(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES — Vinh Lam, a fourth-year UCLA economics student, works out up to three hours a day, six days a week.

His exercise regimen is divided among weightlifting, cardio and ab exercises.

Jessica Reid, a third-year political science and Spanish student, visits the gym up to five times a week. Her workouts consist of resistance training, work on an exercise ball, and cardio.

Lam refuses to sacrifice his workout routine for his social life. After a party, he might still head over to 24-Hour Fitness for a late-night workout.

Meanwhile, Reid puts pressure on herself to stay fit because of her job as a physical trainer, and she becomes depressed when she is unable to work out.

Are these fitness-minded college students models of dedication or bordering on obsessive?

Over-exercising can be a result of an unhealthy obsession with fitness. The factors that can cause this condition are becoming increasingly prevalent.

According to the Student Nutrition Awareness Campaign website, 75 percent of college-age women and 43 percent of college-age men are dissatisfied with their bodies.

Some think societal pressures added to this dissatisfaction may be just enough to push someone over the edge.

Under the shadow of Hollywood and neighbored by Bel Air, UCLA students may be especially susceptible to these pressures.

“Los Angeles is the hub of physical attraction,” said Elisa Terry, fitness instruction and training manager for UCLA Recreation. “There’s an emphasis on how you look here.”

Over-exercising may also be a result of an unawareness of the recommended levels of fitness and the way to exercise effectively.

“If they don’t know the effective way to exercise, it’s like they’re spinning their wheels,” Terry said. “This could lead to an injury which could devastate the person even more.”

The most dangerous aspect of compulsive exercise is the ease with which it can go unrecognized. The condition can be easily hidden by an emphasis on fitness or a desire to be healthy.

“We can disguise our obsessions under the guise of being fit because it is a socially acceptable way to purge,” said Sheri Barke, a registered dietician at the Arthur Ashe Center.

“It’s like a drug that gives you that short-term quick fix, but it’s not really dealing with the underlying issues.”

For the over-exerciser, those endless hours at the gym may not only indicate an insecurity in body image but also deeper emotional or spiritual problems.

“Over-exercising is a symptom of something else that the student might be struggling with,” said William Parham, associate director of clinical services at Student Psychological Services. “It can be problematic, but rarely is it the problem.”

Excessive time spent in the gym may become a means of self-affirmation or a way to avoid dealing with problems in other aspects of a person’s life.

“It’s a coping mechanism or an escape used in order to numb themselves from the stress in their life,” Barke said. “It’s important to use exercise as an outlet to stress, but not to the point that you’re using it to the extreme.”

Over-exercising is placed in the same class as eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia, in which individuals deny themselves of adequate nutrition by restrictive eating behaviors.

For men, the term “bigorexia” describes a condition known as muscle dysmorphia, which arises from a delusional preoccupation with body image and size.

“Bigorexia is a kind of reverse anorexia,” Barke said. “The person views himself as not being big enough even though to everyone around him, he’s obviously very muscular.”

Hidden psychological issues that may lead someone to compulsive exercise are also paired with physical consequences.

Someone who over-exercises may experience a loss of coordination, irregular sleeping patterns, gastrointestinal disturbances, and a weakened immune system.

“The body just gets rundown and overused so that the exercise program becomes ineffective,” Terry said. “All you’re doing is tearing the body down, and you’re not giving enough time for it to recover and build back up.”

Women who exercise an unhealthy amount may have irregular periods and severe bone loss due to a drop in estrogen.

Too much exercise can lower testosterone levels in men, resulting in problems with sexual function.

Individuals who exercise compulsively often ignore injuries and bodily warning signals that they are going too far.

The symptoms of over-exercising can be assessed by clinical counselors from SPS or health advisors in the Ashe Center’s MindBody Program.

“Exercising a lot may be a sign of some kind of eating disorder or body-image disturbance,” said Christina Miller, coordinator of the behavioral medicine program at the Ashe Center. “It would be good to talk to a counselor to see what their motivations were for doing it.”

The physical and academic pressures of college may lead to health problems in students trying to achieve too much.

“We try to get people to move their bodies and exercise not for what they can do to change their physical appearance, but for what they can learn about themselves,” Terry said. “Physical activity provides a huge amount of confidence. We try to get people to see that.