Body dissatisfaction
Body dissatisfaction is unhappiness with how our body looks. It can be a mild dislike most days, or a weight that shapes what we eat, wear and do.
A man skips the beach trip with friends. He says he has work to do. The truth is he doesn't want to take his shirt off.
If eating, or worry about the body, has started to take over the day, a doctor or therapist is the place to start. This page describes a common experience. It can't tell anyone whether they have an eating disorder or body dysmorphic disorder. Skipping meals, binge eating, making up for food afterwards or exercising to the point of harm need a doctor's view, whatever someone's size.
If you or someone you know is having a difficult time, free support is available.
In an emergency, call your local emergency number.
How it shows
At work
Keeping the camera off in video meetings. Turning down events that involve photos, swimming or eating in front of colleagues. Choosing clothes for hiding over clothes for the day's work.
In close relationships
Undressing in the dark or avoiding intimacy. Asking a partner how one looks, then not believing the answer. Standing at the back of group photos, or asking for them to be deleted.
In ourselves
Checking mirrors often, or avoiding them. A day's mood set by how clothes fit that morning. Plans put off until the body looks different.
How it differs from similar ideas
Body dysmorphic disorder
Body dysmorphic disorder is a clinical condition: a preoccupation with one or more flaws that others barely see or can't see, with hours of checking, hiding or seeking reassurance, and real harm to daily life. Body dissatisfaction is far more common, can be mild, and is often about overall shape or size.
Eating disorders
Eating disorders are serious conditions in which eating, weight and shape become central to self-worth and harm health. Body dissatisfaction is one of the clearest risk factors for them in the research below. Most people who dislike their bodies do not have an eating disorder.
Social comparison
Social comparison is the act of measuring ourselves against others. Body dissatisfaction is the unhappiness that can follow when the body is what we measure. In the tripartite influence model, comparison is one of the two routes by which outside pressure turns into dissatisfaction.
What it doesn’t mean
It isn't vanity. Body dissatisfaction is usually painful. People who feel it rarely enjoy being looked at, and often avoid it.
It isn't only about weight, or only about women. It can be about height, skin, hair or one part of the body, and some people want to be bigger or more muscular. Women report more of it on average, and many men report it too.
An example: Dana, over one Thursday
Dana is 41, works in marketing and has a friend's birthday dinner after work. She has felt this way about her body, on and off, since she was a teenager.
- 7:15 a.m. Dana tries on three tops and goes with the loosest. Looking in the hall mirror on the way out, she decides it is going to be a bad day.
- 10:00 a.m., a video call She keeps her camera off and says her connection is bad. Twice she has something to add and doesn't say it, because turning the camera on to speak would mean being seen.
- 8:30 p.m., the birthday dinner When the group photo is taken, Dana moves to the back row. She asks to see it, asks for it to be taken again, and on the way home untags herself when a friend posts it.
- 11:00 p.m. Scrolling in bed, she passes a colleague's holiday photos and stops on them for a long time. Then she tells her friend she will skip the beach weekend in June. She'll go next year, she writes, once she looks different.
Dana's body was the same at night as in the morning. What changed was how much room it took: the clothes, the silence on the call, the back row, the trip put off for a year.
Several things in the story match what the research describes. The pull is toward an ideal Dana has carried since she was young, and comparison sharpens it, as when the colleague's photos come up. In the tripartite influence model below, pressure from media, friends and family works through two routes, taking the ideal in as one's own and comparing oneself with others. The camera, the back row and the beach trip show how dissatisfaction can narrow a life without any change in eating.
A different story would point elsewhere. If Dana spent hours a day on one feature others couldn't see, such as her nose or skin, body dysmorphic disorder would be the closer fit. If eating had changed, with skipped meals, binges or making up for food afterwards, the eating disorders page applies, and so does the care note at the top of this one. If the dislike had followed years of comments from her mother, the library's page on a mom who criticizes how her child looks covers that research. And the man at the beach in the example above is a reminder that men feel it too, and for some men the wish runs toward a bigger, more muscular body.
