Social media fitness trend makes women feel worse

Looking at fitspiration images on social media puts people in a bad mood and makes them feel bad about their bodies, a new study has found, and it makes women less likely to feel inspired to work out.

The fitspiration social media trend is flawed because it makes women feel worse about their bodies, not better, a new study has found.

Researchers from Flinders University studied 108 women and found images depicting fit women made women less likely to work out rather than inspire them to exercise.

One prominent hashtag, #fitspiration — or #fitspo for short — has more than 65 million posts on Instagram.

The #fitspiration hashtag has young women and men in a variety of poses showing off their mostly slim, muscled bodies.

Some post before and after photos and slogans such as “every day is a new opportunity” and “put yourself at the top of your to-do list every day”.

Lead author Ivanka Prichard and her team found such messages had no beneficial effect in making people exercise.

Images depicting fit women make others less likely to work out.

Study participants aged 17 to 25 who looked at fitspiration images were no more likely to travel a greater distance on a treadmill than those looking at travel images.

Dr Prichard, co-deputy director of the Sport, Health, Activity, Performance and Exercise Research Centre, found looking at fitspiration images put people in a bad mood and made them feel bad about their bodies.

“Despite their positive intentions and popularity, #fitspiration images are yet another way to make women feel worse about themselves and their bodies,” she said.

“Close to 90 per cent of young Australians use some form of social media.

“Young women’s rapidly-growing use of image-based platforms such as Instagram is of concern, given what we know about the impact of ­idealised imagery on body image.

“One of the most consistent and influential forces on young women’s body image is the media’s depiction of idealised and often unobtainable body types such as a thin and fit ideal.

“These findings provide further evidence highlighting fitspiration as a potentially harmful online trend.

“Despite these negative effects, the images themselves are still considered inspirational.”

The research is published in the journal Body Image.

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