Increases in men replacing meals with legal appearance- and performance-enhancing drugs, or APEDs, such as protein powders and bars, have led researchers to recognize it as a variant of disordered eating.

Researchers at Alliant International University presented a study at the 2015 American Psychological Association’s annual convention suggesting lean and muscular male body ideals perpetuated by the media are contributing to internalized body dissatisfaction.

“Men’s bodies are increasingly objectified in modern society, a phenomenon that has co-occurred with the rise of body dissatisfaction and concomitant eating pathologies among males,” researchers wrote in the study. “Nevertheless, masculine body image ideals often remain unaccounted for in body image and eating disorder research which predominantly conceptualizes these issues based on a drive for thinness, rather than simultaneous drives toward being both lean and muscular.”

Researchers in the study recruited 195 men between the ages of 18 and 65 who had consumed some form of APED such as whey protein or creatine in the previous 30 days and worked out for at least twice a week. The participants completed a survey about body image, self-esteem, eating habits and gender role conflicts.