Content of Social Media Fitspiration and Its Effect on Physical Activity-Related Behavior: A Systematic Review

The "fitspiration" movement on social media has become increasingly popular in the past decade and may be a useful tool to encourage physical activity. The themes of posts as well as the impact on physical activity-related behavior are both unclear. The purposes of this review were to: (a) systematically review the themes of fitspiration content and (b) explore the influence of fitspiration content on physical activity-related behaviors. This systematic review was conducted according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Search terms were: "fitspiration" or "fitness posts" or "exercise posts" and "content" and "fitspiration" or "fitness posts" or "exercise posts" and "physical activity" or "exercise." A date range of January 2011-November 2021 was applied. Post characteristics were sorted by frequency to identify common themes. Studies were compiled into a matrix table to determine the effect of fitspiration on physical activity. Of the 51 studies identified, 18 were included based on inclusion criteria. Most fitspiration content featured images of women (82.6%), thin bodies (66.5%), people posing (32.9%), and objectified the subject in some way. According to social cognitive theory, fitspiration may affect physical activity behavior through modeling; however, the included studies show little evidence that fitspiration influences physical activity. Fitspiration may be limited in its impact because of the perceived unattainability of the idealized body types featured in the posts. Future research should investigate the effect of more diverse body types, like those of the body positive movement, on physical activity behavior.