Alike women, men too obsessed with their eating patterns, growing weight

[Wesley]

http://www.pentagonpost.com/alike-women-men-obsessed-eating-patterns-growing-weight/83415588

 

 

Not only women but men too are obsessed with their eating patterns and growing weight. A new study says, eating disorders are very common phenomenon in men too as thought about the women.

 

The study conducted by researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital has found that roughly 18 percent of teen males have extreme concerns about their weight and physique, that are raising their risk to start engaging in risky behaviors like binge eating or any other eating disorders.

It has been estimated that one in every 10 cases of an eating disorder occurs in men.

Researchers warn that eating disorders with males may not be noticed during doctor’s visits because their desires are different than females in terms of physiques.

If eating disorders affected about 20 million women then almost 10 million men in the United States are affected with the eating problem at some point in their lifetimes, says the National Eating Disorders Association report.  This research suggests males me be closing the gap.

There are two types of classical eating disorders:

Anorexia Nervosa: Person refuses to eat

Bulimia Nervosa: Someone binge-eats then purges through vomiting or laxative use.

Study

For the study, the researchers’ team used survey responses collected between 1999 and 2011 to see what concerns teenage boys had about their bodies.

During the study, the researchers also tried to find if eating disorders were tied to unhealthy behaviors, such as drug and alcohol use in men.

The surveys were answered every one to three years by 5,527 boys who were between ages 12 and 18 at the start of the study in 1999. The researchers found that 31 percent of the teens had – at some point – binged on food or purged.

About 9 percent reported a high level of concern with their body’s muscularity and about 2 percent were both concerned about muscularity and had used some type of supplement, growth hormone derivative or anabolic steroid to enhance it.

Use of those products rose to about 8 percent when the researchers looked just at 16 to 22 year olds.

Those young men who used enhancement products were also more likely than their peers to binge drink and use drugs, the researchers found.

About 6 percent of the young men surveyed said that in addition to muscularity, they were also concerned about their thinness.

Overall, though, young men were more likely to be focused on muscularity and that concern increased with age. Between 2 percent and 3 percent were concerned only about their thinness. Those young men were more likely to develop symptoms of depression later on.

According to the researchers, it would be unrealistic to expect young men and women not to be concerned about their weight or their bodies, but for some it’s all they’re concerned about.

The new research appeared in JAMA Pediatrics.

This seems to me to have 2 separate topics for discussion.

 

The first is that there are so many overweight people and bad foods out there that especially teens are much more worried about gaining weight which is leading to these unhealthy relationships with food and the body. Somewhat like a pendulum that is swinging too far the other way as far as unhealthy eating habits.

 

The second is that this is evidence that men are becoming less valued for their ability to acquire resources or to set boundaries with relationships and kids (which helps develop empathy) and other things that men are more classically thought of. Men instead are starting to be valued by how fit and muscular they are which is leading to unhealthy eating disorders and bad relationships with the body that used to be thought to mostly be with women who are more classically valued for their fitness as an indicator of fertility.

 

In my personal experience I was a little overweight and then got into nutrition and exercise in order to maintain a healthier weight and also look more attractive. It is hard for me to determine whether I did it because of bad food and a bad environment and bad habits taught by my family or if I only felt valuable in romantic relationships if I was physically attractive. I am not sure I could separate the two and consider it to be one or the other. I always planned what I did though and made sure there was some evidence behind my experiments so that I was not doing something unhealthy or that would hurt me in the long run.

 

My thoughts were just quick in response to the article, but I would be interested to see other's reactions and development of the ideas.

[PatrickC]

I've just really glanced over this, but it doesn't entirely surprise me. I think I've accepted that we live in a hyper feminised culture. That it's unsurprising to me that men and boys are picking up some of the habits and concerns that women have.

[Wuzzums]

I'm still not certain how unhealthy eating habits can lead to a muscular fit body.

 

However I fully agree with the eating disorders and bad health part. It's the lazy person's way of losing weight, and what they get is a flabby body and a decrease in energy.