Understanding the Diet & Exercise Culture of Social Media

Dr Beth T Bell / @drbethbell

1. Who reads and who acts upon diet and fitness messages on social media?

Healthy Bodies Survey

• Online and paper-based survey distributed as part of Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2014 as part of a broader project into healthy lifestyles on campus.

• Survey contained measures validated measures of:– Body image (BAS; Avalos et al., 2011)

– Disordered eating attitudes (EAT-26; Berland et al., 1986)

– Physical activity (IPAQ; Booth et al., 2003)

– Appearance motives for exercise (MPAM-R; Ryan & Deci, 1995)

Healthy Bodies Survey

• Measures of consumption of diet & exercise information on social media– How often do you read information about dieting practices on social media?– How often do you read information about physical activity on social media?– Have you ever followed (by followed we mean acted upon in the real world)

the diet information you have read on social media?– Have you ever followed (by followed, we mean acted upon in the real world)

the physical activity information you have read on social?

• Qualitative descriptions of the types of information encountered /acted up on were also collected

• N = 326 (Age M = 24.88, SD = 9.23; Range 18-62)

Descriptive Statistics

• 53.21% reported reading diet information on social media– 48.97% of these individuals reported acting upon this information

• 50.00% reported reading exercise information on social media– 68.35% of these individuals reported acting upon this information

  1 2 3 4

1 Read Diet Information - .60** .61** .42**

2 Act upon Diet Information - - .41** .51**

3 Read Exercise Information - - - .65**

4 Act upon Exercise Information - - - -

Analysis

• Four hierarchal regression analyses were performed– Variables were entered in two steps

Model 2: Body image Appearance motives for exercise Disordered eating attitudes Amount of physical activity

Model 1: Age Gender

Who Reads Diet Information?

How often do you read information about dietary practices on social media? (1 = Never / 5 = Always)

• Model 2 (F (6, 251) = 2.25, p < .05)– Body image – Disordered eating attitudes (β = 0.16, p < .05)

– Appearance exercise motives – Physical activity

• Model 1 F(2, 255) = 0.28, p = .76– Gender– Age

Who Follows Diet Information?

How often do you follow (by followed we mean acted upon in the real world) the diet information you read on social media? (1 = Never / 5 =

Always)

• Model 2 F(6, 114) = 1.80, p = .11)– Body image– Disordered eating attitudes (β = .24, p < .05)

– Appearance exercise motives – Amount of physical activity

• Model 1 F(2, 118) = 2.28, p=.11– Gender– Age

Who Reads Exercise Information?

How often do you read information about physical activity on social media (1 = Never / 5 = Always)?

• Model 2 (F (6,220) = 4.05, p < .001)– Body image – Disordered eating attitudes– Appearance exercise motives (β = .20, p < .01)

– Amount of physical activity (β = .20, p < .01)

• Model 1 F (2, 224) = 0.17, p = .85 – Gender– Age

Who Follows Exercise Information?

How often do you follow (by followed, we mean acted upon in the real world) the physical activity information you have read on social media?

(1 = Never / 5 = Always)

• Model 2 F(6, 111) = 2.19, p < .05)– Body image– Disordered eating attitudes (β = .26, p < .05)

– Appearance exercise motives– Amount of physical activity

• Model 1 F(2, 115) = 0.19, p = .83– Gender– Age

Summary

• Individuals with disordered eating attitudes reported reading diet information more frequently.

– Consistent with research involving magazines (Levine & Murnen, 2009)

• Individuals who engage in high levels of physical activity and exercise for appearance motives are more likely to report reading exercise information online.

• Those with high disordered eating attitudes reported acting more frequently on diet and exercise.

Correlational Data OnlyReading / acting upon social media messages is a complex interaction

between sender, message and receiver with many broader psychological processes involved

2. How are exercise and fitness constructed on social media?

#Fitspiration

• Boepple & Thompson (2015)– 42% of sites include images and information on weight-loss– 20% of sites included fat/weight stigmatization messages – 28% of sites included dieting/restraint messages

• Tiggemann & Zaccardo (2015)– Acute exposure to thin and muscular models caused acute

body dissatisfaction in women

#Fitspiration

• Over 5 million images have been posted on social media using #fitspiration

• Images designed to inspire “fitness” in others

How do individuals use images to inspire fitness in others?

