Physical Activity: A Treatment Option for Binge Eating Disorder?

Binge eating disorder (BED) is a relatively new eating disorder that involves recurrent binge eating without compensatory purging behaviors such as using laxatives, excessive physical activity, and/or dietary restraint. Individuals diagnosed with BED exhibit both psychological and physiological problems that are distinct from bulimia nervosa and non-BED obese individuals. There has been little to no research examining the effects of physical activity on BED treatment. Since current BED treatment strategies have been less than successful, physical activity may be a positive addition to BED treatment. Therefore the objectives of this paper are 1) to raise the awareness of exercise professionals as to. the existence of BED, 2) explore the mechanisms that might support the utilization of physical activity as an adjunct treatment strategy for BED and 3) to prompt more interest among researchers and practitioners relative to using physical activity interventions with BED clients.