New Study: This Exercise Trend Could Be Having an Opposite Effect

Why do you work out: Is it to lose weight? Build muscle? Strengthen your heart? Soothe your mind? No matter the reason, there’s a universal effect we all experience: Exercise makes us feel good.

That is, unless, you’re engaged in online comparison. When you glance at Instagram or TikTok, it’s almost impossible not to see content from a perfectly fit influencer touting what they eat in a day or their super-short morning workout (when it would almost certainly take hours of exercise per day to look that way).

Many of these accounts purport to promote a healthy lifestyle, but they’re selling aesthetics—and though they might be aspirational, new research suggests that inspiration could be doing more harm than good.

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A recent online experimental study aimed to examine the impacts of three popular social media trends—”fitspiration,” “body positivity,” and “body neutrality”—on body dissatisfaction and emotional well-being among women.

For the June 2024 study published in Body Image, a team of four German researchers specializing in clinical psychology and psychotherapy randomly assigned 382 women (172 with reported eating disorders, and 210 without), to view 30 Instagram posts that fell under one of the three categories:

• “Fitspiration” posts showcased thin-muscular women promoting health and fitness.
• “Body positivity” posts featured images of larger female bodies encouraging self-love.
• “Body neutrality” posts included text-based illustrations focusing on appreciating the body’s functionality.

Participants completed questionnaires on body dissatisfaction and mood both before and after viewing the posts—and the results were telling. Viewing “fitspiration” images increased body dissatisfaction, while both “body positivity” and “body neutrality” posts led to reduced body dissatisfaction.

Regarding mood, “fitspiration” posts reduced positive feelings but had no effect on negative emotions. “Body positivity” posts maintained positive feelings and decreased negative ones. Interestingly, despite reducing negative mood, “body neutrality” posts also decreased positive mood.

The effects of these trends were consistent for women with and without eating disorders, underscoring the potential harm of “fitspiration” content on body image and emotional well-being, regardless of mental health. Next time you’re looking for a bit of inspiration, turning to real-life inspiration and instruction from a trainer or nutritionist may be a more beneficial bet that helps you stay committed to your overall wellness.

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