The Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast

137. Real Talk: The Harsh Effects of Social Media on Your Fitness Journey

• Kristy Castillo

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There’s a topic I’ve been dying to dive into on the podcast. I’ve been feeling especially frustrated about it lately (and I’m betting you can relate), so I knew it was time to bring it here!


I want to share my thoughts on the harsh effects of social media on your fitness journey. Like I said, this has continued coming up for me recently, and honestly..it’s been pissing me off! 


I don’t know about you, but every time I get on social media (whether it’s Facebook or Instagram), I’m being BOMBARDED with ads, group invitations, and more. I primarily consume fitness content on IG (that’s where I tend to hang out the most anyway), but every time I’m on there, a new product or unrealistic advice from an influencer is being shoved in my face. 


It seems like social media has become this breeding ground of always selling me something - whether it’s for my health, skin, hair, etc., there’s ALWAYS something! I know how easy it can be to fall into the comparison trap when you’re on social media, and it realllly starts making you question if you’re ‘good enough’.


I know this episode may sound a bit like I’m ranting, but I’m really passionate about this, because sooo much of what’s out there is unnecessary bullshit! As always, you can count on me to give you REAL talk on how to sift through the noise, avoid the traps, and focus on what truly matters for your health and fitness.


Social media definitely has its place, and I believe it can be both a blessing and a curse (I’ve experienced that in my own life). At the end of the day, I just want you to be mindful of what you’re consuming - especially as it relates to your health and fitness. Don’t be afraid to keep on scrollin’ so you can keep your sanity AND your self-esteem intact, friend!


In today’s episode, we cover:

  • My thoughts on the overwhelming amount of ads & group invites on Facebook
  • The never-ending ads on Instagram + why we’re now constantly being sold to
  • Being cautious + mindful of the type of health & wellness content you’re being shown
  • Understanding that social media can be both a blessing and a curse


Links/Resources:

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Un-Fuck-Your-Fitness Podcast. I am your host, Christy Castillo, and I'm here to give you real talk and cut the BS so you can actually enjoy building a body you love. I'm a personal trainer obsessed with giving you simple action steps to take you from feeling stuck to feeling sexy. Let's go. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to today's episode.

Speaker 2:

I feel like I haven't been on here.

Speaker 2:

I feel like I haven't talked to you guys in a while. I know that I've put out episodes weekly, but last week and the week before, episodes were with Erin, which were amazing, amazing episodes, and I would love for you to continue to let me know, send me DMs letting me know how much you benefited from those, how helpful they were. I've really loved hearing your thoughts on them, and it was my first guest episode. So, yeah, I just I loved hearing your thoughts on them and it was my first guest episode. So, yeah, I just I loved hearing your thoughts on them and please continue as you go back and listen to them, or as you're listening to this one.

Speaker 2:

If you're like oh yeah, I never went and told you how I thought about that, christy, please do. I would love to hear from you, but we recorded those episodes, you know, like the week before they came out, and so I just feel like I haven't talked to you guys in a while. So I'm happy to be back, even though I didn't really go anywhere, and you're like yeah, we didn't miss you that much, christy, but here I am, anyways, all by myself this week talking to you about the harsh effects of social media on our fitness journey.

Speaker 2:

This is going to be just some real talk, just kind of me sitting down with you, my best friends, and chatting about this, because, I don't know, lately social media has honestly just been pissing me off. I'll just be real with you, and I've posted a couple of different things on my stories on Instagram, on my Christy Castillo Fit page that's where I post most of just my thoughts and things like that. But it's been really annoying lately, and so I want to kind of just talk about how annoyed I am with it for one and I know that a lot of you will feel the same way, because when I do post about it, I do get a lot of messages saying I feel the same way or yes, this is annoying me too, and I think that, more than just being annoyed with social media, I realize that obviously, if something is annoying you, then it's causing you a little bit of stress. You're thinking about it like it's just being present in your life, and I think that's not great. Social media isn't? I mean, it is something that you can cut out of your life, but at this point it would be really hard to do so so, yeah, I just want to rant about it, I want to talk about it, I want to bring it to your attention and kind of just talk through some things that have been kind of driving me crazy. And then, of course, related to health and fitness. A lot of it's going to be related to health and fitness. That is pretty much all I consume on social media is fitness content, and right now, as I'm recording this, the World Series is still going on and we're kind of obsessed with the Dodgers at my house and so, thanks to my son and so we're big into that, so we're sending each other reels of Dodgers, baseball content. Baseball content will probably always be kind of on my radar, which is totally fine, but that's kind of all I really consume on social media. So if you don't only consume fitness content which I assume not everyone does, because everyone's not weird like me then some of this won't apply to you, but I think a lot of it will, because a lot of my clients, a lot of you, my listeners, do consume fitness content, and so fitness content comes with mindset and it comes with self-esteem and it comes with self-love and all comes with self-love and like all that stuff kind of goes together, and so I think it's just really important that we talk about it.

