I depends. Excessive vanity is a bad thing.

But working out to look and feel healthier, to push yourself mentally and physically, will ultimately be a great attribute.

Mental illness is when you think you need to take drugs to look good, become obsessed with little things to "look good," or never be positive about how you look despite making great progress.

Anyone who says looking better isnt A PART of doing this

is 100% coping

except for the bloatloards powerlifters

Is insecurity part of wanting to “look better” for otherwise healthy people?

Being attractive and strong fits in with our biological imperative to attract prime glow sloots to impregnate.

Injecting yourself with hormones that you know will negatively impact other parts of you life to impress other gay men is a mental illness though.

Seems like cope. Why would you want a nicer car if a late 2000’s Corolla will get you from A to B fine? Why want a nice home if any dwelling that can keep the elements out and offers relative safety fine? Is it for other people?

You can have a $30-40k year job, eat not expensive food and not spend on hobby’s because that job will give you a minimum standard of living. Why try to find a higher paying job?

Yes, it is a product sold to men

Are most bodybuilders (aside from those possibly doing it strictly for money/fame) insecure on some level?

I mean just think about it— a healthy/normal looking person decides for whatever reason their life will be better by looking a certain way and then proceeds to spend years slaving away in the gym (even going when they don’t really want to), untold hours reading/learning/discussing how to get bigger, manipulating their diet FAR beyond what it would otherwise be, etc.

It seems like most anyone who identifies body building as something they do is venturing in the direction of mental illness. Perhaps they don’t have it, but they are going in that direction.

On the other end of the spectrum you have just fat slobs that care nothing about appearance.

Somewhere in the middle are the people who work out to feel better/more limber without giving much thought to changing how their body looks.

maybe? idk how to really talk about that because exercising regularly is probably gonna change the way you look regardless.

i also hate this cause i think you're trying to use something like "insecure" as motivation "to do better"

what is the motivation for anything then? if you get up to get the remote is that because you were "insecure" about not having the remote? maybe, in a way. it does fit the paradigm i just explained but "insecure" is prob too grandiose a word. if you are using it that way then "insecurity" is the motivation to move a muscle; rather, our m.o. would be insecurity ---> security. if you want my real thoughts on this i think we're a needs species - which produces wants - cause we're not autotrophic and are hungry and need to consume

is the motivation for obtaining something not having it? again, it fits, but i'd say not always. an example would be someone already fit still working out

anyways, again, i'd say itCOULDbe not that it is; or not that it is inherently

What does “look better” mean? If you’re healthy, not obese and feel good....you look how how you look. Feeling like you need to look “better” seems like chasing some arbitrary standard set by...who...people who spend inordinate amounts of time changing their looks and determine those that don’t do the same as inferior?

I’m thinking about working out to get more fit, but compared to my 20s, I feel my perspective has changed. As a younger man I was into getting big...looking swole, lifting more, more, more, etc. [insert typical misc bro/cool language].

But is working out to look different a form of mental illness like BDD? It seems tons of younger men (even some into their 60s or 70s like Stallone) are really into bodybuilding...many to the point of cramming in high amounts of calories for months or even years, tracking macros, cutting diets to look ripped, bulking diets to get larger, hitting the gym almost daily, risking injury and even manipulating hormone levels.

But what motivates this desire to look different...is it INSECURITY at the core?

Now don’t get me wrong, those who are overweight have a legit reason to change their body...because it’s unhealthy. Those participating in competitive sports may also work out to a degree where body changes give a competitive advantage. But what about those millions of regular Joes with perfectly healthy BMIs that are laser focused on achieving more prominent musculature/symmetry on every part of their body simply to look different...more attractive in their mind...more intimidating in their mind, etc?

Is it mentally healthy to dedicate so much time/money/energy to working out/dieting/supplementing simply to LOOK a different way as the main goal?