Author: Jenna Windhorst
When people think of eating disorders, they tend to focus directly on young girls and distorted
body image, even though that may not always be the case. According to the National Eating
Disorders Association one in three who struggle with an eating disorder are male. Men are more
likely to avoid seeking help for an eating disorder and hide their excessive exercising and/or
eating difficulties.
The media is a huge factor in the prevalence of eating disorders. For women it portrays their
bodies to be thin and have enhanced features. While for men they have pressure to be lean and
muscular. Male bodybuilders may, therefore, experience muscle dysmorphia where they obsess
about being muscular. Some signs of this disorder include spending many hours in the gym,
strict eating habits, heavy supplements use, and even steroid usage.
It is proven that men, although not as commonly, suffer from other eating disorders, such as
Bulimia, Orthorexia, and Anorexia. From a report in 2002 in the LANCET that studied men in the
community about 19 per 100,000 suffer from Anorexia Nervosa, 29 per 100,000 suffer from
Bulimia, and 2% of men from the study suffer from Binge Eating Disorder.
It is important that male eating disorders are recognized and treated in society. Just as with
women, men can be triggered by certain factors including, but not limited to, being bullied in the
past about one’s weight, comments from family and friends, sports, and especially diet culture.
Sources:
https://eating-disorders.org.uk/information/eating-disorders-in-males/
https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/learn/general-information/research-on-males
The stereotype that only girls have eating disorders is so harmful. Love how educational this article is!
I am interested to hear more about this topic. Recently, I feel as if more pressure has been placed on this demographic to be skinnier to follow men’s fashion trends. But, the lean and muscular image has always been pushed on men in a damaging way, and I think it will unfortunately continue.
Prior to reading this, I only ever saw eating disorders in girls. It's so eyeopening to see how boys struggle with this as well. I feel that many boys are raised to be "traditional" and unemotional like society teaches. That leads to this issue so boys need to break the stereotypes and embrace these problems in order to be happier and free.