When #Fitspo Hurts More Than Helps

From Seventeen

Stephanie Schultz was fed up with feeling uncomfortable in her own skin. After years of relying on junk food for comfort, she wasn't technically overweight, but she didn't feel healthy either. "It made me happy," says the Ontario, Canada native, now 24. "I didn't think about what I was eating, I just ate it."

A weekend road trip to Montreal four years ago finally pushed her to the breaking point. "Looking at pictures from [that time] made me cringe," she says. "I hated the way I looked. I decided if I wanted to feel better, then it was time to make a lifestyle change." But healthy habits didn't come naturally to Stephanie. Although she says her family "didn't eat horribly," her kitchen cabinets were filled with sugary snacks and she avoided anything athletic. "I was never good at sports," she says. "I didn't want to go to a gym or class because I was embarrassed. I thought the only way to lose weight was to cut calories."

She needed guidance, so she turned to the Internet, where she eventually landed on Tumblr. There, she found pages of mesmerizing weight loss photos showcasing the supposed results of dedication, all tagged #fitspo. She bookmarked the workout plans she found under the hashtag, started to restrict entire food groups - like carbs - and hung quotes like "Don't stop when you're tired. Stop when you're done," on her bedroom wall. During class she scrolled through Tumblr, fantasizing about her future body. "The Internet was where I went when I was bored or lonely," she says.

By spring break, Stephanie's family and friends were concerned about her shrinking frame, but Stephanie reassured them she was fine. "To me, I was healthy because I wasn't starving myself or throwing up," she says. But a few months later, "I had no muscle mass and I could see my cheekbones starting to sink in," she says. "I was cold all the time and my hair fell out when I brushed it." She also stopped getting her period. Ignoring the growing list of consequences, Stephanie continued to follow the "inspirational" accounts she'd found online. "It just became so consuming," she says.

Fitspo had taken over her life.

Shorthand for "fitspiration," "fitspo" is a hashtag commonly used on networks like Tumblr and Instagram. It's "internet content meant to inspire people to make healthy choices by showing images of exercise tips or pictures of healthy foods," explains Leah Boepple, a clinical psychology graduate student at the University of South Florida who specializes in fitspo.

The intention is to motivate, but some fitspo accounts promote a "healthy" lifestyle in problematic ways: using Photoshopped pics that represent unrealistic ideals, relying on messages that shame the viewer ― "Strong is the new skinny" or "Sweat is fat crying" ― and occasionally endorsing products that may not be safe or effective. In cases like these, fitspo can be anything but inspirational. "Fitspo is a beauty ideal masquerading as a health ideal," says Lindsay Kite, Ph.D., co-director of Beauty Redefined, a non-profit that promotes positive body image through education. "It's veiled vanity and objectification: Now a girl must be muscular and hairless and have a perfectly rounded behind."

According to Google Trends, a tool that measures search terms' popularity over time, "fitspo" was nonexistent in January 2011, then became a buzzword in 2012, shortly after Instagram and Pinterest launched.

Recently, the first few academic studies on fitspo have been released ― and the insights have been alarming: One 2015 study from South Australia's Flinders University asked 130 female college students to look at either fitspo or travel pics and rate their feelings before and after. "Viewing fitspiration produced worse mood and body satisfaction," says the study's lead author, Marika Tiggemann, Ph.D. "The pictures are all of thin and toned women; normal women can't usually get there, and that might make them feel bad about their own bodies." Samantha DeCaro, assistant clinical director at the Renfrew Center of Philadelphia, a top eating disorder clinic, says she sees many patients who seek out fitspo: "The original intention may have been to emphasize being healthy and strong, but the definitions of 'healthy' and 'strong' are so varied."

If this sounds familiar, it's because fitspo is the not-so-distant cousin of another Internet trend: thinspo, which gained notoriety a decade ago for glorifying extreme - even skeletal - thinness. Thinspo is part of the "pro-anorexia" or "pro-ana" movement, offering guidance for maintaining eating disorders. The thinspo craze got so out of hand that Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram all banned content that fit that category in 2012.

A year later, Instagram lifted the ban, saying the decision was made in an effort to balance protection of its users with freedom of expression. The company now says that instead of making hashtags unsearchable, they provide warning messages on thinspo content along with educational links and resources.

Searching "thinspo" on Tumblr brings users to a page that asks "Everything okay?" and lists contact information for the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA). (Crafty users, of course, have found ways around this that the companies have not yet blocked.) But there are no such measures in place for fitspo - at least not officially. (Representatives at all three social media sites say that while they don't enforce firm rules around fitspo, they regularly review and analyze hashtag trends and either flag disturbing content for removal or make it unsearchable.)

The problems with "thinspo" were obvious. While the next generation of "motivational" content is harder to identify, the consequences may be similar. In her research, recently published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, Boepple found that many fitspo sites contain the same shaming messages thinspo sites do. The results were "troubling, for a lot of reasons," Boepple says. "We know that thinspo promotes dangerous, disordered messages, but we found that they're actually really similar. Fitspo doesn't promote the thin ideal quite as much, but it still promotes a fit, specifically athletic body."

