Skinny Tok, Plates FULL of Food and Confusing Aesthetics with Health

I work with young people every day, and there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t hear about the power of TikTok.

I don’t use it personally; preference, partly preservation of my own sanity — but I’ve been watching the rise of “skinny tok” and the 'skinny' trend, from a distance with a sad old heart.

Here’s the important thing - no BODY is inherently “wrong.” Weight loss is not inherently “wrong.”

But culturally, we have been here before. And we know now how quickly trends online slide into harmful cultural norms.

The scary thing isn’t individual choice — it’s collective messaging that is SO powerful, not only to young people but adults too, without us even realising.

"Smaller” is becoming aspirational again and it's arriving fairly quietly carrying subtle language that gets into brains and before we know it, it has done its damage.

Hunger becomes 'discipline', eating less is 'self control', fullness is something we need to avoid and weight gain needs correcting. This doesn't only impact our behaviour but our children's behaviour, our little sisters. And the young people that I work with - many of which are rebuilding strength after cancer - the messaging is beyond damaging.

At the same time as watching this trend rise most of you know that I’m preparing for a 900-mile multi-discipline endurance challenge.

My goal isn’t to shrink. It’s to perform.

That means I am intentionally eating more than I ever have - total energy wise, consistency wise, carbohydrate wise, more recovery focus, not just fuelling the session we are in but the ones in the days to come. The body demands it to stay healthy, efficient and injury free.

Carbohydrates replenish muscle glycogen for energy. Glycogen storage 'pulls' water into the muscle. Muscle repair requires adequate energy availability. Adaptation often requires surplus. Performance rarely happens in a deficit.

If I’m honest though, even with a background in nutrition and years of coaching experience in a clinical realm, fuelling properly while thinness trends again is not easy - especially with a history of disordered eating myself.

It’s one thing to understand the science. It’s another to live inside a culture that still equates smaller with better. At the moment I think it's fair to say I'm experiencing body image struggles!

I HAVE to keep reminding myself of the bigger goal and the wider mission that we cannot normalise under-fuelling, chronic fatigue in training cycles, eating 'clean', whatever that is, as being virtuous and expect health to tag along with that too.

We have spoken here before about energy availability - it is not optional, for anyone, exercising or not. It is essential for hormonal health, immunity, recovery, and long-term performance in your day to day, not just physical activity.

For young people recovering from cancer, the stakes are obviously even higher. They can't get back their independence, their strength, confidence, energy, and the rest, if they are coming from a place of restriction.

I wish I could show the world that we don't need to be smaller - we need to be strong, resilient, functional, supported nutritionally and that comes from FUELLING.

With the struggles with this myself that I alluded to finding I'm facing a little further up, it's hard not to feel weak, like an imposter in what I preach, but I'm trying to remind myself constantly that we're fighting the good fight by making ourselves uncomfortalbe in pushing against this super powerful cultural current - choosing nourishment when it matters most.

It's hard, but if this is you too - continue to be brave, know what's good, what's right and keep moving.

Peace and love, A x