The experience of compulsive exercise in individuals with an eating disorder: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Eating disorders are common mental health concerns that affect over 700,000 individuals in the UK. A common issue across eating disorder diagnoses is the engagement in compulsive exercise and this has been associated with the development and maintenance of eating disorders. Compulsive exercise can be one of the first symptoms to present and has been noted to impact negatively on treatment outcome. To try and explain this, researchers have focused on exploring the psychological factors, beliefs and motivations that might be associated with compulsive exercise, however, these studies have tended to rely on self-report measures. The literature review aimed to explore the psychological factors that are associated with compulsive exercise in clinical (eating disorders) and non-clinical adolescents. Four electronic databases were searched and 16 studies met the inclusion criteria. The findings were not always consistent, however, there was evidence to suggest that compulsive exercise was associated with increased eating disorder symptomology, depression, anxiety, affect regulation, obsessionality, perfectionism and self-esteem across both clinical and non-clinical groups. However, due to the various methodologies used, further research is required to reliably establish the psychological factors associated to compulsive exercise in adolescents. The empirical study aimed to explore the experiences of compulsive exercise in adult individuals diagnosed with an eating disorder. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven females diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and these were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The analysis generated four superordinate themes and 13 corresponding sub-themes. The themes were discussed in relation to relevant psychological theory and previous research and the clinical implications and recommendations for future research also discussed. The critical appraisal provides a reflection on the research process and includes the professional and personal development of the researcher from undertaking the study.