Jason Redman doesn’t starve himself. He doesn’t skip lunch or dinner with his family. He doesn’t even vomit after eating.
But he did.
“I know I had a problem,” said Redman, a high-school senior who recently applied to Syracuse University. “I used to play games with myself. I would say, ‘I bet I can go all day without eating.’”
Redman’s anorexia began when he was a sophomore at his high school in a suburb of Pittsburgh. He’d gained 10 pounds over summer vacation. His swimming coach was the first to notice, and the teasing began.
“He told me ‘so, you gained some weight over break?’ He basically got the whole team involved with it,” Redman said. “I was hearing about it all the time.”
So Redman stopped eating. He skipped meals at home or threw up afterward. At the beginning of the season, Redman weighed 140 pounds. One month later, he was down to 111 pounds on his 5-foot-7 frame. A person Redman’s height who weighs below 120 pounds is considered underweight, according to the Federal Drug Administration guidelines.
“My parents would say, ‘Jason, you look too skinny’ and ‘Jason, you need to eat.’ Sometimes they would ask if I was losing weight, but everyone on the team would lose weight when the season started. So that’s what I told them,” Redman said.
Only one in 10 anorexics are male, according to a study by doctors at Rogers Treatment Center, a Minnesota hospital that treats eating disorders. But numbers don’t tell the whole story.
“I am always a little uncomfortable when using statistics like this because they can be interpreted differently,” said Carol Rothschild, a child and family specialist at the Mental Health Association of Onondaga County. “I don’t know if that is fact or if males are just less likely to report that they have a problem,” Rothschild said.
Many studies consider this bias in their account. The American Journal of Psychiatry last year estimated that there is one male for every four females with anorexia. Studies also show that males with eating disorders tend to be athletes.
“There are certain sports that are associated with eating disorders in males,” Rothschild said. “Gymnasts, dancers, skaters and wrestlers — sports where weight is important.”
Corey George, a member of the SU men’s club gymnastics team, said that eating disorders haven’t surfaced on the team, nor can he remember ever being pressured to shed any pounds.
“No coach has ever told me to lose weight,” said George, a senior mechanical engineering major. “Occasionally they will say ‘Hey, looks like you’re getting a little tubby around the waist,’ but it isn’t serious or anything.”
For those like Redman who do take it seriously, an eating disorder will often go overlooked, especially in males.
“Eating disorders are always associated with women,” said Julia Salomon, a registered dietician and nutrition educator at the SU Health Center. “It is always about women and fitness, especially in the media. But I think that’s changing.”
This, she said, may be changing because the media is focusing more on male body image.
Redman said he sees this media pressure all the time — everything from plastic surgery to magazine ads targets men. And while he said it didn’t play much of a role in his experience, he does see how male eating disorders may be overlooked despite their increasing numbers.
In most cases, eating disorders that affect men are overlooked because men are more hesitant to admit they have a problem, Rothschild said.
“I think women may be more able to articulate feeling unattractive,” she said. “It seems to be more socially acceptable.”
Even if a male does come forward, it doesn’t mean people will listen. Redman kept his problem a secret from his parents, but would sometimes tell his friends about the drastic measures he took to lose weight. His friends didn’t see a problem.
“I would tell my friends about it, and they would say ‘Oh, well you were just trying to lose some weight,’” he said. “I think a lot of people really are ignorant to it.”
One person did take his story seriously. Redman told a teacher he was close with about how his coach and team had teased him about his weight. He didn’t reveal everything, but it was enough to cause alarm.
“She was really the only one that told me I was sick,” he said. “She tried to help, but I didn’t want to listen. I kept telling her my coach was right and that I needed to lose weight.”
Redman managed to keep the weight off throughout his junior year, continuing to throw up or skip meals. But when he and his family moved to Ft. Lauderdale from Pittsburgh last summer, everything changed.
“I stopped feeling like I had to stay skinny,” he said. “I feel a lot more comfortable with myself now. I feel like people accept me more down here than they did back home.”
Redman may be over his eating disorder, but there are many men who are not. Feeling more pressure to look good, combined with the misconception that men don’t get eating disorders has led to more cases of men suffering in the shadows. Warning signs are sometimes the only hint men may be suffering from an eating disorder.
“Exercising an hour a day, that’s fine,” Salomon said. “But when someone is exercising five hours a day, or eats and goes out to exercise because they feel they ate too much, that’s a problem.”
There are other signs that a person — male or female — may have a serious eating disorder. Rothschild said the physical signs, such as weight fluctuations and excessive exercise, are just as important as the change in behavior. These include obsession with body weight, low self-esteem and the need to feel in control.
“Eating disorders are not about food,” Rothschild said. “They are about feelings.”
Redman never saw a counselor or a doctor about his eating disorder, but recognizing that he had one has taught him how destructive male anorexia and bulimia can be.
“I am happier now that I can be myself,” he said. “I know that what I had was serious, but I got through it.”
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