Toward a framework of muscularity-oriented disordered eating (original) (raw)
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Current Considerations for Eating and Body-Related Disorders among Men
2013
Historically, empirical research exploring body image concerns, their antecedents and consequences, has been primarily focused on women and their desire to become thinner resulting in less knowledge of eating and body-related disorders in men. Recently, there has been an increasing awareness of the existence of males with clinical or subclinical eating disorders. According to etiologic models and meta-analytic data, body dissatisfaction is the most consistent and robust risk factor for eating psychopathology. Although men, like women, actually seem to experience similar levels of over-concern about physical body, their body concerns are qualitatively different. Whereas women typically want to become thinner and are focused on losing body fat from the waist-down (e.g. thighs, buttocks, hips), men are dissatisfied with their upper body (i.e., chest, shoulders, arms) and desire to have a muscular physique. These differences suggest that the use of questionnaires measures of body image attitudes primarily designed to capture women's body concerns and conformity to female's body shape ideals may lead to invalid assessment of men's body experience. The preoccupation with enhancing musculature termed as ''drive for muscularity" is closely associated with negative affect, social physique anxiety, pathological exercise behaviour, dysfunctional eating patterns and muscle dysmorphia. Muscle dysmorphia (MD), a form of body dysmorphic disorder, is described as a cluster of dysfunctional cognitions, attitudes and behaviours (i.e. dietary restriction, inflexible rule regarding the type and amount of food to be eaten, compulsive exercise to the point of impairing social, occupational, or recreational activities, anabolic-androgenic steroid abuse) experienced mostly by men who believe that one's physique is small and not muscular enough, even though they are often more muscular than average people, accompanied by a strong need to control and change it. Although the validity of MD as a clinical entity is demonstrated, several scholars and clinicians have repeatedly questioned its diagnostic placement (i.e., somatoform disorder vs. eating disorder spectrum). In this chapter we elucidate the gender differences on body images concerns, the factors that contribute to male body dissatisfaction with particular focus on media imagery, which variables interact with body dissadisfaction to predict men's eating disorders symptoms, how similar or dissimilar are males and females with regards to eating disorderd behaviours and the concept of muscle dysmorphia (known also as reverse anorexia).
Purpose: Robust empirical evidence has illustrated a rising prevalence of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating among males, noting that both may be oriented more toward muscularity as opposed to thinness-oriented concerns. While an elevated prevalence of premorbid anorexia nervosa (AN) has been noted among those with muscle dysmorphia, little evidence has examined the process of this transition from thinness-oriented to muscularity-oriented disordered eating. Methods: This clinical observation presents a case of AN in an adolescent male, whose symptom presentation transitioned during the course of treatment for AN, into more muscularity-oriented disordered eating. Results: Despite the core body image disturbance and disordered eating behaviors being retained, the behavioral expression of muscularity-oriented disordered eating was difficult to detect during treatment for AN, and he was discharged from treatment as his muscularity-oriented disordered eating escalated. Conclusions: Transdiagnostic crossover between thinness-oriented and muscularity-oriented disordered eating represents an important clinical concern, which may be challenging to measure and assess. Implications for treatment are discussed, and the early detection of muscularity-oriented disordered eating.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 2002
Eating disorders are one of the rare psychiatric disorders with a large preponderance of female patients. The other articles in this issue deal with eating disorders in children and adolescents and focus primarily on female patients. This article reviews the eating disorders that occur in male children and teenagers, including anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN) binge eating disorder, a subtype of body dysmorphic disorder named muscle dysmorphobia, and obesity. This article reviews subgroups of boys who are at higher risk for developing eating disorders. The article commences with the difference in male perceptions of body image and dieting behaviors. Two important points are notable across the eating disorder spectrum in boys. First, little is known about treatment and outcome in boys with eating disorders. Second, although many boys have the same distorted body images and aberrant eating behaviors that girls have, few boys develop full-symptom eating disorders. Nothing is known about the protective factors that prevent boys with distorted body image and abnormal eating behaviors from developing AN, BN, or obesity. Body image and dieting Studies of body image and dieting examine two of the factors that contribute to the development of eating disorders. Most children and teens who diet begin that process when they feel they are overweight and start to cut back on food intake and increase exercise in an effort to shape up. Although boys frequently have more negative attitudes about peers who are overweight or out of shape and are responsible for more teasing and harassment of overweight peers [6], they also suffer from disordered eating.
This assignment is an exploratory small literature review, which aims to investigate the association between body dissatisfaction, body image disturbance, muscle dysmorphia and disordered eating behaviour. Social Cognitive theory (SCT) and Social Comparison theory have been used as background knowledge to explain some of the ways that behaviour develops. It helps to elucidate the occurrence and interrelation of body dissatisfaction, body image disturbance, the phenomenon called muscle dysmorphia and the connection to disordered eating behaviour. Thus, the research question for this assignment became " How is Body Image Disturbance created and how is it related to Body Dissatisfaction, Muscle Dysmorphia and Disordered Eating behaviour? " Five papers were included in the results section and the key findings of the review were that exercise reasons, volume, and type, degree of self-objectification and social comparison, sociocultural attitude towards appearance, and parental influence all contribute to the development of body dissatisfaction, BIDs and disordered eating behaviour. These disorders show a pattern of going hand in hand but with mediating variables, which can influence the outcome.
Body image, binge eating, and bulimia nervosa in male bodybuilders
Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie, 2006
Male bodybuilders (MBB) exhibit more severe body dissatisfaction, bulimic eating behaviour, and negative psychological characteristics, compared with male athletic and nonathletic control subjects, but few studies have directly compared MBB and men with eating disorders. This study compared men with bulimia nervosa (MBN), competitive male bodybuilders (CMBB), and recreational male bodybuilders (RMBB) on a broad range of eating attitudes and behaviours and psychological characteristics to more accurately determine similarities and differences among these groups. Anonymous questionnaires, designed to assess eating attitudes, body image, weight and shape preoccupation, prevalence of binge eating, weight loss practices, lifetime rates of eating disorders, anabolic androgenic steroid (AAS) use, and general psychological factors, were completed by 22 MBN, 27 CMBB, and 25 RMBB. High rates of weight and shape preoccupation, extreme body modification practices, binge eating, and bulimia nerv...