Fat fears turning men into gym bunnies

The desire to look like musclebound Hollywood hunks such as Hugh Jackman or Vin Diesel could lead to gym bunnies overdoing it and damaging their health.

A new study suggests that there is a “real risk” in today’s “selfie” culture that men may go to the gym to work out “to a point where it becomes dangerous or detracts from their well-being”.

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The joint British and Australian research found that it is actually men’s hidden fears about being fat that are fuelling gym attendance - rather than a desire to build muscle.

The study suggests feelings of guilt and shame about the shape they’re in are turning men into gym bunnies.

Psychology researchers in both Britain and and Australia discovered that while male attitudes towards muscle or body mass index (BMI) didn’t predict how frequently they would attend the gym, their perceptions of body fat did.

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The researchers found that men worried about body fat were more likely than others to undertake spontaneous, unplanned work-outs - and warned that such ‘sporadic’ exercise patterns tend to be difficult to sustain over time.

They say their findings raise serious questions about the effect portrayals of the ‘ideal body’ online and in the media have on healthy exercise patterns in an era of ‘selfies’.

The researchers suggested that their study has important real-life implications for health and exercise professionals and their intervention programmes.

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The research is the first of its kind to examine men’s body attitudes alongside both their conscious and non-conscious motivations for attending the gym.

The study was conducted by Dr David Keatley, from the School of Psychology at the University of Lincoln, and Kim Caudwell from Curtin University in Australia.

They say their findings could help health and fitness professionals improve gym attendance in the long term by focusing on proactive goal-setting and personal autonomy - rather than body image.

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Dr Keatley said: “Coaches, trainers, and even ‘gym buddies’ need to be aware of individuals’ motivations and reasons for attending a gym.

“Spontaneous gym goers are more likely to be motivated by guilt, shame or pressure, so it’s important to turn this around and place a focus on positive feelings of achievement and pride, fostering a long-term healthier behaviour change.

“Anyone can be affected by what they see online, the social cues images can give, and the popular conceptions of an ‘ideal body image’.

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“With the recent growth of ‘selfies’ and the return of muscle-bound Hollywood hero icons such as Vin Diesel and Hugh Jackman, there’s a real risk that males may be more influenced to attend the gym more regularly and work out to a point where it becomes dangerous or detracts from their wellbeing.

“This study is important in showing that whilst they may be more unlikely to admit it, body dissatisfaction and dysmorphia can and do affect males as well as females, and therefore should be investigated fully.”

To assess their motivations for exercising, 100 men completed a self-report questionnaire and a second test which evaluated their non-conscious motivation by measuring how long it took them to associate particular words with themselves.

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All participants had a slightly elevated BMI and said they work out for around an hour, two or three times a week.

Nearly 60 per cent of the men listed health and fitness as their primary reason for attending a gym or fitness activity.

Only around one in six (16 per cent) labelled appearance or amateur body building as their motivation, and eight per cent said training or competing was their main focus.

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Participants responded to a series of statements about body image, for example “seeing my reflection makes me feel bad about my body fat and muscularity”.

They also evaluated a series of statements about their motivation, such as “I feel under pressure to exercise or work out regularly from people I know well”. These were scored on a scale from one to four, with one being not very true and four being very true.

To examine hidden, non-conscious motivations, the researchers also asked participants to complete an Implicit Association Test (IAT), a task designed to assess automatic associations.

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It paired positive and negative feelings about exercising, such as ‘spontaneous’ and ‘willing’ or ‘restricted’ and ‘forced’, with words relating to the self and others, such as ‘me’ and ‘mine’ or ‘they’ and ‘theirs.’

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