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" Dieting with others used to mean enlisting a begrudging friend, or perhaps trekking to a weekly meeting at Atkins. But as social media emerged, Twitter and Instagram ushered in a new era of diet and health communities\u2014and they&amp;#039;re larger and more interactive than ever. Now, it only takes the tap of a hashtag to connect a user with thousands of other like-minded individuals who are also eager to share their healthy lifestyles. Consider the Paleo diet: It&amp;#039;s on everybody&amp;#039;s lips these days, for better or worse. And it seems telling that its popularity paralleled the growth of social media in the past five to ten years. For bloggers who specialize in the health craze, it&amp;#039;s been the perfect storm, driving viewership as users click, see photos, and connect the dots between different sites and platforms touting the Paleo lifestyle\u2014something that&amp;#039;s applicable to any other diet du jour.  &amp;quot;The quick, conversational nature of Twitter and Instagram have made it incredibly easy to engage in real-time conversations with like-minded people, so it&amp;#039;s not surprising that diet and fitness communities have sprung up around these platforms,&amp;quot; says Michelle Tam, popular blogger at Nom Nom Paleo (and the author of a cookbook with the same name). &amp;quot;Like a lot of people, I get a kick out of sharing pictures of what I&amp;#039;m cooking and eating, and seeing what others are doing in their kitchens, too. Seeing others make healthy choices makes it easier to do the same yourself; it&amp;#039;s like joining a worldwide support group that helps keep you on track.&amp;quot;  Related: The 10-Day Detox That Will Restart Your System the Healthy Way It isn&amp;#039;t just an opportunity for individuals, either. Health companies are now going beyond simply selling their products, and using social media to turn their brands into lifestyle movements, too. BluePrint, the proprietor of one of the most celeb and civilian-loved juice cleanses out there, enjoys a following of nearly 64,000 on Instagram, and frequently &amp;quot;regrams&amp;quot; pictures of their juices from other users. And a click of the #blueprintcleanse hashtag brings us into a world much greater than the brand itself, as thousands of users flaunt their own detox efforts.          Cleanse time is the best time! @elisespieces22 &#128153; A photo posted by BluePrint (@blueprintcleanse) on May 16, 2014 at 6:38am PDT      &amp;quot;Social media is how BluePrint connects with our fans on a more intimate basis,&amp;quot; says Jina Wye, the company&amp;#039;s director of sales and marketing. &amp;quot;On Instagram, for example, we browse through hundreds of BluePrint fan photos on a daily basis. We make it our goal to engage with every photo through likes and comments.&amp;quot; She can&amp;#039;t take all the credit, however\u2014nor can any brand who uses social media as a marketing approach. &amp;quot;The feedback goes both ways: it&amp;#039;s valuable for us to learn about their needs and how they&amp;#039;re feeling, and they, in turn, feel more engaged with the brand,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;Just the other day we had a cleanse inquiry on Instagram and immediately directed the fan to our in-house nutritionist. It&amp;#039;s that immediate response that allows us to connect with our fans on a more personal basis.&amp;quot; This is the give and take that fuels every fitness and diet trend in the age of social media. In the instance of Paleo, as more and more like-minded people share pictures of their Paleo-friendly meals and label them with hashtags, the community aggregates more people out of pure curiosity. &amp;quot;People gravitate toward it,&amp;quot; says Stephanie Gaudreau, blogger at Stupid Easy Paleo and author of The Paleo Athlete. &amp;quot;They want to be part of the conversation and the community, and when that&amp;#039;s cultivated through social media, the effect is huge.&amp;quot;  Not to mention fun. And no, we&amp;#039;re not just drinking the Kool-Aid, erm, green juice\u2014the oft-uttered &amp;quot;there&amp;#039;s strength in numbers&amp;quot; is something that has been scientifically shown to apply to dieting and fitness. Many of the people we interact with on Instagram might technically be strangers, but some might actually find it easier to track their progress with people they won&amp;#039;t see in person on a daily basis. Related: Does Wanting to Be Thin Make You a Slave to the Man? Still, while a widespread, grassroots message of health sounds exactly like something we could use, people like body image expert Claire Mysko are a bit more wary. As a director at the National Eating Disorders Association and the author of two books on modern body image, she is all too aware of the risk factors that come with finding health &amp;quot;inspiration&amp;quot; in modern media. (Thinspo, anyone?)   &amp;quot;The term [inspiration] itself is very comparison-driven,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s not about your own personal goals. It tends to be about looking at other images of other people and wishing you looked like that or reached that goal. There&amp;#039;s just so much information out there that I think it&amp;#039;s become confusing for people to wade through it and figure out what is actually a truly holistic, healthy approach versus this obsession with comparing and the weight-focused discussions.