Before and after photos readily collect likes, approval, and undisputed praise. A social media darling, they most often display a melancholy figure juxtaposed with a smaller, happier version of him or herself. The passionate caption accompanying the image tells of a life revitalized and of health restored. The underlying message is clear: You, as you are today, are inadequate. Your best self is right around the corner. You are the before photo, and magnificent transformation awaits.
Before and after photos perpetuate the distorted narrative that health, beauty, fitness, and worth fall into an impossibly narrow range and are visible, malleable traits. Questioning and deconstructing the implications of these socially revered images reveal how, in reality, they may undermine authentic confidence and health. Before admiring a before and after photo, consider the various repercussions and assumptions upon which it rests:
1. “Confidence, fitness, and beauty necessitate a specific physical form.”
Before and after photos reinforce the media’s incessant glorification of the thin ideal, preserving the oppressive and antiquated myth that a woman’s allure extends only skin deep. The exaltation of smaller bodies besmirches natural size diversity and endorses a hierarchy of worth based upon external characteristics. It fosters normative discontent among women when it comes to our bodies, establishing corporeal comparisons, criticisms, and complaints as keystones to the female experience. Before and after photos erode dignity and sense of self by insisting that women are a never-ending work in progress. They fuel the heartbreaking statistics that one in four 7-year-olds have been on a diet, 75 percent of 16-to-25-year-olds feel dissatisfied with their bodies, and one in five women will experience an eating disorder by age 40. You are not a “before” photo.
2. “Weight loss is always a good thing.”
Before and after photos leave the mechanism of physical transformation a mystery. Weight loss attempts often involve behaviors like compulsive over-exercise or obsessive calorie counting that may result in withdrawal from social life, distraction from other goals and values, and reduction in overall quality of life. The side-by-side comparison shows physical changes only; it is not representative of the person’s relationship with food, exercise, and body. An excerpt of Blythe Baird’s thought-provoking poem puts it like this: “If you develop an eating disorder when you are already thin to begin with, you go to the hospital. If you develop an eating disorder when you are not thin to begin with, you are a success story.” You are not a “before” photo.
3. “External appearance indicates health.”
The widely accepted belief that weight equals health perpetuates the notion that wellness looks slender and toned. We assume that people’s shape and size reveal whether or not they eat well, exercise, or prioritize self-care. This myopic understanding fails to withstand scientific scrutiny and overlooks the confluence of factors that influence health and weight, most of which are far beyond our individual control. One team of university researchers, for example, published a meta-analysis that discovered fit “overweight” individuals and fit “obese” individuals experience a similar mortality rate as those in the fit “normal” weight category. In other words, level of fitness emerged as more significant than weight when it comes to longevity. Similarly, when scientists from the Medical University of South Carolina examined weight and lifestyle habits independently, they found a virtually indistinguishable mortality rate across the BMI spectrum for those who followed four key self-care practices (fruit and vegetable consumption, exercise, moderate alcohol consumption, and smoking cessation). Health, fitness, and longevity, in other words, are not one size fits all, and before and after photos cannot capture a person’s overall well-being. You are not a “before” photo.
4. “Diets work.”
The notion that weight falls under our control keeps the multi-billion dollar diet industry afloat year after year. Evidence suggests that a paltry 5% of dieters maintain long-term weight loss and that dieting actually predicts weight gain over time, regardless of the dieter’s starting weight. As neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt puts it, “If diets worked, we’d all be thin by now. Instead, we have enlisted hundreds of millions of people into a war we cannot win.” Since the body cannot distinguish between “diet” and “famine,” caloric deprivation more often lowers metabolism, disrupts digestion, increases appetite, and reduces energy levels and performance instead of facilitating sustainable weight loss. Dieting interferes with your body’s innate capacity to guide nutritional choices and is a major risk factor for developing an eating disorder. The subtext of before and after photos is that, with willpower and determination, dieting will transform your body into the elusive “after” and ignite a renewed, more worthy existence. You are not a “before” photo.
5. “The purpose of eating well and exercising is to manipulate my body.”
When the motivation for healthy habits is appearance-based, the ability to nurture your unique and authentic self deteriorates. This harmful mentality precludes appreciation of the inherent benefits of joyful movement, nourishing meals, and the present moment, as visions of your future self monopolize and distract your attention. The likelihood of abandoning beneficial, health-supporting practices increases with the realization that the coveted “after” represents an unattainable, culturally constructed, and ever-changing ideal. Neither mirrors, photographs, nor scales measure the condition of body, mind, and soul. Before and after photos obscure this reality and the true reason for sustainable, compassionate self-care: that you are innately valuable and worthy of love. You are not a “before” photo.
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