A few months into creating an Instagram account, I unearthed the online word of fitspo. Feeling intrigued, I scrolled through and admired images of impeccable muscular and athletic bodies. Each picture showed a physique that I can only dream of attaining. Mixed feelings of inspiration and jealousy started to brew inside me.

According to the MacMillan Dictionary Fitspiration or Fitspo is “activity on social media intended to inspire people to get fitter by eating healthily and doing more exercise, especially photos and videos of healthy food and people exercising.”

Fitspiration derived from the earlier internet trend thinspiration also known as thinspo. Commonly seen on social media sites Tumblr and Instagram, teenage girls and young women would post their weight loss successes and goals on their accounts. The highly popular social media hashtag, #thinspo, began to accumulate negative attention. Many critics found thinspiration to promote anorexia and other body image issues. With the decline of thinspo came the latest popular hashtag #fitspo. This new trend flooded Instagram and Tumblr claiming to promote healthy eating, exercise and strong women.

Online writer for The Great Fitness Experiment, Charlotte Hilton Andersen, stated that “fitspo may be thinspo in a sports bra.” Andersen explains that fitspo portrays unrealistic ideal images of the female body. This nearly unreachable ideal of beauty forces many to suffer both mentally and physically in order to gain the “optimal” body.

Image above is an example of a negative fitspo post

Andersen fears that fitspo can trigger compulsive over-exercise. The Alliance for Eating Disorders explains compulsive over- exercise as “another way to ‘purge’ calories and it can be as dangerous as Anorexia and Bulimia.” The main goal when an individual is suffering from compulsive exercise can be burning calories, relieving the guilt from eating/bingeing, or to give them the permission to eat.” Many believe that constant images of perfectly sculpted bodies will cause people to feel ashamed of their bodies and begin to obsess on achieving the perfect physique.

Fitspiration undeniably affects people, whether it is entirely beneficial or detrimental, is still up for debate. Many women show their weight loss or strength gaining achievements through fitspiration. Personal trainer and Instagram celebrity Kayla Itsines has positively changed the bodies of many women. Her online and global community empower each other to accomplish their dream body. A large part of Itsines fitness movement is to take pictures of your progress. She argues that obsessing over a number on the scale will not help a person gain muscle or be healthy. Anna Victoria, fitness guru and Instagram star, has also inspired thousands of women to get toned. She recently gained online praise for fighting unrealistic body ideals. Frustrated with unrealistic fitspo images online, she revealed that even the fittest women look unflattering in certain angles. She had posted on her own Instagram account showing herself in these unflattering angles and debunking how easy it is to deceive viewers.

From Anna Victoria's Instagram account

Anna Victoria’s response to unrealistic body images definitely unmasks the dangers of fitspo. Numerous online communities post images of chiseled abs, toned legs and other fit body parts. A multitude of fitspo accounts show these glorified bodies yet provide no food or exercise advice. It seems feasible that if one is exposed to these posts on a daily basis, there can be harmful effects. While it may motivate some women, others self-esteem suffers and begin to develop unhealthy habits. It becomes less about being healthy and more about looking a certain way.

It is time we have an open discussion about fitspo. We should applaud the uplifting posts that promote being healthy but not perfect, and recognize when it becomes less than inspiration. When browsing through the world of fitspo I now ask myself: “is this supposed to inspire me to be healthy and the best I can be or a way for me to feel inferior and ashamed?”