Male Body Image Statistics: 59% of U.S. Men Were Self-Conscious in 2025

By TRT Provider Guide · Updated September 2026

In an August 2025 YouGov poll, 59% of U.S. adult-citizen men said they were fairly or very self-conscious about how their face and body look. That is 40 percentage points above the very-only result of 19%, according to TRT Provider Guide's September 2026 calculation. These male body image statistics measure feelings, not diagnoses.

One widely repeated number comes from a single Boston hospital's patient files. Below: where each number comes from, what it can support, and the newer data that answer related questions.

Key male body image statistics

• 59% of U.S. adult-citizen men were fairly or very self-conscious about their appearance in August 2025, and 19% were very self-conscious. Among women it was 70%. (YouGov poll of 1,083 U.S. adult citizens, including 448 men)Copy citation
• 40 percentage points separate the 59% fairly-or-very result from the 19% very-only result for U.S. adult-citizen men in August 2025. (TRT Provider Guide calculation from YouGov's table, September 2026)Copy citation
• 18% of men in a 2016 U.S. internet-panel sample of adults in committed relationships were very or extremely dissatisfied with at least one of their appearance, body, weight or muscles. (Frederick et al., published 2020)Copy citation
• 43% of the 548 male readers in Psychology Today's 1996 questionnaire analysis were dissatisfied with their overall appearance. That finding does not establish the separate claim that dissatisfaction "tripled to 45%." (Psychology Today, 1997)Copy citation
• 36% vs. 18%: Among men in a 2016 U.S. internet-panel sample of adults in committed relationships, weight dissatisfaction (36%) was twice overall-appearance dissatisfaction (18%). (Frederick et al., Body Image; ratio by TRT Provider Guide)Copy citation
• 42% of U.S. males 16 and older felt pressure to have a particular body type in April 2021, and 56% said the media promotes a body image for men that can't be reached. (YouGov)Copy citation
• 28% of UK men said body image had made them feel anxious, in a March 2019 YouGov survey of 2,103 men for the Mental Health Foundation. The reported answer is a feeling, not a diagnosis; its recall period was not stated. (Mental Health Foundation)Copy citation
• 41.7% was the age-adjusted estimate of U.S. men 20 and older who had tried to lose weight in the past year, in 2013–2016. The definition also counted intentional loss of 10 pounds or more. (CDC, NCHS Data Brief 313)Copy citation
• 16.57% of U.S. boys in grades 8, 10 and 12 reported past-year creatine use in 2023–2024, up from 8.71% in 2019–2020. Their past-year steroid use fell to 0.78%, from 2.92% in 2001–2002. (Monitoring the Future data, Veliz et al., 2026)Copy citation
• 2.8% of 1,488 boys and men aged 15–35 in Canada and the U.S. met criteria for probable muscle dysmorphia in a 2024 online survey recruited through social-media ads—not clinical interviews. (Ganson et al., 2025)Copy citation
• 2.2% of men completing the body dysmorphic disorder module met its survey criteria in a 2004 U.S. national telephone survey—not a clinician-confirmed diagnosis rate. (Koran et al., 2008)Copy citation
• 7.5% of anorexia cases and 26.7% of binge-eating disorder cases were men in a 2012–2013 U.S. national-survey analysis limited to people with lifetime disorders who answered help-seeking questions. These are published weighted shares. (Coffino et al., 2019)Copy citation
• **"1 in 10 gym-goers"** was reported as a charity leader's spoken estimate in BBC Newsbeat in 2015. That report names no study supporting the estimate. (BBC Newsbeat)Copy citation
• 2.9 to 4.0 million Americans aged 13–50 were estimated to have used anabolic steroids in a paper published in 2014. Across nine studies pooled in that paper, 22% of users had started before age 20. (Pope et al., 2014)Copy citation

On this page: Source Check · Self-consciousness · Weight, body and muscle · Pressure and media · UK numbers · BDD and bigorexia · Eating disorders · Dieting, supplements and steroids · Is it getting worse? · Testosterone · Method · Cite · Download · FAQ · Sources

Which male body image statistics can you trust?

This Source Check follows 10 selected male body image claims back to their evidence. Some have a clear source but get quoted about the wrong group. Others cannot be traced far enough to use as a measured rate.

The clearest same-survey lesson is a 40-percentage-point gap: 59% of men were fairly or very self-conscious, but 19% were very self-conscious. Both numbers are right. They answer different questions about how strong that feeling was.

