Of all athletes, Rhythmic girls have some of the most extreme body types. The general public assumes disordered eating.
Here’s a recently published study.
BODY COMPOSITION PROFILE OF ELITE GROUP RHYTHMIC GYMNASTS
Carvalho L.A., Klentrou P., da Luz Palomero M., Lebre E.
84 RG group gymnasts from the 2009 and 2010 World Cup were evaluated. Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated using standard procedures. Relative body fat (%BF), fat mass and lean body mass were estimated from skinfold thickness …
An increase on the age of the gymnasts participating in high level competitions seems to affect the new body appearance profile. Gymnasts are taller and with higher body mass than in the past. …
A few of the interesting statistics from that study:
• collected during the 2009 and 2010 RG World Cups in Portimão, Portugal.
• Chronological age = 18.59yrs-old (15.27-25.04)
• Body mass (Kg) = 53.05kg or 117lbs (41.10-63.10kg)
• Height (cm) = average 168.13 or 5ft 5in
• Body Fat = 16.74% average
• menarche = 15.92yrs-old average
• started Rhythmic training age-6.46
• training = 40.50hrs / week average
The more successful gymnasts began earlier …, had more years of practice, train more hours a day and had more weekly training volume. The Elite group RG gymnasts had a later onset of menarche than normal population. …
Read the entire paper (PDF) from Vol. 4 Issue 1: Science of Gymnastics Journal.
I don’t know enough about Rhythmic to offer much comment. But do RG girls really need to train more hours / week than Artistic?
That’s surprising.
Delayed menarche seems to be related to low percentage body fat, though the study does not weigh in on that.
The photo is Amina Zaripova who was considered thin even by RG standards.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 
Yeah, rhythmic gymnasts do usually have to train more hrs/week vs artistic gymnasts. It’s mostly because of all of the handling we have to master to put in our routines. I only practice 9/week most weeks and that isn’t even enough for me sometimes.
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More hours does not necessarily make you better. I remember in the 90s many female artistic gymnasts used to train close to 40 hours per week. As coaches become better educated they are learning that not doing excessive hours is better as the quality of training is better and gymnasts get less injuries. Where I live most elite gymnasts are now doing closer to 30 hours per week yet they are doing better gymnastics.
I don’t know much about the training of rhythmic gymnasts, but I would be surprised if that many hours is necessary. When you are training that much you are going to be tried and the quality of training will be lower. I would also expect rhythmic gymnasts to be getting more injuries with that amount of training.
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