Our Mission: Freedom from Food & Body Shame

We exist to end the silent suffering of eating disorders and body image issues in the fitness community.

Why We Focus on Disordered Eating

For decades, the fitness industry has perpetuated toxic diet culture, "before and after" body shame, and the dangerous myth that you need to "earn your food" through exercise. Meanwhile, millions of gym members silently struggle with binge eating, body dysmorphia, and exercise compensation—patterns the fitness industry itself often creates or worsens.

Binge eating has become a social norm in gym culture. It's normalized, even celebrated: "I earned this cheat meal," "I'll just do extra cardio tomorrow," "Clean eating all week, then a binge weekend." The gym community inadvertently encourages the restrict-binge cycle by promoting extreme diets, "cutting" phases, and the idea that food is something to be controlled and compensated for through exercise.

If you're on a "gym diet"—restricting calories, cutting out food groups, following meal prep routines—binge eating becomes almost inevitable. Your body rebels against restriction. Yet the fitness industry treats this as a personal failure rather than the predictable biological response to deprivation that it is.

We watched dedicated gym-goers train religiously, only to quit within months—not because they weren't seeing results, but because the shame around their eating was unbearable. They'd work out five days a week, then binge all weekend. They'd avoid mirrors in the gym. They'd cancel sessions with trainers because they felt "too fat" that day.

Built on Lived Experience

This business wasn't born from market research or business opportunity—it was born from lived experience. Our founding team has walked the path of recovery from disordered eating. We know what it's like to work out five days a week while secretly bingeing every night. We know the shame of avoiding the gym because you "ate badly." We know the exhausting mental gymnastics of trying to calculate whether you've "earned" your dinner through exercise.

We built Food & Body Freedom because we needed it to exist. Because we know firsthand that you cannot achieve lasting fitness while your relationship with food is broken. Because we understand that healing happens when you're supported by people who've been there, not judged by people who haven't.

Our lived experience informs everything we do—from how we train our therapists, to the language we use in our programs, to our zero-tolerance policy for diet culture messaging. We're not observers of disordered eating in the fitness community. We're survivors who've transformed our pain into purpose.

"65% of gym members struggle with disordered eating or negative body image. Yet 95% of gyms offer zero support. We're changing that."

Our Specialist Approach

We're not general therapists who happen to work with gym members. We're eating disorder specialists who deeply understand the complex relationship between fitness, food, and body image. Our team consists of therapists specifically trained in binge eating disorder, body dysmorphia, exercise addiction, and intuitive eating.

We use evidence-based approaches including CBT-E (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - Enhanced for eating disorders), DBT skills for emotional regulation, and Health at Every Size (HAES) principles. We help members develop a healthy relationship with food AND fitness—where exercise is joyful movement, not punishment.

man in black hoodie wearing black framed eyeglasses

smiling woman wearing brown scarf and maroon coat on snow field

Robert Smith

therapist

Marie Morrison

Psychiatrist

Susan Brown

Therapist

The Fitness Industry Needs This

Gyms have the power to either harm or heal people's relationships with their bodies. For too long, the industry has chosen harm through extreme weight loss challenges, "no pain no gain" mentality, and the constant messaging that bodies need to be "fixed."

We partner with gyms who want to be part of the solution—who understand that true fitness includes mental wellness, body acceptance, and food freedom. Together, we're proving that when you support members' complete wellbeing, everyone wins: members stay longer, trainers feel less burnout from members' struggles, and gyms build genuine, loyal communities.