For decades, women have heard about the mythical “summer body” — toned arms, ripped abs, no cellulite. Some people also call this narrow goal “bathing suit ready,” or talk about having a “beach body.” In the months leading up to the highly anticipated season, the pressure to fit this arbitrary mold, whether through gym advertisements and or the latest diet fad, felt enormous. Getting in shape was a prerequisite to enjoying warm weather or going on vacation — or else risk being body-shamed.
The 2010s saw brands and the media challenge this expectation, from body-positive ad campaigns to Sports Illustrated’s swimwear issue. More recently, though, it feels like that messaging has gotten lost in our current fitness and wellness boom, aided by the introduction of GLP-1 drugs that encourage weight loss, like Ozempic and WeGovy. Nowadays, being fit isn’t relegated to a few months of the year.
From viral challenges like 75 Hard to workout methods like “4-2-1,” social media is cluttered with routines and time-efficient hacks to lose weight throughout the year, with a new trend going viral seemingly every month. Even during the cold months, we’re encouraged to do some productive version of hibernating, preparing our bodies to be seen in the warmer seasons. Plus, since the pandemic, fitness has just become a larger part of social life. From running clubs to Pilates classes, health and wellness have become opportunities to make connections and hang out with friends. Social media is evermore flooded with wellness content, including the Make America Healthy Again movement, which isn’t only focused on weight loss but has certainly changed discussions about health. That’s not to mention weight-loss hacks disguised in wellness language, such as “gut cleanses” and “detoxes.”
Either way, the message around bodies right now is clear: We should be fine-tuning our appearance at all times.
Overall, it seems like “summer” or “beach bodies” have just become year-round bodies, with no endpoint in sight. For many, the deluge of workout routines has sparked fatigue. Has the pressure to get in shape for the summer decreased, or have we just replaced it with something more toxic?
We’re told to be constantly working on our bodies
For a long time, losing weight has felt cyclical, with many Americans exercising and dieting on the same schedule. Spring is known to be a peak time for gym attendance, while the summer months tend to be slower. We’re similarly lax about working out or even caring what our bodies look like during the winter months when people are staying indoors or traveling for the holidays. In January, we flock to the gym again, with many making fitness goals a New Year’s resolution.
Nowadays, experts and gym-goers say this rhythm has changed. The gym is always packed. Pilates classes are fully booked. TikTok is constantly introducing a new way to get in shape, whether at home or at the gym. Even hanging out with friends or meeting new people nowadays often involves breaking a sweat.
“The gym is definitely always crowded,” says Bobby McMullen, trainer and founder of the fitness app Adonis. “Peak times don’t just go down when the weather starts to get warm. People are definitely integrating fitness into their daily social lives.”
McMullen says we have become more “hyper-aware of the year-long importance of gym” following the Covid-19 pandemic when people across the globe were reported to be exercising more. “We were working out year-round for two years, essentially,” McMullen says.
Researchers have found that these increased fitness habits are largely driven by Gen Z, a cohort formatively shaped by the pandemic. A 2023 study for McKinsey & Company found that 56% of Gen Z consumers say that fitness is a “very high priority” for them, compared to 40% of US consumers overall. Possible causes include Gen Z’s increased exposure at an early age to fitness trends and other health-related content on social media.
“TikTok has made diet culture more pervasive and personal,” says Isabel Krug, associate professor in clinical psychology at the University of Melbourne. “Trends like what I eat in a day, gut health cleanses, or glow-up routines are endlessly repeated and algorithmically reinforced. There are also event-based trends like shredding for the wedding or bikini countdown that are often tied to programs sold by personal trainers or apps.”
Additionally, Krug says that the rise of GLP-1s, like Ozempic and Mounjaro, for weight loss have only added to this endless pursuit of thinness. The accessibility of these drugs has been a miracle for some, giving people with prediabetes or a certain BMI an easier route to weight loss. But for people who can’t afford these medications or have poor reactions to them, their popularity only adds to a feeling of exclusion. According to Krug, these drugs have “raised expectations and lowered the threshold for what people think they should be able to achieve with their bodies.”
“If weight loss is now one injection away, what’s the excuse for not being thin?” she says.
Summer is still a bad time for body image
Still, these year-round efforts to get thinner haven’t exactly made approaching the hottest season any easier. Krug has found that summer is still a peak time for body-image issues. In the 2021 study titled, “Beach Body Ready? Shredding for Summer? A First Look at ‘Seasonal Body Image,’” Krug and other researchers reported that body dissatisfaction increases significantly in the months before the summer, specifically for young women.
“We found that participants consistently reported lower satisfaction with their appearance, a stronger drive for thinness, and increased engagement in appearance-related social comparisons during this seasonal period,” Krug told Vox.
While year-round pressures might have changed, the particular stressors of June, July, and August have not. “Summer means more visible bodies, and that visibility often brings with it a sense of judgment,” says Krug. “People anticipate being evaluated against narrow beauty ideals that center on being toned, tanned, and effortlessly attractive.”
Aside from wearing less clothing, people also anticipate being in more social settings, particularly big events where they plan to be photographed. For instance, Beyoncé fans have posted videos on TikTok of themselves working out in order to fit into their themed outfits for her Cowboy Carter Tour. The summer is also a peak time for weddings, hence fitness plans like “shredding for the wedding.”
Kelsey Ellis, a body-positive fitness trainer, says the fashion industry has historically played a role in ingraining these seasonal insecurities by “using thin models in swimwear ads and gifting products to straight-sized influencers.”
The 2010s offered some respite from these toxic narratives. The body positivity movement made some strides in challenging this expectation. The phrase “every body is a beach body” became a popular retort, while an increasing number of clothing lines make swimwear, including bikinis, for plus-size bodies. Ellis says that, even as more brands have backed off from the summer-body narrative,” it’s become harder to avoid individuals on TikTok promoting the same message.
“The pressure hasn’t disappeared,” Ellis says. “It’s just become more subtle and user-generated. Most of the harmful messaging I see is coming from influencers, fitness creators, and regular people online, especially with the rise of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and hashtags like #skinnytok.”
It’s strange to look back on the body-negative messaging of the past with any sort of fondness. At the very least, though, the notion of the “summer body” had a concrete goal with a clear endpoint, allowing ourselves a chance to rest. Now, our bodies have become never-ending projects with no marker of completion. It’s far from the ideal version of an endless summer.
