Pro Climber on Eating Disorders In Climbing | ft. Melina Costanza

About The Guest:

Melina Costanza is a competition powerhouse and the 2021 US Boulder National Champion. She opened up recently about her struggles with an eating disorder and decided to step away from competitions. We talked about her foot injury and surgery, why patent law is similar to climbing, how sports glamorize suffering, getting stronger during recovery, how gratitude can impact your training, and fun facts about Melina from ketchup to baby teeth necklaces.

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[b]

Good for Melina. We need more strong female climbers that are vocal about these issues, to guide and be positive role models for the younger generations.

There's definitely some pros right now on the womens' circuit that do NOT look healthy...

[ndragon]

Good to see more climbers talking about this. I know Alannah Yip was trying to bring it up the last time she was a commentator on the boulder comp but Matt kinda skirted the topic.

[Hopesfallout]

Kudos to Melina for being open about this topic. I can only imagine how sensitive this topic is among the climber elite. Let's not kid ourselves, the vast majority of female elite climbers have body fat percentages that are way below those of female athletes in most other sports. That doesn't mean that they all have eating disorders, but they are very very light. A lot of them might be genetically equipped to maintain such low body fat percentages, for everyone else, it's only achievable with abnormal eating behaviors. The IFSC has conducted its own research on the topic and has pointed out that disordered eating, as well as Amenorrhoea, are common among elite climbers. They have introduced BMI-based weight limits, but I wonder if they are effective. I at least have never heard of anyone not competing because they didn't fit within IFSC limits, it certainly doesn't seem like it stopped Melina from competing with an eating disorder at any point.

[ScratchRick]

I feel so bad for people with eating disorders... but I do want to say sometimes making the claim of an eating disorder is painful also... my mom and I are VERY skinny, but we don't have an eating disorder... but some people think or even say we do (and I'm only 8 years old) 😢

[addohm]

Sorry man but I can't feel bad for people going through this. They're doing it to themselves and if they're so ignorant to realize that it doesn't actually help climbing short or long term that's on them.