Fitness influencers have steadily been rising in popularity over social media since the pandemic, with extremists garnering countless followers online watching them undertake staggering challenges or follow extravagant diets such as the raw carnivore trend. Clean eating and a competitive gym culture has been a consistent favourite among these online circles.
However, the rising popularity of these trends could also be lending itself to a rise of an under-discussed eating disorder, orthorexia nervosa. Similar to anorexia nervosa, this eating disorder sees sufferers becoming obsessive and compulsive around their meals and calorie usage.
While anorexia focuses on keeping calorie intake as low as possible, orthorexia focuses on the purity of food with sufferers becoming obsessed with clean eating, rigid diets and strict exercise routines. The restrictive nature of disorder may simply sound like a well-disciplined individual trying to maintain their health and wellness, but orthorexia doesn’t imply that the person understands nutrition and exercise properly and it can still cause an unhealthy mental attitude towards food similar to anorexia, bulimia or over-eating.
Professor of psychology and author of Adultish, Dr Charlotte Markey, highlighted: “Most fitness influencers have little or no qualifications to be offering advice about health. They typically ‘sell’ what works for them, but all of our bodies are different.”
She also highlighted the clean eating trend is not a scientific term as she emphasised: “Most of our food supply (even fruits and vegetables) have some human interference and are not ‘pure’ in the way some influencers may suggest. And foods are modified, frozen, and packaged so that we have access to a variety of foods we like at any given time.”
The expert pointed out that the mental energy and effort restrictive diets use can be put to far better use elsewhere in a person’s life. Professor Brendon Stubbs at King's College London agreed, noting that the perpetuated fitness and wellbeing culture online can have a devastating effect on viewers.
He shared: “Messaging on social media around quick fixes, especially about crash weight loss, are the opposite to sustainable exercise and can lead to an unhelpful and problematic relationship with exercise, including moving towards eating disorders such as orthorexia.”
The professor explained some “warning signs” for orthorexia which included consistently going to gym despite feeling “you are not having fun”, if you “feel guilty for missing a session”, or believe you “‘have to exercise’ to burn off calories”.
Nutritionist for The 1:1 Diet by Cambridge Weight Plan, Mark Gilbert, pointed out that people with orthorexia tend to have a “very regimented personality” in general, with “other extreme behaviours” and self-imposed strict routines in aspects of their life outside of health such as their work or hobbies.
While Mark highlighted that orthorexia isn’t quite as dangerous as anorexia or obesity, he did note that restrictive dieting can lead to “chronically eating too few calories” or not enough nutrients. Mark explained that the true danger of orthorexia “depends upon the person’s definition of ‘healthy’”.
He continued: “Some people do better restricting more carbs and sugar, while others do better with a normal proportion of carbohydrates and restricting carbs and fat equally, and if the person thinks one way or the other is more healthy and eats that way, it is quite possible they are eating in a way that is not ideal for them personally. Each person reacts differently to a given diet.”
As new research from ASICS has shown the rising fixation the UK has with losing weight, particularly looking for quick fixes on social media apps like TikTok, is skyrocketing despite 59% of people believing celebrity weight loss content on social media is the “worst thing” for people’s mental health and 80% believing media focus on celebrity bodies negatively impacts self-esteem. Professor Stubbs urged a move to a more holistic view of fitness.
He shared his hope that this will encourage people to have a “sustainable long-term relationship with exercise” not just for aesthetic purposes but to give them “a sound mind and sound body experience”. To help readers avoid falling into a negative relationship with exercise, Professor Stubbs advised they “consume content online wisely” and embrace both adequate rest and nutrition in their fitness routine.
Story Saved
You can find this story in My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.
