Survey: 70% of Men Feel Self-Conscious About Their Body
This piece is part of a series of stories on weight and weight loss in today’s age of radical body positivity, revolutionized cosmetic procedures, and pharma innovations (Ozempic, anyone?). To read the rest of the stories, click here.
WE POLLED 1,500 American men to find out how they really feel about weight and weight loss today. Here’s what they told us.
BEHIND THE DATA: The generation happiest with their weight? Millennials. The unhappiest? Gen X, the guys who are in their 40s and 50s. “Gen X were raised with masculine gender norms that portrayed an increasingly large and muscular body ideal,” explains Jason Nagata, M.D., who specializes in body image and eating disorders in men. “Men in their 50s may also be experiencing health-related declines, weight gain, and an onset of chronic diseases.”
STOMACH/WAIST
FACE
LEGS
FOR THEIR HEALTH
TO GET BACK IN SHAPE
TO LOOK BETTER NAKED
TO HAVE MORE ENERGY
MICHAEL B. JORDAN
CHRIS HEMSWORTH
THE ROCK
BLAKE SHELTON
TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET
OUTLIER ALERT! Gen Z feels the most pressure to lose weight. Baby boomers feel the least.
WALKING
WEIGHTLIFTING
RUNNING
Nearly 1/2 of us think obesity is a failure of willpower, whereas less than 1/3 think obesity is a medical disease that has nothing to do with willpower.
Despite living in an era that advocates for the acceptance of all body types (often referred to as the body-positivity movement), nearly 1/2 of men think we’re left out of that movement.
TOTALLY FINE
NOPE
WHATEVER
When it comes to cosmetic procedures like fat freezing and fat melting, 1/2 of us aren’t willing to give these a go, but nearly 1/4 would be willing to try fat freezing.
This article originally appears in the January/February 2024 issue of Men's Health.
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