How to tell if your gym habit is coming from an unhealthy place.

1. You work out to make up for meals or body parts you don’t like

“The biggest sign that your exercise habit is actually unhealthy is if you’re exercising too often and intensely in order to compensate or punish yourself for your daily food intake, or what you perceive to be true about your body.

2. You’re always at the gym

If the front desk staff at your gym know more about you than your co-workers, you might be spending too much time there. “While gym rats might spend a few hours a week at the gym, such as an hour a day, those who are obsessed with the gym and exercising might spend three or four hours there each day, or frequent the gym a few times a day,” explains Dr. Candice Seti, PsyD.

3. You feel tired most of the time

Unhealthy gym habits often lead to fatigue and exhaustion from spending too much time working out and not enough time taking care of your body. Seti says this can put stress on your body and the body’s systems, leading you to become sick or injured from spending too much time at the gym.

4. You change plans to accommodate your workout schedule

Do you cancel plans at the last minute or make adjustments in your schedule to accommodate your workouts? “People obsessed with the gym frequently find themselves changing their plans or planning activities and social engagements around the time they usually would spend in the gym,” Seti explains. For example, someone who has exercise addiction might turn down going for dinner with friends because it interferes with the hours they’d spend in the gym.

5. Your feelings about exercise include words like mandatory, guilt, anxiety, and rigid

When it comes to exercise, the goal is to feel better — not worse — while you’re doing it. Matt Stranberg, MS, RDN, at Walden Behavioral Care, says the following signs indicate a healthy relationship with physical activity might be transitioning to an unhealthy habit, obsession, or dangerous compulsion:

• You maintain a rigid exercise regimen despite dangerous weather conditions or threats to physical health, mental health, or both.

• Your main goal is to burn
  calories or lose weight.

• You experience persistent
  fear, anxiety, or stress regarding negative body changes if you can’t exercise.

• The thought of not exercising
  makes you feel anxious.

• You feel guilty if you miss or
  don’t complete an exercise session.

6. Your results are diminishing

Too much time in the gym often equates to diminished results.For example, certified fitness trainer Jeff Bell says if you find yourself constantly skipping rest days to fit in workouts seven days a week, you’re in the overtraining zone. “You may become irritable, lose sleep and your appetite,” he explains. Too much of a good thing can go wrong very quickly in this case.

7. You have a negative body image

Countless hours working out won’t fix your body image. In fact, there’s a good chance it might make it worse. “A lot of people who are gym-obsessed find that they have a poor body image,” Seti says. “They see an unrealistic version of themselves and strive to perfect it, even if it’s not healthy for them to keep indulging in.” An unrealistic body image can lead to eating disorders as well as overexercising.”

Read the full available article on Healthline

Reflection: Have you ever been addicted to exercising or do you recognize some signs from this list regarding exercise addiction?

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