Speaker 2:

I want to start by saying I pretty much I do have a TikTok account, but I'm not really. I never open TikTok on my own. If my kids send me a TikTok or something to watch, I will get on there and watch it, but that's not a place that I scroll. If my kids send me a TikTok or something to watch, I will get on there and watch it, but that's not a place that I scroll. If I'm scrolling social media, it's Instagram, and I have a Facebook account. I don't really use it and I'm going to get into that in a second, but I think the only reason I still have a Facebook account honestly is because of my kids' school page. Their sports pages like announcements, athletic stuff is on there. For whatever reason we decided to do that, I don't know. And then also, I do have a Facebook group on there, which I do enjoy running, but as far as like my own personal Facebook, I don't ever scroll Facebook anymore, and here's why and this is where I think I first got irritated and one of the things I want to talk about is the ads that are everywhere.

Speaker 2:

I used to love social media because I would get on and see my friends or see my family or see people I at least knew and what they were up to, and I guess I liked that for a while and then after a while I thought I genuinely do not care what anyone is doing, so that wasn't really fun. And now when I get on Facebook, it's either to add someone to my Facebook group or get into my Facebook group and hang out in there or to check a time or something for my kids' events my son he's the only one in high school now but when I get on Facebook, there are groups. Now Everything is a group and everything is an advertisement. Everything is. It's like it's the algorithm, right, trying to get me to join a group or trying to get me to buy something, and it's so annoying. And the people that I have on my Facebook page and this is my fault back in the Beachbody days, when I was working for Beachbody, they encouraged you to add basically anyone and everyone onto Facebook, befriend them like a couple of their photos, comment on something and then dive right into their inbox, right? That was how it was done.

Speaker 2:

So I have so many people on my Facebook that I literally do not know and would not speak to in public because I don't know who they are. I would say hello, but I don't know anything about them. So Facebook is just annoying to me. So that's one thing where I get on Facebook and I add people to my Facebook group and I get in there and then if I click out of it and just kind of look through my notifications, I'm thinking I don't even know who these people are. And then if I go to scroll, it's an advertisement for something or advertising to be in a group that I don't want to be a part of. And if I did join said group I get like sports photo moms. I am part of a gym girly group, which I like, but also overwhelming, and half the stuff no, 90% of the stuff in there is so stupid and not true, it's false, it's terrible advice that people are giving each other and that stresses me out. So, anyway, social media, as far as that goes, for me is just it's not fun anymore. Facebook has sucked the life out of anything that I used it for personally. So that's one thing.

Speaker 2:

Number two well, number one being that there is just ads everywhere. I guess to continue on to that with number two would be Instagram. There are ads everywhere now on Instagram. That is also driving me freaking crazy. I'll be scrolling someone. I'd find a new fitness influencer and I'm like, oh, maybe I want to follow her. So I click on a reel and then I scroll to her next reel, scroll to her next reel and then the next one's an ad, and then the next one's an ad. Everything on stories. You know, you go a couple stories and then there's an ad and then there's another ad. Oh my God, and it is so overwhelming to me that I am constantly being sold to, not only by ads, but everyone is an influencer.

Speaker 2:

Now and this is something I don't even have on my notes but I do want to talk about I realize that I maybe fall under the category of an influencer, because I don't know, I don't know. I don't even know what that means to me. An influencer is someone whose job is to literally influence you to purchase something, purchase clothing. Really, it's like that's what I think of as like a beauty influencer or clothing influencer or a home decor influencer. I don't know. Maybe I'm a fitness influencer. I don't really understand the terminology there.

Speaker 2:

However, I follow this one particular female lady girl I don't know she's not that old so I wouldn't say woman, but anyway and she used to be into fitness big time and loved her account and it's fine that people grow and evolve and change. But now she talks about absolutely nothing, but she has a code for everything. She's working with every company under the sun Every single day. Every single reel is selling you some clothing or some colostrum or some greens. It's insane and I'm thinking there's no way you use this stuff for one. I mean, if you do, you didn't use it long enough to figure out whether you actually liked it. You literally are just trying to sell it to make money, which I appreciate people trying to make money. I'm not ripping on people for using the internet for making money. I get it. I'm just sick of every person that I follow on social media.

