Social Media (referred to as “SM” throughout the rest of this blog) in the fitness world is a strange place. It is full of different types of people posting and looking for all sorts of information. There are people who post to keep themselves accountable to their followers, those who share their thoughts in hopes of helping others, people who call themselves influencers with the goal of amassing as many followers as possible, true experts in the field sharing their knowledge for free, self-proclaimed experts sharing their “knowledge” for free, people looking for help, and many other types of users. Unfortunately, there is no barrier to entry and no real consequence for sharing information that is false, incorrect, or dishonest. If you can’t tell by my tone, I am pretty cynical about the whole thing and I’m not sure if SM has been a net-positive or negative for fitness.

SM is here to stay and can be used for good, as long as you are aware of how to spot the content you should avoid. The key to being able to ensure you are following the right people is to be skeptical, educate yourself, and understand the incentives that people have for posting. It is difficult to be skeptical about information on which you are not educated so understanding the fundamentals of the topic at hand is step one when deciding whether to take something under advisement that you find on SM. For example, if you understand the basics of metabolism, how food is processed through the body, and the energy balance theory, then it is difficult to be tricked into thinking keto or intermittent fasting is somehow better than another diet. What do you think gets more views and likes: a post that talks about how to lose fat fast or the post that tries to educate people to understand how the weight loss process works and how to make it work long-term? The algorithms underlying most SM platforms are set up to lead you down the path to quick fixes and short-term solutions when most people need education and long-term thinking.

I want this post to be short and sweet so I won’t go through specific examples of the types of content to avoid. Instead, I will finish with how I have made SM work for me and how I continue to manage my use. Just like we try to be careful with our food diet, we also need to be aware of our information diet. We need to be aware of who we follow, why we follow them, what types of information we want to see, and when we see uninvited posts it may be worth trying to figure out how to stop that type of content from showing up on our feeds. One strategy I have used to moderate the content I see is muting people. This allows you to no longer see the content from that person without unfollowing them (if you are worried about insulting anyone). If you are following anyone who is trying to convince you to follow a certain diet, sell you a meal plan, selling fast results, or claiming that something melts fat off magically and this person does not mention the underlying fundamentals of why these strategies will work and if the results are sustainable, I would mute them. That is dishonest and misleading content.

Every time I get asked if I follow a fitness influencer or if I have seen a specific post from a certain influencer, the answer is usually no. I don’t follow a lot of fitness people on SM because I find most of the content to be dumbed down and misleading. The intentions of the people posting may be moral but if the content is lazy then it is not worth my time. Just because someone has their shirt off in a post and has abs does not mean they know anything about why and how things work. Do not assume someone is an expert based on the way they look. SM is not a good place for nuance, and unfortunately there is a lot of nuance when it comes to an individual’s health and fitness. Next time you see a post and are thinking about acting on it, take a step back, think about the incentives behind the post, and think about if the person giving out the information seems truthful. If results are guaranteed without any education as to why or how, that is a big red flag. Most of us do not get our medical advice on SM and for good reason. That industry is regulated and there could be criminal charges brought against someone who is giving out dishonest medical information. The health and fitness SM space is not regulated and is like the wild wild west. Be careful out there.