Kamdi Oguchi ’24
(Note: eating disorders are not merely body image issues; they are complex illnesses that can affect anybody. For the sake of clarity, the article will be discussing eating disorders in a binary context using girls and boys.)
Many associate eating disorders with adolescent girls, and by and large, these assumptions are not unfounded. According to Utah State University, “3.8% of females and 1.5% of males 13-18 years have a severe eating disorder (“Eating Disorders Among Children,” 2010),” an incidence rate almost three times higher in girls than guys—or so the data suggests. Although disproportionately represented in girls and women, eating disorders are far more challenging to diagnose in boys, and, therefore, these statistics might not wholly encapsulate the picture.
Stereotypically, whereas girls exhibiting these illnesses have an intense preoccupation with thinness, the inverse, an obsession with muscularity, is more prevalent in boys. Moreover, as articulated by the ChildMind Institute, due to stigma and the fear of being associated with a disease viewed as predominantly affecting women, adolescent boys might not receive intervention until it is too late.
One’s troubling relationship with their body can be further concealed or exacerbated by the practice of body recomposition, or bulking and cutting. According to a 2022 study in the National Library of Medicine, “engagement in bulk and cut cycles both in the past 12 months and 30 days was associated with greater eating disorder and muscle dysmorphia psychopathology among men and women, while only associated with greater muscle dysmorphia psychopathology among TGNC (transgender and gender nonconforming youth) participants in the past 12 months.”
Bulking and cutting is a system that alternates between high caloric intake, the bulk, and a calorie deficit, the cut, to achieve a more muscular physique.
There is one key pitfall of these diet regimens: the teenagers’ lack of research. Adolescent boys looking to bulk or cut can’t enlist a doctor or dietician, so they rely on anecdotal evidence.
According to an interview from Harvard Health Publishing, “About 60% of young boys in the United States mention changing their diet to become more muscular.” Yet, there is little research that clearly articulates the consequences of making such drastic changes as a teenage boy, making it easier for misinformation to spread.
For many boys, a weak self-image or that discomfiting moment at the doctor’s office can prompt a cycle of uninformed dietary changes. In a time where there is more pressure to be masculine both online and on the field, the lack of consensus about bulking and cutting widens an already gaping hole for boys who might need resources and genuine role models to process the changes within their bodies.
While there might be merits to the method, abiding by body recomping, bulking, or whatever you might call it, should take much consideration and probably be used by boys over eighteen.
