Approximately 12% of those suffering from eating disorders are men, and they're the least likely to get treatment for it.  Fortunately more men in the media are telling stories about their battles with bulimia and anorexia.  Craig MacLean, a cyclist in the UK, is talking about his battle with bulimia and how he beat it.  That's an extremely brave thing to do, considering not very many men will talk about their ED.  MacLean would binge and purge to stay thinner and more in shape.  But his weight was actually increasing and his performance suffered.  He considers himself recovered, which is good, and hopefully his story can help a lot of people.

I was reading this support group for people with eating disorders and I was suprised to find males on the cite.  It doesn't really fit the stereotype of most guys, it seems like all guys want to be buff.  But there all different forms of eating disorders, not only anorexia and bulimia.  And not all people with eating disorders are extremely thin.  I also saw a true life episode featuring a guy and he seemed very bothered by his body, even though he was really skinny. 

I think everyone suffers from a poor body image at one point in their life.  But it's important to stay positive and not let yourself get so tangled up in the way you look.  It has a lot to do with self esteem and confidence. But confidence doesn't have everything to do with how you look. 

It seems like gay men have higher numbers of eating disorders compared to striaght men.  There's even been a few studies about this.  The stats are like 15 percent of gay and bisexual men had at some time suffered anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder, or at least some symptoms of those disorders.  But gay women don't seem to show the same correlations.  One theory is because the values and norms of the gay and bisexual male community have high norms for body shape and physical appearance.  This is really sad to me, an eating disorder is so consuming, it's like taking away from yourself.  And yes, it seems like more and more people are falling into that lifestyle.