This Exercise Trend Could Be More Harmful Than Helpful

Why do you work out: Is it to lose weight? Build muscle? Strengthen your heart? Soothe your mind? No matter the reason, there’s a universal effect we all experience: Exercise makes us feel good.

That is, unless, you’re engaged in online comparison. When you glance at Instagram or TikTok, it’s almost impossible not to see content from a perfectly fit influencer touting what they eat in a day or their super-short morning workout (when it would almost certainly take hours of exercise per day to look that way).

Many of these accounts purport to promote a healthy lifestyle, but they’re selling aesthetics—and though they might be aspirational, new research suggests that inspiration could be doing more harm than good.

Keep reading this article on The Healthy.