There has been a massive trend lately of “fitspiration”, a movement originally started to promote getting healthier and stronger over starving yourself to be skinny. Eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, are an ever rising issue, with an estimated 1.6 Billion sufferers in the UK. 89% of those are female with age 14-25 year olds most affected. The mental health charity MIND say 1 in 10 women aged 15-30 are affected by anorexia. With such shocking statistics surely these images of fit and toned gym goers will prompt us to be healthier? We all know you need to eat to build muscle and exercise regularly so surely anything that encourages this can only be a good thing? Or are we just replacing one impossible standard for another?

If you search the hashtag “fitspo” on instagram you will be bombarded with over 40 million images of fitness models flexing their lean, muscular bodies with great tans but what it doesn’t show you is the blood, sweat and tears it took to achieve that or all the money that model has probably spent on personal trainers and supplements etc. It also doesn’t show you all the personal sacrificies that person has made along the way, they may look happy with their pumped biceps but do they have a life outside of the gym walls?

Theses images are often accompanied with quotes such as “excuses don’t burn calories”, “be the best version of you”, or my personal favourite, “strong is the new skinny”. The quotes are aimed at motivating you to get off the sofa, switch off the TV and get active which is great, but now we feel even more guilty about those extra pounds we still have left from Christmas or people who are naturally slim and struggle to put on weight feel they are not good enough, this is called “Body Guilt” and it is not healthy or  helpful in getting you to your fitness goal and can lead to eating disorders.

The messages we receive from these images can also be very confusing, yes these models are very fit and muscular but they are also still very thin. So now we feel we have to be fit, muscular AND skinny on top of our day jobs, family life etc?! The essential body fat percentage needed for women is 12% and 4% for men, bikini model competitors usually have a body fat percentage of around just 8-10%, this puts them at serious risk of heart problems. Are they taking health and fitness too far to the point where it actually becomes very dangerous and would you really want to follow them down that path?

In an analysis of Fitspo images, researchers from Flinders University found that Fitspo tends to depict just one body type; toned AND thin and women reported feeling depressed and anxious after 30 minutes viewing fitness magazines that promote the athletic ideal. We know that in reality people come in all shapes and sizes.

These images can also be very deceptive, whether it’s the use of photo shop, enhancement surgery or just plain and simple posing and flexing their muscles. If even they don’t look as good as their pictures how can you?! It’s no wonder we can sometimes feel inadequate, unfortunately there’s no filter for real life.

I myself have always been a huge supporter of being strong and not skinny and I will always encourage health over having a thigh gap but it is becoming increasingly apparent to me that Fitspo is nothing more than Thinspo with a six pac and is not a realistic or achievable standard to compare ourselves to. If scouring these images motivates you to be more active or if the food porn encourages you to eat healthier then that’s awesome but don’t feel you have to live up to their standards. If they have a negative impact on how you feel about your own body then stop looking and concentrate on your own personal goals and not what you have been brainwashed into believing they should be.