Source: TRT Provider Guide's selected source audit, checked September 29, 2026. This is not a count of the most-repeated claims or a systematic review. Full details and record-level limits are in the free CSV.

Where did "tripled to 45%" come from?

The full trail was not established. Psychology Today's 1997 article reports 43% of men dissatisfied with their overall appearance and 45% dissatisfied with their muscle tone. Those are different measures, not competing estimates of the same thing. The article mentions earlier surveys in 1972 and 1985, but the inspected text does not verify the male 15% comparison point.

The bigger issue is who answered. The magazine printed a five-page questionnaire in its March/April 1996 issue. About 4,500 readers mailed it back. The analysis used the first 4,000, and only 548 of them were men. The article says the people who replied were mostly white, college-educated and in their early to mid-30s.

That's a real finding about readers who chose to write in. It is not a measure of all men, and the questionnaire was printed 30 years before this source check. Do not claim that the 43% finding proves where the separate 45% trend claim came from.

Where did "men are 1 in 4 eating-disorder cases" come from?

A 2001–2003 national survey found lifetime rates in men of 0.3% for anorexia, 0.5% for bulimia and 2.0% for binge-eating disorder. Women's rates were 0.9%, 1.5% and 3.5%.

Those percentages use men and women as separate denominators. They do not, by themselves, tell you men's share of all cases. Dividing the men's rate by the sum of the two rates silently assumes equal weighted populations of men and women. Adding the disorders also risks counting the same person more than once.

So the exact origin of a catch-all "1 in 4" claim remains unresolved here. A later paper directly reports weighted male case shares for a defined group: people with lifetime eating disorders who answered help-seeking questions. Use those published shares in the eating-disorder section, rather than making a case-share estimate from two prevalence rates.

Where did "42% of men with eating disorders are gay" come from?

It comes from a review of patient records at Massachusetts General Hospital. The records covered 135 men treated for eating disorders from 1980 to 1994. Among the 62 men with bulimia, 42% were identified as gay or bisexual.

That's one hospital, one diagnosis and records from 1980–1994. It says nothing about men with anorexia or binge-eating disorder, and nothing about men outside that hospital. Gay men do report more body dissatisfaction in large surveys. You'll find those numbers below.

Where did "1 in 10 gym-goers have bigorexia" come from?

In a 2015 BBC Newsbeat story, the chair of the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation said about 10% of men in UK gyms may have muscle dysmorphia. The story cites no study.

Watch how the words changed as the number traveled. The original said men "may have" it. A South African news column that October said "at least" 1 in 10.

One measured result is 2.8% of boys and men aged 15–35 in a 2024 U.S.–Canada survey. That's a different group than gym-goers, so it doesn't prove the gym estimate wrong. It is a count of probable cases in that sample, not a clinical diagnosis rate.

How many men are self-conscious about their appearance?

In an August 2025 YouGov poll of U.S. adult citizens, 59% of men said they were fairly or very self-conscious about how their face and body look. Nineteen percent said they were very self-conscious. Among women, 70% said fairly or very.

Picture the poll results as 10 men at a cookout. About 6 represent the fairly-or-very group. About 2 of those 6 represent the "very" group. This illustrates the percentages; it does not predict the answers of a real group of friends.

Source: YouGov poll results, survey of 1,083 U.S. adult citizens (448 men, 635 women, unweighted), August 19–22, 2025. Women's column sums to 99% because of rounding.

Why do 59% and 19% both describe the same poll?

They use different cutoffs. "Very or fairly" gives 59%. "Very" alone gives 19%. That's a 40-point gap from the same men answering the same question.

So if you write "most men are very self-conscious," you've made a mistake. "Most men are at least fairly self-conscious" is what the poll found.

Who does this poll describe?

It describes U.S. adult citizens in YouGov's online panel. People sign up for that panel, and YouGov weights the answers to match the country by age, gender, race, education and voting history. YouGov reports a margin of error of ±4.2 percentage points for the full sample. It does not publish a separate margin for the 448 men in this table. Do not attach the full-sample margin to the men's result.

It also measures one feeling: self-consciousness. It doesn't measure dissatisfaction, and it doesn't measure any disorder.

Are men more unhappy with their weight than their overall looks?

