известного тренера Алексея Мишина на лишний вес у своих учениц.

sport24.ru

- article from 2022 - retired skater Alisa Fedichkina was coached by Alexey Mishin in the end of her career (previously training in Rukavitsin‘s group)

- "..If you have any weight issues, he (Mr. Mishin) sends you to a nutritionist, ...the nutritionist creates nutrition plan, explains why you are gaining weight and how to lose weight. So, if there is a trouble, the coach sends you to the doctor immediately, not to make any silly mistakes..."

"I work in a passionate way": A discussion with Karine Arribert

French coach Karine Arribert shares her thoughts on French ice dance and the future of the sport.

anythinggoe.com

- article from December 2025 with French ice dance coach Karine Arribert mentioning the need to accept different bodytype and not press skaters to lose weight

"...In the past, Arribert used to sometimes tell her female skaters that they needed to lose weight. However, she was told by a medical director that those comments would hurt her skaters.

“You can’t talk about this with skaters, because after, they believe that you just see that. We are six hours a day with them, and if we talk about this, it becomes a problem. So now I [tell my skaters], ‘You are exactly as you are. My job is, you have to do your lift, your spin, and have your levels be good…and I’m going to train you exactly as you are.’”

She believes the burden is on the coach to find a way to work with different body types, even though it can be challenging with some elements. ....’ So we have to find solutions with each body…

...Because a lot of judges said to us, she has to lose weight, a lot of people from the federation said it. [I said], “No, I don’t want to listen to this, just stop. We can talk about… the program, the skating, but I don’t want to understand that you have to lose weight. I disagree..."

Соколова о любимых зарубежных танцорах: «Я за Мразковых и Ташлеровых. Многие скажут, что Натали плохо выглядит, но она же свой вес возит на такой скорости»

– Зарубежные танцы сейчас правда более кайфовые, чем наши? – На данный момент мне интереснее смотреть за иностранными парами.

www.sports.ru

- interview with Ice Dance coach Elena Sokolova from October 2023 (she is coaching Mironova & Ustenko, in past she was coaching Gleb Smolkin for short time)

She supported Natalie Taschler saying that many people criticise Natalie for weight issues, but Sokolova admires her speed despite the weight.

She also liked Hubell & Donohue for their power, speed and charisma. (Madison Hubell was criticised for weight a lot publicly, as I remember.)

- As to puberty...
"If a person deals with her / his weight well and have the same jumping content, what is the problem then? As to girls you have to wait. Everyone goes through puberty. If we want to keep girl (in active sport), we must accept her even in this stage of life (puberty)..."

New Muscles and Pounds Boost an American Ice Dancer’s Outlook (Published 2010)

Tanith Belbin, who with Ben Agosto finished second in ice dancing at the 2006 Games, said that educating herself about nutrition has made all the difference in her skating this year.

www.nytimes.com

- article with Tanith Belbin in 2010 about her coaches Natalia Linichuk and Genadi Karponosov

- "...Linichuk took one look at the 5-foot-6, 105-pound Belbin and said, “You need to gain 10 pounds.” She said more muscle would help Belbin skate faster and more fluidly...

Karponosov's skaters would often complain that his drills made their legs so muscular that they could no longer fit into their jeans..."

 

[sisinka]

https://www.road2goldskating.com/post/fueling-figure-skaters-nutrition-tips-for-parents

- article from February 2026 with TIPS FOR PARENTS OF CHILD FIGURE SKATERS

- "Parents often ask how to help their figure skaters nourish their bodies without guilt or shame. Developing a positive relationship with food and body not only supports their figure skating, but also improves mental health and self-esteem. Here are some tips for supporting your child’s relationship with food and body:

Offer a flexible schedule of meal and snack times that provide opportunities for nourishment every few hours.

Example: Breakfast at 7am, Snack at 10am, Lunch at 12:30pm, Snack at 3:30pm, Dinner at 6pm, Snack at 8pm

Encourage your child to listen to their hunger cues, without placing limits on portions.

Serve a variety of food without pressure.

Categorizing food as “healthy” vs ”unhealthy or “good” vs “bad” can create shame.
Instead, try to keep food discussions neutral and call the food by its name. Enjoyment is important! Sometimes a snack may be an apple with peanut butter, while other times it may be cookies with milk.

Reduce stress at meal and snack times by keeping conversations light.

If your skater gets a nervous belly before a performance, try offering drinkable nutrition through smoothies or shakes.

Make time to sit down and eat together when you can.

Avoid discussions around changing body shapes or sizes, dieting, or “counting” of nutrition information..."

 

[sisinka]

Unfortunately, the things you just mentioned mostly occur because of attempts to enhance athletic performance (e.g., female athletic triad). Especially at the highest levels, relatively slim profiles and low weight, and for females, delayed maturity (achieved through deliberate under and mal nutrition), up to a point, tend to allow people to get higher scores. ...
...
Perhaps you could argue that figure skating could have healthier standards for getting good scores. But, as with Dance, Gymnastics, and fashion modeling, you are not likely to be able to change the minds of the powers that be in that community.
...

