Phony but Profitable: Misinformation in Women’s Health and Fitness

Scroll long enough through “what I eat in a day” or “two-week abs,” and you’ll see it: tiny portions, miracle supplements, “toning” routines, and promises to shrink/grow one body part on command. It looks harmless, until you notice who the algorithm is talking to. Young women are being blitzed with health and fitness “advice” that’s catchy, marketable, but very often wrong. The online wellness economy preys on girls’ insecurities and biology illiteracy, and the fix is evidence, not aesthetics.

Start with the pressure. Girls grow up scrolling through digitally edited physiques and surgically altered bodies framed as “hard work.” Research shows the pattern clearly: social media fuels appearance comparison and even the desire for cosmetic surgery, especially among young women. Instagram’s own internal research found that 32% of teen girls who already felt bad about their bodies said the app made them feel worse. But here’s the part we rarely admit: genetics set the blueprint. Waist-to-hip ratio, shoulder width, fat distribution, and muscle insertions are largely unchangeable. If your shoulders are broader or your hips are naturally narrower, nothing will change that. The people you see on your feed? They’re there because of rare genetics, surgery, PEDs, heavy editing — or some mix of all three. Not because they discovered the perfect diet/workout/supplement.

This pressure is especially harmful for younger girls. They spend more time on social media and compare themselves to unrealistic bodies, which often drives them toward severe calorie restriction. During adolescence, that restriction can stunt growth, weaken bone density, and disrupt hormones. The issue isn’t that teens have different biology, it’s that extreme deficits are more damaging while the body is still developing and often leads to lasting consequences

And the “advice”? The women’s side of fitness content is saturated with appearance-first, weight-normative messages: moralizing foods, “detoxes,” endless “toning” circuits. TikTok and academic studies confirm weight-normative messaging predominates, pushing thinness over strength or health. Compare that with the men’s lane. It’s not perfect either, but men’s feeds are more likely to emphasize performance, strength, and technique.

In fact, there’s a whole science-based lifting niche—creators like YoTalks, Elijah Mundy, Keenan Malloy, Trell Bankston, and Jeff Nippard—who break down studies, biomechanics, progressive overload, and safe programming. That kind of evidence-driven content, though, tends to be directed more toward male audiences. 

Women’s fitness is overwhelmingly marketed through aesthetic outcomes: flat stomachs, small waists, toned arms, glute gains. Men’s spaces lean more toward performance outcomes: strength, size, PR’s on exercises. The difference matters because performance outcomes are what actually drive muscle growth.

By contrast, most aesthetic promises are misleading. A flat stomach comes from lowering overall body fat through a caloric deficit, not ab circuits or spot-reduction of fat. A small waist is mostly genetics, influenced only by fat loss. Toned arms come from the same deficit plus hypertrophy training. And glute gains? They come down to a mix of body fat distribution, which is genetic, and well-programmed hypertrophy training that trains each function of the glutes. In other words, the body goals sold to women and the performance goals marketed to men are achieved through the same mechanisms: diet, training, recovery, and consistency. The only difference is that appearance-based messaging is easier to exploit, because it preys on insecurity and makes people more likely to buy products, programs, or “shortcuts.”

Let’s kill a few myths that target girls because they sell:

• Spot reduction. You cannot burn fat from one area by training it. Controlled trials confirm “spot reduction” is a myth. Those ‘lower belly burn’ circuits don’t melt fat, they just make you sweat. 

• Sweating = fat loss. Wrong. Sweating only reduces water weight, which you regain as soon as you hydrate. Sweat suits, sweat pads, and stomach wraps just dehydrate you temporarily. They don’t burn fat, shrink your waist, or make you leaner. At best, they give the illusion of leanness by reducing bloating and water retention — but that effect disappears within hours.

