Most TikTok fitspiration content promotes misinformation and unrealistic body ideals

An analysis of videos from popular TikTok fitspiration hashtags revealed that most of these videos show fit and thin, idealized women bodies, and muscular, similarly idealized bodies of men. They also contained various other characteristics known to negatively impact body image of viewers. The research was published in Body Image.

Fitspiration is a social media trend that involves sharing images and content aimed at inspiring viewers to pursue an active and healthy lifestyle through exercise and nutrition. It showcases exercise routines, nutritious meals, and idealized body types. While intended to inspire, this content has sparked a complex dialogue about body image and self-perception.

Studies suggest that prolonged exposure to fitspiration images can lead to unhealthy comparisons, where individuals measure their self-worth against often unattainable physical standards portrayed by influencers and models. This, in turn, can exacerbate feelings of inadequacy and contribute to body dissatisfaction.

Moreover, the highly curated nature of social media content means that what viewers see is a selective representation, typically devoid of the effort, struggles, and failures that accompany regular fitness routines and dieting. This skewed reality can set unrealistic expectations, making everyday fitness goals seem less achievable.

Study author Samantha Pryde and her colleagues wanted to examine the themes and characteristics presented in fitspiration content posted to TikTok. They also wanted to look into the credibility of content creators who post videos using fitspiration hashtags on TikTok, and the accuracy of the information they share. These authors expected that fitness influencers would be the predominant posters of fitspiration videos, and that their videos would contain more misleading, incorrect, or harmful health information than videos posted by qualified professionals.

Study authors first looked for relevant hashtags of fitspiration videos on TikTok. To identify them, they searched for the fitspiration hashtags, and then looked into hashtags used in the first 10 videos collected in that way. This created an initial list of 52 possible hashtags, but study authors trimmed this list to 4 with the most views – #fitness, #gymtok, #fittok and #fitspo. For their analysis, study authors selected the first 50 videos for each hashtag, a total of 200 videos.

Study authors used a standardized codebook from a previous study to classify the content of the videos. They first categorized them into videos containing people, food, both, or other contents. Only videos containing food, people, or both were analyzed further.

Food-related videos were coded depending on whether they contained health or unhealthy food items, while those with people were classified in terms of gender and age of depicted individuals, their body shape and muscularity, actions performed, and the presence of any objectifying features (e.g., focus on specific body parts, absence of the individual’s face and/or head from view, posing in front of a mirror in a self-like fashion whilst recording).

Videos were also coded for a number of other characteristics such as the location where the video was recorded, the presence of harmful themes such as body shaming, excessive dieting or exercising, glorification of eating disorders, and others.

Results showed that 92% of videos were of people. 78% of videos contained women, 10% contained men, and 12% were both men and women. Videos of men were more likely to include two people, while videos of women mostly contained a single individual. Most of the videos were filmed in a gym.

Practically all of the women in the videos were between 15 and 34. 76% of the women in the videos were thin. In contrast, most of the men (60%) were of average build, but the share of thin men was also substantial (38%). 80% of men had visible muscle definition of different levels, but this was the case with only 41% of women.

77% of videos of women contained elements of objectification, most often focusing on their buttocks and legs. This was the case with only 50% of videos of men and these videos most often focused on their arms and chest. 76% of videos containing men, and 60% of videos containing women obscured their faces. Almost none of the creators posted their qualifications or credentials regarding health, fitness, or nutrition. Fitness influencers contributed 61% of the analyzed videos.

40% of the information posted in the videos was credible, 48% was misleading, and 12% was harmful. 67% of posts by qualified professionals were credible, while their other posts were misleading. In contrast, only, 38% of posts by individuals who did not disclose qualifications were credible. 59% of videos promoted engaging in exercise for appearance reasons and this was much more often the case with videos containing women.

“Fitspiration content on TikTok promotes gendered body image ideals that objectify both male and female bodies. Video captions persistently promote appearance-based reasons for exercise, along with several harmful themes known to negatively impact body image. Further, information presented was often not credible and was not posted by someone with a relevant health or fitness qualification.”, study authors concluded.

The study sheds light on the contents of fitspiration TikTok videos. However, it should be noted that this was just a “snapshot” of TikTok videos at the time of the study. Contents of platforms such as TikTok constantly change and an analysis done at a different time might yield very different results.

The paper, ““You started working out to get a flat stomach and a fat a$$”: A content analysis of fitspiration videos on TikTok,” was authored by Samantha Pryde, Eva Kemps, and Ivanka Prichard.