Punitive plan of facial exercises. Deliberate starvation. Changing the shape of the jawline and cheekbones by breaking them with a hammer or chisel.
These are some of the more extreme actions in a practice called Lookmaxing (the effort to maximize one’s appearance at all costs), which has amassed a huge following on social media, mostly among teenage boys and young men. Looksmaxxing has gone from niche to mainstream since it started trending on TikTok in the early 2020s.
Much of the media coverage of LooksMax has focused on cultural aspects, such as the misogynistic ideology underlying this trend and its impact on cultural conversations about masculinity. Meanwhile, Lookmax users, with hundreds of thousands of followers, especially on social media platforms like TikTok and Kick, have achieved pop culture status.
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However, in the midst of this spectacle, the well-being of the young people participating in this trend has been largely ignored.
From my perspective as a mental health professional who studies how people think and talk about emotions and mental health, the behaviors associated with LookMax are suspiciously similar to the symptoms of eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder (also known as body dysmorphic disorder).
These obstacles are especially harmful to young people struggling to understand who they are, what they want, and how to navigate relationships, a journey already complicated by the pressures of social media.
In my view, platforming these young people and sensationalizing their behavior, rather than recognizing them as symptoms of mental distress, distracts from the urgent need to address these serious mental health concerns.
explosion from the past
The Lookmaxxing trend repeats some troubling history.
A similar ideology emerged in the 2000s, but was mainly embraced and popularized by young women and girls. Microblogging and social networking platforms like Tumblr and MySpace have become hotbeds for eating disorder advice.
Users have developed a community where they can share tips and encourage behaviors associated with eating disorders (e.g., restricting food intake, inducing vomiting, hiding weight loss from loved ones, etc.). This content was tagged with “pro-ana” (anorexia nervosa promoter), “pro-mia” (bulimia nervosa promoter), or “pro-ED” (eating disorder promoter).
Mainstream media outlets, such as “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 2001, reported with severe concern the phenomenon of Internet communities supporting eating disorders. Exploring how online eating disorder advocacy communities have affected girls and young women has quickly become an area of research for social scientists and medical professionals.
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Still, it took until 2012 for Tumblr, a particularly popular site in these communities, to implement policies banning content that promotes eating disorders and warning users about the dangers of eating disorders. This was part of a larger effort by the platform to curb blogs related to self-harm.
As of 2026, nearly every social media platform regularly updates policies or “community guidelines” aimed at discouraging the formation of such communities and instead directing users to helpful resources.
In addition to guidelines prohibiting explicit content that promotes eating disorders, Instagram and TikTok have dedicated eating disorder support pages. Meta has a policy page detailing its rationale and practices regarding “suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders.” Pinterest is no different, banning all weight loss ads in 2021 in its continued commitment to user safety.
young people in a medical condition
Despite widespread recognition that content related to eating disorders is harmful to mental and physical health, Looksmax is still not addressed in social media platforms’ policies. Instead, prominent lookmaxers have been treated as internet celebrities, interviewed and profiled about their methods and worldviews.
The language and positioning used in each scenario may be one factor. “Pro-ED” directly refers to mental health disorders. Recent research, by contrast, positions LooksMax as goal-oriented and argues that it may disguise self-improvement in that respect.
Still, I personally think the major difference between these movements is gender. Looksmaxxing is primarily aimed at young men, while “pro-ED” internet culture is centered around young women.
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Researchers estimate that one in three people who suffer from eating disorders are men. However, the traditional view that eating disorders are a disease of girls and women persists in both social understanding and medical care.
A 2025 analysis of published studies highlighted this discrepancy. Despite only capturing one type of eating disorder (primarily women), the study found that obsession with being thin is still widely considered to be a hallmark of eating disorders. Boys and men who suffer from eating disorders and body dysmorphia are much more likely to become obsessed with being thin, or achieving the “ideal” or “perfect” ratio of muscle to fat.
Given that even clinical screening does not fully explain how this disorder presents in boys and young men, it is no wonder that parents, teachers, and the media are inadequate at making this distinction.
Lookmaxxing clinical opinion
When viewed through a precise clinical lens, LooksMax’s behavior clearly resembles the underlying symptoms of eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder. Starting with an intense obsession with physical imperfections, this habit encourages prioritizing appearance above all else.
This mindset often leads to action to correct perceived shortcomings. In clinical practice, mental health professionals refer to such behaviors as compulsions. This is a behavior that feels impossible to resist, is fueled by obsessions, and eventually begins to interfere with a person’s ability to live a normal, healthy life.
For example, actions such as wearing makeup to look taller or putting lifts in your shoes are not bad in themselves and can even be beneficial if they give people confidence. But not being able to leave the house or go to work without taking these corrective steps indicates that there is a problem. Similarly, changing your diet and exercise to lose fat or gain muscle is very healthy, but abusing amphetamines to suppress your appetite (a practice widely practiced in LooksMax) is dangerous and indicative of mental health problems.
If left untreated, body dysmorphia and eating disorders can have lifelong effects, so these behaviors are worth investigating. Early detection and intervention are key because these diseases significantly increase the risk of physical and mental health problems such as heart problems, persistent skin changes, gastrointestinal complications, depression, and suicide.
As with all mental health issues, how society views the problem will determine its response to the problem. The response of internet platforms and researchers to the internet culture surrounding eating disorders in the 2010s set a valuable precedent. Drawing on this precedent to address LooksMax as a clinical issue rather than just a cultural one could help researchers understand how eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder manifest differently in boys and young men.
It could also encourage social media companies to create better guidelines for content on Looksmax to help parents recognize the warning signs and connect struggling boys and young people to the care they need and deserve.
If you or someone you know might benefit from talking to a professional about a men’s eating disorder or other mental health issue, search the National Eating Disorders Association or the HeadsUpGuys directory of men’s mental health organizations.
If you or someone you know is based in the United States and is in crisis, call 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to speak with a trained listener or text HELLO to 741741. Both services are free, available 24/7, and confidential. For readers outside the United States, please use a helpline like the one listed above (Psychology Today maintains a list of resources from other countries) or consult a health care professional.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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