Boys and Eating Disorders

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