Why Fitness Ads Need To Show More Body Diversity

Your body shape is not always an indicator of physical fitness. This is for the Editorial Fellowship

Athleta / Via athleta.gap.com

Searching "fitspo" online will likely bring up many pictures of women with flat stomachs clutching a protein shake. This is the image of health that many girls grow up aspiring to.

For some women, it doesn't matter how little you eat or how much you exercise: your body shape isn't purely determined by fitness. There's nothing wrong with being naturally thin; the issue is showing this shape as the only way to be healthy.

Target / Via target.com

The reality is that our bodies are built differently. There are so many genetic factors at play, so what is healthy for you isn't necessarily going to be healthy for someone else. Your "healthy weight" is based on your height and how much muscle you have. Muscle weighs more than fat, so if even if you weigh more than someone else, you may actually be leaner. Your favorite kind of workout can also determine your body build. A swimmer's body build will be different from a runner or weight-lifter.

Fitness clothes and products are often advertised featuring this lean, skinny image. The idea is to show people the ideal, giving them the image of the goal they want to achieve. However, many people are on a different step in their progress: some are just starting out, others have been active for years. Showing people of different builds and different phases of their journey is important.

For a number of years now we have been leading the charge to change the relationships we have with movement, fitness, and physical activity. Every day on social media we are exposed to body transformation challenges, detoxes, and the traditional barrage of 'you suck because you don't look like this' marketing. But everyone deserves to take really good care of our bodies, minds, and souls.

By representing diverse people in marketing, you can reach the people who have felt alienated and misrepresented for years. Just because your body doesn't fit the one mold that companies have determined for us, it doesn't mean you aren't healthy or strong.