TW Disordered Eating// How lockdown productivity continues to be detrimental to women’s body image.
By Kelsey Palmer
28 November 2020
The introduction of national lockdowns has initiated an obsession with being productive and transforming one’s physical image. This has had a detrimental effect on women’s body image and mental health overall, causing many women, including myself to resort to following extreme dieting regimes and damaging quick-fix fitness videos that have been frequently circulating on social media.
When lockdown was first announced in March, I saw copious amounts of ‘healthy eating’ videos promoting calorie deficit plans and strenuous home workouts that promised abs, perky bums and toned legs in a matter of weeks. As a young woman who has always been very conscious of her weight, I was sucked right into the black hole of unattainable results and dangerous ways of trying to achieve them. I started calorie counting, striving to eat 1,100 calories a day while working out morning and night along with long walks daily. With restaurants and takeaways being closed, I had little to no temptation, thus making it easier to attempt to survive off two meals a day. Although it felt like a sense of achievement that I was being so productive and seeing a flat stomach in the mirror every morning felt like a reward. The short-term happiness soon faded when I started regularly throwing up due to depriving myself of food and subsequently dropping down to 46kg. As a 5ft woman with a small body build, I realise now how incredibly dangerous this was.
It is so upsetting looking back and realising how blind I was to the trauma I was putting my body and mind through due to how consumed I felt by social media. Luckily, I am managing to get myself back on track with the help of social media breaks and therapy. However, this isn’t the case for a lot of women who still feel trapped by diet culture and body image disorders. With lockdown two being inputted, I still feel an immense amount of guilt when indulging in food I enjoy, and it is an ongoing battle trying to avoid slipping back into dangerous eating and exercising habits. If a global pandemic wasn’t distressing enough, we are now being policed on what we eat and what we do in our free time. The media is successfully brainwashing women about body image, contributing to the development of eating disorders and disordered relationships with food.
Laurann O’Reilly, a nutritionist from Dublin, said she has experienced a huge influx of individuals seeking help with weight loss during lockdown periods. She explained how people have fallen victim to quick-fixes such as diet pills and meal replacements in a desperate attempt to lose weight. She said how “the bombardment of marketing towards those seeking weight loss and social media itself is a danger as it puts added pressure of perfection to individuals”.
As much as it is comforting to know I am not alone in my experience, it is also deeply saddening that others have and are continuing to face the same traumatic experience. A young woman who would like to remain anonymous bravely shared her experience with how consumed she felt by external pressure to lose weight to the point of obsession. She said: “It felt like there was never a break from the constant reminder to work out and eat better”. She also explained how intensely lockdown pressure affected her mental health, eating habits and exercise regimes, causing her to strive to be in calorie deficit and exercise in secret to ensure she was achieving this. Another young woman, Georgia Martin, 22, a student from Cornwall, said: “I have felt ridiculous amounts of pressure to have the perfect gym body like girls on Instagram, so when I look at myself in comparison, I can’t help but feel disheartened and like I should be doing more, especially now were in lockdown.”
Although it now seems to be an essential to prove you’re making the most of this free time to yourself and others, it is most definitely not a necessity and it is perfectly fine to sit on the sofa, binge a series and indulge in good food during extremely trying times such as these. Thinness does not equal happiness, put your mental health and well-being first and give yourself a little extra love. You are already doing enough and don’t let lockdown make you think otherwise.
Kelsey is a 21 year old English literature graduate from West Yorkshire. She is currently studying MSc Journalism at Leeds Beckett University and she is primarily interested in fashion, beauty and lifestyle journalism. She is an advocate of self-love, self-discovery and she hopes to empower others with her own journey of learning to love myself.