Yes, in the same-sample comparison here. In 2016 survey data from U.S. adults in committed relationships, 36% of men were dissatisfied with their weight, compared with 18% for their overall appearance. That's twice the share. The paper was published in 2020.

Source: Frederick et al., "The Happy American Body 2.0," Body Image, 2020; full-text methods and results. Survey 2 was collected in 2016. Its main analysis included 409 men and 590 women in committed relationships. The table shows men only. Dissatisfied and satisfied shares are published, rounded percentages. Each neutral share is implied by 100 minus those two percentages, calculated by TRT Provider Guide, and may differ from the unrounded survey result.

The same 2016 partnered-adult sample found 18% of men were very or extremely dissatisfied with at least one of these four things.

Does "not satisfied" mean "dissatisfied"?

No, and this mix-up is easy to make. In Table 3's 2016 partnered-adult sample, 61% of men were satisfied with their body. That leaves 39% who were not. But only 27% were dissatisfied. The implied middle group is about 12%, calculated from rounded percentages.

Calling all 39% "unhappy" would overstate it by about 12 percentage points.

Do gay and straight men answer differently?

Yes. In five large U.S. online surveys, gay men were more likely than straight men to be unhappy with their muscles and overall looks. The published percentages were closer for weight; the authors did not find a clear gay–straight difference for that measure.

Source: Frederick & Essayli, Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 2016; authors' institutional abstract. Across five U.S. internet studies, the authors analyzed 111,958 straight men and 4,398 gay men. Those combined counts are not the denominator for each table cell. Collection years and the row-specific sample sizes were not verified from the accessible abstract.

These are online-study findings, not one national probability-sample estimate. Keep the sexual-orientation groups and the unknown collection years attached when citing them.

How much pressure do men feel about their bodies?

In an April 2021 YouGov survey, 42% of U.S. males 16 and older said they felt completely or somewhat pressured to have a particular body type. Fifty-six percent said the media promotes a body image for men that can't be reached.

Source: YouGov Body Image Study 2021 and its data tables. Survey of 1,302 U.S. people aged 16 and older, including 653 males (unweighted), April 26–27, 2021. The pressure responses sum to 101% because the displayed cells are rounded.

One small wrinkle. YouGov's article says 42% of men felt pressure. The table cells add to 43% (11 + 32). Rounding could explain the difference, but the unrounded values were not available. We retain YouGov's published 42% and show the rounded cells rather than silently replacing it with 43%.

Some articles credit these numbers to a 2024 Brunel University of London study. The Brunel news release quotes the YouGov numbers. Brunel's own study surveyed 224 men in the UK, and it didn't produce these percentages.

Does social media cause body image problems in men?

The studies here can't prove that. They show links, not causes. Brunel's study of 224 physically active UK men found that more passive scrolling went along with more attention to appearance and a stronger drive for muscles. Men who liked and commented more were less satisfied with their bodies.

That's a link. It could run both ways. A man who already worries about his body might scroll fitness posts more.

What do UK male body image statistics show?

In a 2019 YouGov survey of 2,103 UK men for the Mental Health Foundation, 28% said body image had made them feel anxious and 25% said it had made them feel depressed. Separately, CALM reports that 48% of 2,000 men surveyed said body image had affected their mental wellbeing. The campaign was reported in 2021; its exact fieldwork dates are not published on the inspected producer page.

Sources: Mental Health Foundation, men's findings and Body image in adulthood (YouGov online survey of 4,505 UK adults, including 2,103 men, March 25–26, 2019); CALM BodyTalks. The BBC's April 28, 2021 report describes the CALM sample as UK males ages 16–40; the producer page confirms 48% and 2,000 men but does not supply those sampling details. These are different questions, and some come from different surveys, so don't add the rows. Self-reported anxiety and depression here are not clinical diagnoses.

If body image is weighing on you. You're not the only one, and it can get better with help. In the U.S., the National Alliance for Eating Disorders runs a helpline staffed by therapists at (866) 662-1235, Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern (listed as EST). The ANAD helpline is (888) 375-7767, Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Central (listed as CST). If you're in crisis or thinking about suicide, call or text 988, or chat with the 988 Lifeline, any time.

How common are body dysmorphic disorder and muscle dysmorphia in men?

