Should you use fitspiration to help your motivation?

By Dr. Francis Quinn, PhD. 

“Fitspiration” is the trend on the internet of making and viewing posts that show very fit people (or more often, just one part of a very fit person).

Because it includes part of the word “inspiration”, it implies that viewing these posts inspires you to become fit yourself. That’s quite an assumption, and to a psychologist like me, that raises two things we need to think about:

1). Assumptions are often wrong, especially if they have not been tested in research (i.e. seeing a fit person –> “inspirational” –> change in your motivation or actions).

2). Maybe the supposed motivational benefits are only for some people. We might overestimate the benefits compared to harms, because only a few of the most “inspired” viewers post comments which are all positive, while many others who feel bad or neutral never comment on the post.

As a psychologist, I would always say that your psychological well-being should come first. You should do all you can to keep your well-being, morale and mood positive, because then are you more able to do all the other things you value, as well as feel good. Think about how poor well-being often gets in the way of an athlete’s performance, or that research showing that good well-being comes first and then success, rather than the other way around (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005).

And research has shown again and again that viewing fitspiration grinds people down. And the effects seem worse, on average, for people who are younger, female, or who already live in a world of pressure to have the ideal body. For example, one study reviewed years of research, most of which were experiments comparing outcomes with and without viewing fitspiration. What all this research amounted to was that viewing fitspiration, on average, made people feel worse about themselves, worse about their bodies, and feel bad in general (Gruest & Walter, 2026).

Yet you can easily find anecdotal evidence that some people attribute feeling more motivated to exercise to viewing fitspiration (whether they do or do not feel worse about their bodies).

For some it acts as the trigger to get out of the house to actually do the workout. I would argue this is only in those who already hold exercise goals, because the mind is like an old-style card file and it brings the “exercise goals” card to the front of the file (known as “priming a goal”; Papies, 2016) – or it could be basically a prompt or reminder to take an action, just like a sign in a bathroom that says “Now wash your hands”. For some, it provides some proof that exercise leads to the change in physique that they want; knowing that a certain action leads to a certain desired payoff is one of the key ingredients in motivation in several leading scientific theories of motivation.

So viewing fitspiration could have varying effects depending on the person. If you choose to try it, then I recommend seeing it like hair dye – a tool which many people are allergic to, and that you have to conduct an allergy test before using it. Keep a careful watch on how you feel about your body the following day, as well as whether you feel more motivated and whether you actually exercised as a result of seeing it. Unfollow all accounts posting fitspiration straightaway if you start to feel less happy with your body, your mood is darker, or you feel bad in any way. You may also then need to retrain any social media algorithm by marking any fitspiration posts it serves up later as “not interested”.

And if fitspiration’s positive effects are due to goal priming, acting as a prompt, and providing evidence that exercise does lead to the physique changes you want, then there could be ways to get that which don’t involve unattainable, perfect visions of a body most of us can’t have because we have a job and responsibilities and limited time and money.

Try viewing images of regular people in the act of exercising (rather than just posing to show their physique), especially those whose level of fitness appears attainable in your opinion. That should prime your goal to exercise, equally well or better than viewing ideal physiques in fitspiration. If you want reminders that exercise works, find images or transformation images of people with realistic levels of fitness, rather than those with the highest possible level that a person with a job, responsibilities and who isn’t a millionaire could actually achieve. If your goal is to feel good, rather than to have an ideal physique, find internet images of people exercising and feeling good.

And if after viewing “fitspiration” you start to feel down, or you start to make major changes to your eating or exercise that could cause more harm than good, consider seeking help from a mental health provider such as a counsellor, psychotherapist, psychologist or psychiatrist who is licenced in your area.

References

Gruest, V., & Walter, N. (2026). Lifting the screen on fitspiration: A meta-analysis. Health Communication. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2026.2653191

Lyobomirsky, S., King, L. & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131(6), 803-55. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.131.6.803

Papies, E. K. (2016). Health goal priming as a situated intervention tool: how to benefit from nonconscious motivational routes to health behaviour. Health Psychology Review, 10(4), 408–424. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2016.1183506