&amp;quot;  Perhaps the most essential difference between dieting 20 years ago and dieting now is this: We live in an image-saturated, rapid-fire culture of instant gratification. There&amp;#039;s a reason that &amp;quot;media detoxes&amp;quot; are becoming a thing\u2014it&amp;#039;s because being connected is no longer something we consciously do; it&amp;#039;s just life. And because we&amp;#039;re always connected, particularly through social media, we&amp;#039;re constantly reminded of what other people are doing\u2026and what we&amp;#039;re not.  Think about it: We&amp;#039;re on our phones and computers constantly. While it used to be that people thought about keeping their diets in check at mealtimes, or at the grocery store, it&amp;#039;s now there to remind us all the time, sandwiched between selfies on Instagram. What&amp;#039;s more (and perhaps, worse): These are normal people&amp;#039;s photos (and by normal, I&amp;#039;m excluding celebrities; the impact of celebrities displaying their healthy habits on social media is something worthy of its own article). These lives seem attainable, within reach. So as we scroll down our feeds and view pictures of other people&amp;#039;s gym selfies and dainty green juices, any guilt for not following the same sort of lifestyle is magnified, and the comparison factor, at a premium.   So is this what social media has done to dieting and fitness? Are the positive ideologies\u2014community and fun, for example\u2014just silly notions? Mysko insists that it&amp;#039;s not all doom and gloom; it&amp;#039;s just important to know yourself. &amp;quot;Finding a community can be a positive thing,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;And there are a lot of people who are really using social media to promote body positivity, body acceptance and the kinds of messages that we feel are more helpful and healthy for folks.&amp;quot; Still, &amp;quot;it&amp;#039;s important to be in tune to how much of it you are looking at and how is it making you feel.&amp;quot; Plus, the beauty of Instagram is that it&amp;#039;s a very visual way to check yourself. &amp;quot;If your entire social media feed is filled with dieting and fitness-related messages, that might be a signal that you might need to reach out for help or rethink the approach,&amp;quot; says Mysko. In other words, compare a fitspo-filled feed to a gateway drug. &amp;quot;For some people it can actually be dangerous, and can lead to more extreme behavior.&amp;quot;  On the flipside, if you yourself have dozens of Instafollowers just waiting for your next fitspo picture, remember your own influence. Sure, you can post whatever the heck you want, but how do you know that picture of your ridiculously taut stomach won&amp;#039;t make a teenager somewhere feel really bad about herself? We can&amp;#039;t be responsible for all extenuating circumstances or possibilities, but it is something to keep in mind, says Mysko. &amp;quot;[It&amp;#039;s] really, again, about looking for messages that are about body acceptance, and body positivity, versus the &amp;#039;not good enough until you get here&amp;#039; mindset, or until you reach this goal.&amp;quot;  Of course, in our rational minds, we know that one Instagram snap is nothing remotely close to the whole picture of someone&amp;#039;s life. It&amp;#039;s a decontextualized little square (even if it is #nofilter). People post what they want the world to see, and nothing more. That plate of greens? Maybe she washed that down with a Magnolia cupcake. That ab-tastic gym selfie? Sure, she&amp;#039;s smiling, but maybe she&amp;#039;s harboring days of deprivation and self-hatred behind that grin. These might be extreme examples, but the point is that there&amp;#039;s no way of really knowing what&amp;#039;s happening behind that iPhone camera. Sure, there will always be that person who honestly and truly does have it together. But then again, isn&amp;#039;t that life?          Morning fuel: soft scrambled eggs topped with furikake, leftover grilled asparagus, and a pile of kraut. A photo posted by nomnompaleo (@nomnompaleo) on May 13, 2014 at 9:41am PDT     A source of inspiration herself (with nearly 45,000 Instagram followers) Tam nonetheless preaches something similar. &amp;quot;Seeing what others choose to post about themselves can also be intimidating, deflating, or discouraging,&amp;quot; she admits. &amp;quot;Remember that even your role models aren&amp;#039;t as perfect as they appear to be online, and you don&amp;#039;t need to live up to anyone&amp;#039;s expectations other than your own.&amp;quot; But if we can&amp;#039;t grab hold of our rational minds to tell us all of this as we zombie-scroll down our feeds, what&amp;#039;s the solution? It&amp;#039;s actually quite simple, even if you don&amp;#039;t want to hear it: unfollow. &amp;quot;Look through your various social media feeds,&amp;quot; advises Mysko. &amp;quot;Just ask yourself, &amp;#039;How is it making me feel? And if the answer to that is, &amp;#039;Well, I feel really bad about myself and I wish I could look like this, etc., then that&amp;#039;s really a sign that you need to change the content.&amp;quot;  Echoes Tam, &amp;quot;Do what makes you happy. And if Instagram stops being fun, just delete it. Life&amp;#039;s too short.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/beauty/health-fitness/advice/a12724/social-media-dieting/>