The ‘transformation pic’ has become the ultimate symbol of weight loss success. Long before Instagram fitspos took to social media to reveal their fitness journeys, Weight Watchers was using the technique to keep their members motivated and to monitor their progress.
This week, however, the programme announced it was ditching the practice, arguing that such pictures promote short-term fixes over lasting lifestyle changes. Speaking at a Weight Watchers conference, head of social media Lauren Salazar explained that the idea of an ‘after’ goal conflicts with Weight Watchers’ ethos of a ‘journey of health, with no beginning, middle or end’.
Weight Watchers isn’t the first to challenge the practice of before and after pictures. In recent months, Instagram has seen a growing trend for ‘reverse transformation’ pics that parody conventional fitness transformations.
Influencer Chessie King has become something of a bastion for the reverse transformation pic, injecting some much-needed realism and body-positivity into the social media bubble.
Others have also used the format to celebrate their recovery from eating disorders, documenting their transformations from a place of physical starvation and mental illness, to physical and emotional wellbeing. GirlGains co-founder Victoria Spence posted one such transformation:
For every reverse transformation pic celebrating body-positivity, however, there are thousands of 'thinspos', tracking their aesthetic achievements with gym-mirror selfies and underwear pics. These images dominate our Instagram feeds and feature in countless TV shows in which glamorous celebrity PTs help ordinary people shed the pounds. Most recently, Joe Wicks' 'Body Coach' series for Channel 4 saw him guiding a group of weight loss hopefuls through a quick-fix health and fitness regime, culminating in a 'grand reveal' of their transformation. Friends and family look on as 360-visuals of participants stripped down to their underwear are blown up on a big screen, and compared with their new and improved physiques. Joe points out the flabby failings of their pre-programme bodies, and congratulates them on how great they look now. Often tears are shed.
There's so much wrong with this, that it's difficult to know where to begin. As Weight Watchers pointed out this week, the 'progress' these transformations document is often short-lived. Joe Wicks' participants only engaged in his programme for up to 90 days, rendering it unlikely that their 'after' pictures represent a permanent transformation. Real health and fitness changes are the product of hard work, dedication, and the development of lasting habits.
More troubling, however, is the damaging attitudes that transformation pictures like these perpetuate. By celebrating the 'after' as an aspirational goal, they suggest that there is something intrinsically wrong with the 'before'. They elevate weight loss as the ultimate marker of health, happiness and success. As demonstrated by the experiences of those like Victoria Spence, however, in reality, the reverse is often the case.
In a society that faces an eating disorder crisis, these pictures promote a fixation with body image, whose consequences can be far-reaching and highly damaging. More broadly, though, they also speak to a failure of self-acceptance. We live in an society obsessed with transforming ourselves. Be it through makeovers, mindfulness or milk alternatives, our quest for self-improvement knows no bounds. Of course, the desire to become a better version of yourself in and of itself is no bad thing. Sometimes, however, it's worth taking a step back from the journey towards that ever-elusive after-pic, to check whether there was anything wrong with the 'before' in the first place.
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.