Exploratory study based on a qualitative and cross-sectional design.

Participants

Fifteen female undergraduate students in the age group 18 years or older, enrolled in a Brazilian public university, who are also Brazilian fitness Instagram followers, participated in the study. Participants were between 20 and 32 years old, most of them were enrolled in the Engineering course (12), and the remaining ones were enrolled in Physical Therapy (1), Biomedicine (1) and Nursing (1). Nutrition and Physical Education students were excluded from the research, since these courses are directly linked to body and eating habits and their students are constantly pressured by society to have an ideal body and to adopt healthy eating habits (^{Lemos et al., 2018}). Such social pressure could directly affect their body satisfaction. Only young females were evaluated, because the literature points out that they remain the most vulnerable group to media influence and body image satisfaction (^{Leahey et al., 2007}).

The sample size was defined based on the data saturation criterion (^{Denzin & Lincoln, 1994}). Prospects were dismissed after data collection, when interviews started to present redundancies and repetitions.

Material

The script of a semi-structured interview (Table 1) was developed for the present research. The interview encompassed questions about participants’ perspectives about the ideal female body, the motivations to become a fitness Instagrams follower, repercussions of these Instagram profiles on body self-image satisfaction and perception. Three pilot studies were carried out with participants who had the potential to assess whether the questions fit the study or not.

Procedure

Participants were recruited in the contact lists of researchers' social networks through the snowball sampling technique (^{Vinuto, 2014}). Volunteers were informed about the aims and procedures of the study. After signing the informed consent form (ICF), they were interviewed in private places to assure confidentiality of information and emotional stability. All interviews were recorded and later entirely and literally transcribed to compose the analytical corpus of the study. The first author conducted the interviews, she attended classes about the use of interviews in qualitative research and was prepared by the other coauthors to follow the data collection procedure. Therefore, the research team considered the first researcher prepared and competent for the task. In order to assure the quality of the collected data, the pilot interviews were heard by the other authors, who have discussed and reflected about them. Participants did not get any payment or compensation to their participation in the study.

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Federal University of Triangulo Mineiro (UFTM, opinion n. 2,288,882).

Data Analysis

Interview analyses were based on the content analysis by ^{Bardin (2011}) and on the thematic analysis technique, which comprised the following steps: pre-analysis, investigation of materials, data processing and interpretation. All interviews were thoroughly read ("exploratory data analysis") by the first author in order to assure her familiarization and immersion in the collected data, since it would allow the first impressions and hypotheses related to the topic to rise. After this stage, the first author manually codified the whole set of data. These codes described the common features among data. Subsequently, these codes were grouped in thematic axes that were later defined. This organization provided a simplified representation of gross data in order to enable the understanding about the speeches in the interview. The first author worked together with the last author, who is experienced in conducting, collaborating and supervising qualitative research. The authors met often to discuss about the codification of themes and sub-themes. This discussion included the references and next steps in interview transcription in order to make sure that the analysis would remain substantiated and justified by data, and that, therefore, it would be reliable and plausible (^{Tracy, 2010}). Next, messages showing common features were grouped into categories based on the organized content. The theoretical references by Social Representations (SR) (^{Jodelet, 1994}), as well as the scientific literature in this field, were used to substantiate the discussion and interpret the results. The theory of social representations understands body studies as relevant due to the role played by SR in elaborating collective ways to see, and experience, the body. Such process lies on spreading concepts and behavior models associated with these body experiences and on determining different ways to feel and interact with one's own body (^{Jodelet, 1994}). It is possible greatly identifying the senses and values about the body in Instagram, since the interactions among individuals in this social network provide the means to determine a pre-coded system of reality that also sets a group of ideas and behaviors (^{Camargo et al., 2011}). Therefore, the theoretical framework of SR allows the body to be understood as a representational object, which carries with it several effects in the way people see each other, how they see themselves and how they relate to the world around them.

Thematic axes 1: “A feminine, well-defined and unmanly body”: the contemporary ideal of female body shape

Besides being a natural organism, the body is also made out of social and individual portrayals (^{Maroun & Vieira, 2008}), since body images are heavily addressed by the media; therefore, body portrayals are constantly built, rebuilt and reproduced. Transformations seem to be mostly made to one's appearance in order to achieve the desired body shape, but the search for the current ideal body shape does not change (^{Siqueira & Faria, 2007}).

The word "standard" refers to the idea of uniformity, but it becomes a very subjective concept within the beauty context. Physical beauty standards turn out to be a set of features that a body must possess to be regarded as "beautiful" by society (^{Freitas et al., 2010}). For that matter, women believe that by having this body shape they will be able to achieve all the qualities attached to it, even if these qualities are also a social construct (^{Ogden, 1999}). As a result, they feel encouraged to change their appearance according to the people they admire. This body transformation consequently reflects the lookout for a sense of belonging to a certain society (^{Alves & Lucchese-Cheung, 2013}).

Each culture has its own beauty standards, which may, or not, express themselves in a similar way. The present study points out the contemporary Brazilian ideal of female body shape: a well-toned body, with fat-free belly and bulky legs, thighs and breasts that should, nevertheless, remain delicate and feminine, and lack manly features.