This is topic for the Eating Disorders Thread.

What is the definition of "slim"? Does it include muscular body with average or low body fat percentage, for example?

And "low enough weight"? How much low is it?

I am persuaded that the rule: "The more thin you are, the better you skate!" is not only wrong in terms of propaganda of Eating Disorders....but it is already kind of old-fashioned and proved to be wrong.

But as long as people from skating community will teach newcomers that "the thinner = the better", the figure skating will stay quite dangerous place with unhealthy standards, where everybody who doesn't have "typical skating body" will be stigmatized and pushed to lose weight, in other words in danger of mental troubles and eating troubles.

There is the term of IDEAL WEIGHT - which is the weight where the athlete is able to show the best performance.

You can read in Kiira Korpi's book that when she lost weight her athletic performance went down (measured by exercises on the floor).
We also know from articles that when Tanith Belbin put on weight, her partner Ben Agosto mentioned that she was more easy to lift.
So in both cases ladies were visibly below their ideal weight (because their athletic performance was worse with such weight). But having such low weight, they were definitely very slim.

Retired Polish national champion Anna Rechnio - https://youtu.be/J_tdPEM4TeU?is=CFCLRLPLaCZgkDtJ - she finished 6th at World Championships 1999, her jumps were strong and high, she was good spinner, dynamic skater. Following season 1999/2000 she became visibly slimmer, losing a lot of muscle mass. But her jumps became worse - https://youtu.be/IzCrlcaTPxI?is=Q7KTrwdsPo5zvrOT - she finished 16th at World Championships, 13th at European Championships.
Few years later my mom met her coach at competition. When she mentioned Anna and her great skating, coach had tears in her eyes pointing out that Polish journalists destroyed Anna with harsh critique for not winning titles and being overweighted. So we understood why she lost weight in 1999/2000, but it didn't help the results. (Polish journalists are known for harsh critique when their athlete is not winning, I heard very critical comments towards both of their ski jumping stars Adam Malysz and Kamil Stoch in past, btw World and Olympics champions).

You mentioned that CHANGE OF MIND is not possible in figure skating as well as in gymnastics and dance.

Please, let's take a look at Artistic gymnasts. Take into account that ladies gymnasts are very small, so their weight is smaller then average weight of skaters.

https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4428c9zb

HISTORICAL CHANGES IN HEIGHT, MASS AND AGE OF USA WOMEN'S OLYMPIC GYMNASTICS TEAM: AN UPDATE
- science study from 2018
- 116 US Olympic artistic gymnasts since 1956 to 2016
- the minimum age prior to 1981 was 14 years, and in the interim to 1997, it was 15 years, later it was 16 years of age
- datas were taken in Olympic year
- RESULTS:
- female Olympic gymnasts were getting smaller through approximately the 1980s and early 1990s - the lowest BMI of gymnasts in the team was 17.6 in 1992, with mean height of 146.2 cm and mean weight of 37.7 kg
- BUT SINCE 2000 the BMI of gymnasts was around 20 - mean height was from 151.3 ± 7.6 cm to 158.5 ± 5.9 cm, mean weight from 45.3 ± 3.5 kg to 49.0 ± 2.2 kg
- in 2016 BMI was 20.8 ± 1.6 with height of 151.3 ± 7.6 cm and weight of 49.0 ± 2.2 kg


Going from BMI of 17.6 to 20.8 between 1992 and 2016 - that is big difference, yes?

So at least in past two decades US Artistic Gymnastics looks to go in direction of gymnasts with higher weight (more muscular), top gymnasts are also older comparing to past, so they are grown-up, not keeping pubertal stage of body no matter what.

Looking at US Olympic team in 2024 and 2020 (2021 respectively), datas took from Internet:
Simone Biles - 142cm, 47kg, BMI calculator 23.3
Jade Carey - 157 cm, from 47 to 50kg, BMI calculator from 19.1 to 20.3
Sunisa Lee - 152 cm, 51 kg, BMI calculator 22.1
Grace McCallum - 160 cm, 54 kg, BMI calculator 21.1

It means that Artistic gymnasts have bigger weight and are more muscular comparing to past...and their performance is not worse.

Situation in Rhythmic gymnastics is not radically changing yet, BUT... look at German Margarita Kolosov finishing 4th at Olympics 2024 in Individual all round competition - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3M2yQM8NtA .
At the same Olympics 2024 Barbara Domingos finished 10th in Individual all round competition - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTmutH3Tta4 . And another Olympic gymnast - Zohra Aghamirova - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yz2rMk24ms - video is from European Championships 2024.
Those ladies are definitely in great shape...while they are muscular and they definitely don't have that "slim" ectomorph body type.

Overall my purpose is not to persuade naturally thin skaters to put on weight and gain more muscles.

I would like skaters to be fit, have healthy attitude towards themselves and food.
I would like skating world to accept that there are different body types and there is nothing wrong with that. No need to persist on only one "right" very slim body type.

When Artistic gymnastics is changing radically and accepting that every athlete is individual...why couldn't be figure skating inspired with this as well?