Fitness influencer and personal trainer Alice Liveing has spoken candidly about the toxic spiral she experienced while promoting 'clean eating' and intense workout regimes to her hundreds of thousands of followers.
The Dangerous Pursuit of a Smaller Body
In a revealing interview on the Well Enough podcast with host Emilie Lavinia, Liveing explained how she initially believed that shrinking her body was the key to a better life. "When I first started my fitness journey, I thought, 'life will be better if my body is smaller'," she confessed. The praise she received as her body changed only reinforced this harmful mindset, leading her down a path of restrictive eating and overtraining without recognising the damage.
Her background in dance led her to strength training, which she initially found empowering. However, this passion evolved into a career as a content creator during an era where, she says, social media was a "one homogenous fitness space" obsessed with weight loss. The nuanced conversations about strength or mental wellbeing that exist today were absent.
The Unravelling of 'Perfect' Health
Despite projecting an image of peak fitness online, Liveing's health was crumbling. She revealed she lost her regular menstrual cycle, suffered constant fatigue, and experienced terrible mood swings. This forced a painful reckoning. "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?" she recalled.
Acknowledging she had misled her followers was a difficult step. "To then sort of go, 'actually guys, I got it wrong' – that was a hard moment," Liveing told the podcast, which was released on Wednesday 07 January 2026.
Moving Beyond Metrics and Instant Results
Fitness expert Shakira Akabusi, who also featured on the episode, criticised the modern obsession with fast results and metrics, which undermines genuine wellbeing. "Everyone wants something instant: eight-week abs, quick recoveries. But real health takes time," Akabusi said. She urged people to move away from a fixation on scales and numbers, noting that gaining muscle could increase your weight without meaning failure.
Both guests explored how social media shapes attitudes, the role of athletes, and the rise of weight-loss drugs. Liveing, now known for her honesty, posed a crucial question: "Is it thinness above all else, or are we actually helping people to be healthier? And what does health really mean?"
The episode is available to stream now. Well Enough is available wherever you get your podcasts.
