TheMindReport

When the Fight Extends Beyond the Mat

In weight-class sports, the scoreboard isn’t the only place athletes feel pressure. The scale can become a second opponent. That tension is at the heart of the research paper Mental health, eating disorder risk, and disordered eating patterns among Lebanese National Taekwondo Players: A cross-sectional study, which takes a close look at how mental health and body-related pressures intersect for Lebanon’s top Taekwondo players. These athletes are navigating not only strict training demands, but also the aftershocks of an economic crisis that has reshaped daily life and income stability. Together, these forces create a uniquely intense environment for mood, motivation, and food-related behaviors.

Why does this matter? Because what happens in a training week often shows up on the mat: focus, energy, and recovery are tied to sleep, mood, and regular fueling. When athletes cycle between pushing harder and eating less, they may slip into disordered eating—patterns like restrictive dieting, skipping meals, or extreme weight cuts—that can erode both health and performance. This study maps out the scale of the problem among 110 national-level black belts: how common anxiety and depression are, who is most at risk, and which everyday pressures—like losing income or training extra hours—seem to carry the heaviest psychological cost. The results paint a clear, data-driven picture: to help athletes win, we need to protect their minds and their relationship with food, not just their technique and tactics.

Numbers Behind the Black Belt: What the Data Say

The study followed 110 Lebanese Taekwondo players (average age 24; two-thirds men) and used standard tools to screen for mental health concerns and eating disorder risk. A sizable minority reported challenges: 14.5% screened at high risk for anxiety, 13.6% for depression, and 10% reported self-harm thoughts. Nearly a quarter (24.5%) struggled with sleep disturbances, and 12.7% reported alcohol misuse. These aren’t abstract figures; they reflect everyday strains—like lying awake the night before a weigh-in, or relying on alcohol to “switch off” after late training.

Food-related concerns were also common. One in three athletes (33.6%) showed disordered eating (DE) patterns, and 15.5% were at risk for a diagnosable eating disorder (ED) based on the EAT-26 screening. While overall ED risk did not differ by gender, DE patterns were much more frequent in women (50%). Think of routines like skipping dinner before a weigh-in, training dehydrated, or obsessively tracking calories—behaviors that can start as “discipline” but become hard to switch off.

Context mattered. Athletes facing unemployment or salary cuts—both common after Lebanon’s economic crisis—had higher ED risk. Training volume also played a role: those exercising 10 or more hours weekly were more at risk. On the mental health side, depression and psychosis were linked to both ED and DE; anxiety was associated with DE specifically. In more technical terms, athletes with psychosis symptoms had an approximately 11-fold increase in ED risk; reduced income also independently predicted ED. For DE, household income and ADHD were notable correlates, hinting at how attention, impulse control, and financial strain can complicate consistent, healthy fueling.

Gender differences were striking for mood: women reported far higher rates of anxiety and depression. For coaches and teammates, this translates into real-world moments—like a female athlete showing up to practice running on empty and quietly spiraling about weight, while also carrying a heavier emotional load.

Why Pressure, Identity, and Hard Times Collide in a Weight-Class Sport

Psychologically, the findings make sense. Taekwondo is a weight-class sport, which makes the number on the scale a public measure of readiness. That can activate perfectionism, a fear of failure, and a “control through restriction” mindset. Over time, such habits tilt into disordered eating, especially when athletes are praised for “discipline” without close attention to health. The study’s link between high training volume and ED risk echoes prior research: when the body is pushed hard without adequate fuel, mood and judgment suffer. Low energy availability can drive irritability, poor sleep, and obsessive thoughts about food—an unhealthy feedback loop that athletes may mistake for dedication.

Socioeconomic pressure magnifies all of this. The data showed that unemployment and reduced income increased ED risk. Behavioral science calls this the “scarcity effect”: when money is tight, people narrow their focus to immediate survival problems and lose cognitive bandwidth for long-term health routines. In practice, that might look like skipping balanced meals to save money, or pushing extra training hours for a performance edge, even when the body is already depleted. The association between ADHD and DE also fits known patterns—difficulties with planning and impulse control can make consistent, flexible eating much harder under stress.

Gender differences in mood mirror a broader sports psychology literature. Female athletes are often exposed to stronger appearance pressures, more commentary about weight, and fewer resources tailored to their needs. The study’s finding that women had markedly higher anxiety and depression, despite similar ED risk on the EAT-26, suggests that standard tools may miss parts of the lived experience—like rumination, shame, and social comparison—that show up first as mood symptoms and only later as clinical eating disorders.

One caution: this is a cross-sectional snapshot. It can’t prove that depression causes ED, or that income loss leads directly to DE. But the pattern is coherent and actionable: when athletes juggle weight rules, intense training, and financial instability, they’re more likely to experience a cluster of risks—sleep problems, low mood, and harmful eating patterns—that threaten both performance and long-term health.

From Weigh-ins to Well-Being: What Coaches, Clinics, and Athletes Can Do

– Build routine screening into the season. Use brief, sport-ready tools like the SMHAT-1 for mental health and the EAT-26 for eating disorder risk. Screen at pre-season, mid-season, and before major competitions when weight-cutting peaks. A 5-minute check-in can flag issues before they escalate.

– Shift the performance culture. Reward fueling and recovery the same way you reward technical skill. For example, set team norms: no last-minute crash dieting; no dehydration practices; and a “fuel-first” policy for double training days. Normalize athletes bringing snacks and electrolyte drinks to practice.

– Create a multidisciplinary support loop. Pair coaches with a sports dietitian and a psychologist familiar with weight-class sports. A dietitian can design “weight windows” that reduce drastic cuts. A psychologist can teach athletes to replace all-or-nothing food rules with flexible routines and to challenge perfectionistic self-talk.

– Address socioeconomic stress directly. Where possible, clubs and federations can offer meal stipends on heavy training days, travel per diems that cover nutritious food, or partnerships with local grocers. Reducing money stress can reduce the temptation to skip meals or rely on poor-quality, cheap options.

– Protect sleep and mood as performance assets. Implement lights-out guidance on travel, limit late-night weigh-ins, and schedule tough sessions away from early mornings after competitions. Teach brief tools for emotion regulation—like 2-minute breathing or urge-surfing—to manage pre-weigh-in anxiety.

– Tailor support for women. Provide female-focused education on fueling, menstrual health, iron status, and safe weight management. Ensure there is at least one trusted staff member athletes can approach confidentially about mood or body-image concerns.

– Set guardrails on rapid weight loss. Establish policies that cap weekly weight loss and require medical oversight for cuts. If an athlete repeatedly needs extreme restriction to make weight, consider moving weight class as a health-first decision.

Winning Shouldn’t Cost Your Health

The headline message from Mental health, eating disorder risk, and disordered eating patterns among Lebanese National Taekwondo Players: A cross-sectional study is simple: excellence and well-being rise and fall together. In this sample, many athletes carried significant burdens—anxiety, depression, poor sleep, and disordered eating—amplified by economic hardship and the relentless math of weight classes. None of this is inevitable. With routine screening, smart nutrition planning, and a culture that prizes health over drastic cuts, coaches and athletes can protect both performance and person. The next time a weigh-in looms, the most competitive choice may not be the lowest number on the scale, but the strongest commitment to fueling, recovery, and mental steadiness. What would change in your team if that became the standard for a “good” training week?

Data in this article is provided by PLOS.

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