A 2004 U.S. telephone survey found 2.2% of men completing its module met criteria for body dysmorphic disorder. A 2024 online survey of boys and men aged 15–35 in Canada and the U.S. found 2.8% met criteria for probable muscle dysmorphia. Neither figure is a current, clinician-confirmed national diagnosis rate.

Body dysmorphic disorder is a mental health condition. A person gets stuck on a flaw in their looks that others barely notice, or can't see at all, and it causes real distress. Muscle dysmorphia is a form of it. The worry is that your body is too small or not muscular enough. The International OCD Foundation's expert guide also describes a link with anabolic steroid use.

Here's the scale within that sample: 41 of 1,488 met the criteria—about 1 in 36. This does not predict the rate in a new group of boys and men.

Sources: YouGov; Frederick et al.; Nagata et al.; Ganson et al.; Koran et al.; Udo & Grilo

These rows use different questions and populations; the last two share one survey. They are not stages of one condition and cannot be compared as if they came from the same group.

What is bigorexia?

"Bigorexia" is a nickname for muscle dysmorphia. It's not a separate diagnosis. Wanting to build muscle isn't bigorexia. The condition is about distress and a stuck belief that you're too small, even when you aren't.

How reliable are these disorder numbers?

Both have limits. The 2004 survey used trained interviewers who weren't clinicians, and its authors called for a follow-up using clinical interviews. Its sample also had more women and more people over 55 than the U.S. adult population.

The 2024 survey recruited its 1,488 boys and men through Instagram and Snapchat ads in March and April. People who answer those ads may differ from people who don't. Its probable-case estimate was 2.8%, with a reported 95% confidence interval of 2.0%–3.7%; that interval does not remove the limits of a self-selected sample.

What share of people with eating disorders are men?

In an analysis of 2012–2013 U.S. national-survey data, men were 7.5% of lifetime anorexia cases, 14.1% of bulimia cases and 26.7% of binge-eating disorder cases. Coffino and colleagues published those weighted shares for people who met the study's criteria and answered help-seeking questions. That is a defined sample, not one percentage for everyone with any eating disorder.

Sources: Hudson et al., 2007 (NCS-R, February 2001–December 2003; eating-disorder module: 2,980 adults); Udo & Grilo, 2018 (NESARC-III, April 2012–June 2013), Table 1. Each cell is a weighted prevalence estimate within men or within women. It is not men's share of all cases.

Source: Coffino, Udo & Grilo, 2019, Results: distribution of diagnoses by sex. These are 2012–2013 NESARC-III respondents with lifetime disorders who answered help-seeking questions. The weighted shares are reported by the authors; dividing the raw counts will not reproduce them. This subset is not identical to Udo & Grilo's full prevalence analysis above.

Two big cautions. The surveys used different interviews and different editions of the psychiatric manual (DSM-IV vs. DSM-5). And the newer survey's authors said they were surprised bulimia and binge-eating rates came in lower than earlier estimates, since DSM-5 had loosened some criteria. So show both numbers and don't declare a winner. A difference between these studies is not proof of a change over time.

One more gap: in the 2012–2013 survey, men with binge-eating disorder were less likely than women to ever seek help.

How many men and boys try to change their bodies?

In 2013–2016, the age-adjusted estimate of U.S. men 20 and older who tried to lose weight in the past year was 41.7%. Among U.S. men aged 18–24 in 2001–2002, 22% reported eating more or differently, using supplements or using steroids to gain weight or bulk up.

Sources: CDC NCHS Data Brief 313 and its data table; CDC MMWR QuickStats, 2018. The overall and trend figures are age-adjusted; the three age-group figures are age-specific. All use the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and count either trying to lose weight in the past year or losing at least 10 pounds on purpose. The pooled 2013–2016 estimate and the two-year trend endpoints cover different windows, not different definitions.

Losing weight can be a healthy goal. These numbers show how many men are working on their bodies, not how many are unhappy.

Are teen boys using more steroids?

Through 2023–2024, no. Past-year steroid use among U.S. boys in grades 8, 10 and 12 fell from 2.92% in 2001–2002 to 0.78% in 2023–2024. That's a drop of about three-quarters. But creatine use jumped. It went from 8.71% of teen boys in 2019–2020 to 16.57% in 2023–2024. That's close to double in four years.

Source: Veliz et al., primary paper; public first page, Methods and Results. These are weighted survey estimates, not counts inferred from the total study sample.

