IMAGINE a person who watches every calorie that passes their lips, spends hours in the gym, frets constantly over their appearance and blows a fortune on products to improve the way they look.

Were you thinking of a woman?

If so, it isn't surprising. Eating disorders and body obsession are commonly thought of as "women's issues" - the idea of a man counting calories may seem ridiculous.

But research from Harvard University suggests that around 25 per cent of anorexia and bulimia sufferers are male, as opposed to the 10 per cent that the researchers expected to find.

Experts say the problem among boys and young men is frequently overlooked by parents and teachers and under-treated by doctors.

Lecturer and psychologist Dr Colleen Heenan, from the University of Bolton, says that she has seen more and more men seeking help with body issues.

She says: "I have male therapy patients who think they are fat - and their friends call them fat - and it really gets to them.

"One of my patients had a friend who killed himself because he was so distressed about his body size and shape."

All of a sudden it seems men feel under pressure to have bodies like Brad Pitt or Daniel Craig, while others, such as Dead Or Alive singer Pete Burns, have spent tens of thousands on operations to make themselves appear more feminine.

Unlike women, for whom talk of pounds lost, weight gained and dress sizes dropped is commonplace, Dr Heenan, who runs a men-only therapy group to deal with body image, says that males find it particularly difficult to talk about their anxieties.

She says: "Partly it's to do with the shame of being distressed by something that is traditionally thought of as being women's concerns.

"So I think it's really difficult for them to express some of their unhappiness.

"But I think another thing that's really crucial is that this is quite a new phenomenon.

"It's part and parcel of consumerism, which has brought about the realisation that gay men in particular have an increasing public profile and have money to spend.

"Within gay male culture there is complete body fascism for young gay men. It's as bad as it is for women."

And with a blitz of advertising aimed at men of all sexualities, it was only a matter of time before the male of the species began to succumb to the same anxieties as the female.

Dr Heenan says: "If you look around you will see more and more products and advertising focussed on stirring up anxiety among men.

"I've done this work since the 1980s and over the past five years I've noticed a marked increase in the number of men who are firstly coming for therapy but also, secondly, who are distressed about their body size and shape to the point where they resort to cosmetic surgery. It's quite disturbing."

Some commentators have termed this male obsession with the perfect body, "bigorexia".

Rather than trying to slim down, men who suffer from bigorexia, or muscle dysmorphia, desperately try to achieve a chiselled, muscled physique.

They will check themselves frequently in mirrors and are likely to train during breaks from work.

They carefully regulate what they eat, and some will have problems eating food that has been prepared by someone else. Also, they will constantly compare themselves to other men, but unlike body builders, who train in order to be able to show off their bodies, they will avoid showing their physiques if at all possible.

The use of anabolic steroids is common among bigorexics, who will keep using the drugs despite experiencing side effects such as increased aggression, acne, breast enlargement, impotence, baldness and testicular shrinkage.

A further problem for men who find themselves in this situation is that, unlike women, they have not particularly had to cope with body anxiety before, and so have no experience of dealing with it.

Dr Heenan says: "Men don't have a language and a code for talking about these things the way that women do.

"I think we grow up knowing that our bodies are crucial and that they're never good enough, and we learn to live with that contradiction and have a way of talking about it and accepting that it is absolutely central to our identity.

"Whereas I think it is newer for men, I also don't think they have the language for it or probably the kind of psychological resources to deal with it.

"They are really flummoxed because as men they are supposed to be in control of their lives, so to find that they're out of control around food and their weight, or even that they're being told that they're not good enough, is hard to cope with."

Women's magazines have been manipulating women in the same way for decades, but now, it seems, no-one is safe from falling for the marketing man's fantasy.