What to Do If You're Struggling With Body Image

Your food or fitness routine shouldn't make you feel like shit

- By Jenna Ryu

IT ’S WELL-ESTABLISHED THAT GIRLS AND WOMEN FEEL A TON OF PRESSURE TO HAVE THE ‘PERFECT BODY’ – but it doesn’t only weigh heavily on them. Guys, too, deal with endless societal expectations to bulk or ‘man’ up like a Marvel character, for example, and to lose weight or stay ‘lean’ in order to satisfy diet culture’s impossible standards. The social consequences of not living up to these ideals aren’t the same for men, to be sure – their value isn’t inextricably linked with their appearance the way it is for women, for one thing – but that doesn’t mean they’re not suffering.

While millions of men struggle with disordered eating and poor body image, research shows that they’re less likely to speak out due to the popular – and might we add inaccurate – assumption that only women experience these problems. And it’s worth noting that body dissatisfaction is particularly common among gay men, who face a unique and intense emphasis on looks.

‘Eating disorders and bad body image can affect people of all genders, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, ages, and sizes, but unfortunately many men suffer without getting treatment due to the stigma,’ says Dr Jason Nagata, an associate professor of paediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies eating disorders in boys and men.