Your Fitness Influencer Might Not Even Fucking Exist
Yep.
For years I’ve been telling people not to believe everything they see on social media.
The perfect bodies.
The perfect meals.
The perfect morning routines.
The perfect fucking lives.
We learned about Photoshop.
We learned about filters.
We learned about lighting, posing and clever camera angles.
We learned that the person showing you their “morning abs” probably didn’t look quite like that twelve hours later after three meals and a shit.
And just when we were beginning to understand all of that…
We’ve managed to make it considerably worse.
Because now the fitness influencer you’re comparing yourself to…
might not even fucking exist.
Welcome to 2026 and the beginning of the end of the world due to AI, I mean ffs have we not watched Terminator.
From Photoshop To Completely Made-Up Humans
Twenty years ago we were looking at models in magazines whose photographs had been edited.
Then social media arrived and we started looking at people whose photos had been filtered, posed and manipulated.
Then came sophisticated video filters and editing.
And now?
We can simply generate the entire fucking person.
Face.
Body.
Skin.
Abs.
Hair.
Voice.
Workout.
Lifestyle.
All of it.
There doesn’t necessarily need to be a human being underneath anymore.
And these virtual people can look incredibly convincing.
That’s the bit that’s changed.
The early AI characters looked obviously artificial.
Now you can scroll past a perfectly believable fitness model demonstrating exercises, talking about nutrition or recommending a supplement without necessarily realising the person you’re watching has never drawn a single breath.
We’ve finally achieved the wellness industry’s ultimate ambition.
An influencer who doesn’t need food.
The Impossible Body Has Become Literally Impossible
Body-image comparisons aren’t new.
We’ve been doing that forever.
But at least historically the unrealistic image usually started with an actual human body.
Perhaps they’d been genetically fortunate.
Perhaps they’d trained for years.
Perhaps there was Photoshop, lighting, fake tan, dehydration, posing and enough editing to make their own mother to go who the fuck is that.
But somewhere underneath all of it
there was a person.
Now there doesn’t have to be.
AI can generate the tiny waist.
Perfect glutes.
Visible abs.
Broad shoulders.
Flawless skin.
Symmetrical face.
Exactly the proportions most likely to get attention.
Not because somebody achieved that physique.
Because somebody typed a prompt.
The really fucked-up bit…….
Recent research suggests knowing an image is AI-generated doesn’t necessarily make us immune to its effect.
Studies looking at virtual influencers and AI-generated bodies have found they can still increase body dissatisfaction.
Think about that.
You can know the person isn’t real and still feel worse about your own real body.
That’s just fucked.
Your Body Has To Live In The Real World
Your body has history.
Injuries.
Pregnancies.
Menopause.
Operations.
Scars.
Stress.
Work.
Children.
Illness.
Bad nights’ sleep.
Holidays.
Ageing.
Gravity.
The occasional bottle of wine.
Your body has to get you through an actual life.
The AI fitness model doesn’t.
She doesn’t have a menopausal 3am wake-up.
He doesn’t have a dodgy hip.
They don’t have a stressful week at work.
They don’t get injured.
They don’t have birthdays.
They don’t have genetics.
They don’t have hormones.
They don’t have to maintain their physique.
Yet we’re potentially comparing ourselves to them.
If we weren’t already playing a rigged game, we’ve now let somebody invent the opposition.
Then We Let Them Give Us Health Advice
This is where it stops being merely ridiculous and starts becoming genuinely concerning.
AI-generated wellness personalities aren’t just posting pictures.
They’re talking.
They’re giving advice.
They’re recommending products.
They’re discussing supplements.
They’re talking about hormones, menopause, weight loss, nutrition and health.
There have even been AI-generated doctors spreading dubious medical claims online.
And deepfakes of real academics and health professionals have been used to promote products they never endorsed.
So now we’re entering a world where you can watch someone who doesn’t exist…
claiming expertise they don’t have…
recommending a product they don’t use…
to solve a problem they physically cannot experience.
What could possibly go wrong?
Looking Like Someone Who Knows About Health Isn’t A Qualification
We’ve somehow decided that looking fit makes someone an expert on everything vaguely related to health.
Abs?
Nutrition expert.
Big glutes?
Hormone specialist.
Runs ultras?
Apparently qualified to discuss gut health.
Has a ring light and a podcast microphone?
Congratulations, you’re now an endocrinologist.
Appearance has never been evidence of expertise.
But AI makes that problem even worse because we can now manufacture the appearance of credibility too.
We can generate the white coat.
The gym.
The microphone.
The perfect body.
The confident voice.
The impressive-looking captions.
None of those things tell you whether the information is actually correct.
Confidence is not evidence.
And becoming more and more common
neither is the person delivering it.
Social Media Was Already A Highlight Reel
You see someone’s best ten seconds.
You compare it to your entire day.
Their holiday photo versus your Tuesday morning.
Their gym PB versus the session where everything felt like shit.
Their perfectly arranged meal versus the beans on toast you made because you got home late.
We were already comparing our messy reality to someone else’s carefully curated highlights.
AI takes that one step further.
Now you’re comparing your messy reality to somebody else’s fiction.
And no amount of training, dieting or optimisation is going to allow you to compete with a person who can simply be regenerated with a slightly smaller waist.
So maybe we should stop trying.
What Does A Useful Fitness Role Model Actually Look Like?
Maybe this is where we need to rethink what inspires us.
I’d rather you follow the 62-year-old who started strength training because she wants to keep travelling.
The 70-year-old who’s getting stronger because he wants to keep playing golf.
The woman navigating menopause who turns up twice a week even though sometimes she feels absolutely knackered.
The bloke who has lost some weight but is more excited that he can get off the floor without making noises resembling an injured walrus.
The person who isn’t shredded.
Isn’t perfect.
Doesn’t train seven days a week.
Sometimes eats cake.
Sometimes misses a session.
Sometimes has a shit week.
But keeps coming back.
Because that’s a body living an actual life.
And that’s a version of fitness you might actually be able to use.
Ask Better Questions
The next time somebody appears on your feed telling you how to fix your health, perhaps stop looking at their abs for a second.
Ask:
Who are they?
What are their qualifications?
What’s the evidence for what they’re saying?
Are they selling something?
Does the claim sound suspiciously dramatic?
Can I verify that this person actually exists?
And perhaps most importantly:
Would I believe this advice if it came from someone who looked completely ordinary?
Because if the answer is no, perhaps it wasn’t the evidence convincing you.
Perhaps it was the six-pack.
Real Bodies Are Supposed To Look Real
Wrinkles.
Scars.
Body fat.
Loose skin.
Stretch marks.
Cellulite.
Bodies change.
Bodies age.
Bodies have history.
That’s not failure.
That’s what happens when a human body spends several decades being a human body.
And I’d much rather help somebody build a body that’s strong enough to carry shopping, climb mountains, travel, play with grandchildren and get itself off the fucking floor…
than chase a digital physique generated by a computer that has never performed a squat.
Fitness should improve your relationship with your body.
Not make you hate it because it doesn’t look like something that never existed.
Remember the next time you’re scrolling Instagram and wondering why you don’t look like the person on your screen.
Twenty years ago, we had to remind ourselves:
Don’t compare yourself to Photoshopped bodies.
In 2026, apparently we need an upgrade.
Don’t compare your real body, living a real life, to a body that might not even fucking exist.
