‘Oh, I’m skinny fat.’
The realisation hit me like a slap in the face, but it’s not that I think I’m overweight, I know I’m perfectly healthy.
It’s because a girl who had exactly my body type posted a ‘before and after’ TikTok of her going from slim to toned, and my body was her ‘before’.
She still looked great in the ‘before’, and by great I mean totally and completely normal. Her tummy just folded over her jeans a little as she slouched, as mine does, too. The after shot shows her with very little visble body fat.
I headed to the comments expecting to see people telling her she already looked amazing and didn’t need to lose that weight, but that wasn’t what greeted me.
A girl had written: ‘I need this bc I’m like skinny fat.’ And it had close to 11,000 likes.
Society has decided being slim is no longer good enough, now we have to be lean and toned like an athlete or model. I’d always had the luxury of being born with a body that social media deems ‘acceptable’ – until now.
The widespread use of Ozempic and other weight loss jabs has ‘reset the visual benchmark’ for what is considered ‘skinny’, says Dr Suzanne Wylie, GP and medical adviser for IQdoctor.
‘It has created a disturbing hierarchy, where even naturally slim individuals feel they must go to further extremes to maintain their status or avoid criticism,’ she tells Metro.
‘Skinny fat’ isn’t a new term – historically, it’s been used to describe a body type where individuals have a higher portion of visceral fat around their organs, depsite a ‘healthy’ BMI range. But let’s be clear: this latest iteration of the phrase is about aesthetics, not health.
Whereas five or six years ago the body positivity movement made it taboo to post this kind of content, it feels somehow socially acceptable again.
And though TikTok has banned various hashtags associated with ‘skinnytok’, the algorithm has served me video after video of how to get rid of my ‘skinny fat’.
I know it’s toxic and unnecessary, so why do I feel the need to do so?
‘I’m increasingly concerned about the impact of social media trends on young people’s perceptions of health and body image,’ Dr Suzanne tells me.
‘The idea that someone who is a size six or eight and not visibly toned might consider themselves fat, speaks to a deepening misunderstanding of body composition, health, and self-worth.’
She adds that terms like ‘skinny fat’ reflect a shift in what we deem healthy or desirable, and having zero fat on your body isn’t good for you.
‘Having some body fat is not only normal, it is essential,’ Dr Suzanne explains. ‘Fat plays a critical role in hormone production and immune function.
‘Maintaining a healthy level of body fat is vital for menstrual function and fertility. So striving for an extremely low body fat percentage, in pursuit of muscle definition, can actually be detrimental to long-term health.’
The bottom line is that being toned doesn’t necessarily equate to being healthy, especially if you’re going to try and achieve it by restricting food or exercising excessively.
‘I regularly see young women with perfectly healthy BMIs and good cardiovascular fitness who nonetheless feel inadequate because they don’t match an airbrushed or filtered online ideal,’ Dr Suzanne says.
‘The pressure to be lean, rather than just slim, is intensifying.’
Serena Novelli, body confidence coach and founder of Love Thy Body, agrees, saying: ‘This trend masks that tone has as much to do with muscle as it does with shape, and muscle needs strength, not shame, to grow.’
Disturbingly, Dr Suzanne says she’s seen an uptick in young women who come to her deeply unhappy with their appearance, despite being fit and healthy.
‘It’s worrying, because this can quickly spiral into more serious conditions such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia – especially when combined with perfectionist personality traits or low self-esteem.’
Serena wants to reiterate that ‘bodies are not trends, they’re homes’ – a mantra more important than ever in an era increasingly defined by filters, AI and weight loss jabs.
‘That little fold of skin when we bend? It’s human. It’s normal,’ she says.
‘Women have been conditioned to critique themselves endlessly, but we need less comparison and more compassion.
‘Instead of chasing another standard, let’s come home to our bodies, soft, strong, ever-changing and worthy as they are.’
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