Body Checking: What It Is and How to Stop
Written by Isabel Vasquez RD, LDN
Looking in the mirror to see how your outfit looks, weighing yourself every few months, or checking your teeth for lettuce are all normal behaviors. We all check our bodies to some extent! However, body checking can wreak havoc on your mental health when it becomes obsessive or compulsive.
In this article, you’ll learn what body checking is, why it’s harmful, and how to stop body checking. We have a lot to cover, so let’s dive in!
What is Body Checking?
Body checking is when you obsessively and/or compulsively evaluate your body weight, shape, and/or size.
This could mean you have an irresistible urge (e.g. a compulsion) to check your body or any body changes. You may also find that much of your day or week is spent monitoring your body—say, looking in the mirror or weighing yourself.
It may feel like even if you want to, you can’t stop these behaviors.
Body Checking Examples
Some examples of body checking behaviors include:
Frequently and obsessively weighing yourself
Pinching or squeezing your skin or body fat
Fixating on specific body parts in the mirror
Trying to feel your bones
Checking to see if your thighs touch
Compulsively looking at your reflection in a window
Measuring your hips, thighs, or waist
Using your hands to measure body parts
Obsessively trying on clothes to assess how they fit
Comparing your current body to old photos of your body or people you see on social media repeatedly
Some of these behaviors aren’t harmful in certain contexts (like taking body measurements before ordering clothes online). If it’s sparse and doesn’t disrupt your life or your mental health, then it’s probably nothing to be concerned about.
However, if these behaviors cause distress or preoccupation and impact your eating or exercise habits, that may be a sign something bigger is going on.
Body Checking and Eating Disorders
Body checking generally reflects an overvaluation of shape and weight.
From my personal and professional experience with eating disorders, I can say that those with eating disorders including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder, often struggle a lot with body checking. The research supports this as well.
A 2022 study in the Journal of Eating Disorders found that those with anorexia nervosa had higher rates of body checking and body avoidance than those in recovery from anorexia nervosa or a control group.
A 2018 meta-analysis in European Eating Disorders Review found that compared to healthy controls, participants with eating disorders had significantly higher rates of body checking and body avoidance—when you completely avoid looking at your body weight or shape.
When you have an eating disorder, body checking can become habitual and you may not even realize how often you’re engaging in these behaviors. However, whether your eating disorder is pleased or upset with what it sees, body checking often leaves you distressed and hinders long-term healing.
Even if you don’t have a clinically diagnosed eating disorder, you can still struggle with unhealthy body checking.
Individuals who have subclinical eating disorders—some eating disorder symptoms but not enough to be diagnosed with an eating disorder—, body dysmorphic disorder, or otherwise struggle with body image may also struggle with body checking.
What’s the Impact of Body Checking?
It can increase body dissatisfaction
According to a 2007 study in Behaviour Research and Therapy (CW: mention of BMI categories and eating disorders), body checking could contribute to worse body image.
The study divided 60 women without eating disorders into two groups—one who scrutinized certain parts of their bodies in the mirror (a form of body checking) and another who neutrally described their bodies.
The researchers found that, unlike the non-body checking group, most of the body checking group’s body dissatisfaction increased immediately after the self-scrutiny. This suggests that reducing body checking may help level out feelings towards one’s body.
Furthermore, a 2022 study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that more frequent body checking was linked with higher levels of body image dissatisfaction and internalized weight bias.
It may exacerbate disordered eating behaviors
Eating disorders often come with an intense preoccupation with weight and shape. Body checking feeds into this obsession and may help fuel other eating disorder behaviors.
A 2013 study published in Behaviour Research and Therapy (CW: mention of restrictive calorie amounts, BMI measurements, eating disorder behaviors) found that body checking was associated with dietary restriction on the day of and the day after the body checking in women with anorexia nervosa.
This suggests that body checking could increase restriction and as a result, perpetuate eating disorder behaviors.
How to Stop Body Checking
Since body checking is linked to poor body image and perpetuates an overvaluation of shape and weight, it’s helpful to reduce these compulsive checking behaviors. Here are some tips to stop body checking.
Bring awareness to your body checking behaviors
As I mentioned above, especially if you have an eating disorder, body checking can become habitual. You may not even realize you’re doing it since it is a compulsive urge.
To stop body checking, first you’ll have to start realizing that you’re doing it.
Reflect on the list of body checking examples above and see if you are engaging in any of those behaviors.
Are you obsessively weighing yourself or obsessively checking how your clothes fit?
Are you measuring body parts or constantly checking to see how your clothes fit?
These are some ways you may be body checking. Before taking action to stop it, just bring awareness to when and how you’re doing it.
Reflect on what function it’s serving
Body checking serves some sort of function, otherwise, you wouldn’t be doing it. However, after reading this article, you now know that it’s maladaptive. It doesn’t actually make you feel better in the long run.
Before you take action to stop body checking, reflect on the function that it is serving. Maybe it helps you feel more in control. Maybe it quenches your need for certainty. Maybe it distracts from other stressors in your life. It may also be a sign that you could work to undo internalized weight bias.
There are a lot of reasons you may be body checking, and you may need to process these underlying reasons with a licensed mental health professional.
Reduce your access to body checking
To start reducing body checking behaviors, reduce your access to the tools that allow you to engage in them.
For example, if you obsessively weigh yourself, remove the scale from your house so it’s not as easy to do. If you constantly look in the mirror, reduce how many mirrors you have in your house. If you compulsively measure your body dimensions, then ditch the measuring tape.
It may not be practical to eliminate certain behaviors entirely, like checking how your outfit looks, but for others, like weighing yourself at home, eliminating them entirely may be the best thing for your mental health.
Be conscious of whether body avoidance is present
The opposite of body checking is body avoidance, which can also be maladaptive. Body avoidance is when you avoid looking at your body shape or weight entirely. It’s another manifestation of overvaluing your weight and shape.
So, as you work to reduce body checking, be conscious as to whether you’re swinging to the other extreme by, for example, avoiding looking at yourself in the mirror entirely.
A healthy body image comes with a balance between the two. Most importantly, it’s when you know that your worth is not contingent on your body weight, size, or shape.
Seek professional support
If you’re struggling, seeking out support from a mental health professional can help you process the underlying challenges at the root of your body checking.
If you have an eating disorder or suspect you might have one, support is key to healing. To get help, Project Heal has a number of resources.
Final Thoughts
Body checking is a manifestation of overvaluation of body weight, shape, and size. It may include obsessively weighing yourself, compulsively measuring your body dimensions, pinching skin or fat, and more. Ultimately, it is maladaptive and may even increase body dissatisfaction and restrictive eating behaviors.
In order to stop body checking, it can help to bring awareness to the behaviors you engage in, reflect on the purpose they serve, reduce your ability to engage in body checking behaviors, and seek professional support.
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