Men are less able to identify eating disorders – I called mine ‘cutting weight’ | Tom Usher

Male body dysmorphia has rocketed - maybe because we're desperate to assert a sense of control over our chaotic lives

Looking back, it was probably when I started checking how many grams of carbohydrates were in red onions and broccoli that my eating disorder began. I say eating disorder" now, but, of course, as a man, I didn't think of it as that at the time. It was just cutting weight".

I was 22 and had signed up for my first white-collar boxing match. Even though the weight classes were loose and barely enforced, I was determined to get into the best shape of my life - which I believed meant getting down from my natural weight of 90kg to 80kg. That's like going from 36in to 32in jeans in the space of a month.

Tom Usher is a freelance writer

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