Skip to main content

Three guides side by side

Loading YouTube content

"I love you guys, too."

A cartoon woman does a crunch in front of the title Bikini Body Guide

Two guides released by influencers in the 2010s.

  • Deakin University Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition Dr Emily Denniss
  • University of Western Australia human sciences Professor Amanda Salis
  • University of South Australia exercise physiologist Dr Ben Singh
  • The Butterfly Foundation
  • InsideOut Institute

"Research shows that diet culture is particularly harmful and is a significant risk factor for the development of eating disorders,"
she said.

  • Assigning a moral value to food
  • Promoting cutting out entire food groups
  • Recommending an extremely low calorie diet
  • Promoting expensive "superfoods" for health

"Food is not simply energy and nutrients,"
she said.

n

An Instagram post saying "do it for the after" posted by Kayla Itsines

  • Success through aesthetics
  • Body-checking in advertising material
  • Promotion of high intensity interval training (HIIT)

"These programs have participants work up to a minimum of six days of exercise per week,"
Dr Singh said.

"The focus on aesthetics can create unrealistic expectations,"
he said.

A woman's shoe and a bottle of water with the guide open on a tablet

"I think that individuals do have a responsibility [to reflect on past content], but I think they're often the scapegoats,"
she said.

  • Do you accept you contributed to harmful diet and fitness culture in the mid 2010s? If so, what do you have to say to this? If not, why not?
  • How do you respond to people who claim your fitness and nutrition guides did lasting damage to their relationships with food and exercise?
  • What have you learned over the last 15 years that now informs your programs and business?

Posted , updated