HuffPost on Bigorexia: How to Solve Bigorexia
- Mike Sonneveldt
- Dec 15, 2025
- 11 min read
What is Bigorexia?
It’s called “bigorexia”. Which is also directly related to “muscle dysmorphia”. Both revolve around an “unhealthy” desire to gain size and muscle. Typically, medical professionals also recognize the eating habits you have in both of these cases and associate them with eating disorders.
After all, you gotta eat big to get big.
Key Takeaways on Bigorexia
Bigorexia (muscle dysmorphia) is an obsessive pursuit of muscle size driven by deep insecurities about masculinity, social hierarchy, and perceived inadequacy, primarily affecting young men amid rising testosterone and competitive instincts.
Mainstream solutions like limiting social media, promoting body diversity, and emphasizing non-physical traits (e.g., kindness) are superficial and ineffective because they ignore the primal, biological drive for physical competence and status.
True resolution lies in building a secure masculine identity through competence across multiple domains—relationship with the divine, value provided to others, and practical skills—guided by mature male mentors, rather than fixating solely on physical size.
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Generally, Bigorexia and Muscle Dysmorphia are much more likely to show up in boys/men as opposed to girls/women.
Kind of a “duh” statement.
Sadly, I speak about the topic from experience. In my 20s, I pursued size and strength with tenacity. However, I never achieved the size and strength I wanted. It drove me nuts. I compared myself to every other guy, obsessed over going to the gym, and tried to eat everything in sight. My hopes were to finally build a body that demanded respect from everybody around me.
Then again, I don’t know that I would have ever reached my goal. For one thing, when would it be enough?
And that was probably the biggest danger of my pathway.
HuffPost says how to solve Bigorexia
Recently, Huff Post came out with an article about “Bigorexia,” and its rise in younger generations – especially young men.
They list the usual culprits: celebrities, advertising, and social media. They expand on unrealistic expectations and how focusing too much on working out and eating right are signs that your teenage son has Bigorexia.
The article goes on to suggest that talking about “body diversity” and unrealistic expectations are the solutions.
The author states, “There are many ways parents can help counteract the forces that fuel body image issues and psychological disorders like Bigorexia.
"‘Limit social media consumption as much as possible, but recognize that you cannot eliminate it altogether,’ Trunzo advised. ‘Your child will be exposed to these images, so talk to them about what they are seeing. Listen to what they say, how they interpret what they see, make sure they understand the reality behind what they are viewing, and are not ‘buying’ the image.’
"He also recommended emphasizing values of human worth and dignity that go beyond physical appearance. Focus on qualities like kindness, creativity, humor, etc.”
My own dealings with body image issues
I understand the obsession that can take place in a young guy. And unfortunately, it was something that no one considered a real problem when I was coming of age.
I’ll never forget when, freshman year in college, I was at my girlfriend’s parents’ house. A couple of pizza boxes sat open on the counter.
Her mom, without thinking, pushed me, “Eat more! You’re skin and bones!”
My immediate thought? “Would you tell a fat person maybe they shouldn’t eat that extra slice of cake because of their weight?”
At the end of the day, it wasn’t a major comment, and it should roll off a guy’s back.
But it’s etched into my memory because it hit too close to home. I always struggled with my size. I was wiry and strong, but skinny in high school. I graduated at about 155, while I watched friends and other guys my age walk around at 185, 205, or even the few that broke the 220s and 230s.
I wanted to be that. It exhibited power, strength, and dominance. Because at the end of the day, a guy who's got a lot of muscle and size has a physical advantage over other guys.
In the animal realm, that matters.
The truth about men's obsession with muscles
We can go on all day about training in martial arts, having skill over size, or being proficient with a firearm. All of those matter. But there is something primal about a guy with absolute size and strength. We look in awe at someone who walks around at 6’6’ and 350 pounds of solid muscle, who can lift cars on one shoulder and has a shelf for many women on the other shoulder.
In the minds of many young guys, muscle means everything.
And the ones who are telling them not to think about it? And they shouldn’t obsess over it? They are probably skinny-fat, flabby, and hunched over desks all day. They don’t exactly exude testosterone and masculinity.
So when you tell these young men to “limit social media”, enjoy “body diversity”, and that they should focus on kindness and creativity...it’s not going to get through to most of those young men.
I don’t begrudge the people in the Huff Post article, but the solution reeks of canned psychologist answers.
I agree that social media and celebrities can have a destructive influence. I’ve said it myself. But there’s an underlying cause of a condition like “Bigorexia” that feeds on those things. Not the other way around.
