Muscle dysmorphia — aka “bigorexia” — is the preoccupation with the idea that one isn’t big enough, muscular enough, ever.
If you’ve ever spent a moderate amount of time in a gym, you may have seen people affected by the disorder.
Related: Guys Confess Their Struggles With Body Image. Anything Sound Familiar?
No matter how much muscle these guys pack on, they’ll always feel small, not masculine enough.
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The cycle leads to more time spent obsessing over body image, increased disappointment at not living up to an ever-distant expectation, depression, anxiety, and in some documented cases, suicide.
Related: LGBT Athletes Describe What Makes A “Perfect Body”
And then there’s the steroids.
One bodybuilding gym owner in the below video on bigorexia from the BBC estimates that 70% of his customers are currently using steroids.
While the segment doesn’t discuss sexuality as a factor, we’ve certainly seen something like bigorexia crop up among the gay male population.
Watch below:
Mark Di Geronimo Jr.
John DiGeronimo
Glücklich
Once those quads gain GIANT proportions, with or without steroids, they’ll make the guy’s dick look like a cashew. Like, pop that zit and lemme see your dick.
Jesse Erickson
I was told it was called “manorexia”
Finrod
If you watch the video, it seems more like garden variety narcissism than body dysmorphia.
Xzamilio
@Glücklich: Look up Mario Borelli… he’s a GREAT exception to that rule!!!
McShane
@Xzamilio:
Damn.
jwtraveler
@Jesse Erickson: How about “musclemania”?
DarkZephyr
@Xzamilio: Wow, you’re right. But that just makes me wonder how much bigger it would seem if his thighs weren’t red wood trunks. lol
William Adkins
It’s unappealing to me…give me a simple, average to skinny geek who understands DOS commands, and I’m happy as a lark…
Greg Garavani
I used to work at a health club and it was INSANE how many of these guys would live, breathe, eat, shit and sleep workouts. Guys would come in twice a day for hours on end, I would see their key tags not only include my gym but all the local ones in town. I didn’t tolerate usage of steroids in our facility and knew who the sellers were so my eye was always on them, however I did come to find out a close friend of mine was using some. So dissapointing, especially because he’s only 18. I don’t find any of that attractive at all, personally I like my guys meaty, at least 12% body fat please.
Glücklich
@Xzamilio:
That’s a big ding-dong but still not a good look. I like the mountain of an ass but on any frame less than HULKING it’d look ridiculous.
Cam
The problem is, they don’t even look at the whole of their bodies. In some ways they don’t see how ridiculous they look because it’s all about numbers to them.
They think “Ok the next thing I need to do is add another 1/4 inch to my biceps, and 1 inch around my quads, and gain 15lbs.
As a whole they look idiotic, but they aren’t looking at themselves, just the numbers around each muscle, it’s as if they are in a competition that only they know about.
Glücklich
@Cam:
Yikes, I do that! For waist, weight, and body fat. I’m pushin’ 40 so at some point in the very near future…I’m going to go all nutty when I can’t get my body to respond the way it has.
liquidskyny
This guy in this video is truly not enjoying & living life and dealing with a mental issue where he feels he’ll never be good enough in the skin he is in. Sad and probably should seek therapy so he can get out into the world, enjoy the scenery and have some decent relationships with family & friends instead of all his time spent on eating habits and gym attendance.
Cam
@Glücklich:
But waist and things like that actually make a difference because it determines pants fit. These guys will sit there and stress out and focus on their calves getting another 2 inches around, or something like that. 🙂
GayEGO
Whatever it is called it looks uncomfortable and bumpy to me. I prefer a cuddly look which feels comfortable to hug.
darkanser
The subject of this video has an unusual accent. I used to think we gay guys had an exaggerated degree of body self-consciousness. I think straight guys are catching up.
bicurious
I’m sorry, but being this obsessed with your appearance instead of pursuing real achievement is as out of date and unattractive as granite countertops in the kitchen. You don’t see Tim Cook spending so many hours in the gym……
muscular
Few people participate in let alone understand the strength and muscle sports and their culture. Many guys enter because they are scrawny and want a bigger body to look what our culture considers manly. Many also want to be strong to carry, lift items and for self-defense. The whole field is of people who are fearful of shrinking back to an earlier self. Any field has its extremes, but I would rather be with an obsessed muscle god than the two-thirds of people who are overweight or obese. I would rather share a workout than a pizza.
Kangol
@bicurious: Tim Cook pursues one form of achievement, these guys another. Ultimately who’s doing more harm to the planet? It ain’t the bodybuilders, and I say that as someone who does use Apple products.
Allie Pocket
veins popping out is just gross. #sorryboutit
Kangol
@Xzamilio: Mario Borelli, definitely, but also Cruz Brando, Claude Carroll, Kevin Collins, Kai Greene, Aden Taylor, Marco Sky, Titan, Max Chevalier, Rico Cane, Bobby Blake, Harley Everett, and many more!
Pete
@Kangol: also Joey from Sean Cody. like lots of gay4payers, he does porn to pay for his gym & supplement habit.
Bauhaus
Fit men are hot. Guys with the dedication and devotion it takes to maintain a beautiful body are hot. I like a toned body and muscles, but I don’t think having big muscles makes a guy more manly or masculine.
Mkiel
All top sports stars live,breathe,eat & sleep their chosen passion & some even use drugs to beat their competition yet many of us idolise them, are theses body builders any different?
DarkZephyr
@muscular: On please, nobody is attacking generally muscular men, its the ones who look freakish that are being discussed. If that is what you like though, more power to you. Have fun with that.
DarkZephyr
@muscular: For the record, just because a gay or bi man himself is hugely muscular does NOT mean he will necessarily want the company of fellow muscular men. And that’s a fact.
Bob LaBlah
@Greg Garavani: Isn’t it true that midgets, like the guy feature here, have easier time of developing their legs, quads, calfs and butts than guys who are 5’10 or better due to their height?
This guy does not look very tall and to be honest he doesn’t look natural, regardless of how many times a day he eats.
JLJ
Gross. They look (are) disfigured. Definitely a sickness.
Bob LaBlah
@Xzamilio: Hopefully this video clip will play but the point I am making is look how natural, more or less, the black guys look in this video as compared to the white guys. When I was a kid it was NOT unnatural to see black guys who looked damn near like this and HADN”T just been released, as is the thought today. Times have changed. I think all of these black guys are hot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE6uegoRiFk
notevenwrong
The overly large muscular look was very big in the gay community in the 90s and early 00s, possibly as a reaction to the HIV epidemic.
This kind of body seems quite old-fashioned now that a trimmer look is in. Lean to lightly muscular is now fashionable, but steroidy huge isn’t anymore, at least not among the younger set.
JaredNorthcutt30
“While the segment doesn’t discuss sexuality as a factor, we’ve certainly seen something like bigorexia crop up among the gay male population.”
Gee, I wonder why…
Glücklich
@notevenwrong:
They do seem old-fashioned, don’t they? I always thought it kind of had something to do with AH-nold at his peak and the rise of WWE wrestling (Hulk Hogan, etc.). But 50’s-60’s beefcake mags also tended to feature big body-builders, and all those homoerotic 60’s gladiator films…?
It’s not a look that’s ever appealed to me. Lean and defined is what I’ve always striven for but I don’t have a type personally. My guys run the gamut.
Kangol
@Bob LaBlah: Yes they are. Not an unattractive one in that entire clip!