“I couldn’t run anymore, or climb stairs”, says Siméon Calame, who was hospitalised five times for anorexia when he was a teenager. During his hospital course, he met very few other boys suffering from this eating disorder. Indeed, the majority of people affected by this disease are women. However, young men are also increasingly concerned. According to a British study, between 2016 and 2021, the number of men hospitalised increased by 128%.

The anxiety of losing muscle

Boys, unlike young women who seek to become as slim as possible, mostly aim for a muscular body, without a gram of fat. “They are often in search of a V-shaped body. This ideal is not congruent with their physique, so they turn to a very restrictive diet. Male anorexia is therefore quite different from that affecting young women. In both cases, the people concerned live in fear. The fear of gaining weight for girls, that of losing muscle for boys," analyses Professor Kerstin von Plessen, Head of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Service at CHUV. In young men, this dietary restriction is often combined with a form of physical hyperactivity. That’s precisely what happened to Siméon Calame, who fell ill around the age of 17. “For a friend’s baccalaureate project, I started wearing a smartwatch. That was the beginning of a vicious circle. I wanted to take more and more steps every day and started eating less and less.”

This eating disorder is considered an addiction in the same way as substance dependence. “The people affected are unable to function normally; they only think about food and their bodies,” says Kerstin von Plessen. When they lose weight or train, they activate the same brain reward regions as during drug use. This disease also takes root in anxious people, whose self-esteem is weakened. "Controlling diet and body weight gives anorexic people the feeling of achieving something," says Sandra Gebhard, head doctor of the Vaud Centre for anorexia and bulimia. It gives them some satisfaction. Not to mention that malnutrition anesthetizes emotions, which is good when one feels anxiety. A reality that also corresponds to the journey of Siméon Calame, victim of school harassment. “I lacked self-confidence. I have always thought that I had a pot belly.”

Anorexia nervosa is often accompanied by psychiatric disorders, such as depression or compulsive behaviours. “Some symptoms are close to a psychosis: the fear of eating can become delirious”, says Sandra Gebhard. The disease is often accompanied by digestive problems or side effects related to taking muscle-building medications. It can also lead to libido disorders. Erectile issues are also common in anorexic boys.

Lift the taboo to heal

The struggle to talk about it represents an additional difficulty that often arises in the case of male anorexia. Men do not necessarily recognise themselves in the representations that society has of this disease. This reality can delay the request for help and, therefore, follow-up. That is why it is essential to lift the taboo around male anorexia. However, once treatment has begun, there is no noticeable difference between genders in the rate of remission.

“The first thing to do is renutrition. Then, we have to correct eating behaviours and offer psychological and psychiatric support. At the day hospital, there aren’t many boys, but when possible, we try to make male groups to work more specifically,” explains Sandra Gebhard. And Kerstin von Plessen concludes: "Malnutrition disrupts many physiological and psychological mechanisms that often recover when they get back to a normal weight." For Siméon Calame, it is the solidarity between the sick, girls and boys, that allowed him to get healthy. “I was in an apprenticeship as a pastry chef at the time. I scraped the oil off the pasta that was being served to me at the hospital, I weighed my bread to the nearest gram. I ended up weighing only 42 kilos for 1.80 meters. It was also my project to become a journalist, which was one of the drivers to help me get through this.” Mission accomplished. Today, Siméon Calame is 27 years old and works as a food journalist at Gault et Millau. His tattoos prove his reawakened love for good things. On his left forearm, there is a drawing of a whisk, a strawberry, and a chocolate bar, among others.

“I couldn’t run anymore, or climb stairs”, says Siméon Calame, who was hospitalised five times for anorexia when he was a teenager. During his hospital course, he met very few other boys suffering from this eating disorder. Indeed, the majority of people affected by this disease are women. However, young men are also increasingly concerned. According to a British study, between 2016 and 2021, the number of men hospitalised increased by 128%.

The anxiety of losing muscle

Boys, unlike young women who seek to become as slim as possible, mostly aim for a muscular body, without a gram of fat. “They are often in search of a V-shaped body. This ideal is not congruent with their physique, so they turn to a very restrictive diet. Male anorexia is therefore quite different from that affecting young women. In both cases, the people concerned live in fear. The fear of gaining weight for girls, that of losing muscle for boys," analyses Professor Kerstin von Plessen, Head of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Service at CHUV. In young men, this dietary restriction is often combined with a form of physical hyperactivity. That’s precisely what happened to Siméon Calame, who fell ill around the age of 17. “For a friend’s baccalaureate project, I started wearing a smartwatch. That was the beginning of a vicious circle. I wanted to take more and more steps every day and started eating less and less.”

This eating disorder is considered an addiction in the same way as substance dependence. “The people affected are unable to function normally; they only think about food and their bodies,” says Kerstin von Plessen. When they lose weight or train, they activate the same brain reward regions as during drug use. This disease also takes root in anxious people, whose self-esteem is weakened. "Controlling diet and body weight gives anorexic people the feeling of achieving something," says Sandra Gebhard, head doctor of the Vaud Centre for anorexia and bulimia. It gives them some satisfaction. Not to mention that malnutrition anesthetizes emotions, which is good when one feels anxiety. A reality that also corresponds to the journey of Siméon Calame, victim of school harassment. “I lacked self-confidence. I have always thought that I had a pot belly.”

Anorexia nervosa is often accompanied by psychiatric disorders, such as depression or compulsive behaviours. “Some symptoms are close to a psychosis: the fear of eating can become delirious”, says Sandra Gebhard. The disease is often accompanied by digestive problems or side effects related to taking muscle-building medications. It can also lead to libido disorders. Erectile issues are also common in anorexic boys.

Lift the taboo to heal

The struggle to talk about it represents an additional difficulty that often arises in the case of male anorexia. Men do not necessarily recognise themselves in the representations that society has of this disease. This reality can delay the request for help and, therefore, follow-up. That is why it is essential to lift the taboo around male anorexia. However, once treatment has begun, there is no noticeable difference between genders in the rate of remission.

“The first thing to do is renutrition. Then, we have to correct eating behaviours and offer psychological and psychiatric support. At the day hospital, there aren’t many boys, but when possible, we try to make male groups to work more specifically,” explains Sandra Gebhard. And Kerstin von Plessen concludes: "Malnutrition disrupts many physiological and psychological mechanisms that often recover when they get back to a normal weight." For Siméon Calame, it is the solidarity between the sick, girls and boys, that allowed him to get healthy. “I was in an apprenticeship as a pastry chef at the time. I scraped the oil off the pasta that was being served to me at the hospital, I weighed my bread to the nearest gram. I ended up weighing only 42 kilos for 1.80 meters. It was also my project to become a journalist, which was one of the drivers to help me get through this.” Mission accomplished. Today, Siméon Calame is 27 years old and works as a food journalist at Gault et Millau. His tattoos prove his reawakened love for good things. On his left forearm, there is a drawing of a whisk, a strawberry, and a chocolate bar, among others.