The Enigma of Dissatisfied Human Physical Ideals

"Many assessment tools that are currently standard practice to diagnose eating disorders are geared toward females and are based on weight loss behaviours with the goal to become thin."
"Exercise is an under-recognized component of eating disorders. Teenagers who excessively exercise can have energy deficits and become malnourished if they do not increase their food intake to match their energy needs."
"Disordered eating may develop when a boy becomes preoccupied with his appearance, body size, weight, food, or exercise in a way that worsens his quality of life. He may withdraw from his usual activities or friends because of concerns with body size and appearance."
Dr. Jason Nagata, University of California San Francisco

"We are basically not asking the right questions for boys."
"Consequently, boys do not get access to treatment and they do not themselves see their problems as an eating disorder."
Dr. Trine Tetlie Eik-Nes, researcher, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim

Eating disorders in boys and men are not readily recognized as such, mostly because diagnosis is canted toward symptoms related to and common with eating disorders in girls and women. The popularly-recognized symptoms of eating disorders making diagnosis simple for a troubling pathology are all associated with the way that girls and women react to their eating disorders; the symptoms are not transferable to boys and men. Males focus on building muscle, as opposed to reaching a goal of appearing unhealthily thin.

Adolescent eating disorders exemplified by calorie restriction and purging represent the classic hallmarks of girls' illness, not that of boys. A recently published commentary in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, makes that quite clear, reflecting the work and conclusion of Dr. Nagata and colleagues. Pediatricians and parents may simply overlook eating disorders among teen-age boys; unlike the characteristic symptoms for girls, boys' disorders are linked with the over-consumption of proteins.

Boys will take to a rigid regimen of restricting intake of carbohydrates and fats, and indulging in periods of over-consumption and calorie cutting, convinced this will aid in building muscle, according to the doctors' commentary in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health journal. The use of steroids or supplements to bulk up, or to compulsively exercise, is the type of focus that boys' eating disorders typically lead toward.

Positive body image

Medical community guidelines steering treatment for eating disorders in boys fail to offer recommendations for how best to proceed with patients who exercise excessively. Biohacking is yet another method that increasingly appeals to teen-aged boys with eating disorders as they attempt to optimize physiology for muscle building through episodes of intermittent fasting, elimination diets, supplements and multiple cycles of steroid use.

The issue of the use of unregulated supplements used by teen-age boys to bulk up, which can include a variety of ingredients not clearly labelled or approved for human consumption is yet another problem the doctors identify in their commentary. The most pressing issue to be considered at this juncture, given the increasing numbers of boys and teens presenting with eating disorders is that most research has been undertaken focusing on disordered eating patterns in girls and women; non-applicable to boys and men.

What is applicable however, to both genders, is the idealization of the human figure whereby the 'perfect' muscled male becomes an object of admiration and that of the thin but curvaceous female whom girls and women are anxious to emulate to fit the concept that anyone can aspire to -- the perfect male or female shape through dedicated sacrifices downplaying the need for healthy, balanced food intake and moderate-level exercising.

As the younger generation becomes more addicted to social media sites where the ideal figures for each sex is constantly flaunted, the onlooker's sense of perspective dims and anxiety mounts. What steps into the picture at that juncture is the implacable 'need' to achieve perfection. Accompanied by a willingness to force one's body into an unrealistic and ultimately harmful conception of the perfect male or female shape.

Boys who exercise too much can become malnourished even when they aren't restricting their calorie intake, the doctors write. Photo: Getty