As you scroll through social media, you see posts of perfect people with their perfect bodies, and most of the time, you wish that your life and body were like that. Then, you go on YouTube to find some advice and workout ideas or purchase a gym membership. You are met with videos that say “2 Week Full Body Transformation” and many different gym fees. For the two weeks, you track your food and workout every day, and most of the time, you see no results. This scenario illustrates two main problems with the weight loss industry: unrealistic expectations, inaccurate information, and unhealthy habits.

When someone starts their weight loss journey, oftentimes, they have a goal weight or goal bodies. In addition, many YouTube videos or weight loss programs have catchy titles, such as stating that this workout video or program will make you look like an idealized celebrity in a short amount of time. However, not even these “perfect” celebrities look like their photos. For instance, Zendaya, Kylie Jenner, Britney Spears, and Kim Kardashian all have had their magazine covers are Instagram photos edited and photoshopped by professionals (insider.com). Thus, for people trying so hard to look like a celebrity, it is essentially impossible because not even that celebrity looks like that.

The weight loss industry also perpetuates a large amount of inaccurate information. Renee Li (12) believes that “many weightloss videos have unrealistic titles” that “definitely won’t work.” For example, Chloe Ting, a popular weight loss YouTube channel, has many videos that give viewers wrong and impossible information. Her most famous video is titled “Get Abs in 2 WEEKS | Abs Workout Challenge,” and during quarantine, it gained popularity with many people attempting to get abs in a short amount of time and amassed over 43o million views. Obviously, you can not get abs in two weeks just through those videos, so this video is just extremely inaccurate.

When people began their workout binge and weight loss attempts in 2020, their desperation to achieve their weight loss goals or look like unrealistic beauty standards led to unfortunate habits. In 2020, eating disorders and hospitalizations due to them increased at an alarming rate (webmd.com). This dismal outcome from the pandemic is due to the unhealthy eating habits that many people on social media promote. On TikTok, “What I Eat in a Day” videos rose in popularity, and for many people, it became a competition to eat the least amount of food to lose weight quickly, leading to long-term negative health effects because of the lack of food and damage being done to people’s bodies.

Overall, these problems could lead to devastating effects to people’s mental wellbeing and physical health. While it is important to exercise and eat healthily, it is also important to live a balanced life. Thus, it is important to realize that many of the weight loss programs and societal beauty standards are unrealistic.