Source: Veliz et al., Annals of Epidemiology, 2026. The study used Monitoring the Future surveys of 874,931 8th, 10th and 12th graders from 2001 to 2024. That is the whole study sample, not the number of boys behind each estimate. Math: 16.57 ÷ 8.71 = 1.90; (2.92 − 0.78) ÷ 2.92 × 100 = 73.3%, rounded to 73%.

Creatine is not an anabolic steroid. Still, the researchers' paper notes that pediatric guidance recommends against its use under age 18 because evidence on safety and effectiveness in youth is limited.

How many American men have used anabolic steroids?

A paper published in 2014 estimated that 2.9 to 4.0 million Americans aged 13–50 had used anabolic steroids, and about 1 million may have become dependent. That modeled total includes women; it is not a male-only count or a 2026 estimate. Across nine studies pooled in the paper, 22% of users had started before age 20.

That last number matters. It means about 78% in those pooled studies had started at 20 or older. School surveys catch the teen years, so they miss most of the story.

You may also see "6.4% of men" used as a steroid figure. That comes from Sagoe and colleagues' 2014 review of 187 studies worldwide. It is a pooled estimate, not a representative count of all men in the world. A later medical review pointed out that it leans heavily on high-risk groups like athletes, gym members and prisoners. So it isn't a rate for men in general.

Both things can be true at once. Teen use can fall while millions of adults have used steroids at some point.

What about the "90% of teen boys" number?

It's real, but narrow. In the 2009–2010 school year, more than 90% of boys at 20 Minneapolis–St. Paul middle and high schools said they exercised more to build muscle. The same survey found 34.7% of boys used protein powders or shakes, and 5.9% of boys said they had used steroids in the past year. The sample included 1,307 boys and 1,486 girls. The exercise figure includes doing it rarely, sometimes or often; it does not measure compulsive exercise. It's one metro area, using 2009–2010 data.

Is male body image getting worse?

The selected sources here do not provide one like-for-like national trend in men's body dissatisfaction. The trend data that do exist point in different directions. More U.S. men tried to lose weight in 2015–2016 than in 2007–2008. Teen boys' steroid use has fallen, while their creatine use nearly doubled from 2019–2020 to 2023–2024.

It's tempting to line up Psychology Today's 43% from its 1996 questionnaire, published in 1997, against YouGov's 59% from 2025 and call it a rise. Don't. They asked different people different questions. One asked magazine readers about dissatisfaction. The other asked a weighted national panel about self-consciousness.

The difference is not just the year. A satisfaction rating, a weight-change behavior and a disorder assessment measure different things. This Source Check keeps them apart rather than treating changes between their percentages as a trend.

Does body image worry mean a man has low testosterone?

No. None of the numbers on this page can tell whether a man has low testosterone. Doctors diagnose low testosterone using symptoms or signs plus consistently low levels on repeat early-morning blood tests, as described in the AUA and Endocrine Society guidelines.

Feeling unhappy with your muscles does not establish low testosterone. To see how that diagnosis works, read who qualifies for testosterone therapy and which blood tests doctors use. Our low testosterone statistics page explains the guideline rules in detail.

Nonmedical anabolic steroid use and medically prescribed testosterone differ in purpose and clinical oversight, not in being wholly separate kinds of hormone. Both can suppress the body's own hormone signals and sperm production; prescribed TRT is not fertility-neutral. See the medical review and Endocrine Society guideline. For what the research says about recovery, see sperm recovery after testosterone. For the legal side, see is testosterone a controlled substance.

If worries about how you look take up a lot of your day, or get in the way of work, school or relationships, talk with a doctor or a mental health professional. That's the right first step, whatever your hormone levels are.

How we built this

What we collected. On September 29, 2026, we checked the sources behind 10 selected claims in this reference, then recorded related survey results and calculations. This is a source check, not a new survey or a systematic review of every study.

What counts as a selected claim. The 10 claims are the rows in Table 1. They are not ranked by how often websites repeat them. When a source trail stops, the row says so instead of supplying a guessed original study.

How we traced. For each number, we followed the trail to where it was first measured or said. We recorded who was asked, how many, where, when the data were collected, when it was published and what kind of sample it used.

How we added newer data. We looked for original sources that answer related questions: YouGov polls, federal surveys (NHANES and Monitoring the Future), national eating-disorder surveys and recent peer-reviewed studies. "Newer" does not mean the same question or population, and this selection does not establish that no later study exists.

