#FITSPO CULTURE, DISORDERED EATING, AND SELF-ESTEEM

#Fitspo Culture, Disordered Eating, and Self-Esteem

#Fitspiration is a trend that has seemed to explode across social media platforms in the past few years. These “fitness influencers” post content ranging from workout routines, diet and meal plans, body progress photos, and motivational quotes on their platforms. Calorie and macro counting are a huge component of this self-mediation practice, chiefly through apps such as MyFitnessPal. MyFitnessPal also functions as a public forum; with each completed day one can see the exercise that their friends from the app complete, including their duration of exercise as well as calories burned, as well as if they are under their calorie goal for the day. 

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In this paper, I want to explore the expression of online fitness culture through self-mediation, both digitally, with images on Instagram, and metrically, with calorie counting and logging, namely on MyFitnessPal. Through research, it seems relevant to analyze both those who post their own content and those who are observing and engaging with these fitness influencers. The question that seems most pertinent to this practice is: does engaging in the #fitspo culture have a correlation to self-esteem? Do these practices lead to dangerous habits and higher body dissatisfaction in the participants or boost self-esteem and create healthy eating and exercise habits?

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Through the studies that have been composed, it is clear that there is a negative correlation between engaging in fitspo content and self-esteem; the more one engages in #fitspiration, the lower the body image. There is also a positive correlation between viewing (and participating) in #fitspo content and disordered eating and dangerous fitness and nutritional habits. Though the entire purpose of this self-mediation practice is intended to be promoting health and wellness, the reality seems to actually be the opposite: #fitspiration is a dangerous practice that can lead to adverse health effects and lower self-esteem among those who engage in the practice. 

The comparative culture on Instagram has been analyzed and studied time and time again; we are met with endless series of filtered, polished, and edited content that is curated intentionally, and most of the time the common person does not measure up to the standard, whether that be a luxurious lifestyle, endless travel destinations, or a perfectly curated wardrobe. One of the main components of the #fitspiration culture, however, it that the standards that are curated are supposed to feel achievable, and most of the content is laden with instructions on how the viewer too can achieve the body shown. Instead of being inspirational to viewers, engaging with this content has been linked to high body dissatisfaction among women. 

In a 2017 study headed by Ivanka Prichard, Australian women were exposed to #fitspiration content and their moods and reported feelings were recorded after exposure. Similarly to women who view ultra-thin women and strive for that ideal and are met with dissatisfaction afterward, the same was found among women who view ultra-fit women. The ultra-thin body ideal has been replaced, but the negative effects remain the same. Though the thinness of the heroin-chic era of women was absent from the #fitspiration photographs, Prichard’s study found that the body type that increased body dissatisfaction the most was the thin, muscular #fitspo woman. When participants of the study were exposed to average weight, athletically built women, their body dissatisfaction did not increase (Prichard, 789). 

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A shocking finding of the same study was, “[those] exposed to fitspiration images report greater body dissatisfaction than women exposed to traditional thin-ideal images do (Prichard, 790).” This suggests that the #fitspiration body ideal is more detrimental than the classic thin body ideal. Part of the aim of the content seems to want to inspire dissatisfaction. Out of a survey of captions, it was found that 26% were captions containing body-related guilt, and were meant to induce shame in the reader and inspire the viewer to work harder toward their fitness goals. Along with feelings of dissatisfaction, participants in the study reported increased negative mood after engaging with the content as well. The study showed that regardless of the guilt-ridden captions, or any caption for that matter, body dissatisfaction and negative mood increased after viewing content, suggesting that the photos themselves were effective enough.  

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Another highly problematic aspect of #fitspiration is the emphasis on how the body appears physically with little regard to the actual health of the person. The fit body is highly sexualized within this community and frequently disembodied within the photos posted. Often torsos, legs, glutes and arms are pictured individually, scantily clad, often greased with oil or sweat, and posed suggestively among both men and women influencers. The 2017 APA research by Deighton-Smith and Bell found the following statistics when sampling photos that were tagged with #fitspiration: 41.81% of the photos contained full body shots while a staggering 49.33% featured disembodied shots, and only 8.97% featured only faces. Women were more likely to be featured disembodied than the men, however, suggesting a gender dynamic in the culture. From this data it is clear that there is an emphasis on the sexualized disembodiment of influencers. 

