<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"&amp;amp;#8220;Yes. Fitspo refers to images and words that women post with the purpose of inspiring themselves and others to live a fit, active life. Unfortunately, the images often portray dangerously thin, overly sexualized women with bodies that the vast majority of us will never be able to achieve. What&amp;amp;#8217;s more, slogans like &amp;amp;#8216;My weakness becomes my pain, and pain my pleasure&amp;amp;#8217; are often just as shaming as those used in thinspo, and I worry they could fuel the fire for people with eating disorders. A lot of fitspo is a thinly veiled version of thinspo, promoting the same obsessive tendencies and impossible appearance ideals, and that&amp;amp;#8217;s a trap.&amp;amp;#8221; Cynthia Bulik, Ph.D., director of the University of North Carolina Eating Disorders Program and author of The Woman in the Mirror: How to Stop Confusing What You Look Like With Who You Are &amp;amp;bull; &amp;amp;bull; &amp;amp;bull; &amp;amp;#8220;It depends. Some fitspo out there is inspiring, but plenty of websites have horrible content that can sabotage women&amp;amp;#8217;s self-esteem. I think it&amp;amp;#8217;s great that certain sites decided to ban thinspiration, and I hope some of the worst fitspo messages will be taken down too. What I like about good fitspo&amp;amp;#8212;say, a picture of a healthy woman sprinting up a mountain or a slogan that reads, &amp;amp;#8216;You&amp;amp;#8217;re one workout away from a good mood&amp;amp;#8217;&amp;amp;#8212; is that it can motivate women to improve their health. But bad fitspo is more about comparing yourself to other women. If the fitspo you&amp;amp;#8217;re looking at makes you feel defeated, it&amp;amp;#8217;s not helping you. The key to succeeding in your goals is making your own realistic milestones and hitting them&amp;amp;#8212;not focusing on some girl in a photo.&amp;amp;#8221; Ashley Borden, fitness and lifestyle consultant and coauthor of Your Perfect Fit: What to Wear to Show Off Your Assets, What to Do to Tone Up Your Trouble Spots &amp;amp;bull; &amp;amp;bull; &amp;amp;bull; &amp;amp;#8220;No. When you&amp;amp;#8217;re trying to develop the drive to get active and healthy, you need motivators, and pasting inspiring pictures on a board, online or otherwise, has really helped my clients. Saying that looking at pictures of fit people could trigger someone&amp;amp;#8217;s eating disorder is like saying that that person is not safe in the world, because there are fit people everywhere! That said, I tell clients, &amp;amp;#8216;Find images that show it takes work to attain your goals&amp;amp;#8212;like someone healthy jumping rope.&amp;amp;#8217; Women are smart. They know they won&amp;amp;#8217;t grow six inches and sprout big boobs. But if looking at models motivates you to get to the gym, that can only be good in my mind.&amp;amp;#8221; Valerie Waters, celebrity trainer and creator of the Valslide and Red Carpet Ready workout programs"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/2012/07/health-controversy-is-fitspo-bad-for-you-glamour-august-2012>