Dr. Charlie Seltzer claims that he had to hit rock bottom before recognizing his demanding workout addiction.
Seltzer was once averaging 75 minutes of cardiovascular exercise per day, six days a week while consuming very few calories.
But, as with any addictive behavior, Seltzer discovered that he needed more and more to have the same result.
Exercise addiction isn’t a recognized mental illness. Compulsive exercise and disordered consumption of supplements, on the other hand, frequently go hand in hand. In fact, some researchers believe they are so intertwined that they can’t live without one another.
While there is a wide range of compulsive exercises, recognizing indicators early on can help you break the cycle.
If you want to know more about how supplements can lead to an addiction, you can learn more here.
What Are Supplements?
Contents
The active components, the amount per serving (dose), and other substances, such as fillers, binders, and flavorings, are listed on the Supplement Facts label for products sold as dietary supplements.
The manufacturer suggests the serving size, but your healthcare professional may determine that a different amount is more suited for you.
If you don’t eat a good variety of meals, some dietary supplements can help you acquire enough levels of critical nutrients. On the other hand, supplements cannot replace the range of essential foods for a healthy diet.
Vitamins, minerals, and other supplement ingredients may be added to foods you eat, particularly breakfast cereals and beverages.
As a result, you may end up with more of these ingredients than you anticipated, and more isn’t always better.
Taking more than you require is more expensive and may increase your risk of adverse effects.
7 Questions To Ask Yourself If You Are Addicted To Supplements
People who are fitness freaks often develop a tolerance to supplements. However, there aren’t many people who know that they are addicted to supplements, and you may be one of them.
Ask yourself these questions if you want to find out the nature of supplement addiction:
1: Do You Take Supplements To Make Up For Lost Meals?
Are you exercising too often and taking too many supplements to compensate or punish yourself for your daily food intake or what you believe to be true about your body?
In that case, it’s the most telling evidence that your supplementing habit is toxic.
People usually take fat-burning supplements before or after their workout sessions, but if you skip your meals and take the supplements instead, that proves your dependence on the substance.
2: Are You Always At The Gym?
You may be spending too much time at the gym if the front desk staff knows more about you than your coworkers.
While gym rats may spend a few hours each week at the gym, such as an hour per day, those obsessed with the gym and exercising may spend three or four hours per day at the gym.
The more hours you spend at the gym, the more supplements you ingest. It gives you an adrenaline rush, and you don’t want to miss that feeling.
3: Do You Feel Tired Most Of The Time?
Spending too much time working out and not enough time taking care of your body is a common cause of fatigue and exhaustion.
This can place a strain on your body and its systems, causing you to become ill or wounded due to spending too much time at the gym.
However, when you feel tired, you often consume supplements, and that’s an unhealthy reliance on the substance, which is directly proportional to supplement abuse.
4: Do You Change Dining Plans To Accommodate Your Supplement Schedule?
Do you cancel arrangements on the spur of the moment or rearrange your dinner plans because you have just taken a supplement?
People who are fascinated with supplements frequently change their plans or scheduled activities and social events around the time they would typically spend in the gym, ingesting supplements and doing workouts.
Someone with a supplement addiction might decline going out to dinner with friends since it would interfere with their hours at the gym after consuming supplements.
5: Do You Feel Taking Supplements Is Mandatory?
When it comes to taking supplements, the idea is to make you feel better and help you commit to an intense workout routine.
The primary purpose is to lose weight or burn calories. If you cannot exercise after taking the supplement, you will experience chronic worry, anxiety, or tension due to undesirable physical changes.
You become nervous at the prospect of not exercising. It may cause you to burst out that adrenaline somewhere else, which is why you feel taking supplements and exercising afterward is a must.
6: Are Your Results Diminishing?
When you spend too much time in the gym ingesting supplements, your results will suffer.
For example, professional fitness trainers believe you’re overtraining if you exercise 7 days a week.
You may feel agitated, lose sleep, and lose your appetite if you don’t take your daily dose of dietary supplements, which will, in turn, cause your muscles to lose their muscular structure.
7: Do You Have A Negative Body Image?
Countless hours spent exercising will not improve your body image. In fact, there’s a significant probability it’ll aggravate the situation.
A lot of folks who are gym junkies have a negative body image.
They perceive an idealized version of themselves and seek to achieve it, even if they take unhealthy doses of supplements to do so.
How To Make A Healthy Relationship With Supplements?
A workout notebook will assist you in identifying sensations and patterns associated with physical activity. Include the days on which you work out the activities you engage in, the dose of supplements you take, and how you feel while exercising.
The best place to start is getting professional counseling from your doctor or a mental health expert specializing in supplement addiction or sports psychology.
They can assist you in identifying the patterns and behaviors that lead to your unhealthy supplement connection and working toward making fitness a more balanced aspect of your life.
Beware!!!
It might be tough to balance healthy and compulsive supplementation on your own at times.
This is why you should seek professional help when you feel you can’t control your supplementing desires any longer.
For further questions, reach us in the comment section below.