Sharing all your meals on Instagram to turn your followers into nutrition coaches? Research shows that some people post their meals on Instagram to justify every meal and achieve fitness goals.
Foodies: Sharing Meals on Instagram
My daughter has adopted the habit of photographing and sharing every special meal. I no longer ask if it’s delicious when I cook. The real criterion is whether my work appears on her Insta account before the first bite. However, this could be a good method to stick to a certain diet pattern, according to recent research.
Researchers from the University of Washington presented their findings this month at the CHI 2017 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems [1]. For their research, they conducted in-depth interviews with 16 people who consistently share their meals on Instagram.
These individuals used the hashtags #fooddiary and #foodjournal and took photos of every meal to document their daily intake. In some cases, it was to later write down what they had eaten.
The benefit of photos is that it’s more fun to do than taking out a booklet or typing hundreds of words of description in an app……Plus, it’s more socially appropriate for people who are trying to track their diets to snap a photo of their plate when they’re out with friends — everyone’s doing it and it doesn’t look weird.
Christina Chung, University of Washington
A visual representation could also provide quick insight into errors in a diet.
The interviewees mentioned that the emotional and social support from followers helped them achieve their goals and track their progress. In some cases, the feeling of being accountable to other Instagram users would make people more honest about their eating habits. One of the women who previously used the MyFitnessPal app said she made excuses not to document, for example, a bag of chips ‘because it was so small’.
With Instagram, it helped me because I was taking a picture of it — it’s real and it does exist and it does count towards what I was eating. And then putting up a visual image of it really helped me stay honest.
Honest Representation through Sharing Meals on Instagram
An honest representation through social media? Haven’t we been taught since preschool that social media portrays an embellished image of reality?
Some of the interviewees also reported tensions between the desire to be honest on one hand and the reluctance to share unhealthy food on the other. However, those who ultimately achieved their goals also said that their Instagram account helped support and encourage others.
Instaface
An important difference compared to using Instagram would lie in the ability to use multiple accounts. Having a specific account for your fitness goals and documenting your diet ensures, on one hand, easy finding of communities and followers with the same interests. On the other hand, you don’t have to share all your food with all your friends, many of whom may not be interested in your breakfast. Facebook does not offer the option of different accounts or identities. I might have missed something, but I still have multiple pages on Facebook followed only by friends who share the same interests. According to my daughter (my 16-year-old authority on social media-related matters), this is comparable.
Goals Achieved, What Now?
That feeling of being accountable to followers could also prevent you from relapsing after achieving your goals. A ‘fit account’ must remain fit after all. Everyone has an Insta-fitter in their circle of friends and family. Motivating or irritating, it becomes a part of one’s identity. By sharing all your healthy food, you tell the world, “This is who I want to be”. Instead of keeping that dream to yourself, you make it public as a goal and once achieved, as a permanent trait.
Of course, it doesn’t all have to be sunshine and rainbows. It can bring a significant pressure that is not always positive or constructive.
This was a small-scale study and not particularly surprising for fitness fans. However, it does confirm that social media can play a serious role in how you manage your diet. Understanding this can be an additional tool to achieve your goals. In this case, the test group consisted of people who specifically used their account to document and share all their food, providing a total visual representation of their diet. Interesting considering Google is working on being able to tell the calorie count of meals from photos.
Reference
- University of Washington. “Food photos help Instagram users with healthy eating.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26 April 2017.
