By Adina Kurzban
A few months ago, my friends were texting about beginning Chloe Ting’s workouts. I had never heard of her, so I looked the videos up on YouTube. But I was confused by what I saw: her video’s were titled, “25 Day Hourglass Challenge,” and “Slim Thigh Challenge.” I also saw other fitness influencers post pictures of their followers losing weight, writing down how their waist had shrunk and comparing their bodies before and after completing the program.
Seeing this made me wonder- maybe I’m doing things wrong? I don't look as skinny as these influencers, but I workout every day! If body types are deemed unhealthy based on looks, then what does health mean in our society?
True health isn't supposed to be based on looks. Health is about your lifestyle— exercise, eating, and your mental health. But recently, with the rise of influencers and advertisements, health has come to take on a different meaning. Now, it means skinny.
But how did we get to this place— where skinniness is synonymous with health? It all ties back to influencers, and their monetary gains from having a well-followed feed.
Influencers have been around for a while, but with social media, especially Instagram, there is an additional financial incentive. Many influencers are paid to post pictures as a form of advertisement. They also get money for posts; influencers with 10,000 to 50,000 followers can get a minimum of a few thousand dollars per post.
This financial incentive causes many influencers to promote weight loss plans that may not necessarily be healthy. In addition, since they get more money with more followers, fitness influencers often promote a mentality that promotes an unhealthy relationship with exercise and food.
Plus, most prominent fitness influencers are thin and have extremely toned muscles. Although this body type is not a bad thing in itself, when the only pictures we see of “health” and “fitness” are those of very skinny and muscular people, it negatively affects one’s body image.
So what does this mean for the influencing business? Obviously, there will always be influencers that profit off our “likes” and “follows”. But these fitness influencers should redirect their posts— instead of promoting exercise as a means to lose weight, they should promote it as a means of mental and physical wellness.
If you want to follow some health influencers, go ahead! Try to be aware of the effect the pictures have on you— if they make you feel bad, self conscious, or anything else, maybe it's time to unfollow.
Plus, in case you want to fill your feed with a body positive fitness influence, do some research on who to follow! Our Instagram account @yourbodyyourimage follows the yoga instructor @nourishednatasha and the influencer @raffela_mancuso , as well as the ex-USC volleyball player @victoriagarrick and the account @thesamplan . There are so many more positive influences to follow, so make sure to fill your feed with accounts that make you happy and confident!