the internet has completely lost the plot on what “fit” looks like

apparently, we’ve become very good at measuring how a body looks and much worse at asking what it can actually do.

i was scrolling through my instagram feed last week when a video stopped me. a fitness creator was reading out some of the comments she’d received on one of her posts. several people seemed to agree that, yes, you could tell she trained. but she really needed to lose fat because, according to them, her body fat percentage was obviously too high.

i didn’t save the video, take screenshots, or even remember the creator’s name. unfortunately, my brain doesn’t work like, “oh, this could make a good piece of content. let me save it.” 😅 usually, when i see or hear something that catches my attention, it just lingers in the back of my mind for days until i eventually write it down. so forgive me for the lack of visual context. at least i like to think i’m a decent storyteller, so let me set the scene.

she was lean enough to have visible abdominal definition, which already puts her at a level of leanness most women don’t naturally walk around with. she trained hard, was active outside the gym, and looked like someone who took care of herself. honestly, most women i know would look at that body and think, “yeah, i’ll take that.”

but strangers on the internet looked at the same body and decided she clearly wasn’t lean enough. apparently, you could tell she trained, but not enough to have the body of someone who lifts.

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who actually has that body

let’s start with the numbers, because they almost never make it into the conversation.

essential body fat for women is around 12% of body weight. the key word here is essential, which means the minimum amount of body fat the body needs for basic physiological functions, including hormone production. the healthy range sits higher, roughly 14 to 25%, although it varies with age and other individual factors. for most women, visible abs tend to show up toward the leaner end of that range, or below it.

so when your feed is full of women with visible abs all year round, you’re looking at a very small and very specific group of people. some are simply genetically lean and have always been that way. that’s not a virtue or a sign of superior discipline. it’s a body type. some are athletes who happen to be photographed during a particularly lean phase of their training year. and some may be using anabolic steroids without ever mentioning it.

that side of the fitness industry has become increasingly hard to ignore, while the results are still often packaged as nothing more than discipline. carrying a lot of muscle while staying extremely lean year-round isn’t something most women can achieve naturally, no matter how consistent they are. still, the caption says “hard work”, and you close the app wondering what’s wrong with your training.

research has shown that chronically not eating enough to support the demands of your training can have real consequences. it’s known as low energy availability, and when it becomes severe or prolonged, it can contribute to relative energy deficiency in sport, or RED-S.

basically, you’re training, but there isn’t enough energy left over to properly support all the other things your body needs to do. over time, that can affect everything from your menstrual cycle and thyroid function to bone health, recovery, energy levels, and injury risk. some women may notice their periods becoming irregular or disappearing altogether, while others might simply feel constantly tired, stop recovering well between sessions, or see changes like hair thinning. your body isn’t “failing” you. it’s adapting to a situation where there isn’t enough energy to comfortably cover everything you’re asking it to do.

new research shows just how important this can be for bone health. a 2026 study of young women with functional hypothalamic amenorrhea found that their lumbar spine bone mineral density was significantly lower than that of regularly menstruating women, and was not significantly different from that of a group of recently menopausal women.

none of this shows up in a photo and that’s the whole point. you can’t read someone’s health from their body. you can’t look at a woman and know she’s healthy just because she has visible abs, and you definitely can’t look at another woman and decide she’s unhealthy just because she doesn’t.

fitness was never supposed to be a second full-time job

the official recommendations, written by people who actually study this stuff, are far less dramatic than what your instagram feed would have you believe.

the world health organization recommends 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week, plus muscle-strengthening work for all major muscle groups on at least two days. that’s it. two proper strength sessions, plus some walking, cycling, running, dancing, or whatever gets you moving and that you actually enjoy enough to keep doing.

actually, the amount of work required to get meaningful health benefits is surprisingly small. a 2022 meta-analysis published in the british journal of sports medicine looked at 16 studies, some of which followed people for more than 25 years. it found that 30 to 60 minutes of muscle-strengthening activity per week was associated with a 10 to 17% lower risk of death from any cause, as well as a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. thirty minutes. per week.

when aerobic activity was added, the association was even stronger, with all-cause mortality risk around 40% lower. and beyond roughly an hour of strength training per week, the curve started to flatten. in other words, those extra hours weren’t buying the same additional benefits for those particular outcomes.

