Hunter McGrady.Photo: Paras Griffin/Getty Images
Model Hunter McGradyis calling out a keto account on Instagram — and diet culture in general — after they incorrectly used a photo of her as a “before” weight loss picture.
The keto weight loss account took the photo andshared it on their page, claiming that the image shows a “transformation together,” and added that “they looks[sp] great after her self-transformation efforts.”
On Thursday, McGrady posted the photo and said that this is not the first time she’s been used as a “before” photo.
Hunter McGrady.Hunter McGrady/Instagram
“A dark side of diet culture that so many fall for,“theSports IllustratedSwimsuit model, 27, wrote in her Instagram Story. “This photo has been circulating a ton of keto diet weight loss [accounts] claiming to be the before and after effects of joining the keto diet. These Instagram accounts have thousands of followers who look to them each day and believe what they are seeing. They believe it to be true that if you do this you’ll look like that.”
McGrady said that this is an example of how companies have pushed people into thinking they need to lose weight.
“This is the very crux of the detrimental, destructive diet culture that has taken over society in the most disgusting way,” she said. “It controls us, everything we see is an ad telling us ways to change ourselves. They profit and make billions off of you hating the way you look. I’ve had photos of me other than this one loom around various diet accounts before so I am no stranger to this, but for someone who does not know, this is incredibly dangerous.”
TheAll Worthy designer— who spent her teen yearsforcing her body to stay at 114 lbs. before learning to love her curves— said she doesn’t want younger people to see posts like this one and think that they need to lose weight.
“It worries me that younger and younger our youth has access to things like Instagram, TikTok, etc. Places where you are constantly being fed lies that you need to change in order to be accepted,” McGrady said. “This is why representation is so important. We must see the people we walk with every day of our lives. We must make a space for everyone.”
McGrady added: “My body is not a before picture. My body is not an after picture. My body is not wrong.”
source: people.com
