Body-positive blogger posts eye-opening 'transformation' photo 'based on how high I pull my leggings up'
Instagram is addictive. With endless mouth-watering food photos, body-positive bloggers, and cute animals (Dug the Pug, anyone?), there’s visually appeasing content that’ll satiate anyone’s scrolling needs. One of the platform’s biggest features? #TransformationTuesday, a hashtag used by members of the #FitFam to share progress photos of their fitness journey.
One Instagram fitness blogger Chi Pham, who calls herself Fit Pham, posted one of her own on Tuesday, but not to show off progress. Instead, she used a fake transformation post to show that these photos don’t always tell the full story.
“#TransformationTuesday coming in hot with a 30-second transformation … based on how high I pull my leggings up,” the Denver blogger wrote alongside her post.
Her photo, which showed three versions of herself side by side, makes it seem like a progress photo, but she took them only 30 seconds apart. Her body looks different based only on how high or low she placed her leggings.
She wrote that she wanted women to know that few “very few few few people” actually walk around with abs all the time, despite what their photos may show. Lighting, angles, food, and how leggings fit all contribute to how great those abs looks in a picture, she said.
“Your extra friendly reminder that comparing your own perfectly imperfect, beautiful human body to these picture perfect highlight reels on Insta is NOT realistic. It’s NOT healthy. It’s NOT fair to YOU,” she continued.
And she has a point. Research published in 2016 indicated that Instagram contributes to both men’s and women’s self-esteem. Instagram highlights the best aspects of users’ lives, which can make comparisons too easy to make.
FitPham followed in the footsteps of other bloggers on Insta who have done “posed” and “real life” transformations to remind her followers that many of these transformations, or general photos, are unrealistic.
“Let’s not get caught up in those perfect shots,” she wrote. “Let’s get caught up in YOU.”
With 5,000 likes in just two days, it’s clear her message resonated with her followers.
“Thank you for this post,” _hellomeredithAhhh wrote. “It’s posts like these that help keep me (and others, im sure) sane.”
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