How the obsession to eat healthy food meets with the willingness to do sports: the motivational background of orthorexia nervosa

PURPOSE: Given its relevance, the present study sought to reveal the motivational background of orthorexia nervosa (ON) and to examine its association to do sports. METHODS: A total number of 739 participants completed a self-administered, online questionnaire including questions related to sports and three scales: Ortho-11-Hu, Motivation for Healthy Behaviors in Orthorexia Nervosa Questionnaire (MHBONQ) and Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI). The age of the respondents ranged from 18 to 72 years (M = 29.67, SD = 10.18) and 79.16% of them were female. The majority of the subjects trained 3–4 times a week (37.2%), usually for 1–2 h per week (25.8%). RESULTS: According to the hierarchical multiple regression analysis, social desirability, guilt over skipping training and health anxiety were the strongest predictors of ON with explaining 46% of the variance of ON. DISCUSSION: The results of the present study suggested that obsessive features of sport activities (guilt over skipping training, counting calories during training) play an important role in ON. People with a higher level of ON tend to reach other people’s respect, protect their general health and regulate negative emotional states through healthy eating. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level V, descriptive cross-sectional study. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s40519-019-00642-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.