Why “Before and After” Transformation Posts Are So Captivating—And So Misleading
Once upon a time, I posted a ‘before and after’ picture on Instagram after I completed a popular diet and workout program. The post was adorned with a lengthy caption about how I learned so much throughout the process and that the most notable transformation I went through wasn’t the physical one but was all of the *lifestyle changes* I had made that made me “more disciplined” and more conscientious about what I was putting in my body. Before partaking in the “before and after” transformation trend myself, I found these kinds of posts inspiring. I would see what the caption advertised: someone who was sad and stuck “before,” and someone who was happy and free “after.” It wasn’t until a few years later — through recovery and reflection — that I would see these pictures and posts much differently.
Why are “Before and After” Photo and Video Journeys So Captivating?
When my feelings about the “before and after” transformation pictures and posts started to change, I thought a lot about why they were so captivating in the first place. Whether it was someone I knew or didn’t, there were always so many likes and comments on these posts congratulating the person on their transformation, praising their discipline, commenting on how “good” and “healthy” they looked, asking “what they did” to achieve their results. People (my past self included) eat these up. Why?
The simplicity
Part of it seems to be the simplicity of the post: one picture (or short video clip) from “before,” one picture (or short video clip) from “after,” and one caption all in one spot. You aren’t watching a whole documentary, scrolling through several posts, or even scrolling through multiple pictures. The side-by-side visuals with a story of “success” are enticing. The ease of access to this person’s transformation story somehow makes the “results” seem more attainable, too.
2. Our society’s obsession with weight loss
The before and after transformations also feed right into our society’s obsession with weight loss and being thin. There is a palpable shift in the current political and social climate toward being thin, so when someone “achieves” this goal, there is instant praise. And we are humans, so being “rewarded” with positive feedback after we display changes in our appearance to the social media world feels good.
3. It seems to show health, discipline, happiness, and healing.
A lot of assumptions are made when before and after posts pop up. They do seem to be a display of health, discipline, happiness, and healing. They do seem to be a story of liberation and reclaiming one’s life and energy. These undoubtedly make these posts easy to engage with and, for some people, easy to envy.
What“Before and After” Transformation Posts Don’t Show
As women, we’re taught –either directly or indirectly– to believe that smaller is better. That happiness is just a body size away. And that success can be captured in two photos or videos side by side. So when we see posts that reinforce this narrative, it can create some curiosity about whether it’s actually that easy to “fix” your life or some dissonance if we are trying to resist this ideology. Admittedly, I find this reductionist idea that “being small” is a cure-all a *tiny bit* insulting now that I have been on my healing journey for a while.
Whatever these posts stir up in you, what they don’t show is the cost of this transformation. Not every “before and after” post has the same backstory, but there are often threads of similarities that string them together. In any case, a hyperfixation on weight loss often comes with several other issues:
Mental health struggles
Mental health struggles may undergird the changes seen in the pictures and posts and/or the transformation itself may be perpetuating mental health challenges. A transformation broadcast to the world does not solve mental health challenges that existed before the transformation took place. There may be momentary relief or a “high” from the weight loss and praise that comes with it that distracts from a mental health struggle, but the weight loss and transformation praise that comes with it are not cures for anxiety disorders, eating disorders, depression, PTSD, or any other mental health disorder or challenge someone is struggling with.
2. An Eating Disorder
Not only is weight loss not a cure for an eating disorder if one is present, but it often only deepens the struggle with the disorder. Not everyone who posts about their transformation has an eating disorder, but intentional weight loss can be a slippery slope toward one. So when you look at the pictures and see “healthy,” “disciplined” and “healed,” you may be seeing someone who is actually battling an eating disorder.
3. Disordered Behaviors
Even if the transformation does not feature someone who has an eating disorder, there is a chance that the person engaged in disordered thinking and behaviors to achieve the results you are seeing. Things like skipping meals, working out every day and feeling like you are “failing” if you miss a day, replacing meals with juices or shakes, cutting and tracking calories, drinking water to curb hunger, avoiding social situations where “off limits” foods are present, staring at the clock throughout the day to see if you are “allowed” to eat yet are all behaviors that don’t show up in these transformation posts. And while one or two of these in isolation may not indicate an eating disorder, the behaviors and the thinking that promote them are not healthy and are often not even sustainable.
4. Loss of connection, joy, or freedom
You can’t photograph obsession. Or exhaustion. Or the way life starts to shrink when your body does. The photos don’t show the loss of connection with other people, joy in small moments, or freedom to eat and operate in a way that promotes excitement, energy, and social connections throughout your day-to-day. If the “after” photo comes at the cost of some of the things that give someone joy, we are not seeing the liberating transformation that we think we are.
At its Core, the“Before and After” Thinking is Problematic
One of the biggest problems with the “before” and “after” photos and posts is that is reinforces binary thinking about our bodies, one that is so far from reality. We are not home-improvements projects, and posting a “before and after” photo feels eerily akin to what you might post when you do a kitchen remodel.
Thinking of our bodies like this — as being in a state of “before” and then a state of “after” — reinforces the idea that larger bodies are less worthy than smaller bodies and that you are only lovable (or, at the very least, you are more lovable) after you have changed. Posting these pictures invites a lot of shame into how we think about ourselves and into the minds of those who look at our posts, too. We have to remember that anyone’s “before” body is always going to be someone else’s “right now” body.
The before-and-after dichotomy we’ve reduced ourselves to remains problematic even into the future. When our appearance and body size fluctuate in the future (which we can nearly guarantee that they will), we feel even worse because we aren’t holding to the “standard” that we put out into the world with our transformation story. This can make you feel like a failure later when you struggle to maintain what may be an unrealistic and unhealthy weight and body for you.
Moving Toward a Different Kind of Transformation
I find myself reflective about the nature of, the motivation behind, and the implications of “before and after” photos and videos because I think they are so incredibly misrepresentative of what healing and transformation actually look like. If you are on an eating disorder healing journey and find yourself discouraged when you see someone’s before and after pictures, videos, and posts, I get it. Visuals are powerful, and it’s easy to forget about the healing you have done when faced with something that fits a more “conventional” picture of transformation.
If you aren’t on your own healing journey, but you still find yourself envious of the transformation posts that paint a picture of a life fixed with weight loss, I’m here to remind you that there is another side to the story, one that the pictures don’t show.
Real transformation is invisible. It’s not a smaller waist or a thigh gap; it’s marked by softer thoughts, deeper relationships, more connections to healthier people, a more authentic life, and more peace with who you are as an individual. None of those things can be captured in a before-and-after picture, most certainly not in one that puts your body on display as a completed project. You don’t owe the world a visual of your transformation or healing journey. And when you encounter others’ “proof of transformation,” remember that real healing, happiness, and life, on the whole, can’t be reduced to “before-and-afters,” and we do ourselves (and other people) a disservice when transformations are presented in such a simplistic, static manner.
By: Erika Muller, Assistant for Wildflower Therapy LLC
All images via Unsplash
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