Gym, Eat, Repeat: the Shocking Rise of Muscle Dysmorphia > 자유게시판

The idealised male body has become bigger, bulkier and harder to achieve. So what drives a generation of young men to the all-consuming, often dangerous pursuit of perfection? It is difficult for Buy Prime Boosts Miles to pinpoint the moment his muscle dysmorphia started. It was just always there, a background hum. "As far back as I can remember, I wanted a better-looking body," says the 35-year-old US soldier, Prime Boosts Supplement now stationed in Mons, Belgium. When he was 13, Miles spent a summer cutting grass to save up for a secondhand Soloflex exercise machine. The machine cost $1,000 (£800), but as Miles was too young to join a gym, it was worth the expense. With the help of the Soloflex, Miles started weight training and never looked back. When he returned from a posting to Afghanistan at 24, things spiralled. He began obsessively working out and regimenting his meals. " Miles set his watch to beep every three hours, to remind him to eat. If it beeped when he was driving, he would pull over.

Slowly, he whittled his body into shape. His muscles became striated, every fibre visible. Not big enough. At 95kg (210lbs) and 1.8 metres (6ft 2in), Miles wanted to be more muscular; leaner. He lost 22kg and started competing in amateur bodybuilding competitions. There was virtually no fat on him. "You pinch your skin and it just stays pinched." His girlfriend left him. "She began to realise that my body dysmorphia was like dating another person." The pursuit of muscularity took over his life. Yet by 33, single again - the dysmorphia had claimed yet another relationship - it had all become too much and he was in a dark place. "I did not enjoy life in any way, shape or Visit Prime Boosts Pills Boosts form." All day long, he would starve himself, struggle through punishing workouts, go home and binge-eat before throwing it all up. One evening, waiting in line at the burger chain In-N-Out for more food to purge, Miles finally decided enough was enough.

A subset of body dysmorphic disorder, individuals with muscle dysmorphia feel they need to become bigger or more muscular, regardless of their size. Sometimes referred to as "bigorexia", it typically affects men. About 30% of people with muscle dysmorphia will also have a medically diagnosable eating disorder, as those with the condition may follow extremely restrictive diets. Because men with muscle dysmorphia rarely seek treatment, estimating its prevalence in the general population is hard, but it is believed that about 10-12% of professional male weightlifters meet the criteria. And muscle dysmorphia may be on the rise. A study published in June found that 22% of men aged 18-24 reported muscularity-oriented disordered eating. "The drive for a bigger, more muscular body is becoming very prevalent," says the lead researcher Dr Jason Nagata of the University of California, San Francisco. Not everyone who benches 180kg has muscle dysmorphia. It is when working out takes over your life, occluding all else - work, family, friends - that you have a problem.

"Their entire day is spent at the gym trying to bulk up," says Nagata. What drives a generation of young men to slavishly pursue this physical ideal? "Over the past decades, the idealised male body image has got bigger and bulkier," says Nagata. This body type even pressed its way into our children’s bedrooms: studies show that action figures have become brawnier over the past 25 years. This wasn’t always the case. US, there were protests against the Vietnam war," says Dr Roberto Olivardia of Harvard Medical School, an expert in male body image. "So that build was really frowned on and rejected by youth culture. "But then the 80s came about, with figures like Ronald Reagan, who was pro-military, and men like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone." This ideal male - hyper-masculine, militaristic, strong above all else - was exported globally through films such as First Blood (1982), Predator (1987) and The Terminator (1984). WWE wrestling was founded in 1980, and the likes of Hulk Hogan became celebrities.