This a question that comes up again and again in the eating disorder space, and this week I'm joined by someone who's lived it from both sides. Sophie Du Plessi is a final-year nursing student at King's College London and the founder of ED Informed, a campaign calling on gyms and fitness spaces to become eating disorder informed.

Before any of that, Sophie was a national-level competitive swimmer, and her own story of how exercise turned from something joyful into something compulsive is at the heart of this episode.

When the thing you love stops feeling like a choice

For 15 years, swimming was Sophie's whole world, and it was joyful, freeing, and completely healthy. Then her competitive career ended abruptly, at the exact moment the pandemic hit. What happened next is a really honest look at how quickly exercise can shift from something you love into something that starts running you, rather than the other way round.

The line between discipline and compulsion

This is one of the trickiest things to untangle, and Sophie has thought about it more than most. Gym culture often celebrates the very behaviours that, taken further, tip into something much more concerning. We talk about how to spot that line in yourself, and why it's rarely as obvious as people assume.

Why it's so easy to miss

Compulsive exercise doesn't tend to announce itself. It sneaks in quietly, often disguised as commitment or self-improvement, which makes it incredibly hard to catch, both for the person experiencing it and for the people around them. We talk about why that secrecy happens, and what it actually felt like from the inside.

What gym staff could be looking out for

Sophie's work with ED Informed is centred on training gym staff to spot the signs of disordered exercise and eating disorders in the people they see week in, week out. We get into some of the observable behaviours that can be red flags, and why starting a conversation, even an imperfect one, matters more than getting it perfect.

Rebuilding a relationship with exercise

If you've ever wondered whether it's possible to have a healthy relationship with exercise after an eating disorder, this part of the conversation is for you. Sophie shares what it took to protect the sport she loved, and how she's slowly rebuilt trust with movement on her own terms.

What real change in gym culture could look like

Sophie's vision for ED Informed goes further than most people would expect, from mandatory training for fitness staff to a genuine eating disorder informed standard for gyms. We talk about what that could look like in practice, and why it matters for an industry that touches so many people's relationship with their bodies.

Listen to the full conversation

This is a conversation for anyone who's ever felt the pull between what their body needs and what the gym, or the scale, or the mirror seems to be asking of them. Sophie's honesty about her own experience, paired with the work she's building to change things for others, makes this one well worth your time.

🎧 Listen to the full episode with Sophie Du Plessi wherever you get your podcasts, or watch on YouTube.

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• Connect with Sophie and ED Informed via her website or Instagram (@edinformed)
• Health policy petition: https://www.change.org/EDInformed_HealthPolicy