Some Penn students say they are addicted to homework, spending all their free time in Van Pelt Library. Others will claim to be addicted to cheesesteaks, making frequent trips to Abner's, Pat's and Geno's.
But counselors at the University's Counseling and Psychological Services are paying special attention to those who are spending countless hours at the Pottruck Health and Fitness Center.
Such people may have a nationally recognized condition known as "exercise addiction."
CAPS officials are particularly concerned with over-exercisers because of its association with eating disorders.
With 4.1 percent of the student body diagnosed with either anorexia or bulimia, the potential for exercise addiction at Penn is substantial.
As with many other habits, there is no clear parameter distinguishing the committed gym-goer from the compulsive. As a rule of thumb, 40 to 60 minutes of cardiovascular activity 4 to 6 times a week is considered ideal. More telling than the amount of exercise, however, is the emotional motivation behind going to the gym.
"The same psychological mechanisms that cause anorexic eating behavior cause anorexic exercising," said Richard Cotton, a spokesman for the American Council on Exercise.
Obsessive exercisers will be nagged by guilt and likely be unable to eat, sleep, study or socialize until they have logged a satisfying number of hours on the treadmill.
The overarching drive behind the behavior is control, one's entire sense of self-worth riding upon how much time he or she can spend at the gym.
"They go from being committed to exercise to being attached to exercise," Cotton added.
In cases where the condition occurs with an eating disorder, exercisers are prone to feel faint and dizzy throughout their frantic routine. However-- as Margaret Fichter, a counselor at CAPS said -- victims are already too "out of touch" with their body to notice.
They believe in "'no pain, no gain' -- literally," she said.
As going to the gym is far more socially acceptable than obsessive dieting or vomiting, the condition is less observable than anorexia or bulimia, Fichter said. Extreme cases of it, however, are hard to miss.
Jennifer Hunt, associate director of training and wellness at Pottruck, said that she can usually tell when clients are overexercising, as they begin to demonstrate sudden loss of weight and profuse sweating and start to "struggle through a workout."
Though trainers at Pottruck are instructed to notify CAPS when such cases do occur, Hunt would not disclose the exact number of incidences she has come across.
"You can see from the way they freak out," College sophomore Julia Vishnevetsky said of her observations of peers who are compulsive about working out.
"It's a daily thing for them," she added. "They put the gym before schoolwork and other responsibilities."
