Eating Disorders in Men

Men are frequently left out of the eating disorder community, even though they make up a third of all people with eating disorders. 

Body image issues are pervasive among men because they too live under the pressure of unrealistic beauty standards.

Softness is feminine. Masculinity is hard, sharp edges, sculpted, strong, and not too thin.

Men face limiting and toxic messages like these from a variety of sources. 

Traditional beauty standards that pervade movies, TV, books, and celebrity gossip magazines contribute to body image issues like muscle dysmorphia, or the obsession with building a muscular physique.

The superhero transformation actors go through for Marvel and DC movie roles is a prime example of how we celebrate men who are ‘ripped’ and have very little body fat.

Photo by Craig McLachlan on Unsplash

With so much focus on food, workouts, and appearance, bodybuilding to achieve these results can be a slippery slope into disordered eating and exercise addiction.

Video games are another area where men might see unrealistic body standards. While games have come a long way in terms of featuring more body diversity, representation of larger bodies isn’t always well-received. Earlier this year, the trailer for the game God of War: Ragnarok was met with a fatphobic response from the gaming community because the character Thor was animated with a larger body.

Even the workplace may be an unhealthy influence for men. Startup culture is notorious for touting diet culture tricks disguised as methods for enhancing productivity and performance.  Twitter founder Jack Dorsey raised concerns across the Internet when he shared his intermittent fasting routine that resembled disordered eating.

Intersecting identities can also contribute to eating disorders in men.

The important thing is that men feel validated, seen, and heard in recovery.

The transgender community as a whole faces higher rates of eating disorders and that includes trans men. Dealing with gender dysphoria may make one turn to disordered behaviors in order to “fix” their body or masculinize it, but transgender people also report that their eating disorders aren’t necessarily about how they look. 

Gay and bisexual men may struggle in a culture where thinness and abs are prized and fatphobia is anything but subtle. A Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity study found that one-third of the gay men they surveyed had experienced “anti-fat bias” in the dating world.

NEDA reports that gay men are more likely to binge-eat and purge, and gay and bisexual boys are more likely to fast, vomit, or take diet pills than heterosexual men.

You may not attribute your eating disorder to these cultural examples. Your eating disorder may have nothing to do with your appearance, but could be a response to trauma or other stressors in your life. Whatever your experience as a man with an eating disorder, you are valid.

It can be isolating to be a man in eating disorder treatment. Eating disorder recovery spaces and treatment centers aren’t always approachable for men with eating disorders, and body-positive Instagram is dominated by women. Feminine branding may deter some men from eating disorder resources.

Photo by Nathan McDine on Unsplash

But no matter your gender, there will be some universal parts of the eating disorder experience, so getting help should offer you a sense of belonging.

You may have no problem working with an all-women team or being in a treatment group that is mainly made up of women and girls.

You might want to talk to someone who ‘gets’ it and sometimes, ‘getting it’ means experiencing the same gender roles, expectations, and stereotypes as you.

Your eating disorder experience is your own and gender may or may not play a role in how you navigate it. The important thing is that you feel validated, seen, and heard in recovery.

The Kindful Body team works with men through online eating disorder treatment and nutrition counseling and the ANAD peer support program can match you with a mentor of any gender. 

If you are looking for body image or eating disorder treatment in California and would like to explore working together, we can help determine which eating disorder therapist would likely be the best fit for you during your initial free 15-minute consultation.

 Contact us here to schedule your free 15-minute consultation. Our specialties include emotional eating, binge eating, eating disorder therapy, online eating disorder therapy, teens and college eating disorders, and eating disorder treatment in California. 

We have eating disorder therapists online in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Mateo, and across California.