The number of young men in Scotland being treated for serious eating disorders has trebled in the past year - and experts warn they are just the tip of the iceberg.

The shock increase has been blamed on unrealistic images of ultra-toned models and athletes in magazines.
Clinicians and academics warn the drive to tackle obesity could be backfiring and making young men exercise too much.
Dr Alex Yellowlees, medical director and lead clinician for the eating disorders unit at the Priory Hospital, Glasgow, has revealed a 300 per cent increase in referrals in just 12 months.
He warned the problem among young men is at a similar level to that of women 15 years ago.
Dr Yellowlees said: “We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg as was the case in women in the 1990s.”
Men are following suit.
I think it is reasonable to predict an increase in the number of men being referred in Scotland There's a lot more out there.
Dr Yellowlees said there were an increasing number of referrals of young men for anorexia nervosa and bulimia, mostly aged in the 20s but some as young as 16.
He said: “Young men are now adopting values and beliefs about body image that almost exclusively belonged to women. There is a blurring of gender roles in society.”
Young men were previously afraid of coming forward because they knew society viewed it as a women's problem.
They feared that if they came forward their sexuality would be questioned. I think that prejudice is breaking down now.
The idealization of thinness still affects women more but there is an increasing trend of men adopting previously held ideas of thinness that women held.
The cut-off for diagnosing someone as having anorexia is a body mass index of 17.5.
But Dr Yellowlees said most men being referred to The Priory in Glasgow have a dangerous BMI of 15 or lower. Healthy is 18.5 to 24.9.
High-profile men who have admitted to eating disorders include former deputy prime minister John Prescott, Olympic cycling star Craig MacLean and Formula 1 ace David Coulthard.
An estimated 700,000 men in the UK have eating disorders - one in four of all cases. The number of victims consulting GPs and nurses has doubled over the last five years.
Kerri McPherson, chartered health psychologist at Glasgow Caledonian University, said excessive exercise could be the root of the problem.
Some are battling for body mass indexes of 25 - clinically overweight but based on muscle, not fat.
Dr McPherson said: “In men it's more about the function of the body, not its weight.”
We are giving out mixed messages - don't become overweight but don't become anorexic. We need to be careful, particularly with young children.
I think the big concern with males is exercise behavior.
What a lot of children may be doing is not so much restricting their eating behaviors as doing excessive exercising. That tends to go undetected in males.” Dr McPherson added that the portrayal of topless male models and athletes in magazines put extreme pressure on some men.
She said: “What we are starting to see in male magazines is unrealistic bodies, where people with footballers' bodies are being presented as normal.”
We are not all professional athletes and do not have the benefit of having our pictures photo shopped.”
Fitness fanatic Mark, 21, is 5ft 8in tall and is aiming to lose four pounds so he will have a BMI of 17.5 - the cut-off point for anorexia.
Mark, of Glasgow, is hovering above nine stone and says the most attractive part of his body is his ribs.
He became obsessed with his weight aged just four when he started comparing himself to a thin older brother who got attention for his looks Mark, said: “I remember weighing myself on scales when I was four stone. Then it was mainly playing with scales up until I was about six. It was about then that I got interested in my increasing weight.”
“In high school I had a friend and she weighed two stone more than me. She wasn't fat, she was just average so I definitely had a weight obsession by then. I started learning the complicated little details of weight..bmi, calories and so on. At the end of high school I was my heaviest at about 10 stone but deeply unhappy with myself. I decided to keep a food diary, detailing everything I ate and drank. Now I'm using exercise to try to lose more weight. I guess it's similar to people taking steroids, knowing the risks and damages it causes and willing to accept that in exchange for how they look. Nobody has ever said they're attracted to me because I'm thin but that's what I hope to achieve.”
The ribs are the most attractive part.
“I'm in no critical condition or anywhere near that but I guess it is possible that I'll never be happy with my weight and I'm not sure there's anything I can do to stop that.”
(Source: dailyrecord.co.uk