Understanding and Reducing Body Checking: What It Is and How to Stop

Body checking doesn’t just apply to professional ice hockey! It’s a term that’s been gaining traction in conversations about body image—but often without enough explanation. What exactly is it, and when does it become harmful? Whether you’re concerned about your own habits or supporting someone else, understanding body checking is an important step toward healing.

What Is Body Checking?

Body checking refers to any behavior that involves scanning, touching, or analyzing your body to get reassurance about its size, shape, or appearance. It can include:

• Frequently looking in the mirror

• Pinching or measuring parts of the body

• Compulsive weighing

• Seeking reassurance from others about how you look

• Feeling for bones, muscles, or areas of “fat”

While occasional appearance checks are common, body checking becomes concerning when it’s compulsive, anxiety-driven, or distressing. These behaviors are often linked to disordered eating, poor body image, or body dysmorphic disorder.

Why Do People Body Check?

Body checking may look like a behavior about appearance—but it’s rooted in deep emotional discomfort and distorted beliefs about worth and safety.

People often body check as a way to manage anxiety or try to "get ahead" of body image fears. In the moment, it may feel like a form of control or reassurance. But the relief is fleeting—and the behavior often reinforces obsessive thoughts and distress.

As one expert puts it: “Body checking is an anxious response to body image fears…an attempt to regulate and reassure, though it often becomes compulsive.”

When Is Body Checking a Problem?

Not all body-focused behaviors are inherently disordered. So how do you know when it’s gone too far? A key question to ask is: “How much is this interfering with my life?” Red flags that body checking may be problematic include:

• Avoiding plans because of body distress

• Spending significant time each day checking or fixing your appearance

• Feeling anxious or out of control when you can’t check

• Using checking to determine your self-worth or daily mood

Body checking can also show up subtly—especially on social media. “Fitspo” content, posed selfies, constant “before and after” shots, and videos that focus on leanness or size are often disguised forms of body checking.

The Link to Eating Disorders

Research shows a strong connection between body checking and eating disorders. One study found that higher body checking frequency was linked to greater overvaluation of shape and weight, restrictive eating, and purging behaviors.

Eating disorders often use body checking to stay active—it’s a way to fuel dissatisfaction and justify further disordered behaviors. In this way, body checking acts as a maintenance tool for an eating disorder, reinforcing the belief that appearance must be controlled at all costs.

How to Break the Cycle of Body Checking

Stopping body checking isn’t about willpower—it’s about developing awareness, compassion, and new tools for regulation. Here are some ways to begin:

1. Build Awareness
Start noticing when and why you body check. Are there certain triggers (outfits, mirrors, photos, scrolling social media)? Keep a journal or use a tracking app to understand the patterns.

Try timing how long you spend in body checking activities each day. Most people are surprised by how much space it takes up.

2. Practice Mindful Pauses
Before you act on the urge to check, try to create a small pause. What emotion are you feeling? What do you hope the body check will provide?

This moment of reflection—no matter how brief—can help you begin to choose differently.

3. Try Opposite Action
Borrowed from dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), “opposite action” involves acting counter to your emotional urge.

• Urge: Pinch your stomach

• Opposite action: Gently place your hand there and offer kindness or neutrality

This technique helps interrupt the automatic loop and creates space for more intentional choices.

4. Curate Your Social Media Feed
Follow accounts that celebrate body diversity, lived experience, and authenticity. Mute or unfollow accounts that trigger comparison or reinforce appearance-based value.

5. Use Distraction with Compassion
In moments of intense checking urges, distraction can be a powerful tool. Not as avoidance—but as a redirection toward something more nurturing. Invite a loved one to take a walk, engage in a creative activity, or focus on sensory experiences that ground you.

6. Support Without Shame
If someone you care about is caught in body checking, focus on support—not shame. Gently redirect instead of criticizing:

• “You’ve been standing in front of the mirror for a while—want to go get some air together?”

• “I know this is hard, but maybe a change of scenery would help shift the moment.”

Criticism can compound shame and deepen the cycle. Compassion is what truly breaks it.

Final Thoughts

Body checking can be distressing—but it’s also understandable. Many people develop these habits in response to trauma, cultural pressures, or years of internalized shame. The goal isn’t to shame the behavior—it’s to soften its grip and build more trust in your body over time. With mindfulness, support, and new skills, change is possible. You deserve a life where your body is not a battlefield—but a home.