Yes, males get eating disorders, too (June 2025)

By Carrie Dennett, MPH, RDN

The thing about stereotypes is that there’s usually a nugget of truth in there somewhere. But taking what’s true for a few and generalizing it to everyone is still a problem, no matter what we’re talking about. So right now, let’s talk about eating disorders. 

Even though we should know better by now, the stereotypical image of someone with an eating disorder remains a young, white, dangerously thin, middle-to-upper class female. Certainly, many people with eating disorders fit that image, but this stereotype excludes entire groups of people who also struggle with these dangerous health conditions—including females in midlife, Black and Brown folks, people who don’t look “thin enough” to have an eating disorder, lower-income people, and males.

Here’s the unfortunate reality: eating disorders know no age, sex, gender, income, race or ethnic boundaries. Far too many people who do fit the stereotype of what an eating disorder “looks like” never receive a diagnosis, which means they are significantly less likely to get the help they need. But when someone struggling with an eating disorder doesn’t fit the stereotype? That presents an additional, significant, barrier to seeking help. And that barrier can be fatal—according to experts, the risk of death from an eating disorder is higher for males than it is for females. 

Stereotypes may be directly to blame for some of those deaths. For example:

• Males may be ashamed to seek treatment for a “female” disorder.
• Their symptoms may be attributed to something else, such as a gastrointestinal disorder. 
• Excessive or compulsive exercise, which often occurs with eating disorders—even in young males—can easily hide under the “cover” of training hard for a sport or simply wanting to be fit, something that’s praised in our society. 

These barriers mean males are more likely to be diagnosed later, when more the eating disorder has done more damage. And because males who struggle with an eating disorder may also be experiencing anxiety or depression, or have a substance-use disorder, their risk of suicide increases. 

Recent research suggests that 1 in 4 people with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, and at least 1 in 3 people with binge eating disorder, are male. It’s ironic that so many areas of research on human health focuses on males, with results extrapolated to females as if they are just males with a few different parts—a particular problem with research on cardiovascular disease—yet the reverse is true with eating disorder research. Many clinical eating disorder trials exclude male patients because they are deemed “atypical.”

It’s true that eating disorders don’t look the same in males as they do in females—perhaps one reason it took nearly a century for clinical descriptions of anorexia nervosa to include males. Even today, many eating disorder screening questionnaires miss males because the questions look for an overvaluation of thinness. This trait is typically true in females, while males tend to overvalue a muscular body. Females with anorexia may want to be as thin as possible so they have a flat stomach, while males with anorexia may desire to be as lean as possible to highlight six-pack abs. In one study of high school students, more than 24 percent of girls overvalued thinness, but less than 5 percent of boys did.

The bottom line is that eating disorders are a mental health condition with serious medical consequences for every organ system in the body. And they can affect anyone, no matter what they look like. If suspect that you or someone you care about, might have an eating disorder, visit the National Alliance for Eating Disorders website (www.allianceforeatingdisorders.com) for more information, or call the helpline at 1-866-662-1235 between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday for support, resources and information on treatment options.

References:

Halbeisen G, Brandt G, Paslakis G. A Plea for Diversity in Eating Disorders Research. Front Psychiatry. 2022 Feb 18;13:820043. 

Halbeisen G, Laskowski N, Brandt G, Waschescio U, Paslakis G. Eating Disorders in Men. Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2024 Feb 9;121(3):86-91. 

Editorial: Cardiology’s problem women. The Lancet. 2019;393(10175):959