Honestly, a lot of the fitness content I see on Instagram really misses the point. I’m not against being healthy at all. I’m actually trying to make working out more of a regular part of my life, and eating balanced is already pretty easy for me. I’m very pro health. But the way this whole “healthy lifestyle” thing is portrayed online just feels toxic and kinda fake.
It’s all so focused on the end result. You constantly see people showing off their abs or posting their 5am walks, gym routines, and perfectly prepped meals, like that’s the blueprint for life. And that’s pretty much all they show. It makes this really rigid image of what being healthy is supposed to look like, and if your life doesn’t look exactly like that, you start feeling like you’re doing it wrong or you’ll never get there.
Even calling it a “healthy lifestyle” feels weird to me at this point. It makes it sound like it’s this big identity you have to take on, and if your life isn’t already perfect, it feels so far away. Plus, these influencers rarely show the rest of their lives. You almost never see them doing hobbies, hanging out with friends, working, being creative, or just relaxing. They make it seem like their entire life is gym, sleep, eat, repeat. And honestly that’s not inspiring😭It’s robotic af.
Another thing is that you can 100% have a healthy, supportive life without going to the gym or following some strict clean eating plan. Maybe you’re someone who handles stress really well. Maybe you’ve got a great group of friends and a life full of things that fulfill you. Maybe you move your body by dancing or walking or gardening, not by lifting weights six days a week. And that’s still health. Working out and eating well should be natural, supportive things you do to feel good, not the entire definition of being healthy.
I really think the whole way we talk about this needs to change. Being healthy should be about building a life that supports you. Not a life where you’re constantly obsessing over health habits and losing sight of everything else. I’d love to see more people online actually show what that looks like. The process. The messy parts. The real way it fits into their whole life. Because the way it’s shown now? No wonder so many people feel unmotivated or disconnected from it. It’s not real. Anyone else feel this way?
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I don’t think it’s a unpopular opinion. You’re 100% correct. However the alogrithm is going to prioritize what gets clicks and views. “That one crazy trick to weight loss is: consistency” doesn’t track well and also you can’t grind consistency into a powder, jam it into a capsule and sell it as supliments.
The focus needs to shift from fitness to wellness, of which fitness is a critical and very subjective component of.
It’s almost like their content is fitness oriented since they are fitness influencers.
Going to the gym, exercising, eating healthy meals, that’s all a part of the process of a healthy lifestyle.
They aren’t going to post content of them working their 9-5 or them going out with their friends. Why? Because they post fitness content. Also maybe their friends and coworkers don’t want to be filmed.
What you’re looking for is someone who vlogs their whole day.
These people you talk about post content for a certain target audience. They aren’t posting and forcing every single person in the world to watch their content and conform to what they post.
Not to mention whatever they’re promoting usually isn’t the reason they’re fit. Occasionally they’ll post before and afters but the befores are from when they were kids and may have eaten too much birthday cake that day.
Ultimately for most fitness boils down to aesthetics so that’s what gets the views. There are fitness content creators who aren’t super jacked or lean and I’d wager except for maybe the top 1%, most don’t even make half the views of what your typical fitness influencer makes. People like watching pretty people and for many, fitness is the journey to beauty
As someone else said, the key to fitness (like many things in life) isn’t some magic exercise or supplement, it’s consistency but those things don’t get clicks
Not really a “fitness” content problem. Just any popular content on social media. Youtube / Tiktok views rely on abusing the algorithm, which leads to a lot of click bait videos.