It is worth mentioning that this body standard has not always been the same. In the 1920s, women who practiced demanding physical exercises - that made the body sweat and were practiced by the male gender - were not well looked upon. Instead, classical ballet was the appropriate activity for women (^{Nechar, 2015}). Deep changes have taken place in the last century; today, women embody the role of real-life disciplined and independent "warriors", and this new standard has influenced the change from a lean body to a muscular one and helped women overcome the fragile body stigma (^{Nechar, 2015}). However, the idea that women could "aesthetically" relate to men has caused some discomfort in society, since people shape their actions according to what their culture "dictates" as "normal" and “acceptable” within their social environment (^{Nechar, 2015}). Women usually choose to maintain a well-defined and unmanly body, and the current body standard arose from it.

Today, the lean and delicately toned body is considered the only way to achieve beauty; therefore, every effort to maintain it is valid, andt this mindset has led to the hegemony of this body standard (^{Paixão & Lopes, 2014}). However, the restraint to the lean body's central reference does not encompass the body diversity coexisting in the contemporary world (^{Santos, 2008}). This process can have negative effects on women's lives, given the idea that by achieving the ideal body type, one will also achieve all the attributes associated with it, such as happiness, success, power and health (^{Lima et al. 2013}; ^{Ogden, 1999}). Accordingly, it should be noticed that even thin women are not free from feeling self-conscious about their own bodies, since the current portrayal of ideal female body includes not only thinness, but extra attributes such as visible and well-toned muscles (^{Silva et al., 2018}).

Thematic axes 2: “It all begins with great motivation and ends up in frustration”: the demotivating motivation

Human motivation comes from a psychological process closely linked to one's drive or tendency to persistently perform certain behaviors (^{Nakamura, 2005}). The present study reveals that women seek motivation to reach the ideal body standard through the fitness Instagram profiles they follow, which stirs in them the desire to change their body. Although this motivation may seem positive at first, it eventually turns into bodily self-consciousness; followers are unable to recognize themselves when they compare their bodies to the ones on the fitness Instagram profiles. Consequently, they oftentimes feel inferior and frustrated (^{Brown & Tiggemann, 2016}).

Nevertheless, the motivation that triggers fitness-profiles following has been losing strength, for the body type and the daily routine displayed by such profiles are very distant from the reality of most women's bodies (^{Carreteiro, 2005}). This detachment also triggers negative feelings such as sense of incapacity and lack of commitment and dedication. It happens because the ideal body is sold as something simple and easy to achieve, which exclusively depends on willpower and individual commitment, that can be achieved just by doing "everything right" just as fitness bloggers do. Thus, there is a built-up and widespread idea that current physical beauty standards are within the reach of every woman - a very shallow approach to such a complex issue (^{Lima et al., 2013}).

Thematic axes 3: “You end up wishing you had her body”: Impacts on body self-image perception and satisfaction

Body perception can be defined as a self-concept representation about the way people judge their own size, shape and weight, as well as the way they suffer under the influence of social and cultural aspects (^{Macedo et al., 2015}). Changes in body perception can lead to body self-image dissatisfaction - a discomfort experienced by someone about the aspects of their appearance (^{Slade, 1994}). Participants testimonials have revealed that the exposure to daily "dream body" photos on fitness Instagram profile have negative effects on followers' satisfaction and perception about their own body image.

People commonly distort and relativize their perception about what a normal body should look like. Due to the dissemination on social networks of bodies that are increasingly leaner, shapely and distant from real bodies. Such distorted view makes "normal" bodies to be considered overweight and deviations from normality (^{Silva et al., 2018}). People who are often in contact with this kind of Instagram profile come to believe that this body standard is the only way to achieve acceptable beauty. The inability to achieve bodies like the ones they are exposed to is a cause for dissatisfaction, frustration and guilt (^{Silva et al., 2018}).

The relationship between exposure to media and body dissatisfaction seems to be mediated by social comparisons, mainly by appearance comparisons. Negative body image may result from self-comparisons to other people (^{Festinger, 1954}). Studies supporting this theory show that the tendency of comparing oneself to other people alters individuals' satisfaction and perception about their bodies, mainly when the comparison is made to the bodies of celebrities, fitness models and bloggers - the greater the appearance comparisons, the greater the body dissatisfaction (^{Brown & Tiggemann, 2016}; ^{Eckler et al., 2017}). The reason for these impacts lies on the central evaluative dimension that physical appearance makes up for most women in our society. Even though there are discrepancies between most women's bodies and the body considered ideal, this fact does not prevent women from accepting and internalizing this ideal; therefore, this process ends up producing negative emotional and behavioral consequences (^{Ferreira et al., 2011}).

Accordingly, fitness Instagram profiles define certain beauty models embodied by society as a standard to be followed. This beauty standardization process inevitably causes people to lose part of their identity, since the search for body re(construction) rules out diversity possibilities. In addition, the worship of beauty works as a discrimination mechanism and as a nullification of subjectivity, since it imposes that everyone should be equal and have equal bodies (^{Silva et al., 2018}).

In conclusion, our study showed that the body is seen as something that can be molded and the subject is considered solely responsible for the presentation of his physical appearance, just effort, dedication and discipline. In this perspective, the Brazilian fitness profiles modeled a new ideal female body pattern: thin, with delicate and visible muscles, without becoming masculine. This pattern induces women to seek the perfect body as a source of motivation, although such a struggle can produce feelings of failure, lack of control and commitment, which can lead to frustration and increase body dissatisfaction. In a sense, the social representations of the body impose behaviors that must be incorporated into and on the body, so that all its subjectivities are disregarded to the detriment of what is socially valued.