New research* from leisure operator Better, launched to coincide with International Men’s Day (Friday 19th November) highlights the growing pressure and insecurities British men feel in relation to their appearance.

The survey found that a third of UK men believe that low body confidence has affected their social life, 30 per cent claim it has troubled their love life and 27 per cent that it has impacted on their mental health.

Those aged 18 – 24yrs (the group most active on social media) are also the cohort most affected by negative body confidence issues, including body dysmorphia (81 per cent). This includes thinking often about making their body more muscular or lean, feeling anxiety due to a missed workout or maintaining an extreme exercise plan. Whether that be because of looking up “how to lose man boobs fast” or the like is up for debate, but the facts themselves are fairly set in stone.

The findings also suggest that British males are less likely to celebrate body positivity than their female counterparts. Better conducted a social media analysis of Instagram, scraping through the top 1,000 posts tagged with the #bodypositivity hashtag, finding over 83% of all posts were made by or featured women. This compares with just 10% of posts made by or featuring men.

Overall, research** shows that regular exercise has a positive impact on male wellbeing. Men are more physically active than women, exercising on average 3.4 hrs per week compared to 2.9 hrs. The main motivators for regular activity are noticing physical changes (23 per cent) such as weight loss and improvements to overall health (20 per cent).

As part of the research, Better spoke to experts and influencers to gain insights into the issues raised. Sam Thomas, a writer, speaker & mental health advocate who has suffered with body image and eating disorders, said:

“In my mid-twenties I started going to the gym for the first time and I found weightlifting helped me to improve on my confidence and self-esteem. I found when I went to the gym, I ate well and when I didn’t, I ate less so I consequently lost weight. Gym doesn’t work for everybody in recovery from eating disorders, but it works for me! Fortunately, I’ve never felt peer pressure quite as much as my friends, so have avoided comparisons of what I see on the internet and my peers.”

“More education and awareness are key so that the current and future generations don’t become adversely affected by what they see and how it makes them feel.”

“There’s nothing wrong with men wanting to become body confident and we need to celebrate men’s bodies – in all their diversity. But first, we need to get rid of any idea that there is a limited set of body image ideals that men aspire to.”

Phil Hannen, Health Intervention Manager at Better comments:

“I think men who are teased in childhood for the way they look, (too fat, too weak, too small, too skinny etc.) tend to carry those negative thoughts into adult life.

“Social media and certain TV shows portray the way the supposed ‘ideal’ man should look, for example: strong, lean and muscular. The implication is that if you look like this you attract the best looking girls and have the most friends. Failure to achieve this idealised and often unattainable look can lead to eating disorders, low self-esteem, relationship problems and even self-harm.

“Exercise has a number of positive physical benefits as well as improving mental wellbeing. When exercising your body releases chemicals that can improve your mood, make you feel less anxious and reduce stress and depression, it can also improve the function of the brain.

“In today’s pressured world, exercise is really important to keep good physical and mental health. Many men I have spoken to tell me that they use exercise as there escape from the stresses and pressures of every-day life and that it provides important ‘me time’.”