Speaker 2:

I don't want to sound fake when I say this, but I'm sick of all of them having a code for every single thing that they use that they talk about. Just get on there and talk about your life, or show me your day, or show me your workouts, or your dog or your cat or your kids, I don't care, sold something all the time like, oh my gosh, I just put this on my face and I just thought I would tell you the benefits about it. And here's my code. And I say that standoffishly because I do have a code for a couple different things and I do post about things that I like, and when I do it I feel gross. I'll be honest. I know I need to because I really like the products that I use, and I know some of them do too, so I get that. What I'm saying is kind of like opposing thoughts here, but I'm going to say it anyway, just because if you're feeling the same way of like, all the influencers have all the codes and all they're doing is selling, and all Instagram is is selling, selling, selling, selling.

Speaker 2:

Something's being thrown in your face to solve a problem that you didn't even know that you had two seconds ago. It's so annoying to me, and so that's driving me crazy, that I'm always being sold something. Usually it's a subscription, so if you do sign up, you're going to be screwed in two months when you're still paying for it and you're not even using it or whatever. But that's beside the point. I just feel like social media has become this breeding ground of always selling me something, always making me wonder if I'm good enough, if I'm sick, if I'm dying, if my skin is good enough, if my body is good enough, if my hair is good enough, because there's always a product for something that someone is shoving into my face, making me feel like I need that. She's pretty, I need that, she has really pretty hair, I need that. And it's like I don't like that. Because I feel like we're always feeling like we need to buy something and we're always subconsciously feeling like we need that or we're not good enough or we're wondering like do I need that? Right?

Speaker 2:

And that goes into things that so much of the information on social media is false or unnecessary. It's either false and that's like influencers saying things that aren't true reels being posted by fitness influencers of them doing workouts that I know because I'm in the field. I'll see them posting workouts and I think there's no way you do that workout or you do that workout now, but that's not the workout that got you the body that you have, and people are going to think that it is, and so it's misinformation or it's unnecessary information, or just be very, very clear about it. These are the workouts you need to do for a flat stomach. No, you need to clean up your eating for a flat stomach. There's no workouts that you can do for a flat stomach. It's false and so it just is. It's creating this cycle of we need. It's creating this cycle of comparison. It's creating this cycle of. Is what I'm currently doing good enough? I'm currently doing good enough. It's just, it's a lot, and lately I have felt so overwhelmed by it and I've been posting a couple of things.

Speaker 2:

I saw an ad for dry water. I don't know what this is, but this, this, I posted it on my feed the other day. I can't remember what it said. First of all, dry water. I don't understand, because water is quite literally not dry, but I understand that it's a powder that you put into your water. So, okay, the wording for me was just like but I guess that was catchy and made me look into it. Right, so they won. Their marketing strategy won Okay, dry water. And then I'm sure it was some kind of an electrolyte. It was something about you know, the water that you're drinking isn't enough. Like plain, regular old water is not good enough. You need to have this dry water, you need to have electrolytes. You see that all the time, electrolytes. Every fitness influencer has been pushing electrolytes, not so much now but recently, and that was one thing that pissed me off, because most people are not active enough to need electrolytes Like just drink water, and it's not cheap.

Speaker 2:

My daughter and I were actually at the store and she picked up I don't remember which brand Element T or I don't remember which brand, but she picked up a box of the little packets of electrolytes and she grabbed them like she was going to put them in the cart and in our shopping cart. And I'm like I said, do you know what that is? And she's like well, yeah, they're electrolyte packets. And I said, for what? And she's like well, you know, to give you, like, the benefits of drinking more water. And I said, well then, just drink more water. And she's like well, these are supposed to be good for you. And I'm I mean we're literally standing in Walmart and I'm like you don't even work out. What do you mean? You don't need electrolytes? I don't understand. And then I said something about if you put those in the cart, you need to go for a run every single day, like you need to start working out and running every single day. And she looked at me and I said they're quite literally not going to do anything for you, child, you do not need them. So she put them back on the shelf.

Speaker 2:

But, like I know that, but someone who doesn't know that is looking at this product, thinking, oh my gosh, regular water isn't good enough for me. I need electrolytes, I need this dry water, I need X, y and Z Insert any company that tells you that water is not good enough, right. And most of us, like I said, are not moving enough daily to require electrolytes. Yes, I realize they're great for you, don't get me wrong. I'm not ripping on them as a whole, but a lot of us aren't out slamming weights in the gym for two hours dripping sweat, losing you know, losing body water. Like we're not out running miles and miles and sprinting at the track in the full sun and, you know, exerting our bodies with this energy that would make us be lacking of all the salt and the nutrients that we need. Like most of us aren't even moving enough. So we don't need electrolytes, we don't need dry water. Literal water is good enough.

