Association between muscle dysmorphia psychopathology and binge eating in a large at-risk cohort of men and women

Abstract

Plain English summary Muscle dysmorphia is a mental disorder in which those affected are constantly preoccupied with being insufficiently muscular. Although there is initial evidence that binge eating may play a role in the clinical presentation of muscle dysmorphia (MD), this has not been investigated. In addition, MD has rarely been studied in women. We conducted a study involving 5905 men (n = 422) and women (n = 5483) using self-report questionnaires to examine the association between binge eating and symptoms of MD. We found that symptoms of MD and binge eating are positively associated. According to our model, two-thirds of women and one-quarter of men at-risk for MD exhibit binge eating. Binge eating episodes should therefore form part of the clinical assessment of MD.

Keywords

• Muscle dysmorphia
• Binge eating
• Muscular ideal
• Eating disorder
• Body image
• Bulimic feature