Social media is full of diverse communities, audiences and trends. A trend that has taken off not too long ago, but with great power, is the “What I Eat in a Day” trend, filmed by a wide audience of people not limited to fitness influencers. Gym influencers are becoming increasingly common across several platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, though. There is a difference between diet culture and embracing a healthier routine, but many influencers promote unhealthy and sometimes unachievable lifestyles. 

Based on personal experience, these videos can even infiltrate un-related feeds from time to time. I came across an Instagram video of a middle-aged man who claimed that rice and potatoes were unhealthy to consume as part of daily meals. With no credibility, he expected viewers to take his point seriously and apply it to their daily life. TikTok, in particular, has become a platform where influencers are using their power to impart their fitness or dietary advice. It is an influencer’s job to influence their audience, whether that be with their lifestyle, products or services. The most impressionable audience is adolescents, so it is critical to be weary of the content being put into the world. During the late adolescent period of someone’s life, self-esteem can be challenged. A trend on TikTok emerged in which people bragged about their physique, more popularly known as “body checking.” Comments expressing the great dissatisfaction some people have with their own bodies or physical appearance are a common response to such videos. Often, the viewers of these videos praise the creator and demonstrate a desire to look the way the poster does. The “What I Eat in a Day” videos can become particularly disturbing. Many people have responded to the trend by uploading more realistic eating habits throughout the day, which brings me a considerable amount of hope. However, content creators with a history of “body checking” are bound to pop up in our feed every now and then. Spotting creators like this is most evident through their eating habits—eating merely an apple for breakfast, a granola crumb for lunch and a hard-boiled egg for dinner is completely absurd and unrealistic. It is important to be able to distinguish between a healthy diet and an unhealthy one. Unfortunately, younger viewers are more impressionable and likely more prone to internalizing this content and projecting it onto their daily lives. 

Another potentially negative influence on social media platforms would be those centered around fitness influencers, as some tend to trigger unhealthy habits. These content creators usually film their gym routines for the sole purpose of producing content but sometimes gain an immense amount of attention for their unusual fitness habits. Several creators try to curate the perfect routine to get a certain look and convince viewers to do the same. Every person’s needs are different, though. Many of them push for perfection and even encourage their audiences to take specific supplements or buy products they advertise through sponsorships. However, these sponsorships can be misleading, and that is intentional. Influencers are employed by brands and services to promote an uptick in sales and are incentivized to lie. Furthermore, many influencers have cosmetic goals in mind and may hide the fact that they achieved certain physical results through surgery, body modification or much more personalized plans made by trainers. The lack of transparency can create mistrust among viewers and introduce toxic ideas about challenging oneself, giving people the notion that such content is normalized when it is quite the opposite. When fitness content creators fail to disclose this information, they are misleading their viewers who might go to extreme measures to get the results they see.

This is all to say that fitness and lifestyle content on social media can be highly variable. There are some gym influencers who make sure to reveal the true condition of their bodies and how closely they follow certain routines and eating habits. It is easy to fall down a rabbit hole of content that is harmful and misleading. Being aware of who is posting the content can save a lot of time and frustration that is so familiar when someone is trying to get into healthier eating and exercising habits.