Eating disorders in the UK have nearly tripled since 2017, with new figures from the charity BEAT estimating that 3.5 million people – around one in 20 – now suffer from one. The number has risen sharply from the 1.25 million estimated in 2017, despite growing awareness and education.
Kate Cronin, now 24, first began tracking her eating habits on an app while at university, after watching housemates carefully curate meals and log macros on their phones. 'It was the first time I heard the words “calorie deficit”,' Kate tells Metro. She started small, cutting back on eating and walking 10,000 steps a day, but things quickly spiralled into increasingly restrictive and disordered habits.
Rise across all ages and genders
'There has been a significant increase across all ages and genders,' says Nicola Armstrong, BEAT's National Lead for Northern Ireland. 'Figures from NHS England show that one in eight people aged between 17 and 19 had an eating disorder in 2023, and that's up from less than 1% in 2017. The Lord Darzi Report highlighted an 82% increase in hospital admission for children and young people with eating disorders since 2019-2020.'
Social media is strongly linked to low self-esteem, with 55% of adolescents globally expressing appearance dissatisfaction tied to screen time. Research indicates people who spend more than three hours on social media daily are twice as likely to develop eating disorder symptoms. Kate recalls seeing increasingly harmful content online: 'Social media gives the narrative that being slimmer is just better... It feels inescapable.'
Complex causes and risk factors
Nicola cautions against attributing eating disorders to a single cause. 'They are very complex mental illnesses, which means it can be difficult to accurately pinpoint the sole reason for the increase,' she explains. Research by King's College London suggests that people with neurotic personality traits – a tendency to experience negative emotion – could be at higher risk of developing anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
Hannah, 37, says her difficult childhood and pressures as an academic high-achiever contributed to her disorder. 'I had such a sense of hopelessness at the time, my diet was the only thing I could control,' she tells Metro. 'Once I started restricting what I was eating, I couldn't really stop.'
Lockdown's impact
Kate's restrictive eating began during the coronavirus pandemic. 'I had no control over other aspects of my life,' she recalls. 'But I could control what I ate, and this became very addictive.' Nicola explains that the pandemic may have caused a significant escalation in people with tendencies towards disordered eating, as isolation and remote appointments meant early warning signs could be missed.
The pandemic also altered the nation's attitude towards food, with stockpiling and food access difficulties posing challenges for those at risk of binge eating. 'The NHS was under such huge pressure during the pandemic dealing with Covid cases, which meant resources could have been taken away from other areas,' Nicola adds.
Recovery is possible
Both women have since recovered. Hannah, reflecting at 30, said she 'didn't want to lose my chance at motherhood' and didn't want to pass on her attitudes towards food to her child. Kate had 'a lot of therapy' and slowly reintroduced foods that had scared her. 'Some days it is still hard, but I just fight the negative thoughts,' she says.
Both are concerned about the current climate around weight loss, particularly the rise of GLP-1 weight loss injections. An estimated 1.6 million adults in the UK are taking them, with a further 4.9 million interested. In June 2026, the Wegovy pill became available from private medical providers. Hannah calls the prevalence of this new diet culture 'disgusting', while Nicola says: 'We'd like to see a tightening up of psychological screening at the prescription stage of weight loss medication.'
For those worried about a loved one, Nicola advises intervening productively. 'You can never tell if somebody is unwell just by looking at them,' she says. 'You're much more likely to spot behavioural or psychological signs first.' She encourages people to reach out to a GP for an urgent appointment and to talk away from food. 'Eating disorders can have a huge impact, but people can get better. The sooner someone reaches out for help, the better their chance of a full and sustained recovery.'