What we calculated. Every calculation is shown next to its number and in the CSV:

• 19 + 40 = 59; 59 − 19 = 40 percentage points.
• 36 ÷ 18 = 2.0, within the 2016 partnered-men sample.
• 100 − 61 = 39; 39 − 27 = 12. Neutral percentages use rounded published inputs.
• 16.57 ÷ 8.71 = 1.90; (2.92 − 0.78) ÷ 2.92 × 100 = 73.3%, rounded to 73%.
• 100 − 22 = 78, for age of first steroid use in the pooled studies.
• 42.2 − 35.5 = 6.7 percentage points.
• 41 ÷ 1,488 × 100 = 2.76%, which rounds to the paper's 2.8% probable muscle-dysmorphia figure.

These are arithmetic on published results, not a new analysis of individual survey responses. We did not calculate men's case shares from sex-specific prevalence rates. Table 8B uses the weighted shares directly reported by Coffino and colleagues.

How closely we checked. We read the original tables for both YouGov polls and the original Psychology Today article. For CDC figures, we used the NCHS data brief, its data table and the MMWR report. We checked the Frederick 2020 paper's full-text methods and results to confirm the 2016 data and the main partnered-adult sample. We read the relevant full-text methods and results for Hudson, Udo and Grilo, Coffino, Eisenberg, Nagata and Ganson. The Veliz teen-use figures were checked against the publisher's public first-page Methods and Results, not just its news coverage; the rest of that paper was not fully accessible.

For Frederick and Essayli's five-study comparison, Carlat's clinical series, Koran's telephone survey, Pope's estimates and Sagoe's meta-analysis, verification was limited to the relevant original abstract or accessible publisher sections. Unknown collection years or row-specific denominators remain marked unknown. CALM's producer page confirms the 48% result and 2,000 men; the BBC supplies the campaign date and reported UK/age context. Other CALM percentages found only in secondary reports are not presented as verified measurements here. Each CSV row records its source and verification depth. Our site's research data methods and editorial standards apply.

How to repeat it. Download the CSV. Every row has the source link, the value, the years and the math. Calculation rows identify their inputs. A source-check row and a measurement row may describe the same finding; record counts are not counts of independent studies or participants.

What this data does and doesn't show

It does show where selected male body image numbers come from, where a trail remains incomplete, how old the verified data are, and who was asked. It also gives you newer numbers for related questions.

It doesn't show one current national rate for every kind of body-image concern, or a like-for-like trend across the different surveys. It doesn't show that social media causes body image problems. It can't diagnose anyone, and it can't tell anyone whether they need treatment.

Keep these rules in mind:

• Numbers from different surveys, years or countries can't be added or averaged into one figure.
• Weighted online panels (like YouGov's) are adjusted to look like the population, but people choose to join them.
• "Self-conscious," "dissatisfied" and "diagnosed" are three different things.

How to cite this page

Ready to copy:

TRT Provider Guide. "Male Body Image Statistics: 59% of U.S. Men Were Self-Conscious in 2025." TRT Provider Guide Research, updated September 2026; sources checked September 29, 2026. https://trtproviderguide.com/research/male-body-image-statistics/

When you quote a survey number, credit the group that ran the survey too. For example: "59% of U.S. adult-citizen men were fairly or very self-conscious about their appearance (YouGov, August 2025)." Original table. When you use our tracing or calculations, credit TRT Provider Guide.

Reuse: You may reuse our original text, source-check notes, calculations and chart design with credit to TRT Provider Guide; no link to this site is required. This permission does not license third-party data or images. Keep each original source credit and follow its terms, including YouGov's Public Data License and its required original-source link. YouGov source credit: "Source: YouGov plc, 2025, © All rights reserved" (2021 for the older poll).

Download the data

• Source Check dataset (CSV): male-body-image-source-check-2026-09-29.csv. 103 records: 10 claim checks, 82 measurements or published summaries, and 11 calculations, with source details and check dates. Some records describe the same finding; these are not 103 independent studies.
• Chart data (CSV): male-body-image-chart-data.csv
• Charts (PNG and SVG): Chart 1, Chart 2, Chart 3, Chart 4

No form, no sign-up.

The Source Check gives you each finding's wording, population, date and original source. Copy those together so the number keeps its meaning.

Questions about male body image statistics

What percentage of men have body image issues?