Method

• On 17th January 2014:– Searched instagram for all images posted using

#fitspiration– Search performed using http://web.stagram.com/

• Printed the 1000 most recently posted images

• Images represent just 12 hours of content (!)– Approximately 2000 images posted daily

Content Analysis of ImageryExercise 16.00%

Diet 23.80%

People 52.01%

Text 42.50%

Miscellaneous 12.71%

Images of People

• 708 people in #fitspiration posts: 482 females & 224 males

TotalActive 18%Inactive 82%Selfie 26%

TotalThin / Low Body Fat 88%

Muscular 56%

Images of People

Male FemaleArms 75% 61%Abdomen 35% 33%Legs 15% 30%Chest 40% 27%Face 75% 61%

Links to objectification theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997)

Summary• People featured in fitspiration

images conformed to prevailing societal attractiveness ideals

• Shown in a highly objectified and gendered way– More selfies than active poses– Body parts exposed (flesh on show)

though differed according to gender– Face omitted

Images with Text

52.01%

• Decision was made to perform a thematic analysis of the text contained within these images

(Braun & Clarke, 2006)

Thematic Analysis of Text• Six major themes:1. Fit is sexy. 2. A fit physique requires

commitment and self-regulation

3. Your choices define you!4. Pleasure and perseverance

through pain5. Battle of the selves 6. Here’s to us!

Summary• Fitness motivation is constructed

in several ways:– Fit is sexy and having a fit body is

important and requires determination

– You are responsible for attaining a fit body and failure is not acceptable

– Fitspiration is a community that others may not understand.

• Some messages were positive & a genuine source of motivation

3. How can we teach individuals to critically deconstruct diet and exercise messages on social media?

Healthy Bodies

• Adaptation of the CYQ Level 1 Award in Body Image and the Relationship to Wellbeing:– Nationally recognised qualification covering self-esteem,

body image, healthy eating and physical activity.

• Adapted mode of delivery to incorporate behaviour change strategies and techniques.

• Funded by YSJ Strategic Investment Fund in partnership with CYQ.

SELF AFFIRMATION

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

(including around social media messages)

IMPLEMENTATION INTENTIONS

Session Structure• Content is delivered over four two hour sessions and each

session incorporates 3 empirically-tested behaviour change techniques.

• Sessions are delivered over consecutive weeks.

Evaluation Procedure• Participants completed a battery of psychological measures pre-

intervention (T1), post-intervention (T2) and at an eight week follow-up (T3) including:– Positive body image– Negative body image– Restrained and emotional eating behaviour– Physical activity participation– Motivation for exercise– Healthful eating behaviour (e.g. 5 a day, supplement intake)

• A control group from the same school, matched by age and academic ability completed the same measures at the same time points. Data collection ongoing

Key Questions1. Who reads and who acts upon diet and fitness messages on

social media?– Regression analyses revealed that individuals with highly

disordered eating attitudes act more frequently upon diet and exercise information on social media.

2. How is fitness constructed online?– Examination of images posted using “#fitspiration"

highlighted appearance focused and objectifying nature of fitness images as a potential cause for concern.

3. How can we teach individuals to critically deconstruct diet and exercise messages on social media?– Evaluation ongoing.

• Also need to work with individuals posting diet and exercise information on social media

• Currently developing CPD for personal trainers and other sports practitioners to encourage them to reflect more critically on the images and messages they share

Any Questions?

References

Avalos, L., Tylka, T. L., & Wood-Barcalow, N. (2005). The Body Appreciation Scale: development and psychometric evaluation. Body image, 2(3), 285-297.Boepple, L. & Thompson, J. K.(2015). A content analytic comparison of Fitspiration and Thinspiration websites, International Journal of Eating Disorders, 1-4.Berland, N. W., Thompson, J. K., & Linton, P. H. (1986). Correlation between the EAT 26 and the EAT 40, the Eating ‐ ‐Disorders Inventory, and the Restrained Eating Inventory. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 5(3), 569-574.Levine, M. P. & Murnen, S. K. (2009). “Everybody knows that mass media are/are not [pick one] a cause of eating disorders”: A critical review of evidence for a causal link between media negative body image, and disordered eating in females, Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 28 (1), 9-42.Müller, S., & Stice, E. (2013). Moderators of the intervention effects for a dissonance-based eating disorder prevention program; results from an amalgam of three randomized trials. Behaviour research and therapy, 51(3), 128-133.Tiggemann, M., & Zaccardo, M. (2015). “Exercise to be fit, not skinny”: The effect of fitspiration imagery on women's body image. Body image, 15, 61-67.Vaterlaus, J. M., Patten, E. V., Roche, C. & Young, J. A. (2015). #Gettinghealthy: The perceived influence of social media on adult health behaviors, Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 151-157.