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IOC body composition guidelines aren't reaching athletes
Three years after the IOC released guidelines to protect athletes from disordered eating, a new editorial in BJSM finds the advice still isn't reaching them. Coaches and practitioners are failing to implement the new body composition assessment practices designed to prevent RED-S and eating disorders. This puts athletes at continued risk of serious health issues like low energy availability.
Three years after the IOC released guidelines to protect athletes from disordered eating, a new editorial in BJSM finds the advice still isn't reaching them. Coaches and practitioners are failing to implement the new body composition assessment practices designed to prevent RED-S and eating disorders. This puts athletes at continued risk of serious health issues like low energy availability.
The architecture take
The IOC spent years developing body composition guidelines to protect athletes from relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S), eating disorders, and body dissatisfaction. But three years on, those guidelines mostly live on paper, not in practice, according to an editorial in BJSM. This isn't a problem of awareness — it's a problem of execution. The industry isn't just selling performance, it's selling an aesthetic, and that's a tough habit to break for coaches and athletes alike. The gap here isn't just about bad information; it's about deeply ingrained beliefs that lower body fat always equals better performance, even when all the science says otherwise. It's a reminder that even evidence-based recommendations hit a wall when they clash with cultural norms and an athlete's anxiety about making the team. Watch for national sporting bodies to get more vocal as injury rates continue to climb.