Positive Body Image and Eating Disorders Among Men

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Positive body image captures an overall respect and appreciation for one’s body, regardless of whether it meets societal standards for how a body “should” look and function. In recent years, more research has emerged on positive body image, and has revealed how important positive body image is for overall well-being. Yet, studies have mainly focused on women, with far less research among other gender identities.

In a recent study, my colleagues and I investigated positive body image among men across time. In particular, we focused on the relationship between positive body image and eating disorder symptoms, because research has shown that eating disorders are increasingly prevalent among men. Further, although eating disorders are more common among women, men still represent up to 31% of people with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, and up to 43% of people with binge eating disorder.

The Research: Does Positive Body Image Predict Eating Disorder Symptoms?

In our study, 440 men in the UK between 18 and 85 years old completed an online survey, which contained questionnaires to assess their levels of positive body image, eating disorder symptoms, and other related aspects of well-being. They were invited to complete the same questionnaires again one year later. We then used their questionnaire scores to analyze whether positive body image predicted changes in eating disorder symptoms (and the additional factors) one year later. We also investigated whether the reverse was true: that is, whether eating disorder symptoms (and the additional factors) might also predict changes in positive body image one year later.

The main finding of our study is that positive body image did not in fact predict changes in eating disorder symptoms one year later, nor did eating disorder symptoms predict changes in positive body image one year later. However, positive body image did predict increases in appearance satisfaction and decreases in appearance-ideal internalization over time (appearance-ideal internalization refers to the extent to which the participants “buy into” societal standards for how an “ideal man” should look).

The Take-Home Messages

Prior research points toward the importance of positive body image for well-being. With respect to eating behavior, scholars have proposed that people who respect and appreciate their bodies should be less likely to harm their bodies via disordered eating. Indeed, research among young women has shown that positive body image predicted lower levels of dieting and increased levels of adaptive eating behaviors across time. More generally, cross-sectional research has shown that positive body image and eating disorder symptoms are strongly related to one another within single moments or “snapshots” in time, even among men. Overall, men with higher levels of positive body image tend to have lower levels of eating disorder symptoms.

In this study, however, positive body image did not predict changes in eating disorder symptoms among men across time. Why might this be? One possibility is that the relationship between positive body image and eating disorder symptoms among men is “indirect.” That is, positive body image might encourage changes in other aspects of men’s well-being, which in turn could impact their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors surrounding food. Indeed, we found that positive body image predicted increases in appearance satisfaction, and decreases in appearance-ideal internalization over time; both of these factors are known to impact eating disorder symptoms among men. Therefore, future studies could investigate more complex relationships between positive body image and eating behaviors among men across time.

In relation to the complexity of eating disorder symptoms among men, strides have been made with respect to how researchers measure eating disorder symptoms among men. Namely, questionnaires have been developed that are specific to the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that men tend to have with regards to eating and their body. Overall, eating disorder symptoms among men tend to revolve around achieving a lean and muscular body, such as via the use of steroids and protein supplements. These newer questionnaires were not yet established when we set up our study, and should be used in future research alongside more established measures of eating disorder symptoms.

To the best of our knowledge, our study was the first to examine the relationship between positive body image and eating disorder symptoms across time and among men. We hope that our findings—though unexpected—inspire future research into positive body image and eating disorders among men, as well as among people of other gender identities as well.