Body builders subject to megarexia

By Julie Maske

Six per cent of all men who train in health studios suffer from megarexia, the opposite of anorexia. No treatment for this illness is currently available.

When life seems unkind, some men suffering from low self-esteem and an ill-defined sexual identity visit health studios and training centres in order to become as large as possible. These men are megarectics. All their spare time is devoted to training, to eating the right things, and to taking drugs - all in order to gain bulging stomach muscles, huge backs and prominent biceps. When they look in the mirror they see a man who is insufficiently muscular and whose body is less than perfect.

Under Associate Professor Geir Arild Espnes's supervision, Elisabeth Innselset a masters-student at the Department of Sports Science at NTNU has had a closer look at men, body attitudes, and drug abuse. The results of her research help to confirm the view that men who train in health studios and who are obsessed with food, body and physical appearance, are likely to develop disturbing notions about their own bodies.

There is no doubt about the fact that physical training and a concern with nutrition are beneficial to people's health. But for some people - in this instance body-builders - such things can get out of hand and develop in a negative direction. Innselset has carried out an investigation based on a questionnaire distributed to 76 men who conduct regular training in health studios and training centres in Bergen, Oslo and Trondheim. They have responded in great detail to questions relating to training, the use of drugs, and their relationship to their own bodies. By means of these answers, Innselset was able to estimate that six-and-a-half per cent of these men had symptoms of megarexia.

- I was surprised to see that the number was so high. Many of these men see it as their 'mission in life' to become larger and train more. The problem is that they have an unrealistic image of themselves. They underestimate their own physical dimensions. When they look in the mirror, they see themselves as too small and too weak. They dislike dressing in tight-fitting clothes or drawing attention to themselves on the beach. Rather than displaying their muscles they often cover themselves up with baggy jeans and sweaters, even in the summer. The megarectic looks on drug-taking as a short-cut to reaching the ideal body, says Innselset. She herself is a sportswoman, as well as a gym teacher and a trainer at a health studio in Trondheim.

- I have been shocked by the number of people who suffer from eating disorders and from delusions about their bodies. My experience as a trainer and a teacher has shown that more and more people are developing anorexia, and I think that over time more men will develop megarexia. There are material, cultural and psychological reasons for this development. A lack of sexual identity, life-expectations, and social pressures about one's appearance are all involved in this matter, concludes Innselset. She points out that in Norway there is no treatment currently available for these men.

* Contact: Elisabeth Innselset
Tel: + 47 93 00 43 43
E-mail: elisabeth.innselset@hivolda.no