What the research shows
Body dissatisfaction is one of the most studied ideas in body image research. The studies below cover how it differs by gender and age, where it may come from, what it may lead to, and the version that wants a bigger body. The research on parents' comments about their children's looks is on the library's page about a mom who criticizes how her child looks.
Women reported more body dissatisfaction than men at every age in one large survey, and age changed it little. In girls, pressure from parents, friends and media went with dissatisfaction through taking in an ideal and comparing. Studies that followed people over time found that dissatisfaction came before eating problems. In boys, the gap can run toward wanting more muscle, a pattern separate from wanting to be thin.
In 1,327 adults aged 16 to 88, women were more dissatisfied with their bodies than men, and age made little difference for either
In 2019, Hannah Quittkat, Silja Vocks and colleagues ran an online survey of 1,327 German-speaking adults, 942 women and 385 men aged 16 to 88. It measured body dissatisfaction, how much importance people gave their looks, how many hours a day and years of life they said they would give to look the way they wanted, and how much people appreciated their bodies.
Women were more dissatisfied with their bodies than men, and put more importance on their looks. Dissatisfaction stayed about the same across ages, in women and in men. Only in men did the importance of looks fall with age. Against the authors' own prediction, women appreciated their bodies more than men did, at every age.
Doesn’t show People chose to take part after seeing the survey on social media, mailing lists and flyers, so the sample may not reflect the population. It compares people of different ages at one time, which is a weaker test than following the same people as they age. The authors note that several of the differences, though statistically significant, were very small.
In 325 girls in sixth to eighth grade, pressure from parents, friends and media went with body dissatisfaction through taking in the thin ideal and comparing
In 2004, Helene Keery, Patricia van den Berg and J. Kevin Thompson tested the tripartite influence model with 325 girls in sixth through eighth grade. The model says that parents, peers and media affect body image through two routes: internalizing a thin ideal, and comparing one's appearance with others'.
For parents, the two routes fully explained the link with body dissatisfaction. For peers and media, they explained part of it. A model built from the full theory fit the data adequately.
Doesn’t show Everything was measured once, so the study shows which things go together and cannot show what came first. It studied girls only. Later work extended the model: a 2022 study of 543 US adolescent girls by Savannah Roberts and colleagues added social media as a fourth source and a muscular ideal alongside the thin one.
A review of studies that followed people over time found body dissatisfaction came before eating problems
In 2002, Eric Stice and Heather Shaw reviewed prospective and experimental studies of where body dissatisfaction comes from and what follows it. Perceived pressure to be thin, taking in the thin ideal and a higher body weight increased the risk of later body dissatisfaction. Starting periods early did not.
They found consistent support for body dissatisfaction as a risk factor for later eating problems. In the studies they reviewed, the link ran through increases in dieting and in low mood and other negative feelings.
Doesn’t show A review in words, without pooled figures, and its conclusions are mostly about bulimic symptoms. In a separate meta-analysis the same year, Stice found that each single risk factor, on its own, predicted only a limited part of who developed eating problems.
A drive for muscularity, measured in 197 adolescents, was its own pattern, separate from the drive for thinness
In 2000, Donald McCreary and Doris Sasse wrote a 15-item questionnaire for the wish to be more muscular and gave it to 197 adolescents. Most research on disordered eating had centered on the drive for thinness.
The questionnaire gave consistent answers. High scorers were more likely to be boys who were trying to gain weight and muscle. In boys, a stronger drive went with lower self-esteem and more depressive symptoms, and in girls it did not. The drive for muscularity had little relation to the drive for thinness.
Doesn’t show One small sample, measured once, with a new questionnaire. It says nothing about how common the drive is, or what follows from it over time.
Try it: what the body decided
Think back over yesterday, or today so far. Write three short notes. If eating has changed, the care note at the top of this page matters more than this exercise.
