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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think instagram diet culture is harmful

26 replies

lolosandals · 08/06/2023 22:18

People posting WIEAD (what I eat in a day) videos with numbers of calories on the post. ‘Coming in a calorie short of 1500 today, that’s super more than is good for me but tomorrow is a new day’ was a post I saw earlier, and though this is judgemental, I found it sad.

Maybe I need to pull my socks up and think more about what I eat but calories do not enter my head (I am a healthy weight for my height). I eat a balanced diet, but ‘intuitively’ eat as they call it. If I want a sandwich for lunch I won’t limit myself, if I feel hungry I have two. I will happily eat half a pot of hummus - sometimes the whole thing - with a load of veggies and call that a meal. Some days I have a croissant for breakfast then don’t feel hungry until my tea. A snack can be either fruit or a few biscuits with a cuppa. I make sure to get my steps in, exercise and drink plenty of water, and take a multivitamin. I cannot imagine logging all of this food into an app or keeping an Instagram diary.

If you’re unhappy about your size or the way you look of course do something about it but I feel really sad for people who look very healthy and slim to start with who become obsessed with eating loads of these protein yoghurts and powders in an attempt to lose weight. I think for developing brains (and adult brains) constant exposure to this kind of stuff only leaves you comparing yourself to others and not truly happy in your body. Food is fuel, and your body is just your vehicle, and all bodies are different!

or AIBU?

OP posts:
Freeballing · 08/06/2023 22:20

It's not just Instagram. It is everywhere. Find a post on mumsnet about food and you will see that type of thing there too.

GeneHuntsCowboyBoots · 08/06/2023 22:21

ALL diet culture is harmful.

lolosandals · 08/06/2023 22:23

Freeballing · 08/06/2023 22:20

It's not just Instagram. It is everywhere. Find a post on mumsnet about food and you will see that type of thing there too.

True. I do think it’s awful though. Social media probably to blame

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 08/06/2023 22:23

All instagram culture is harmful too, all extremes and competitiveness and "look I can do better than that" and it gets more views, so unhelpful.

Nuance needs more than a single sentence superimposed on a photo.

hotjuneafternoon · 08/06/2023 22:28

Mumsnet is rife with this too.
I see so many posts from women who say they're a chubby size 6, seven and a half stone etc... so toxic

Itisyourturntowashthebath · 08/06/2023 22:29

Most diet culture is quite toxic. There are science defying people everywhere.
"I've never eaten more than 800 cals a day, why am I obese"
"You pig, I alternate between 800 and 500"
"Thin people starve themselves."
...

Most people seem to have little interest in eating a balance diet that nourishes their body and tastes good. Extremes get the clicks. People like clicks and people love the promise of a snake oil cure.

Itisyourturntowashthebath · 08/06/2023 22:31

You sound far too reasonable to be discussing diet on MN Wink

hettie · 08/06/2023 22:46

I don't disagree but it's not just Instagram TBF... It's everywhere, online on every platform and in every aspect of real life. I'm one of of a handful of women I've ever met (and I'm 50 so that's a lot of women over a lifetime) who've never dieted, restricted or cut out dairy/gluten/insert latest trend . I eat what I want when I want and I've never read an article online or in print I'm old about diet or food other than googling how to make something. I don't comment on food (I don't describe things as a 'naughty' or claim I'll have to be 'good tommorow' or say 'just this once'). And let me tell you I'm the female equivalent of unicorn shit.... The whole culture we have around food and body image and health is utterly screwed up

Itisyourturntowashthebath · 08/06/2023 22:58

Naughty food = endangered species.

JaneJeffer · 08/06/2023 23:12

I've just been on Instagram and all I've seen is yummy looking pizzas 🍕 😋

HerMammy · 08/06/2023 23:29

Mumsnet is rife with this too.I see so many posts from women who say they're a chubby size 6, seven and a half stone etc... so toxic
The other side of this is women who are morbidly obese and being glorified as curvy when no curve can be seen. It often is acceptable
to say you're too thin but hateful, bullying etc if you dare say someone is overweight.
We shouldn't glorify any type of extreme weight/eating.

Spinewars23 · 08/06/2023 23:37

Don’t know, after a third session of the week water aerobics I suddenly felt my thin lower legs yesterday morning and was really pleased. I’ve maintained a three stone loss somehow over a fairly substantial period of time.

I feel for people who undergo weight loss surgery and still end up looking 6 months pregnant with conditions such as Fibroids. I imagine they don’t make skinny models.

Fisharejumping · 09/06/2023 08:05

hotjuneafternoon · 08/06/2023 22:28

Mumsnet is rife with this too.
I see so many posts from women who say they're a chubby size 6, seven and a half stone etc... so toxic

And all those body checking posts: what size do you think I am etc. why?

