Recently, a TikTok showed up on my For You Page of a girl talking about how amazing it is that we have created a culture scared of eating a slice of bread because of the calorie intake but pushing Acãi bowls, which actually have more sugar and calories. I started reflecting on this idea of social media’s impact on how society, especially younger girls, views a “healthy” lifestyle. 

According to Healio.com, the age group 14-18 accounts for the majority of eating disorders. The number of eating disorders reported rose about 65% in just the last 5 years. On NEDA (the National Eating Disorder Association), 28.8 million US citizens will have an eating disorder in their lifetime.

In my opinion, this rising epidemic is greatly due to social media’s increased influence on healthy lifestyles and diet culture, but decrease in facts. Our Tik Toks and Instagrams are packed with videos explaining what your diet should look like to get abs or what foods are high in calories. What they lack to inform users on is that a healthy caloric number is based on the individual body, it’s not a universal number. They often stress the low fat low calorie diet, but once again, give little to no advice on how to meet your body’s protein intake or the fact that you need calories to fuel your body.  

Often these are paired with workouts or pilates routines, almost always ending with showing abs and a slim waist normalizing that very specific body type as the goal. After that young girls are left questioning the body image they grew up with, and striving for this very specific goal, replaying the workout and ‘diet’ they saw in their head. Lack of results can be draining and lead to further malnutrition. The truth is the ‘routine’ of doing these workouts and trying to eat minimally with low carbs has effects not mentioned. This lifestyle usually comes with nausea, lack of focus, bloating, slowed metabolism, headaches, etc. 

Let’s rewind. What if social media influencers or videos stressed the importance of understanding your personal needs in accordance to your very specific body type. What if that video had a workout routine paired with the importance of protein and a balanced nourishing meal. People hear this idea of a nourishing meal all the time, but unfortunately the myth that simply minimizing your eating will make for the best results has taken over. The reality is this: If a person was to eat a low calorie diet and a strenuous workout for a month, their results would differ greatly from a person’s who ate a protein packed, balanced meal paired with the same strenuous workout. On one hand,  the second person would begin to see developed muscles and, on the contrary of what many think, a stronger core/ abdominal, while the first person would likely look tired, lack muscle mass, and feel faint frequently throughout the day. 

I urge people, especially young women scrolling on social media and saving those diets/ workout videos holding onto that “ideal” body image to do some research on this. Find out what YOUR body calls for. Start eating a full protein filled meal after that workout and watch yourself achieve your goals while maintaining your energy.