Speaker 2:

So it's just crazy to me the things that we're being fed and we're being shown and we're being seen and we're in a. I guess we're vulnerable enough to think that we need it, and so ads are driving me crazy. It's just, I follow a lot of fitness accounts, like I said, and so I'm seeing a lot of these supplements and a lot of, you know, helping you sleep and burning fat in your sleep and just all kinds of things, and so I want to just I'm just like I said, I'm literally just ranting, but I know you're seeing it too and I want you to know that I'm seeing it and it's driving me crazy and I want you to be very, very cautious. Driving me crazy and I want you to be very, very cautious. Another thing, like the third technical thing I want to talk about, is being cautious of what you are being shown as far as weight loss, as far as diets, as far as workouts, things like that.

Speaker 2:

The other day I shared on my feed. I didn't put any thoughts about it or anything. Honestly, I just really haven't had time lately to kind of get my thoughts on things on social media. So I share it and I got some DMs about it, but I don't remember the exact wording of the reel, but it was a dad and a son. If I remember correctly, the son was in his late 20s, probably something like that. So the dad you know 40s and 50s. We'll say so this is not a young child, but, okay, a son in his 20s, dad, 40s, 50s, like an older dad and son. And the son said he had lost. I think the dad actually said this is my son and he's lost 40 pounds in however many months and they were very excited about it and this you know. Tell him how you did it or whatever, no-transcript.

Speaker 2:

And he was eating one meal a day. I don't remember what time. He said he was eating one meal a day and it was equal to either 800 or 1,000 calories and then he would fast the rest of the time. And so basically, the real was kind of getting at the fact that intermittent fasting and keto was working so well for him and then I think he had met his goals. So he was going to go into a maintenance phase. He was going to open up his eating window a little bit and eat maybe like 1200, I don't know calories but still do keto.

Speaker 2:

It was insane and the person who it was John something. Shoot, I should have looked into that, but there was a fitness influencer that I really really like shared it and he went on to say no, the reason that you lost weight is not thanks to intermittent fasting or keto. It's because you were eating in a calorie deficit. You were starving yourself, essentially, and that's not something that we should be celebrating, that's not something that we should be proud of and, quite literally, keto and or intermittent fasting are not to be. That's not the reason that you lost weight. They're not to be thanked for that. So, basically, this you know, this real is implying to people who don't know any better that if you do keto and if you do intermittent fasting, you'll lose weight. And that's crazy and that pisses me off, because, yeah, you absolutely will. If you starve yourself, you will lose weight until you start to eat again, and then you will put that weight back on because your metabolism has now slowed down, because you're only giving it 800 to a thousand calories a day, speaking about this sun situation, and now your metabolism slowed down, so now it's functioning on 800 to 1000 calories. So when you bump up, it's going to, you know, it's going to rev up, of course, and that's going to be a good thing, but most people don't increase their calories slowly back into a reverse diet we go back to. We're freaking starving, we miss all this food that we used to have, we don't want to eat within this window anymore and and we're going fucking crazy. And now we've gained all this weight back, and it's just.

Speaker 2:

There's a lot of false information out there, and so, for one, probably spend less time on social media. For two, please pay attention to what you are watching, and if it sounds stupid, and if it sounds like it's something that's unsustainable, or if it sounds literally not true, if it sounds like something I would make fun of or tell you to not do, don't do it. Scroll, use that thumb and keep on scrolling, okay, because there is a lot. Like I said, there's a lot of fitness accounts posting workouts they don't do. There's a lot of fitness accounts posting workouts they don't do. There's a lot of fitness accounts saying keto and intermittent fasting are the way to go, and yes, you can lose weight doing keto and yes, you can lose weight doing intermittent fasting and yes, those both have benefits outside of losing weight. But what I'm saying is the normal general population doesn't need to do those things. Also, there's a lot of filters.

Speaker 2:

I don't follow fake accounts. I don't follow the posing and just the cheesy. I don't. I follow fitness accounts of real workout coaches, personal trainers that actually give a shit and actually post real, really good content, or girls like women that I aspire to like, look like or I think like. Oh, that you know she's a really good example of eating a lot of food and eating cleaner and, you know, having balance and working out and going to the gym and lifting heavy. I don't follow fake accounts that are just like posing, but I do see some that have like a lot of those accounts. They have filters on their photos. They have edited their photos. They themselves have bbls, which is a fake butt. Okay.

