When people think about eating disorders, they rarely think about men. The conversation focuses heavily on women and girls, leaving many men feeling invisible, misunderstood, and ashamed to ask for help. For James Joffey, that silence lasted almost ten years.

Today, James is a successful online men’s strength and mindset coach. Through Ultimate Body & Mind, he helps men who appear successful on the outside but battle poor self-worth internally. But behind that success is a story very few people know.

Growing up, football was everything. From age seven, the sport gave him purpose and identity. But at seventeen, his relationship with food began to change. What started as a desire for control slowly developed into anorexia. On the surface, it looked like discipline; in reality, food became a source of constant anxiety. After eighteen months, the illness evolved into bulimia, dominating the next eight-and-a-half years of his life.

Almost nobody knew. Like many men, James became an expert at hiding his struggle, fighting a relentless internal battle while life appeared normal on the outside.

By twenty-seven, James reached a turning point and finally broke free. Recovery brought a daunting new challenge: without the illness, who was he? Seeking a fresh start in Sheffield, he discovered the gym. What began as physical rehabilitation soon mended his mind, helping him grow from nine-and-a-half stone to fifteen-and-a-half stone. He realized the discipline once destroying him could be redirected positively; the mindset hadn’t changed, only the direction.

Later, a cancer scare, serious injuries, and the breakdown of his marriage forced him to rebuild once more. Losing his relationship, business, and home, he refused to let setbacks break him.James’s story proves that eating disorders affect men just as much as women. No matter how many times life forces a restart, anyone can rebuild.