If you're interested in fitness (or even if you're not) odds are you follow fitness Instagram accounts for inspiration. While these accounts can be great for recipe inspiration or gym motivation: beware.

I personally have a fitness account and follow countless others, a few of whom I've been following for years. Instagram is a great place to go for amazing food pictures or recipe inspiration, free workouts, and advice. While the reasons I follow certain accounts are varied, I've continued to follow them because I actually have become invested in many of these people's lives. I've really come to appreciate the people who share real struggles and offer sound advice and have started unfollowing others who just seem fake. Recently, after years of following fitness accounts, I've noticed that people are posting the same type of content, advertising the same products, and preaching the same advice. While someone's life on Instagram might look picture perfect, you need to remember that Instagram is a highlight reel. Something that's not talked about enough is that many fitness influencers come from a background of disordered eating and turn to fitness and social media platforms as a way to seek a cure. Many of the Instagram-famous personalities who are promoting body positivity and health actually hate their bodies and don't take their own advice behind closed doors. These accounts preach positivity but might be laced with disordered thoughts or behaviors that the follower may not even notice. A few examples that I've seen include writing a paragraph to justify having a certain food or defining their body as "fluffy" which causes the follower to think, "well if YOU'RE fluffy then what am I?"

If you find yourself following a bunch of fitness accounts, ask yourself why you're following them. Are they providing any value to your life? A page full of professionally photographed pictures of a model with a full six pack and captions devoid of meaning or thought probably isn't stimulating or inspiring you. Not to mention she sure as hell didn't get that amazing body from drinking a detox tea or using a waist trainer. A person with no degrees or certifications who's offering advice is probably not the person you should reference for professional fitness or nutrition guidance. The girl with obvious butt implants offering an online "booty plan" is probably not who you should take on as a coach. Don't take anything you see for fact. Do your own homework. There are a lot of knowledgeable people out there but there are also a lot of frauds. Scrolling through Instagram and tapping the heart button might feel mindless but we absorb a lot more content than we realize.

Fitness accounts are a great way to track your goals, evaluate progress, and be a part of a community. While its great to take inspiration from these pages, or even have your own, its important to weed out negativity (and in some cases, ignorance) you don't need in your life. As a rule of thumb, if you can't see yourself getting along with a person in real life, you're not gaining any value from their page, and you don't like their pictures anyways—unfollow.