nutrition isn’t nearly as complicated either. eat enough to support your training, get enough protein, and build a way of eating you can actually live with for years. i guarantee you’ll be fine. not everyone needs to weigh every grain of rice to make that work. but extremes are much easier to sell and when they become the version of fitness people see over and over again, it’s hardly surprising that so many women look at it and think, that’s not for me.

the women nobody in this fight is thinking about

while the internet is busy arguing about whether a lean woman is lean enough, there’s a much bigger problem happening in the background.

in 2022, 31% of adults worldwide, roughly 1.8 billion people, weren’t even reaching the minimum recommended level of physical activity. women were further behind men, at 34% compared with 29%, and the trend is moving in the wrong direction. if nothing changes, the global figure is expected to reach 35% by 2030. in the united states, where we have better data on strength training specifically, only 31% of adults report doing muscle-strengthening activity at least twice a week. among women, just 20% meet both the aerobic and strength-training guidelines.

those are the women i’m actually thinking about.

most of them have never set foot in a gym. and when the version of fitness they see online looks like a full-time job, complete with meal plans, supplements, 5 a.m. workouts, and an apparently endless list of things they’re doing wrong, it’s not exactly an invitation to start. the entry fee feels too high, so they scroll past and keep waiting for a version of fitness that looks possible for them.

that’s why, as a trainer, i think part of my job is to show people a version of fitness that actually fits into a life. three strength sessions a week can make a meaningful difference to your body and health, but the benefits go way beyond what you can see in a progress photo. strength training can support your mental health, with randomized trials showing that resistance training can reduce depressive symptoms. it also teaches you what it feels like to do something difficult, stick with it, and slowly discover that you’re capable of more than you thought.

and maybe most importantly, it can change the way you see your body. not just as something to look at, but as something you can use, rely on, and get stronger in.

i started lifting at 37 with absolutely no sporting background. six years later, i have a body that does things i once never thought it could do. and the things i value most about it have very little to do with whether my abs are visible on a particular day.

the woman in that video i told you about had a body most doctors would consider healthy and most women would probably consider enviable. yet, a comment section decided that it wasn’t lean enough to count as the body of someone who really trains.

that’s how far the standard has drifted from the thing it was supposed to measure.

if you think this was useful, tap the ❤️, drop a comment, and share it with someone who needs to hear it.

thanks for reading,
—glicia ⋆˚✿˖

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about the writer

i’m glicia, a personal trainer and nutrition student based in paris. i’m the person behind never not hungry, a newsletter about getting stronger, eating actual food (yes, with carbs!), and making fitness a little less complicated. when i’m not writing, i’m designing workout programs, trying overpriced cafés, reading romantasy, or lifting heavy things. welcome to my little corner of the internet. i hope you’ll stay.

💖 find me elsewhere (instagram, pinterest, spotify)

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sources

• WHO Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour (2020): adult recommendations: 150-300 min moderate aerobic activity per week, muscle-strengthening on 2+ days.

• Momma et al., British Journal of Sports Medicine (2022): muscle-strengthening activities and risk of mortality, cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes.

• Pelland et al., Sports Medicine (2026): resistance training dose response: weekly volume, frequency, hypertrophy and strength.

• Strock et al., Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology review of physique competitor case studies (2023): body composition, hormones, mood and menstrual function during contest prep.

• Angelidi et al., Endocrine Reviews (2024): REDs: endocrine manifestations, menstrual dysfunction, thyroid and bone.

• Frontiers in Endocrinology (2026): bone mineral density in women with functional hypothalamic amenorrhea vs controls and recently menopausal women.

• Jeukendrup & Gleeson, Sport Nutrition (Human Kinetics), after Lohman: essential and healthy body fat ranges for women.

• Strain et al., The Lancet Global Health (2024): global trends in insufficient physical activity, 2000-2022.

• NCHS Data Brief No. 443 (2022): US adults meeting aerobic and muscle-strengthening guidelines, by sex.

• Scientific Reports (2025): upward comparison predicts state body dissatisfaction after fitspiration exposure.

• Gordon et al., JAMA Psychiatry (2018): resistance exercise training and depressive symptoms.