Cultural Reflections on Weight Loss Trends and Body Ideals

Health and wellness trends can be found on every social platform. But what happens when the pursuit of a particular body type morphs into harmful content and risky, or even life-threatening, behavior? Across social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, it’s easy to find content from creators who push excessive weight loss goals and promote an unhealthy obsession with eating only certain types of foods. What previously trended as thinspo, short for thin inspiration, gave way to SkinnyTok. This June, TikTok banned the SkinnyTok hashtag, but social media giants are still struggling to keep up with the pervasiveness of unsafe weight loss content. USA TODAY Wellness Reporter Alyssa Goldberg joins The Excerpt to discuss the persistent trend of potentially dangerous body image mythology on social media.

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