What's so wrong with promoting athleticism? Working out is important, but excessive exercise is dangerous, especially for teenagers, and can lead to heart problems, soaring stress hormones, and more. "Failing to give your body proper rest can increase your risk of injury, sickness, and fatigue," says Jennifer Warnshuis, PT, DPT, a physical therapist and trainer in Vallejo, California. Subscribing to a super-strict diet is also risky. "Cutting calories makes it difficult to get the nutrients you need to build strong bones and be physically and mentally healthy," Warnshuis says.

But how do you draw the line between what's inspirational and what's dangerous? One red flag is when content is tied exclusively to appearance and not overall wellbeing. Some accounts rely solely on airbrushed pics of models to represent what "health" looks like. But in reality, "healthy" people come in all shapes and sizes. That means some might have stomach rolls, cellulite, and extra jiggle - things unlikely to appear in heavily filtered, perfectly lit glamour shots. This false ideal can mess with viewers, making them feel they don't measure up.

"Fitspiration keeps the focus on the external and on unreasonable aesthetic ideals," San Francisco-based psychotherapist and eating disorder specialist Bridget Whitlow says. "It's centered around an appearance that takes a lot of investment, in terms of time, money, and attention, that could be resourced into other areas of one's life."

Sixteen-year-old Leah Shahbazian, from Glendale, CA found fitspo a few years ago while scrolling through Insta's "explore" feature. "I was inspired to lose weight and become as fit as the people in the pictures," she says. "But after a month or two I realized it wasn't doing much but making me feel shameful about how I'm not as fit as them. It gave me the unrealistic idea that my body should look just like the Victoria's Secret models.'"

Some users of the #fitspo tag say their intention isn't to incite self-loathing. Jessica Lopez, a bodybuilder and registered nurse from Fresno, California regularly shares gym pics and progress shots with her Instagram followers. She occasionally incorporates fitspo quotes ("Will it be easy? NOPE. Will it be worth it"? ABSOLUTELY."), but has a strict no-Photoshop policy.

Jasmin Altinok, a 19-year-old aspiring personal trainer from Vienna, Austria, scours the Web for pics of models and uses apps like Wordswag to overlay quotes for her Tumblr RebellFitness. She doesn't think anyone should take these images so literally. "I don't post anything that says things, 'that could be your body,' because that would be a lie," she says. "Every body is unique." And while Jasmin does think some of the pics are tweaked, she doesn't believe that matters. "I'm pretty sure they're Photoshopped," she says, "Everything in our media gets edited, but it doesn't change my message. My mission is to help build a strong and confident generation of women."

Another fitspo norm that stirs suspicion: product placement. Jessica's feed includes endorsements for supplements like Reaction Nutrition's Amino Action, which the company claims "helps with muscle building and recovery." She says the companies she promotes don't offer her financial compensation, but they do send products for her to try, and she only plugs products that help her body withstand rigorous pre-competition workouts.

But with years of experience and a nursing degree under her belt, Jessica understands supplements in a way she worries casual observers won't. "I would never just take something I saw on Instagram and put it in my body without knowing anything about it," she says. "People should do their own research or take the products directly to a nutritionist or coach."

Despite documented similarities between fitspo and thinspo, Jasmin considers them distinct. "Fitspo is supposed to be a healthy way of life, while thinspo is dedicated to being thin no matter what," she says. "I wouldn't post a picture of someone who obviously lives an unhealthy lifestyle or might have an eating disorder." The problem is that it's virtually impossible to tell someone has an eating disorder just by looking at them, especially as most people don't fit the "scary skinny" stereotype. Jasmin says that although she can't guarantee people in pictures are healthy, she does her due diligence: "I always try to find the source of the picture and if I see she's encouraging others to eat less and take 'magic pills' to lose weight, I assume she doesn't care about her health," she says.

Leah and Stephanie were eventually able to quit their fitspo habits. Leah's fascination faded before ever evolving into a full-blown addiction, but Stephanie spiraled for two years before hitting rock bottom. Although she didn't seek therapy for her obsession, she pulled the plug by finding accounts that made her feel good about her body and life. "I was tired of being miserable, exhausted, and drained," she says. "I created my own community on Instagram and found people who lived healthy and happy lifestyles while having good relationships with food and exercise. I learned about balance."

One of the best ways to break the fitspo cycle is to broaden your idea of beauty, says NEDA CEO Claire Mysko. She suggests following Proud2BMe, a supportive online community. "It's important to include body diversity and body-positive messages in your social media feed," she says. "If you're really looking for healthy images, you need to see a diverse range in terms of size - the whole spectrum of what is actually healthy."

Following positive accounts and blogging about her struggles helped Stephanie recover. "It was like one big circle with social media," she says. "First it was educational, then it was dangerous and obsessive, and today it's a positive influence in my life. I know the amount of ridiculous messages there are on the Internet, so I hope any positivity I can send will reach someone in need. There's no wrong way to have a body."