Fisharejumping · 09/06/2023 08:07

hettie · 08/06/2023 22:46

I don't disagree but it's not just Instagram TBF... It's everywhere, online on every platform and in every aspect of real life. I'm one of of a handful of women I've ever met (and I'm 50 so that's a lot of women over a lifetime) who've never dieted, restricted or cut out dairy/gluten/insert latest trend . I eat what I want when I want and I've never read an article online or in print I'm old about diet or food other than googling how to make something. I don't comment on food (I don't describe things as a 'naughty' or claim I'll have to be 'good tommorow' or say 'just this once'). And let me tell you I'm the female equivalent of unicorn shit.... The whole culture we have around food and body image and health is utterly screwed up

I envy you so much. I went on my first diet when I was 12 and now 50 years later this is the first time in my life that I haven’t dieted and have started eating what I want. Diets don’t work.

Thesunnymood · 09/06/2023 08:21

Diets don’t work

Diets work. What doesn't work is keeping some lifestyle. You lose weight on diet, but if people return to same eating as they did before (the one which meant the extra weight) of course weight will go up.

I agree with pp about toxicity. Instagram, mn and other places are massive ED hubs (and I don't mean just unhealthy under eating...) When I looked for some low cal recipe ideas insta kept showing me "plus plus plus size" influencers and I blocked most. As much as I blocked the opposite extreme.

I saw people on here claim they can only lose on 600cal a day.

EvilElsa · 09/06/2023 08:23

It's been like this for decades. Before it was social media it was magazines and newspapers, celebrities doing DVDs etc.
I read a 90s magazine aimed at teens the other day and it was awful! Advice on how to not be hungry while starving yourself, an article with boys commenting on girls attractiveness and body shape. I'd argue that it's actually improving these days from that. Of course, there are unhealthy posts, but also a big body positive movement and also an anti-filter one.

HeckinBamboozled · 09/06/2023 08:26

GeneHuntsCowboyBoots · 08/06/2023 22:21

ALL diet culture is harmful.

This.

Also a lot of the diet posts on MN wouldn't look misplaced on proana forums in the early 00s. There's a lot of people seeking praise for their disordered eating on here.

Thesunnymood · 09/06/2023 08:29

Just to note, this thread will probably set off minimum of 3 threads about eating

BriarHare · 09/06/2023 08:29

Because I follow my influencer niece on IG and TikTok, and she posts these ‘what I eat in a day’ videos, I get spammed with loads of similar accounts.

I have to say, they are all very healthy diets, and these young women seem to eat a LOT. They need to fuel their gym obsessions 🙄

None of the ones I see talk about calories though. That is not good.

Theskipisfull · 09/06/2023 08:34

BriarHare · 09/06/2023 08:29

Because I follow my influencer niece on IG and TikTok, and she posts these ‘what I eat in a day’ videos, I get spammed with loads of similar accounts.

I have to say, they are all very healthy diets, and these young women seem to eat a LOT. They need to fuel their gym obsessions 🙄

None of the ones I see talk about calories though. That is not good.

That can't be a bad thing surely, good and bad on SM as ever

Lottapianos · 09/06/2023 08:38

'I don't comment on food (I don't describe things as a 'naughty' or claim I'll have to be 'good tommorow' or say 'just this once'). And let me tell you I'm the female equivalent of unicorn shit'

Im a fellow lump of unicorn shit 😊 I agree with you. I've always worked in teams of mostly women and the endless talk about dieting, being 'naughty' at the weekend, oh I couldn't eat a whole doughnut does anyone want to split this with me ..... It's very sad and very tiresome.

The other day a colleague went to the cafe at lunchtime and came back with a hearty portion of chips and veggie burger. As soon as she opened it, she started telling us that she thought she would get a big lunch so she wouldn't need to eat again that evening. She obviously felt ashamed of what she was eating and felt the need to explain to us, even though no one had commented at all. Same colleague mentions her weight a lot, and will add details like having had no breakfast and just an apple for lunch. NO ONE is asking and I'm sure no one is interested. It's really sad and I never know how to react so I just smile and nod

BarleySugars · 09/06/2023 09:10

Think it might be the algorhythms because i seem to see women who build up their butts and low cal diets are almost taboo. Contrast to millennium heroin chic and the pressure i was under to starve myself as a teen, long before insta :/

Jumbojem · 09/06/2023 12:06

I'm another who's nearly 50 and never dieted. My mum never dieted, or my sister, I think if the household had been different I may have? I have friends/colleagues who do a lot of fasting, 800cal days etc so they can then have cheat days. If seems crazy to me.
That said, I do think I need to lose some weight, age related weight has slowly crept up on me. I tried looking online for the best approach and discovered it's an absolute minefield of conflicting info, so many different options/views. I came away disoriented that I honestly have no clue what I'm supposed to do! I can see how people get suckered into one fad after another.

bunhead1979 · 09/06/2023 12:23

I don't see this much on IG. BUT I would say that if I ate "freely" as you do OP I would be pretty overweight, as I've not really ever master eating intuitively. I do like some posts which give ideas about eating well, increasing protein etc, exercise etc, it does motivate me.

That said I'm a long in the tooth middle aged woman who grew up during the heroin chic years so all the gym going and protein guzzling the younsters seem to do now seems super healthy to me. My diet culture was Marlboro and Diet Coke at that age.

WheelsUp · 09/06/2023 12:29

The SM algorithms are problematic and the fact that you're getting lots of diet content suggests that you watched one and got caught in a loop of watching more.
I like food content but the problem is that lots of creators do fitness and diet content too so I end up trapped in the same loop.

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