Before and After Photos Can Become an Unhealthy Obsession

By: Micaela Whitworth, Certified Master Fitness Trainer | May 28, 2020

“Before” and “After” Photos.

Many people find it motivating to be able to visually see their body changing through their efforts of diet & exercise. Since we see our own reflection every day however, it can be hard for us to see those visual changes in real-time. Therefore, many people choose to take “before” photos when they begin a new diet or exercise program. That way, three months from now they’ll have something to compare to.

It’s also one of the top ways trainers, gyms, and supplement companies will try to sell you on their product or services. It’s a marketing FACT that showing before and after photos will help increase your sales.

Personally, I feel that its a sales practice that is very misleading. 

Comparing Yourself to Yourself

While I’m not opposed to anyone taking these photos to help chart your progress (I’ve done them myself over the years ^ see above),  I do urge people to be very cautious with this.

It’s important to note that for most people, progress is not usually linear. Your most dramatic physical results will usually happen within your first 6-12 months of exercising when you are new to exercise. 10 years of continuous exercise later – you’re not going to continuously see such dramatic results which in turn may make you feel frustrated and you can even lose motivation.

Our bodies are constantly changing. Comparing your 20-year-old pre-baby body to your 40-year-old post-baby body isn’t a very fair comparison.

Likely at the age of 20, you had more time, more energy and a much higher metabolism. To have similar results, you may find that it requires time and energy that you just don’t have anymore. If you keep comparing yourself you’ll find it difficult to learn to love and appreciate the current body that you are in – and you REALLY should! That magnificent body has gotten you through a LOT and you’re likely being way too hard on yourself. Easier said than done, I know. 

And gosh – if you had a baby! I’d say your post-baby body is even more awesome – I mean, your organs literally reorganized themselves, and you created a living breathing life! I’d say that your body DESERVES some love and appreciation. 

Appreciate Your Current Body

So, while it’s fun to visually see your progress, don’t let comparison, even to your past-self or others, rob you of your joy for your current magnificent body.

Body shaming yourself is going to get you nowhere. 

You are the NOW, so focus on how amazing you are right this very second. Muffin top, stretch marks, and bra and tummy rolls – love yourself and your body at your best and at what you feel is your worst.

At my “unhealthiest” of times – I was 20 pounds over what my current weight is (Middle Photo), OR I was 15 pounds lighter (Left Photo). How you perceive those photos depends on what you believe “healthy” should look like.

Technically, I am in a “healthy” weight zone for my height in both the middle and last photo. However, in the middle photo I was eating McDonald’s, drinking pop, and eating chocolate and ice cream as my dietary staples, I did not exercise, nor did I feel very good. 

The photo on the left – I am underweight. I was over-exercising and undereating. 

I used to be super hard on myself when I would look at these “unhealthy” old photos, BUT for both of those images, I was going through particularly rough patches in my personal life. Taking care of myself wasn’t a priority and mentally I was suffering. So despite what you see on the outside – What I see in both photos now, is a girl who needed to work on what was manifesting on the inside. 

Especially in the photo where I look very thin – which at the time I saw that as my gold standard “after” photo. But for me, this was likely one of the unhealthiest I had ever been.

I don’t look at either photo now in shame, nor do I see either as a “before” photo.

That was then, and this is now. It’s not something to compare. 

Cut Yourself Some Slack

You’re a real person with feelings, emotions, and stresses – life is going to keep throwing stuff at you and it’s up to you to be kind to yourself.

I shouldn’t look back at my old “before” photos and feel a sense of shame, and I also can’t look in the mirror today and be mad that I can’t live up to what I THINK was my best past self either. Either way, you’ll end up feeling miserable. 

Again, how do I know this? It’s because I have gotten caught up in the past with these progress photos. I have felt the shame of my “before” photos so much so that I’m pretty sure I threw away most photos from that time in my life. Bye-bye, happy memories – my sense of shame won. My perceptions of what I think I’m supposed to look like, took over. 

An Obsessive Habit

Taking photos regularly can become a very unhealthy and obsessive habit AND it can make you focus all of your energy on what it is you look like. When that happens, often your motivation levels to exercise begin to decrease. Making going to the gym, harder and harder. We forget that exercise has this incredible ability to make us feel good. When we’re obsessing about our bodies – we lose complete sight of that and nothing less than our high expectations will please us. This is incredibly unhealthy. 

At LYB, we believe that although aesthetic goals are an awesome benefit that exercise can provide, it shouldn’t be your only unit of measurement for success. We feel that the aesthetics are simply a positive secondary benefit to exercise. A bonus, if you will. Whether you see a change in your photos or not you are constantly improving your body and mind through regular exercise. This isn’t always quantifiable through photographs but let us assure you, you are making a world of positive difference to both your mind and body.  

Love Your Bod Doesn’t Use Before and After Photos to Profit

You’ll notice that within our website and on our social media platforms we don’t use our members best before and after photos despite some pretty impressive results from our program. This was a very conscious decision on our part. Before and After photos can be very misleading and can have the potential to make some women upset about their own progress not being timely enough. They can also set people up for unrealistic expectations.  

Camera angles, lighting, cosmetic procedures, age, doctored photos, paid photos, airbrushing – what you see online may not always be what it appears to be. We don’t want anyone feeling bad about their progress just because it’s slower than another person’s progress and we don’t want to set you up for unrealistic expectations. Everyone is different and the speed of your results and the results themselves will be different from one person to the next. And for many of our members – exercise and eating well isn’t about their weight at all!

Be Proud of Your Body

Do we want you to feel proud of your body and proud of your progress? Absolutely. We genuinely care that at the end of the day you love your bod, and if showing if off to the world is how you choose to celebrate it we are all for it. Feeling yourself and feeling sexy and proud of your body isn’t anything to be ashamed of, but don’t let the number of likes you get be your measurement of success. Don’t become a slave to your photos. Don’t take photos every few days or weeks.

We don’t want you to have an unhealthy obsession with your photos. I’ve seen this first hand and it can truly get out of control. I  also don’t want you to obsess solely with how you look and ignore all the other amazing things that your body can do for you or what your brilliant your mind can do for you. So, at LYB you will see that we tend to focus on our member accomplishments because there really is so much more that you can be proud of and we would prefer to acknowledge you for that instead!

Show Us What Your Bod Can Do

What we would love to see is a post of your current-self doing something that you are proud of and feel accomplished about. Did you just stand up on a surfboard for the first time, do your first headstand, ran your first race? Have a baby? What else are you proud of your body for? graduated from your masters?! We already love your bod no matter what it looks like, and we want to see what you can do with it.

How has your life has changed through means of a regular healthy diet and exercise? Share it with us! We’d love to hear from you and often feature blog posts of our members as a way to connect with one another. Tag us on your social media and let us see just how amazing you are. #loveyourbod @loveyourbodfitness

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