Is focusing on gaining size unhealthy?
First off, unhealthy is pretty subjective. A mom who loves her some KFC buckets in the afternoon isn’t going to understand when her son starts measuring his ground beef by weight.
“That’s obsessive and unhealthy. He shouldn’t worry about that!”
Maybe you should worry about the trans fats a little more and your son’s scale a little less.
In fact, our definition of an unhealthy obsession revolves around how WE FEEL about the person’s habits and behaviors. While there are certainly clinical definitions of unhealthy obsession, simply telling parents to keep an eye on it isn’t enough.
And again, it doesn’t get to the root of the issue.
Speaking from experience: discipline is extremely useful when it comes to focusing on your size goals. Measuring your proteins, carbs, and fats becomes a powerful tool in achieving your goals. You learn to sacrifice shallow pleasures. You learn to embrace the sacrifice and drudgery. You focus on delayed gratification.
Learning how to pursue a goal is good for a young man. Sadly, any hint of discipline can look like craziness to others.
Discipline looks crazy to others
Wanna test that?
Go out to dinner with friends and family. Let everyone else order their food. They’ll get burgers, chicken wings, big plates of pasta, and fried goodies. They’ll order beers and mixed drinks to wash it all down.
When it comes to you, order two plain chicken breasts with a side of veggies and rice. Get some water to drink.
How quickly people will come out of the woodwork to question your choices.
“Live a little. Come on, you don’t need to diet tonight.”
“Just have one drink. Everybody else is.”
“You and your ‘healthy eating.’ When are you going to have some fun?”
The social pressure of allowing vice and pleasure to rule your life can be just as powerful, if not more so, than discipline. This means the simple answer of “Moderate and don’t pay attention to the social media feed” falls flat. Vice and pleasure compete with discipline and sacrifice.
The more a person becomes resolute in their discipline, the more anybody dangling vice and moderation will look like an evil temptress.
Moderation doesn’t answer the “why”. As in, WHY is the young man obsessing over his size and weight? Is it the external influences only?
No. Those play off his insecurities. The real question is: why is he insecure in the first place?
Why are men insecure?
As we all know, teen boys are right in the thick of a wash of testosterone. That means their bodies are primed to be built and strengthened.
What draws him to physicality? What makes teenage boys, drenched in testosterone, want to get big and dominant?
Because that boy is in the midst of one of the most formative times of his life. He’s doing everything he can to find his position in the social hierarchy. He wants to climb. He wants his peers’ respect. He wants girls’ attention. He wants influence over the society around him.
He wants to be something.
Muscle and size are easily identifiable indicators of being higher up on the social hierarchy chart. Telling a young man not to worry about social position and just be “kind” is akin to telling him to grab those thick-rimmed glasses, pull his pants up higher on his belly, and start talking about chemistry ad nauseam.
So I’m going to say this to the parents as well as the young men themselves.
I've been there
I’ve been there. I’ve been through the wringer. I’ve looked in the mirror and have always seen the 155lb soaking wet string bean.
Even when I was a stout 230 with competition-winning lifts in powerlifting. The guy in the mirror was skin and bones. No matter what size, I saw the skinny little boy staring back at me.
I’d look at other guys with their massive shoulders, arms, and bench presses and wonder why I was so weak.
I sat by as other guys easily deadlifted 100lbs over my best, and got frustrated at my “lack of strength.”
I know the inner battle.
I’ve sat in the backroom at work, literally choking on plain, dry chicken and rice, hoping to cut a little fat and get rid of the small power-belly I’d been fashioning while pursuing a good main three lifts.
All while never being satisfied.
What is the solution to Bigorexia?
What is the solution? How do you help a young man avoid the overly obsessive, destructive nature of never feeling enough when staring back at the mirror?
Achieve standards and become confident.
“That answer sucks, Mike. Talk about vague.”
Masculinity and identity
Masculinity is a core facet of inner identity. It’s forged (heh) through competence, which produces true confidence in being a man.
Competence means meeting the standards. Whether spoken or unspoken.
A young man is a mess of incompetence and untested skills. He’s feeling so completely inadequate when he compares himself to his peers, because most likely, he truly is inadequate.
A man feels the most secure when he can handle the adversities of life. And that’s more than just changing a flat tire.
What is masculinity?
It’s knowing he can handle life across the different realms. He knows how to handle grieving for a dead loved one. He knows how to handle negotiating a contract. He knows how to change his car’s oil and shingle a roof.
