“Always do your best!”—The relationship between food addiction, exercise dependence, and perfectionism in amateur athletes

Objective Food addiction is discussed as a substance-related addictive disorder, which is prevalent in normal and underweight subjects. Addictions often co-occur. It was suggested that food addiction and exercise dependence (behavioral addiction), may co-occur in vulnerable athletes. This assumption was made since the eating behavior of athletes in certain situations is similar to the eating behavior seen in food addiction. In addition, exercise dependence may play a significant role in individuals’ eating related pathologies, and thus possibly also in food addiction. Athletes may be an interesting population to examine the co-occurrence of food and exercise addictions, as athletes represent a group that is potentially at-risk for both, eating problems and exercise dependence. Perfectionism is a construct that has been implicated in both, exercise dependence and eating disorders. Current study explores potential relationships among the two addictive disorders food addiction and exercise dependence—with perfectionism being the common thread between the two.