In YouGov's August 2025 poll, 59% of U.S. adult-citizen men were fairly or very self-conscious about their appearance. That answers a feeling question, not how many have a disorder. A separate 2004 survey found 2.2% of men completing its module met BDD criteria; the two surveys are not interchangeable.

How common is male body dysmorphia?

A 2004 U.S. telephone survey found 2.2% of men met criteria for body dysmorphic disorder. A 2024 online survey found 2.8% of boys and men aged 15–35 in Canada and the U.S. met criteria for probable muscle dysmorphia, a form of it. Neither was a clinician's diagnosis. Source 1 Source 2

What is bigorexia in men?

Bigorexia is a nickname for muscle dysmorphia. It means being stuck on the belief that your body is too small or not muscular enough, even when it isn't, in a way that causes distress. In a 2024 survey recruited through social-media ads in Canada and the U.S., 2.8% of boys and men aged 15–35 met criteria for probable muscle dysmorphia. Source 1 Source 2

What are the most common body image concerns for men?

Weight tops the list in the survey that asked about several parts of the body. In the 2016 U.S. partnered-adult sample published in 2020, 36% of men were dissatisfied with their weight, 27% with their muscle tone or size, 27% with their body overall and 18% with their overall appearance. Source 1

Is it true that 1 in 10 men at the gym have muscle dysmorphia?

The 2015 BBC Newsbeat story reports a charity leader's spoken estimate and cites no study for it. A 2024 U.S.–Canada survey found 2.8% probable muscle dysmorphia among boys and men aged 15–35 recruited through social-media ads. That different sample neither confirms nor disproves a gym-goer estimate. Source 1 Source 2

What percentage of people with eating disorders are men?

Men were 7.5% of lifetime anorexia cases, 14.1% of bulimia cases and 26.7% of binge-eating disorder cases in Coffino and colleagues' analysis of 2012–2013 U.S. national-survey respondents who answered help-seeking questions. These are published weighted shares for that defined analysis, not one current percentage for all eating disorders.

Are these 2026 survey results?

No. September 2026 is when we checked the sources and did the analysis. The newest poll here was taken in August 2025, and every table shows its own years.

Do these numbers mean a man needs testosterone therapy?

No. Body image feelings and behaviors don't show whether a man has low testosterone. Doctors diagnose low testosterone with symptoms or signs plus consistently low levels confirmed by repeat early-morning blood tests. Source 1 Source 2

Sources

Sources checked September 29, 2026. Verification depth and unresolved fields are described in the method and dataset; a check date is not a new observation date.

1. YouGov. "What do Americans think of public nudity?" Survey of 1,083 U.S. adult citizens, August 19–22, 2025. Article; poll results, self-consciousness question.

2. Garner DM. "Body Image in America: Survey Results." Psychology Today, February 1, 1997. Link.

3. Hudson JI, Hiripi E, Pope HG Jr, Kessler RC. "The prevalence and correlates of eating disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication." Biological Psychiatry. 2007;61(3):348–358. Link.

4. Carlat DJ, Camargo CA Jr, Herzog DB. "Eating disorders in males: a report on 135 patients." American Journal of Psychiatry. 1997;154(8):1127–1132. Link.

5. CALM. "CALM Body Talks: Getting to grips with body image." Producer page confirms 48% and 2,000 men; fieldwork dates and sampling detail not stated. BBC Newsbeat. "Body image affects half of men's mental health, new study shows" (CALM and Instagram survey). April 28, 2021. Link.

6. BBC Newsbeat. "Muscle dysmorphia: One in 10 men in gyms believed to have 'bigorexia.'" 2015. Link.

7. Eisenberg ME, Wall M, Neumark-Sztainer D. "Muscle-enhancing behaviors among adolescent girls and boys." Pediatrics. 2012;130(6):1019–1026. Full paper, Methods and Tables 1–2.

8. Nagata JM, Murray SB, Bibbins-Domingo K, et al. "Predictors of muscularity-oriented disordered eating behaviors in U.S. young adults." International Journal of Eating Disorders. 2019;52(12):1380–1388. Full paper, Table 1 and Methods; 2001–2002 outcome data.

9. YouGov. "YouGov Body Image Study 2021." Survey of 1,302 U.S. people aged 16+, April 26–27, 2021. Article; data tables.

