(Trigger Warning: Eating disorders, body image issues, mental health)
When Tik Tok was launched in 2016 it was mainly used for funny animal videos, people miming to voice-overs and viral dance trends. While the latter is still very prominent on the app, over the course of lockdown various different trends have become popular and a lot more content is being uploaded. It is clear that there is more than one dimension to the app now and depending on the type of videos you have liked, your ‘For You’ page could be completely different to a friend.
However, some new trends have emerged that could be seen to have a damaging effect on users. There have been many articles recently highlighting the issues on the app such as the romanticism of eating disorders and how content on the app could potentially trigger people who have suffered or are suffering from any eating-related disorders (Not to mention a large number of young impressionable people on the app).
A trend that had been popularised by Chinese social media had emerged in the early stages of lockdown on the video-sharing app, showing people wrapping earphone wires around their waist twice as a way of proving they have a small waist or are ‘snatched’, a term used to describe an hourglass figure with a slim waist. This was quickly debunked and called out as damaging but not before thousands of people tried it and uploaded a video for the trend to spread even further.
Typical weight loss journey’s and “what I eat in a day” style videos are also becoming very popular on Tik Tok. A lot of them can be found on the ‘For You’ page and the similarities between them and “pro-ana Tumblr” (a section of blogging website Tumblr which enabled and encouraged extremely unhealthy ways to lose weight and perpetuated competition between other people suffering) are somewhat uncanny. Many other people have realised this too, as creators on Tik Tok will promote the calorie counting apps that they use and talk about how they fast to lose weight.
Promoting fasting online can be very dangerous as skipping meals is never a healthy way to go about losing weight. That combined with calorie counting are behaviours that are extremely triggering to people who have experienced an eating disorder or issues with food.
If you are in recovery and see people counting their calories daily, going without food for 24 hours or posting their weight like a diary until they reach their goal, it could bring back those harmful thoughts.
Not only this, Tik Toks algorithm seemingly promotes these videos onto the For You Pages of people who interact with fashion videos, which can perhaps be seen as equating skinniness/being thin to being fashionable.
However, as I was starting to become mentally exhausted with the way people were conducting their weight loss videos on Tik Tok, I came across a video that began with “Hi, my name’s Flo and I’m trying to fit back into my jeans.”
Flo (@florence.simpsonn on Tik Tok) made her first video at the start of May, detailing that she was going through a breakup and wanted to lose some of the relationship weight she had gained and fit back into an old pair of jeans.
Flo’s bio reads “no scales & no worries” which is something that really resonated with me. She doesn’t put any numbers to her journey, whether that be weight or counting the calories, and shows viewers what she eats every day.
Flo doesn’t have a set meal plan and what she eats is very realistic, as is her goal. She eats healthily but doesn’t punish herself with food by having small portion sizes, skipping meals or denying herself treats. Flo is so open with her viewers about her weight loss journey and often vocalises her struggles and the bad days and weeks that she can have where she goes slightly off track.
Her videos ooze positivity as she shares her journey and includes weekly updates of how her jeans fit and as of day 36 of her journey she fit back into her jeans, proving that her methods, which were highly criticised because she didn’t limit herself, had worked.
Videos like Flo’s have impacted a lot of people on the platform and inspired them to make videos of a similar style. The way she has conducted her journey has been a breath of fresh air as she tries to alter her eating to be healthier but everything still looks really tasty and interesting.
She doesn’t promote meal skipping, fasting or limiting and punishing yourself with food and instead she eats things that she loves and shows a healthy and happy relationship with food, not to mention the body love and positivity that she spreads.
Flo’s Tik Toks and the videos she has inspired hopefully means the platform is on its way to becoming a healthier environment for everyone to enjoy. This is the kind of content an app should be promoting and allowing when it comes to weight loss, not videos that can be damaging and harmful to someone’s mental and physical health.
