A disturbing trend dubbed “SkinnyTok” is racking up millions of views across TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and YouTube, pushing extreme weight loss tactics, restrictive eating, and toxic “discipline” as the path to happiness — or at least thinness. And it’s sending vulnerable users down a dangerous spiral , experts and survivors warn. “I know that if I had seen that [advice] when I was younger, I would have thought I needed it, too,” Phaith Montoya, a body-positive influencer and eating disorder survivor told TODAY.
com. At first glance, TikTok appears to discourage the trend. Searching “SkinnyTok” prompts a message: “You are more than your weight,” along with links to eating disorder resources.
But scroll further and the platform serves up endless videos promoting dangerous “motivation”: skip meals, chug coffee to curb hunger, celebrate calorie deficits. Some slogans read like parodies of self-harm: “If your stomach is growling, pretend it’s applauding you.” “To be small, eat small.
To be big, eat big.” “You don’t need a treat. You’re not a dog.
” It’s triggering major medical red flags, according to internal medicine specialist Dr. Asim Cheema, who flagged the trend to Forbes — including glorifying starvation and reducing food to a soulless utility. Experts say it’s a rebrand of early-2000s “pro-ana” (pro-anorexia) communities — now with a Gen Z gloss.
“This mindset dismisses the complex realities of genetics, mental hea.
