Bigorexia, sometimes seen as the opposite of anorexia, is becoming more common among kids and teens who are overly focused on building muscle. While staying active and eating well is great, the problem comes when it turns into an unhealthy obsession. Social media adds to the pressure by setting unrealistic body standards, making it important for young people to understand their natural body types and set healthy goals.

While some cases might need professional help, many just need the right guidance from good trainers or health coaches. The key is knowing the difference between a strong commitment to fitness and something that could become a real mental health concern.

Highlights of the Podcast

00:01 - Introduction

00:20 - What is Bigorexia?

00:43 - Who is Affected?

01:09 - Are Supplements Involved?

01:58 - Mental Health Concerns

02:37 - Social Media Influence

03:35 - Helping Kids with Bigorexia

04:31 - Misdiagnosis Concerns

600 KOGO Host [00:00:00] Well, bigorexia is on the rise in kids and teens. Now you may be wondering what the heck is bigorexia. Well, to talk about that right now, on the Kogo News Live Line, we have Dr. Matt Chalmers. Good morning. Morning, how are you? Good, so first explain what bigorexia means.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:20] So, bigorexia is kind of the opposite of anorexia as far as size-wise. The big problem with that is that anorexia is more of a mental state and it's a mental health issue. And bigorexia is being blamed for a lot of kids just trying to get really dedicated to growing themselves. So, it's a little bit different, but it is people who are obsessed with getting bigger.

600 KOGO Host [00:00:43] Ah, so, you know, like, for example, my youngest son, super skinny. He was always worried because all the other boys, you know, were tougher and bigger than he was. So that's the kind of kid we're talking about.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:55] Um, those type of kids definitely blend into this, this, the stereotype, um, people who are always wanting to, like I said, you know, increase their muscle mass, increase their size, but have a very, very hard drive for it.

600 KOGO Host [00:01:09] So what are these kids doing? Are they just working out or are they taking any kind of supplements? I mean, is that where we could see some problems?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:01:17] A lot of these kids are, you know, a lot of this I would tell people isn't really a problem because what is happening is that these kids get really, really dedicated to their diet, your lower glycemic function, higher protein, you know, they get really, really tight on pulling the processed foods out, exercising, you know, getting their sleep in so their body will grow. You know, none of these problems are, none of these are problems necessarily as long as they can keep them kind of in check and not get really, really, really hyper focused on them. As far as the hormone thing, a lot of these kids, if they'll do the hormones properly and safely, that's also not a big problem. Once these kids get the size they want, a lot of times they feel a lot better about it, and so it calms down.

600 KOGO Host [00:01:58] Gotcha, but there's probably a mental health aspect to this too, especially if they get obsessed.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:02:05] That's that's the big issue is the obsession. You know, as someone who has spent 40 something years of my life, not being happy with my body, and then finally getting to a point where I am now very happy with my body. I can tell you a lot of these kids, we see this as a mental issue or mental disorder. But it's just these kids have not gotten to where they want to go. And I keep calling them kids because this is how I felt when I was this old. And now that I'm where I am now, I feel very, very confident and very happy with my body. So some of the stuff is just they're just not where they want to be yet.

600 KOGO Host [00:02:37] And back in the day, it was just the kids in your school that you might wanna live up to. Now we have social media. We have to see the entire universe and how great they look. So I'm imagining that comes into play.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:02:50] That plays a giant role and that's where things start to get really, really bad. And the problem with that is that a lot of these kids are, are seeing images of people who have a completely different body style and body type and different genetics. And so it's very difficult to live up to a standard that is not set for yourself. So when we start treating this, we start working with kids on this. The most important thing that we do is we figure out this is who you are, this is how your body was built. You're an endomorph, you're an ectomorph, you're a mesomorph. Here's what your ultimate goal can be for what you have. Once you kind of do that with these guys, they really start to focus in on where they can go and that mental issue starts kind of shifting a little bit. And so it is very treatable, but the problem is that you have to get with somebody who understands metabolic biochemistry and subatotypes and that's pretty rare.

600 KOGO Host [00:03:35] So, what do you do if you have, you know, a young person in your life that you're worried that, you know, may be falling victim to this?

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:03:42] I would give them with an athlete, a trainer who understands the difference between being very committed and dedicated with having mental problems with it. A lot of really great high-end trainers and a lot of the health coaches can see this. I personally have a lot of therapists that I work with for both sides, for the anorexia and for the bigorexia issues. We hand those guys off whenever we see it. However, it's. It's a lot more rare that it's damaging and problematic in the digorexia than it is in the anorexia. Almost all of those need therapy.

600 KOGO Host [00:04:15] Right, right. And I was going to say you probably learned a lot, you know, because it used to be girls mostly that had, you know, the eating disorders, but you probably learned a lot treating them now with this new phenomenon called bigorexia.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:04:31] Yeah, the nice thing is that we're actually getting it's funny because some of the girls are being being Classified as this as well, and I would be very careful with just throwing this diagnosis around because it's not it's not as damaging To see if you see somebody who these we see her ribs or his ribs and you they look very gaunt That's very easy to be like that's most likely anorexia But when you look at somebody who's getting very dedicated to their diet and exercise and things like that, that's not necessarily you know, a mental health issue they need to worry about. It could just be something that they're getting substantially healthier. We're going to see people getting healthier. So I want to make sure that we're not, we're not mistaking people who are just trying to get healthy for having a mental issue.

600 KOGO Host [00:05:11] All right, Dr. Matt Chalmers, author of Pillars of Wellness, Achieve and Uphold, Holistic Health, Vitality and Longevity. Thank you very much for joining us today.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:05:19] Absolutely. Thank you.

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