- Something I did differently because of how I felt about my body
- What I had just seen, heard or compared myself with
- Something I have put off until my body looks different
If the first box filled easily, the dislike may be taking up more of the day than it seems. The second note may show where it comes from, such as a feed, a comment or a mirror. The third shows what it costs. A box left empty is worth noticing too.
What is body dissatisfaction?
Unhappiness with how one's body looks, its size, shape or particular parts. Researchers measure it with questionnaires about how satisfied people are with their appearance and with different areas of the body. It ranges from a mild, everyday dislike to a feeling that shapes what someone eats, wears and agrees to.
Is there a name for not liking one's body?
Researchers call it body dissatisfaction, or a negative body image. When the dislike centers on one flaw that others barely see, takes hours a day and gets in the way of life, the clinical name is body dysmorphic disorder. The library's page on hating one's body describes the patterns that could explain it.
Is body dissatisfaction the same as body dysmorphia?
They are different. Body dysmorphic disorder is a clinical condition, with a preoccupation with a flaw others can barely see, repeated checking or hiding, and real harm to daily life. Body dissatisfaction is much more common and can be mild. Only a clinician can diagnose body dysmorphic disorder.
What causes body dissatisfaction?
The research names several sources. In the tripartite influence model, pressure from family, friends and media leads to dissatisfaction when the ideal is taken in as one's own and when people compare their looks with others'. Later work adds social media. Studies that followed people over time found that pressure to be thin and taking in the thin ideal came before later dissatisfaction.
How common is body dissatisfaction?
Common enough that researchers in 1984 called it a “normative discontent” among women. In a 2015 study of 4,100 young adults aged 22 to 23, all born in 1982 in the Brazilian city of Pelotas, 64 percent were dissatisfied with their body size: 42 percent felt larger than they wanted to be and 22 percent smaller. Figures vary a lot with the country and the way it is measured.
Do men have body dissatisfaction?
Many do. In a German survey of 1,327 adults, men reported less than women at every age, and still reported it. In the Pelotas study of young adults, similar shares of men felt too small and too large, while most women felt larger than they wanted to be. Some men want to be more muscular, which researchers measure as a drive for muscularity, separate from wanting to be thin.
Does body dissatisfaction lead to eating disorders?
It is one of the clearest risk factors. Studies that followed people over time found that body dissatisfaction came before eating problems, through more dieting and more low mood. Most people with body dissatisfaction never develop an eating disorder, and any single risk factor predicts only a small part of who does. If eating has changed, the care note at the top of this page applies.
Where the idea comes from
In 1984, the psychologists Judith Rodin, Lisa Silberstein and Ruth Striegel-Moore described women's dissatisfaction with their weight as a “normative discontent”: common enough to be close to the norm. A 2011 study of 472 people by Stacey Tantleff-Dunn and colleagues found the belief that most people are unhappy with their weight was widely held about men too.
In 1999, J. Kevin Thompson and colleagues set out the tripartite influence model. Pressure from three sources, family, peers and media, leads to body dissatisfaction through two routes: taking in an appearance ideal as one's own, and comparing one's appearance with others'. Later studies added social media as a fourth source, and an ideal that is muscular as well as thin.
By 2002, Eric Stice and Heather Shaw could review a body of studies that followed people over time, and they found consistent support for body dissatisfaction as a risk factor for later eating problems. Most of that research was about the wish to be thin. In 2000, Donald McCreary and Doris Sasse published a measure of the drive for muscularity, the wish to be bigger and more muscular.
The question it adds
Most talk about body image asks how someone feels about their body. This idea adds a question about how much of the day those feelings decide.
What did my body decide for me today?
Judith Rodin, Lisa Silberstein and Ruth Striegel-Moore, 1984 (“normative discontent”). J. Kevin Thompson and colleagues, 1999 (the tripartite influence model). Eric Stice and colleagues, 2002 (body dissatisfaction as a risk factor for eating problems)
Questions to carry
- Whose body, or whose comment about bodies, comes to mind when I look in the mirror?
- What have I stopped doing, or put off, until my body looks different?
Situations where it comes up
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