• Bulky muscles. Bulky muscle is a myth. ‘Toned’ and ‘bulky’ come from the same thing: building muscle through resistance training. The difference is only how much muscle you build and how much body fat covers it. For teenage girls especially, without performance-enhancing drugs, it’s physiologically impossible to put on enough muscle to be considered ‘bulky’ the vast majority of the time.  Women’s physiology—lower testosterone and smaller muscle fibers—makes rapid hypertrophy extremely difficult. What weight training really does is increase strength, protect bone density, improve overall health, and shape your physique in the way you want.
  
  

And then there’s the endless stream of stupid training, something that shows up on both the men’s and women’s sides of fitness online. Videos push too many sets and too many reps fatiguing you but not actually building muscle. Fatigue ≠ growth. What builds muscle is mechanical tension: lifting enough load, with good technique, for enough sets to challenge the muscle and then recovering. That “burn” people chase? It’s just metabolite buildup, a temporary sensation of effort. Soreness the next day doesn’t mean growth either—it just means you stressed tissue in a new way. Also, it is extremely common to see people perform redundant exercises. Hip thrusts, Romanian Deadlifts, and Single-Leg Romanian Deadlifts all target the same hip extension pattern, yet they’re often stacked back-to-back as if more volume automatically means more results. Others are sold plyometrics or endless ‘burn-out circuits’ that create fatigue but never apply real load or mechanical tension. That’s not effective training — it’s wasted effort dressed up as intensity.

The misinformation doesn’t stop at workouts. Nutrition content aimed at women is often worse:

• Dangerously low calories. Many “girl dinner” or “weight-loss meal plan” videos promote intakes below what a middle schooler needs. Chronically under-eating can halt periods, weaken bones, and destroy energy levels.
  
  

• Not enough protein, vitamins, or fats. Protein is essential for muscle growth, fats for hormone balance, vitamins and minerals for recovery. Starvation diets trade health for aesthetics.
  
  

• Unsustainable diets. Juice cleanses, “detox” challenges, or 1,200-calorie meal plans work only until you crash. That isn’t health. It's yo-yo dieting.
  
  

• The denial of science. Another corner insists “calories in, calories out isn’t true.” Yes, metabolism, hormones, and activity vary. But the overwhelming majority of weight change still comes down to energy balance. No one is “incapable” of losing weight; what they are is misled by influencers selling extremes instead of sustainable, balanced nutrition.
  
  

Why is the women’s lane so messy? Because appearance sells. The supplement and “detox” market faces light oversight: dietary supplements don’t require FDA approval for safety or effectiveness before hitting shelves. Add influencer economics and you get deception: the FTC fined detox-tea marketer Teami for bogus claims and undisclosed ads. Even Instagram had to restrict weight-loss and cosmetic-surgery promotions for minors. None of that would be necessary if this content were mostly honest.

So what do we do?

Upgrade your sources. “Nutritionist” isn’t regulated in many places; Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) is. Look for RDNs and certified strength coaches who cite studies, not vibes.

Run a 3-question test on any post before you believe it.
Credentials: Is this an RDN/MD/PT/CSCS or just “coach” with a discount code?
Claims: Promises of fast, targeted fat loss or food moralizing = red flag.
Cash: If there’s a code, assume bias until proven otherwise. (Remember Teami.)

Strength is not the enemy. The CDC recommends teens do muscle-strengthening at least 3 days a week, and NIH-funded research suggests women may get especially strong survival benefits from exercise—including strength training. Schools should teach technique (hinge, squat, push, pull), not calorie punishment; health classes can compare viral claims to official guidelines as a media-literacy unit. Push the platforms. If Instagram can limit under-18 exposure to weight-loss/cosmetic content, it can also de-rank extreme dieting, boost credible creators, and label paid weight-loss ads as clearly as it labels AI images. States are already suing alleging platform harms to youth mental health; students and parents can add their voices for transparency and safety.

Misinformation has to stop. Girls shouldn’t be sold lies and insecurity for profit. Fitness needs to be built on evidence, not gimmicks. No more scams, no more “toning tricks,” no more exploitation. Push science.

This article was edited by Amaan Musani