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The body types among both genders shown are characterized by little body fat and visible, lean muscle. Engagers with the #fitspiration content are often subject to high levels of “self- objectification” and “self-surveillance” (Deighton-Smith, Bell, 468), according to the report. When engaging in self-objectification, the individual views their own body as an object, free as possible from their own subjectivity, and analyze themselves like a product, aware of defects, and how far away it strays from the “ideal” prototype. The practice of self-surveillance puts greater emphasis on the way the body physically looks as opposed to functionality and measurable standards of health. Exposure to this sexualized content and the practice of self-objectification have been linked to higher levels of body dissatisfaction. 

This same study found that 36% of the captions on the #fitspiration photos contained objectifying messages (Deighton-Smith, Bell, 470). Fitness is not only objectified, but it is also directly linked with sexiness, and captions such as “Fit people have better sex!” and “Fit is sexy” are pervasively linked with the disembodied images. This intentional linkage presents sexiness as the ultimate goal of fitness rather than physical health and excludes those without the thin, muscular body type from this coveted sexiness. Sexiness becomes an exclusive product that has to be earned; it is not anything inherent in the person themselves. This sexiness is not something that depends on one’s own opinion of the body, but it relies on the evaluation of others to see the body as a desirable object. It seems the main goal of exercise, according to the culture, is physical attractiveness. 

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There has also been a link between #fitspiration and an array of problematic disorders, including depression, anxiety, and disordered eating and exercise habits. In a 2017 study conducted by Grace Holland and Marika Tiggemann, women were sampled from two groups: those who posted fitness content and those who posted travel content. Both groups of women had approximately the same average BMIs, 23.96 among the fitspiration women, and 22.99 among the travelers. Disordered eating, including bulimia, drive for thinness, drive for muscularity, and body dissatisfaction were measured among the groups. The women who posted #fitspiration content scored significantly higher on their drive for thinness, disordered eating, compulsive exercise and drive for muscularity than those who posted travel (Holland, Tiggemann, 77). A staggering 17.5% of the fitspiration women sampled were determined to be at risk for an eating disorder. 

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These statistics suggest that a large number of fitspiration women may struggle with disordered eating as well as compulsive exercise--dangerous habits that can severely disturb their physical and mental health. These creators are often also prescribing diet and exercise advice to their followers, most without proper education or nutritional information. Nutrition and exercise should vary from person to person depending on height, weight, age, physical health, and preexisting conditions. By prescribing a “one-size-fits-all” approach and posting their own problematic exercise and eating routines, this can instill dangerous practices for followers who engage with their content. Some of the captions found in Deighton-Smith and Bell’s study showcase these problematic mindsets and behaviors, such as “eat less, move more” and “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” (Deighton-Smith, Bell, 477). 

“Risks to health may reach clinical levels when negative body image leads to low self-esteem and self-worth, depression, and disordered eating, as well as weight-related appearance anxiety, negative mood, and body dissatisfaction, engagement in unhealthy muscle-building practices or weight management strategies, such as vigorous exercise regimes and fasting and steroid usage. (Deighton-Smith, Bell).” This excerpt from Deighton-Smith and Bell’s study summarizes the dangerous effects that accompany this online community.

MyFitnessPal has also been shown to be used as a tool to further disordered eating habits. MyFitnessPal gives the user a calorie goal for the day based on their height, weight, and how much weight they say they want to lose a week, ranging from .5 pounds to 2 pounds. Already, it is clear that those who struggle with eating disorders are apt to choose the maximum allowance of weight loss. From there, the app generates a calorie goal for you, and you are to log your exercise and food intake. Once you complete your day, the app will give you a projected weight loss estimate if “everyday was like today” over the next five weeks. 