The thing is, no man can do everything. But the more skills he amasses across the numerous fields that help him navigate life and be of value to others, the more secure in himself he becomes.
A man’s true purpose is in direct relation to how much value he can provide to others. When he makes a difference in the world, he becomes more secure in his manhood.
And becoming a man comes with age. It comes with experience, testing, and competition.
Young men act like gorillas because it’s the nature of youthful testosterone. They prove themselves in a competitive nature because that’s biology. This is why male culture across civilizations prizes physical strength, prowess, fighting ability, ambition, and cleverness. It’s a massive signal to the other men that you can handle your stuff if you’re called on, and signals to the women that you are good stock.
Telling young men to just not be so obsessed is telling them to take their hat out of the procreation and status ring.
Good luck with that.
So how do you shape masculinity properly?
Understand that young men are created to compete. It signals both to others and themselves where they stand on the social hierarchy. This is why young men are so attracted to sports, fitness, video games, and other competitive ventures.
The ones who shy away from it or say they don’t like competition? Usually, they do so because deep down, they know they don’t stack up in the typical competitions.
(But get them in a spelling bee, and they’ll crush Chester on the next round…)
The danger of Bigorexia is when a man believes his entire identity hinges on his size and physical nature. He crafts a narrative that he’s not big enough, and the idea becomes so ingrained in his psyche that if you give him a marker, he’ll outline his smaller size on the mirror.
What shapes identity?
Identity is a culmination of several factors. And a man needs to understand that identity is not shaped purely through size and looks. Instead, a truly confident identity is built out of three areas.
Our relationship with the Divine. God formed us for eternal desires. We express those through our seeking of those things greater than ourselves. Whatever we place in that divine category becomes a shaping truth to our identity. It becomes our purpose for existence. Mind you, the space of the divine should be filled with Christ, but we do it with other gods, ourselves, science, philosophy, knowledge, even sexuality, and more.
Our relationship with others. How well we can protect, provide, and preside helps determine our value to the world. If we offer no value to the world, then we lack a healthy identity.
Look at It’s a Wonderful Life. George Bailey needed to be shown that without him in the world, the entire town would have suffered. He needed experiential proof that his life mattered and that he provided value. He understood the blessing of his life when he recognized his value in the world.
Our relationship with ourselves. How confident are we in our skills to handle what the world throws at us? How well can we navigate the chaos of the wilderness and not just survive, but thrive? If we don’t have real abilities, we won’t have true confidence in ourselves, and our identities will be question marks.
Our identity’s 3-part foundation rests in the center of us. As young men, our social standing helps us get a picture of where we stand. We observe our social standings and competency levels to determine our identity.
As a man grows and comes to understand how competent he is in the 3 areas I listed above, the more secure in his masculine identity he becomes.
These young men? They’re striving to prove their worth to the world.
what’s the solution to an issue like Bigorexia?
These young men need real men in their lives, mentoring them on how to become mature, capable, masculine men who serve God and others with the skills they’ve learned.
They need to understand that it takes time to develop manhood and that no one can simply become a man by becoming the biggest guy on the block. Instead, a masculine man is capable and competent in many areas. That means he may not be the strongest and biggest, but he has comfortable control over how he embodies his relationship to the divine, others, and himself.
So, while social media and celebrities may have a role in exacerbating the problem, I’d argue the real problem is: we’re not pouring into our young men to help them understand what masculinity actually is and how to truly shape identity.
FAQs on How to Solve Bigorexia
What is bigorexia?
Bigorexia, also known as muscle dysmorphia, is a body image disorder where individuals (mostly men) obsessively pursue greater muscle size, often feeling perpetually "too small" despite significant gains, leading to unhealthy eating, training, and comparison habits.
What's wrong with the HuffPost article's solutions on Bigorexia?
Suggestions like limiting social media and focusing on kindness or body diversity are "canned" and ineffective because they fail to address the root causes: primal masculine drives for dominance, social status, and competence fueled by testosterone and biology.
Is pursuing muscle gain and disciplined eating always unhealthy?
No, according to the author; measuring food and training intensely can build valuable discipline, delayed gratification, and goal-oriented habits—traits beneficial for young men—unless the pursuit becomes the sole source of identity and self-worth.
What causes insecurity leading to bigorexia in young men?
It stems from teenage boys' natural testosterone surge, desire to establish social hierarchy position, gain respect from peers, attract women, and signal strength and dominance—exacerbated by comparisons and lack of broader competence.
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