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Eating disorders don’t just affect women; the patterns are emerging in men through fitness and optimization.

Online communities amplify the problem; looksmaxxing and transformation culture mirror diet culture dynamics.

If we wait for eating disorders to be the same in men, we’ll miss them. Their red flags hide as “discipline.”

Decades of media influence have led to the concept that eating disorders are synonymous with women. It’s left an enormous blind spot: the millions of men quietly developing a toxic relationship with their bodies inside the insidious corners of the manconomy, the ever-growing ecosystem of products, influencers, and online communities selling men on the idea that their bodies are problems that need to be solved.

I've spent my career treating eating disorders, and, in the past few years, I've watched something shift in our culture, specifically for men. The obsession isn't only about food; it now includes transformation and optimization. Underneath that is something clinicians need to recognize immediately: disordered eating, compulsive exercise, and an all-consuming relationship with the body as if there is something to be fixed.

New language for an old problem

The vocabulary has changed over the years, but the........

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