10. Brunel University of London. "New study: Social media impacts male body image." October 17, 2024 (Bell C, Cocks AJ, Hills L, Kerner C, New Media & Society). Link.

11. Mental Health Foundation. "Millions of men in the UK affected by body image issues." 2019. Link.

12. Mental Health Foundation. "Body image in adulthood." 2019 survey report. Link.

13. Frederick DA, Garcia JR, Gesselman AN, et al. "The Happy American Body 2.0." Body Image. 2020;32:70–84. Publisher; author full-text copy, Survey 2 methods and results; 2016 data, main analysis of partnered adults.

14. Frederick DA, Essayli JH. "Male body image: The roles of sexual orientation and body mass index across five national U.S. studies." Psychology of Men & Masculinity. 2016;17(4):336–351. DOI; institutional abstract. Collection years and cell-specific denominators not verified.

15. Martin CB, Herrick KA, Sarafrazi N, Ogden CL. "Attempts to Lose Weight Among Adults in the United States, 2013–2016." NCHS Data Brief No. 313. July 2018. Brief; data table.

16. CDC. "QuickStats: Age-Adjusted Percentage of Adults Aged ≥20 Years Who Tried to Lose Weight During the Past 12 Months, by Sex." MMWR. 2018;67(41):1166. Link.

17. Koran LM, et al. "The prevalence of body dysmorphic disorder in the United States adult population." CNS Spectrums. 2008;13(4):316–322. Link.

18. Ganson KT, Mitchison D, Rodgers RF, et al. "Prevalence and correlates of muscle dysmorphia in a sample of boys and men in Canada and the United States." Journal of Eating Disorders. 2025;13:47. Link.

19. Udo T, Grilo CM. "Prevalence and correlates of DSM-5–defined eating disorders in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults." Biological Psychiatry. 2018;84(5):345–354. Link.

20. Coffino JA, Udo T, Grilo CM. "Rates of Help-seeking in U.S. Adults With Lifetime DSM-5 Eating Disorders: Prevalence Across Diagnoses and Sex and Ethnic/Racial Differences." Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2019;94(8). Full paper; DOI: 10.1016/j.mayocp.2019.02.030. Results: distribution of diagnoses by sex; weighted case shares in the help-seeking analysis.

21. Udo & Grilo (source 19), Discussion. Primary discussion of differences from NCS-R. Different instruments and diagnostic criteria prevent a like-for-like time-trend interpretation.

22. Veliz P, Li J, Mattar K, Pero R, Jardine J. "Recent trends in past-year steroid use, past-year creatine use, and attitudes toward steroid use among US adolescents." Annals of Epidemiology. 2026;120:110107. DOI; publisher's public first page, Methods and Results. Full article and supplement not fully inspected.

23. Pope HG Jr, Kanayama G, Athey A, et al. "The lifetime prevalence of anabolic-androgenic steroid use and dependence in Americans: current best estimates." American Journal on Addictions. 2014;23(4):371–377. Link.

24. Sagoe D, Molde H, Andreassen CS, Torsheim T, Pallesen S. "The global epidemiology of anabolic-androgenic steroid use: a meta-analysis and meta-regression analysis." Annals of Epidemiology. 2014;24(5):383–398. Primary abstract and publisher sections. Anawalt BD. "Diagnosis and Management of Anabolic Androgenic Steroid Use." Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. 2019;104(7):2490–2500. Review, interpretation of sample selection and clinical risks.

25. NHS. Body dysmorphic disorder. International OCD Foundation. Muscle dysmorphia expert guide. Definitions, impairment and support; not used for a national prevalence estimate.

26. National Alliance for Eating Disorders. Helpline details. ANAD. Eating disorders helpline. Numbers and published hours checked directly with each organization.

27. 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Official site. Call, text or chat support is available 24/7.

28. American Urological Association. Testosterone Deficiency Guideline, published 2018, validity confirmed 2024, statements 2–3. Endocrine Society. Testosterone Therapy in Men With Hypogonadism, diagnosis and fertility guidance.

29. YouGov. Public Data License, updated March 7, 2025. Attribution, original-source link and reuse conditions; not a license from TRT Provider Guide for underlying third-party data.

30. Belov V. How I overcame bigorexia, IOL, October 5, 2015. Used only to verify the column's wording, not as evidence for prevalence.

TRT Provider Guide Research is the noncommercial research desk of trtproviderguide.com.