The effect of social media addiction and social physique anxiety on healthy eating attitudes and eating behavior in individuals who exercise

Today, individuals who exercise are increasingly exposed to idealized body images shared on social media, and this can directly affect social physical anxiety, dietary attitudes, and eating behaviors. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the effects of social media addiction and social body image concerns on healthy eating attitudes and eating behaviors and to reveal whether these relationships differ according to gender. The study involved 151 volunteers (88 women, 63 men) aged 25-50 who had been exercising regularly for at least 2 days a week for 1-2 hours over the past 3 months in Turkey between March and June 2025. Of the participants, 49% engage in strength training, 34.4% in flexibility training, and 16.6% in aerobic training. Furthermore, the most frequently used social media platforms among participants were Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, respectively, with an average daily social media usage time of 2.56 hours. Data were collected using the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale, Social Physical Anxiety Inventory, Attitudes Toward Healthy Eating Scale, and Adult Eating Behavior Scale. The social media usage times for women and men (2.66±1.01 and 2.42±1.07 hours, respectively) were found to be similar. While the rate of men doing fitness activities (%76.2) was higher than that of women (%49), women preferred pilates and yoga more (respectively: %34.4 and %7.9). It showed a positive and moderate relationship between individuals' social media addiction and social physical anxiety (r=.40). Furthermore, social physical anxiety, along with healthy eating attitudes (r=.44), showed significant and positive relationships with eating behaviors, particularly hunger (r=-0.20), satiety (r=-0.23), and emotional overeating (r=-0.17), and negative relationships with the enjoyment of eating (r=.43) subdimension. Healthy eating attitudes were found to be associated with the hunger (r = -0.23) and eating enjoyment (r = 0.36) dimensions, while social media addiction was more closely related to the emotional component of attitudes toward eating (r = 0.40). No difference was observed in average scores based on gender, but the "ideal" nutrition attitude was more pronounced among women (p=.03).