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A 2019 study found that “73% (57/78) of predominantly female patients with eating disorders who had used the application viewed it as, at a minimum, having somewhat contributed to their condition (International Journal of Eating Disorders, 2019).” It is easy for users to get fixated on the numbers they see on the app, including the inclusion of exercise. Users who struggle with disordered eating habits are more easily able to engage in dangerous practices, such as hyper-fixating on calories, food measuring, undereating, and overexercising. Some users of the app reported that they felt food-guilt when engaging with logging their exercise and calories as well as increased levels of anxiety. Others, especially among those who had diagnosed eating disorders, even reported feeling addicted to the app. 

Even those without eating disorders who are trying to increase their health can fall into unhealthy practices when using MyFitnessPal. Since it is easy to simply log calories, the nutrition of the food can be disregarded if the food has the right calorie count. Rather than focusing on wellness and health, the infrastructure of the app allows people to feel healthy if they meet their goals, but doesn’t take the actual food consumed into account. A person can eat 1400 calories of “junk food” and feel accomplished and another can overeat their calorie count but eat food with better micronutrients and still feel food guilt. This aspect of #fitspiration shows that not only can eating disorders worsen or be encouraged with the usage of this app, but it also emphasizes the overarching problem of taking a superficial approach to wellness and caring more about physique than overall health. 

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Lastly, engagement in #fitspiration content does not increase exercise rates among the viewers. Another study by Prichard reports that “exposure to fitspiration images did not increase amount of exercise relative to viewing traditional thin-ideal or muscular-ideal images”. Her experiment studied exercise rates among women who viewed neutral travel content and those who viewed fitness content. There was virtually no difference between the two different groups of women in distance traveled on a treadmill, suggesting that viewing the fitness content did not increase exercise rates as one may think. 

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The difference between the groups, however, was that among the women who viewed the fitness content, they reported that their body dissatisfaction decreased when exercising while the women exposed to the travel content did not experience the same decrease. However, the women who engaged with fitness content had reported higher body dissatisfaction and negative mood at the beginning of the study than the other group, emphasizing the mal effect of the content. Though the fitness content is supposed to inspire exercise, it actually has no measurable increase on behavior, only an increase in body dissatisfaction and negative mood among viewers. This being analyzed, fitness culture doesn’t fulfill the one thing it is created to do. 

By analyzing data from five different sources, it is clear that #fitspiration has far more measurable negative effects than positive on those who engage in the community. Since it does not even increase exercise behavior, one can wonder what benefit it has at all? Though it seems to be promoting health and wellness, #fitspiration offers a hyper-sexualized objectification of both male and female bodies, unobtainable body ideals, increased anxiety and depression, and dangerous health habits. A metaphor comes to mind when thinking of #fitspiration: a wolf in sheep’s clothing. And it is clear that it is best to stay away. 

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Sources

Deighton-Smith, Nova, and Beth T. Bell. “Objectifying Fitness: A Content and Thematic Analysis of #Fitspiration Images on Social Media.” Psychology of Popular Media Culture, vol. 7, no. 4, 2018, pp. 467–483., doi:10.1037/ppm0000143.

Holland, Grace, and Marika Tiggemann. “‘Strong Beats Skinny Every Time’: Disordered Eating and Compulsive Exercise in Women Who Post Fitspiration on Instagram.” International Journal of Eating Disorders, vol. 50, no. 1, 2016, pp. 76–79., doi:10.1002/eat.22559.

Mccaig, Duncan, et al. “Engagement with MyFitnessPal in Eating Disorders: Qualitative Insights from Online Forums.” International Journal of Eating Disorders, vol. 53, no. 3, 2019, pp. 404–411., doi:10.1002/eat.23205.

Prichard, Ivanka, et al. “The Impact of Different Forms of #Fitspiration Imagery on Body Image, Mood, and Self-Objectification among Young Women.” Sex Roles, vol. 78, no. 11-12, 2017, pp. 789–798., doi:10.1007/s11199-017-0830-3.

Prichard, Ivanka, et al. “The Effect of Instagram #Fitspiration Images on Young Women’s Mood, Body Image, and Exercise Behaviour.” Body Image, vol. 33, 2020, pp. 1–6., doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2020.02.002.