'Bodybuilding worsened my eating disorder - I would binge eat for weeks after shows'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A strict diet as a child meant Nicola Chan developed an eating disorder at a very young age. The mum-of-two was just a teenager when she started binge eating and over exercising to burn off all the calories she had consumed.

As she grew older, Nicola became more conscious about her body, leading her to take an interest in fitness and later become an instructor. READ MORE: 'I made a Spotify Wrapped-style presentation for my 2023 dating fails - this is what I learnt' READ MORE: Mum opens chip shop to 'set son up for life' after stranger's ignorant words But the now 41-year-old says she felt like a fraud due to her non-purging bulimia, describing the pressure of maintaining her body as “all-consuming”.

In 2015, Nicola took up bodybuilding in a bid to curb her growing eating disorder. While she thought the hobby would fix her, it only worsened her disordered thinking. “I used to hate my body,” Nicola, from the Formby area of Merseyside, said. “When I became a fitness professional, it was taught that my body is my brand and the pressure I had to achieve and maintain that body was all-consuming. “It became a part of every thought, and because I thought I had a problem with food, it wasn’t like an addiction I could just go cold turkey on, because I needed to eat to live.” Nicola set about doing one bodybuilding show but ended up competing in four shows in the space of three months.

At the end of every show, the mum would spend weeks binging on foods like yogurt, nut butters and cereals before beginning intense training again.