Speaker 2:

A lot of people are talking about glutes and how to grow your glutes and a lot of their glutes are fake. A lot of them have actually had lipo as well, because when you get a bbl, they have to take the fat from somewhere else in your body and put it on your butt cheeks. Some of them have also had lipo. There are fake bodies everywhere. There's unrealistic expectations everywhere and you have got to be careful when you are scrolling what, you are listening to what is happening, who you are watching, what you're comparing yourself to and that's a big one, because you're not going to be like, oh, I'm sitting here comparing myself to them. You're not doing that on purpose, but you are doing it subliminally. So social media has a place and it's a good place.

Speaker 2:

I like social media for the fact that I've met so many people and I have a podcast. Now I have a career. I coach women. I meet so many women. I'm able to spread my knowledge and reach so many people because of social media, so I'm very thankful for it. But there's a lot out there that I see and a lot of my clients struggle with things that they see online that we have to work through because of the bullshit that is also on social media. So it's just. I just wanted to talk about it. So thank you for listening and also please send me your messages about this. I would love to hear. I can always do another episode about this with your stories and with your thoughts, and because I know there's so many more.

Speaker 2:

I actually I think it was when I posted the ad for the electrolytes dry water. You know I was like send me some. And somebody did and I should have shared it today. But I, you know, I was like send me your funny ads or whatever that you see that catch your attention. And I got a couple, but please send me, because you know, the more we notice something and say, oh my gosh, I should send this to Christy, it's kind of funny the more we'll know. Okay, this is fake, right? That's kind of what I wanted to put out. There was like okay, dry water, electrolytes, regular water is fine.

Speaker 2:

Before you buy something to make your workouts harder and buy more equipment to use in the gym, start showing up at the gym, start showing up for yourself. Before you buy supplements to hit your protein goal, try to hit your protein goal or at least get a little bit closer right. Or at least track to see where you're at before you try to buy something else. Least track to see where you're at before you try to buy something else. It's like we just keep seeing ads for things and it just. It can go on and on and on and we're always comparing and so before you go, look outside of yourself for something, try getting back to the basics and try looking at yourself and seeing like, do I even need that? Do I even need electrolytes? Do I even need to lose weight? Do I even need to tone up? Do I even need bigger glutes? Like, do I even need any of this shit that are on these advertisements that people are showing me? Like, is this even a problem that I have? I'm already. It's like I'm already thinking about purchasing a product for a problem that I'm not even sure I have. But I'll do it because my favorite influencer said and she has a 20% off code, so I need to get it right now. It's just crazy.

Speaker 2:

So be aware of what you're watching, most importantly. But also it has gotten out of control. I do want to just say that the ads and stuff on there are just out of control and I do miss scrolling and seeing friends and seeing people's kids and they've grown up and all the things that used to be on social media. I miss following accounts and knowing that I could trust what they're saying and doing. And now I have to wonder if that's even true. Did they grow that booty or did they pay for it? It's fine either way, just be honest about it. So I don't know. I did just want to talk about it and say that I relate with the frustration, and I know that it does wreak havoc on a lot of things, and so I'm fully aware of that. So this was just a really good topic to ease my way back into chatting your ear off without a guest, and I think it's a really a really good topic. So, seriously, please reach out to me. If you don't already follow me at Christy Castillo Fit, follow me there and send me all your thoughts. You can also follow me at Unfuck your Fitness Podcast.

Speaker 2:

Things are changing a little bit on my accounts. Christy Castillo Fit is the same. The podcast page is going to become more of a community vibe, so I'm going to be posting some quotes and things about different podcast episodes that I've had or different thoughts that I have, just kind of some encouragement. So please go follow the Unfuck your Fitness podcast account, because I'm going to just be posting some good stuff over there, not so much workouts and things, but more like the mindset and encouragement. I want to make that a really important community page.

Speaker 2:

So some things are happening with Unfuck your Fitness and with Christy Castillo Fit. We're going to be merging some things, we're going to be changing some things, and it's going to be fun. Everything won. We're going to be changing some things and it's going to be fun. Everything won't fully transition until probably the first of the year, but just to give you a little notice, things are going to be changing and it's going to be amazing, so get excited, all right? Well, it was fun chatting with you again. I will talk to you next week.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to today's show. Go ahead and leave a rating and a review and, of course, follow the podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes. And I would love it so much if you came to connect with me over on Instagram at Christy Castillo Fit. I will see you next time. Bye.