Alice Liveing on the dark side of online fitness culture: ‘I thought life would be better if my body was smaller’

In her book Give Me Strength, personal trainer and influencer Alice Liveing reflects on the darkest moments of her career – from severe restrictive eating to overtraining her body. With more than half a million Instagram followers, Liveing pulls back the curtain on what happens when curating a “perfect” digital lifestyle turns toxic.

Speaking on the Well Enough podcast, Liveing told host Emilie Lavinia that she easily fell into the trap of believing life would improve if her body was smaller.

“When I first started my fitness journey, I thought, ‘life will be better if my body is smaller’,” she said. “My body shrunk, I got loads of praise, and I took it all on board. I carried on without realising that what I was doing wasn’t healthy.”

Her background as a dancer led her to strength training, which initially felt like a revelation. “It was incredible,” she said. “Becoming stronger felt like a glorious challenge and a good way to support a healthy body.” That experience evolved into a career as a personal trainer and, eventually, a content creator.

Back then, she said, social media was “one homogenous fitness space” centred on weight loss. “Predominantly, everyone had the number one goal: you exercised to lose weight,” she explained. “There wasn’t the nuance that we have now, where you exercise to be strong or for your mind – those conversations just weren’t happening.”

Over time, the image of perfect health she projected online began to unravel.

“I thought I was at my peak health, but I wasn’t having a regular menstrual cycle. I was fatigued all the time. I had terrible mood swings,” she recalled. “I had to ask myself: is what I’m doing genuinely healthy, or am I just striving for this body ideal at the cost of everything else?”

Acknowledging that she had misled followers was a difficult step. “To then sort of go, ‘actually guys, I got it wrong’ – that was a hard moment.”

Liveing has since become known for her honesty, challenging “body goals” and unsustainable fitness trends. Yet, she remains an outlier in a space that continues to reward aesthetic perfection.

Fitness expert Shakira Akabusi, who joined Liveing on the podcast, said social media can make health seem one-size-fits-all. “Whether we like the term ‘fitness influencer’ or not, the most important thing is to share knowledge with the understanding that health is unique to the individual,” she said. “Whatever training or food plan you follow might not work for someone else – and that’s where it becomes tricky.”

She added that the modern obsession with fast results undermines genuine wellbeing. “Everyone wants something instant: eight-week abs, quick recoveries. But real health takes time. We’ve lost the ability to feel our health – we’re relying on numbers,” she said.

Akabusi encouraged listeners to move away from metrics. “If you lose fat and gain muscle, the number on the scale could go up. That doesn’t mean you’re failing. We need to take away this fixation on hitting numbers,” she said. “Enjoying fitness has really gone – it’s become a chore. The body was built to move; we need to make it part of our lives again.”

The episode also explored how social media shapes attitudes to wellbeing, the role of athletes as role models, and how to begin a fitness journey from scratch. Both guests weighed in on the rise of weight-loss drugs and the link between exercise and mental health.

“What are we doing here?” Liveing asked. “Is it thinness above all else, or are we actually helping people to be healthier? And what does health really mean?”

Listen to the episode here and watch the full episode on YouTube. Well Enough is available wherever you get your podcasts.

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