Eating Disorders, Stigma & the Fitness Industry: A Conversation That Needed to Happen

Ryan Dutton
19 hours ago
5 min read

A Fit Dads Podcast Breakdown with SYEDA’s Kirsty Armstrong & Sophie O’Horan

This week’s episode was different.

Heavier.

More important.

And long overdue.

We sat down with Kirsty Armstrong and Sophie O’Horan from SYEDA — South Yorkshire Eating Disorder Association — for a conversation that should be essential listening for anyone who trains, parents, coaches, or simply cares about the wellbeing of the people around them.

Because here’s the truth:

Eating disorders don’t emerge from dramatic movie moments. They grow quietly — often inside environments that look “healthy” from the outside.

And there’s no industry where that contradiction is more obvious than fitness.

On a personal level. I was taken back throughout the conversation with how many of the classic eating order signs I showed during my teenage years.

Things I had passed off as just an unusual quirk of mine, that actually, could have easily lead me on a whole other journey in life.

The Stories Behind the Statistics

Before we talked frameworks or warnings or support routes, we talked people.

Kirsty shared her story with a level of honesty that hits you right in the chest — not because it was extreme, but because it was familiar. The kind of struggle that doesn’t show up until it’s already taken hold. Shame was woven through it, as it is for so many. That feeling of being “the problem,” rather than someone with a problem.

Then Sophie shared her own experience — equally raw, equally real — and between them, they painted a picture that countless listeners will recognise:

You don’t have to “look ill” to be struggling.
You don’t have to be underweight.
You don’t have to be on the brink of collapse.

Eating disorders are about control, fear, pressure, and perfectionism long before they’re about numbers on a scale.

Stigma: The Three Layers That Keep People Silent

One of the most powerful parts of the conversation was breaking down stigma — not in a vague, hashtag way, but in a practical, eye-opening way that explains why people don’t get help until they’re in crisis.

The girls described three types of stigma:

1. Public Stigma

This is the stuff we absorb without meaning to — the assumptions that eating disorders only happen to teenage girls, or only look a certain way, or are choices rather than illnesses. It’s shaped by media, misunderstanding, and the way we talk about bodies in daily life.

2. Structural Stigma

This one hurt to hear, because it’s so unnecessary.

Things like:

BMI thresholds
long waiting lists
referral hoops
rigid criteria
and healthcare systems accidentally pushing people away

Someone can walk into a doctor’s office begging for help and be told they’re “not unwell enough.”Madness.

3. Self-Stigma

The most destructive of all.

This is the voice that says:

“I don’t deserve help.”
“I’m fine.”
“Others have it worse.”
“I should be able to handle this.”

And that voice — as Kirsty and Sophie explained — is often the eating disorder itself speaking.

These three layers combine into a perfect storm of silence.And silence allows eating disorders to grow.

The Fitness Industry: Helping, Hurting… or Both?

We couldn’t have this conversation without looking at the industry Brad and I are part of. And honestly, it was uncomfortable at times — because so many harmful patterns hide in plain sight.

The girls talked about how easy it is to be a victim of fitness marketing.

The shredded six-week transformations.The “discipline” quotes.

The obsession with tracking, restricting, controlling, fasting, and wearing devices that tell you when you’re allowed to rest.

And inside that culture, disorders don’t always look like dramatic weight loss.

They look like:

refusing to eat unless you’ve “earned it”
fasting because an influencer said it “boosts growth hormone”
obsessively checking wearables
shame over missing training
rigid food rules
hyperfocus on macros
avoiding social events that involve food
hiding meals
compulsive weighing
pretending everything’s fine because your physique looks fine

That’s where disorders like orthorexia hide — the unhealthy obsession with “clean” eating that the fitness world often praises instead of challenges.

They also broke down other disorders people don’t talk about:

ARFID
Bulimia
OSFED (Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder)
Combined disorders
And even bigorexia — the obsession with being bigger, leaner, more muscular — which is rampant in gyms and among men.