Thomas Steckman, 21, remembers exactly when going to the gym stopped being a hobby and started feeling like a compulsion. His routine quickly changed to long workouts, extreme calorie cuts, and a fear of undoing his progress.
“I want to say three or four months, and every month I would raise my calorie intake like 100 calories, and at the time it was working. So I got the solution that was a good thing and I was doing the right thing but towards the end of it, I started noticing that my energy was low and I was very irritable,” said Steckman, who is originally from New York and moved to South Florida to attend Nova Southeastern University as an undergraduate student.
Men in South Florida in the 18-25 age group are chasing physiques that are shaped by fitness influencers, supplements, and a cycle of bulking and cutting. Meanwhile, health professionals and students are seeing troubling signs that mirror the traits of disordered eating.
“Gym culture does not exist in isolation,” said Elliott Montgomery Sklar, a professor in the Department of Health Science at Nova Southeastern University. “Because of social media, gym culture follows you. You take it with you.”
Sklar, whose research focuses on public health and men’s body image, said that young men are absorbing an over-idealized idea of masculinity shaped by the online fitness community. He described body image as an issue rarely acknowledged in men.
“Body image is a gendered topic in our society,” he said. “However that is not accurate, because we’ve all been taught through media and how we’ve been brought up that how we look, if we look good then we’re good.”
Sklar said men are scrutinized in the same way as women, but are discouraged from admitting it. A study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders found that 22% of men between the ages of 18 and 24 exhibit disordered eating behaviors, including the use of supplements and anabolic steroids and altered diets to gain or loose weight rapidly.
“We’re taught to be strong. And by being strong it’s not admitting weakness. Weakness is having a concern or an issue with your body image,” Sklar said.
For Steckman, that meant months of intense, self-imposed restrictions.
“I instantly cut my calorie intake down to like 1200 calories a day,” Steckman said. “I was running 3 miles a day and doing a full body workout every single day.”
Although Steckman said he was happy with his physical progress, the routine took a toll on his mental and physical health.
“I was tired all the time and I started to get really, really skinny,” he said. “For a long time, I was scared to eat anything more than the calories I set for myself because I thought I was going to revert all my progress.”
Even if they avoid extreme behaviors, some men feel the pressure to conform to a certain ideal. Julian Cooper, an NSU student from Groten, Connecticut, said that people turn to unhealthy practices when they have unrealistic ideas of their fitness progress.
“I feel like the misconception is that it can be done quickly, and it can be done overnight, when it shouldn’t be,” Cooper said. “Your body’s your own body. It’s different from mine, and mine is different than yours.”
After Steckman realized what he was doing was unhealthy and fixed his habits, he still feels that going to the gym is important.
“I think the gym is necessary for everyone. At least some type of health or fitness, and sometimes you just have to get in there and try it for yourself,” Steckman said. “There’s a lot of bad things in the gym, but there’s a lot of good things too. Just make better choices and be healthy.”
Madison Kasper and Alexandria Munroe are reporters with Mako Media Network, Nova Southeastern University’s student-run media, housed in the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts. This article was contributed as part of a South Florida Sun Sentinel writing workshop in coordination with Nova Southeastern Universiy.