Food & Body Obsession Test

In traditional psychiatric classification, eating problems were long treated as separate, rigidly distinct categories. However, individuals frequently move between different eating patterns over time. To better reflect this reality, Christopher G. Fairburn, Zafra Cooper, and Roz Shafran (2003) introduced the transdiagnostic theory of eating disorders. They proposed that conditions like anorexia and bulimia share a central psychological feature: an overvaluation of eating, shape, and weight, where self-worth depends largely on control over eating and on appearance. The Food & Body Obsession Test builds on this framework, measuring eating-disorder symptoms along a connected spectrum rather than as isolated labels.

The test profiles several distinct manifestations of eating and body-image distress. Anorexia involves restrictive eating habits, skipping meals, and persistent worry about body shape, often accompanied by believing oneself to be overweight despite reassurance. Bulimia is characterized by a distressing cycle of losing control around food followed by compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting, extreme dieting, or laxative use, alongside profound self-loathing. Binge eating features recurrent episodes of consuming large amounts of food rapidly until uncomfortably full, accompanied by feelings of disgust, distress, and secretive eating.

Beyond these classic patterns, the spectrum includes related forms of dietary and appearance preoccupation that share similar psychological distress. Body dysmorphia reflects an inability to stop dwelling on perceived physical flaws, prompting repetitive grooming behaviors, constant checking, and painful social comparisons. Orthorexia involves an inflexible fixation on dietary purity, marked by strict rules, eliminating entire food groups, and overwhelming guilt when straying from clean eating. Picky eating captures avoidant or restrictive intake linked to low appetite, sensory discomfort, or fear of negative consequences rather than weight concerns. Finally, bigorexia describes a preoccupation with feeling too small or insufficiently muscular, driving anxiety around missed workouts and body concealment.

Later research measured eating problems in the same way. The Eating Pathology Symptoms Inventory (Forbush et al., 2013) scores restricting, purging, binge eating, body dissatisfaction and muscle building side by side, and the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (Kotov et al., 2017) treats eating problems as one part of the internalizing spectrum. Anorexia and body dysmorphic disorder are both body-image disorders and often occur together (Hartmann et al., 2013), and muscle dysmorphia, which DSM-5 lists as a form of body dysmorphic disorder, has been argued to belong on an eating disorder spectrum (Murray et al., 2010). Seen this way, rigid clean eating, bulking up, restriction and overeating can be different routes from the same concern with controlling food and the body.

The 35 statements are taken word for word from published sources: the anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating statements from our Eating Disorders Indicators Test (based on the work of David M. Garner), the body dysmorphia statements from our Body Dysmorphic Test, and the others from the Orthorexia Nervosa Inventory (Oberle et al., 2021), the Nine Item Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder Screen (Zickgraf & Ellis, 2018) and the Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder Inventory (Hildebrandt et al., 2004). Your result shows a percentage for each condition and a Total Disordered Eating score, the average of the seven. Each condition is compared with an estimate of the average for people in general; these are estimates, not validated norms. Orthorexia, Picky Eating and Bigorexia use published samples: community adults (Zagaria et al., 2023), adults without eating disorders (Presseller et al., 2024) and gym-goers (Zeeck et al., 2018). The other four come from visitors to this site who chose to take an eating-disorder or body-image test, so their raw averages run high; they were adjusted down by the gap between this site's orthorexia-test takers and Zagaria et al.'s community sample on the same orthorexia statements, about one standard deviation. If anything, these four estimates are still on the high side.

This test is for educational purposes only and is not a diagnosis or a substitute for a professional evaluation. It is not affiliated with Fairburn, Cooper, Shafran, the authors of the instruments it draws on, or their institutions. If your relationship with food, exercise or your body is causing you distress or getting in the way of daily life, consider talking to a doctor or an eating-disorder specialist.

References

• Fairburn, C. G., Cooper, Z., & Shafran, R. (2003). Cognitive behaviour therapy for eating disorders: a “transdiagnostic” theory and treatment. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41(5), 509-528.
• Forbush, K. T., Wildes, J. E., Pollack, L. O., Dunbar, D., Luo, J., Patterson, K., Petruzzi, L., Pollpeter, M., Miller, H., Stone, A., Bright, A., & Watson, D. (2013). Development and validation of the Eating Pathology Symptoms Inventory (EPSI). Psychological Assessment, 25(3), 859-878.
• Kotov, R., Krueger, R. F., Watson, D., Achenbach, T. M., Althoff, R. R., Bagby, R. M., Brown, T. A., Carpenter, W. T., Caspi, A., Clark, L. A., Eaton, N. R., Forbes, M. K., Forbush, K. T., Goldberg, D., Hasin, D., Hyman, S. E., Ivanova, M. Y., Lynam, D. R., Markon, K., . . . Zimmerman, M. (2017). The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP): A dimensional alternative to traditional nosologies. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 126(4), 454-477.
• Hartmann, A. S., Greenberg, J. L., & Wilhelm, S. (2013). The relationship between anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder. Clinical Psychology Review, 33(5), 675-685.
• Murray, S. B., Rieger, E., Touyz, S. W., & De la Garza García, Lic, Y. (2010). Muscle dysmorphia and the DSM-V conundrum: Where does it belong? A review paper. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 43(6), 483-491.
• Garner, D. M., Olmstead, M. P., & Polivy, J. (1983). Development and validation of a multidimensional eating disorder inventory for anorexia nervosa and bulimia. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 2(2), 15-34.
• American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.). American Psychiatric Association.
• Oberle, C. D., De Nadai, A. S., & Madrid, A. L. (2021). Orthorexia Nervosa Inventory (ONI): development and validation of a new measure of orthorexic symptomatology. Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity, 26(2), 609-622.
• Zickgraf, H. F. & Ellis, J. M. (2018). Initial validation of the Nine Item Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake disorder screen (NIAS): A measure of three restrictive eating patterns. Appetite, 123, 32-42.
• Hildebrandt, T., Langenbucher, J., & Schlundt, D. G. (2004). Muscularity concerns among men: development of attitudinal and perceptual measures. Body Image, 1(2), 169-181.
• He, J., Murray, S., Compte, E. J., Song, J., & Nagata, J. M. (2021). The Muscularity-Oriented Eating Test, Drive for Muscularity Scale, and Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder Inventory among Chinese Men: Confirmatory Factor Analyses. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(21), 11690.
• Zagaria, A., Barbaranelli, C., Mocini, E., & Lombardo, C. (2023). Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Orthorexia Nervosa Inventory (ONI). Journal of Eating Disorders, 11(1), 144.
• Presseller, E. K., Cooper, G. E., Thornton, L. M., Birgegård, A., Abbaspour, A., Bulik, C. M., Forsén Mantilla, E., & Dinkler, L. (2024). Assessing Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) Symptoms Using the Nine Item ARFID Screen in >9000 Swedish Adults With and Without Eating Disorders. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 57(11), 2143-2155.
• Zeeck, A., Welter, V., Alatas, H., Hildebrandt, T., Lahmann, C., & Hartmann, A. (2018). Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder Inventory (MDDI): Validation of a German version with a focus on gender. PLOS ONE, 13(11), e0207535.

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