Experts warn social media fitness trends may fuel eating disorders

Four popular social media trends involving food, exercise and body image may negatively affect young people and contribute to eating disorders, experts told DR’s P3 documentary series Løgnen i dit feed.

The trends are before-and-after photos, “what I eat in a day” posts, “clean eating” content and body checking. They are widely featured on the profiles of Danish fitness influencers, according to a new P3 analysis.

Psychologist Lotte Rubæk, head of the self-harm initiative in the Capital Region of Denmark, said the content could lead to self-hatred and serious disorders without its harmful effects being noticed.

“It creates content that leads to self-hatred. It can lead to serious disorders. And it happens in a way that means nobody notices and nobody can see how grotesque it is,” Rubæk said.

Maja Vain Gilbert, a psychologist and head of the UngTerapi psychology centre, said the four trends could reinforce ideas about right and wrong bodies and encourage people to monitor their bodies excessively.

“It creates an ideal image that you should be a person who has complete control over your life. You should monitor what you eat, when you eat it and how many calories it contains,” she said.

Rubæk said this kind of focus on controlling the body encouraged behaviour that was closer to disordered eating than to the behaviour of a healthy person.

P3 analysed posts published on Instagram by 71 Danish fitness influencers over six months, from September 2025 through February 2026. Each profile had more than 10,000 followers.

The analysis found that 82 per cent of the profiles had posted at least one before-and-after image, while 75 per cent had published at least one clean eating post. Some 31 per cent had posted “what I eat in a day” content, and 89 per cent had published body checking posts.

Rubæk said the scale of body, food and exercise content in social media feeds was itself a problem. While one before-and-after image might seem harmless, repeated exposure could make people compare themselves with the content and feel that they had failed.

She said this could leave viewers feeling fat or unattractive, or experiencing guilt and shame. Previous studies, including a recent survey by the Danish organisation Børns Vilkår, have linked high exposure to content about bodies and appearance on social media with lower body satisfaction among children and young people.

Rubæk said a negative body image could be a serious predictor of eating disorders, self-harm and suicide because people who dislike their bodies may feel less inhibited about inflicting pain or injury on them.

Vain Gilbert said fitness influencers were not necessarily aware of the negative effects their content about food, exercise and health could have on young people. She called for the industry to discuss how it promotes health and whether it helps sustain an unhealthy understanding of what health means.

The new season of DR’s P3 documentary series Løgnen i dit feed is available on DRTV.