The truth about social media influencers....

Now let me preface this by saying in no ways am I considering myself a social media influencer. I aim to influence my followers to make conscious healthier decisions through the presentation of exercises that provide substantial physiological benefits.

Now, for the meaty stuff.

We've all fallen victim at least once to the endless scrolling of Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook only to find ourselves feeling down and out having witnessed countless accounts of fit and fabulous folks with physiques that just seem too good to be real. Let's face the facts here, these physiques aren't realistic. That's not to say they aren't attainable, they most certainly are. A sufficient caloric deficit coupled with a well designed program will certainly serve up similar results given enough time. HOWEVER! The key point to understand here is these physiques aren't sustainable. The pictures and videos you see of these influencers have all been produced during a single or several photo shoots at a given time in the year.

Influencers, as bodybuilders would do, peak at a given time during the year. At peak physical conditioning; after a contest, for a photoshoot, a time of their choosing, they perform 50 costume changes in 50 different locations posing with 50 different "cheat meals". It's all staged.

Don't let this appear to be a bash on social media influencers. Many still maintain an impressive physique yearly and promote healthy lifestyles. But for the most part the over zealously ripped men and women are more often than not staging their posts.

What this does is produce a false sense of reality. a promotion of un-sustainability. The very thing many people struggle with, their relationship with food, is targeted in these posts. By posing with massive cheat meals and flexing, giving off the idea that "you can still be ripped even when you eat junk", is a psychological trick that can weigh heavily on the masses.

False representation of a healthy lifestyle is rather sick and twisted in my opinion.There lacks a backing for accounts like Syatt Fitness, a guy who promotes effective and sustainable methods to adopting a healthy lifestyle regardless of goals. Attention should be drawn to information rather than glamour. Promoting the science backed, tried and true methods, is the way to appropriately educate the masses. So find educative accounts, not Joe Lindner...

If you find yourself feeling down and out as a result of social media's unrealistic representations head over to @_etxtraining , @syattfitness, or @collegenutritionist,

in my opinion you won't get any content closer to the truth than these three accounts.

Shameless plug or not, choose the right information not the prettiest information.

JB