An influencer who was banned from TikTok for sharing controversial weight loss advice has responded after her content was labelled “dangerous” and “harmful”.
Liv Schmidt has recently gained a following of almost 700,000 people through her videos, which experts and dietitians have described as an “unhealthy dedication to being thin.”
Critics argued that Schmidt was promoting disordered eating by stressing that “staying thin is important” — and demanded that the 22-year-old corporate employee's content be taken down.
TikTok Action has since been taken, with her account being shut down and her being said to have violated community guidelines with her “disordered food” posts.
Though the move was applauded by many, Schmidt, who lives in New York, stopped short of defending her controversial advice following widespread outrage.
“For me and my personal aesthetic, I like being skinny and there's nothing wrong with that,” she claimed in an interview. The Wall Street Journal,
“Weight is a sensitive subject, but it's what the audience wants.”
He also claimed that his desire to “save America from obesity one person at a time” — as hinted at in his now-deleted TikTok bio, according to the WSJ — stems from his personal struggle to feel confident in his own body.
“I'm trying to build a real thing,” she told the publication, adding that she was “confused and upset” by the decision and said she felt “misunderstood.”
Although her critics argued that Schmidt's “what I eat in a day” TikTok videos – which linked to a curated Amazon storefront filled with dietary supplements, ankle weights, and protein powder, and a “Skinny Group community chat” whose membership fee is $9.99 a month – were “incredibly harmful”, some labeled the account “sick”.
“Not a day goes by that I don't thank God I didn't download TikTok until I was 20,” one person wrote. reddit,
“I want better for our youth. Young girls have been and will continue to die because of this type of crap being sold on the internet,” another shared.
As another wrote: “It's appalling for a 'regular' influencer to post food like this and pretend it's normal, especially because there's a huge population of girls on TikTok who are too young to understand that it's not okay to eat like this.”
Australian Government Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) says that food provides energy, nutrients and other components that, if available in insufficient or excess quantities, can lead to poor health.
The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend Australians eat a variety of nutritious foods from the 5 food groups every day, including plenty of vegetables, fruit, grain foods (mostly wholegrain), lean meat and poultry as well as dairy. Drinking plenty of water is also important for good health.