Men are hiding dangerous, potentially fatal eating disorder in push for body perfection

Days after Sylvester Stallone revealed his own history with bulimia, experts are highlighting a growing but often overlooked rise in eating disorders among men.The Academy Award-nominated actor, 80, revealed during an interview with The New York Times that he developed an “obsession” with eating habits while prepping for his role in the 1982 movie “Rambo.”Stallone said he took pains to appear more “animalistic,” drawing inspiration from jaguars and cats.“It became an obsession.

Really bad.It got to the point where I became bulimic,” he said during the interview.Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder marked by episodes of binge-eating — consuming a large amount of food while feeling a loss of control — followed by purging behaviors such as vomiting, excessive use of laxatives or diuretics, fasting or excessive exercise, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).Brian Pollack, a licensed clinical social worker and certified eating disorders specialist at Hilltop Behavioral Health in Summit, New Jersey, specializes in treating males who struggle with eating disorders, which he said is “highly underreported.”According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD), about 30 million Americans experience an eating disorder during their lifetime, and roughly one-third are male.“Guys with eating disorders just present differently — for some men, it’s about musculature … they continue to build muscle because they are afraid that they are weak, they want their muscles to align,” Pollack told Fox News Digital.

“We also see people who want to be so lean and pencil-thin that they don’t eat whatsoever.”The expert, who has not treated Stallone, compared today’s body-image pressures on boys and men with the beauty ideals many girls and women faced during earlier decades.“We’re seeing this extreme need for perfection and musculature — and that is leading to bulimia right now,” he to...