Liv Schmidt has over 600,000 followers on TikTok. Meanwhile, she has built her entire platform off of trying to normalize unhealthy eating behaviors and promoting fatphobia.
It's unclear when Schmidt first arrived on the TikTok scene, but her account started gaining traction this summer, mainly because concerned users began sounding the alarm on her content. Initially, when I went to her account to see what all the discourse was about, I genuinely thought her account was supposed to be a satire account. As I scrolled through long sit-down videos where she gushes about having a "skinny mindset" and the numerous "What I Eat in a Day" videos where she highlights the minuscule portions she eats to "stay skinny while working a 9 - 5," I thought, surely, this woman couldn't actually be serious.
As I kept scrolling, though, I realized she was very serious.
What's going on with Liv Schmidt?
Recently, numerous TikTok videos and Reddit threads have arisen expressing concern over Schmidt's content, which some go as far as to say is "ana content" or pro-anorexia content. To be clear, I don't think it's right to diagnose a stranger with any type of ED. So, the only thing I will diagnose Schmidt with is a severe case of fatphobia.
Essentially, Schmidt's entire platform and personality are centered around being skinny. Her numerous defenders argue that everyone is "shaming" her for just trying to be healthy. However, it's important to remember that she herself has never once claimed what she is doing to be healthy. She never uses the words "healthy," "fit," or "balanced diet" because that's not what her content is about. Her content is always specifically "how to be skinny" or "how to stay skinny." Naturally, her tips on being "skinny" rather than "healthy" are controversial.
Her belief is that people should restrict their eating for the entirety of their lives. That way, what they're doing isn't a "diet" but a lifestyle. So, in the videos about her daily life, she adamantly denies that she's on a diet or counting calories because it's just how she lives.
Meanwhile, one of her biggest things is the "skinny mindset." Essentially, she tells viewers that they need to maintain a skinny mindset by realizing that America normalizes overconsumption, and so they need to condition themselves to avoid overconsumption by never finishing their plate of food, resisting the urge to eat their last few bites of any meal, never eating if they're not hungry, and sharing meals. She also frequently partakes in fear-mongering, trying to raise hysteria that food is meant to be addicting and that her followers need to treat food as an addictive substance.
In one video, she talks about how people must resist the urge to eat at night. She suggests that her followers take supplements for sleep so that they pass out before giving in to their hunger for the night instead of eating.
In addition to saying that sharing meals is "sexy," Schmidt is known for the infamous "What I eat in a day to stay skinny" videos. Usually, her daily diet consists of a protein shake and flavored water for breakfast, half a protein bar or a salad for lunch, and half a piece of salmon or half a portion of plain chicken breast for dinner. When she has a "sweet treat," it will usually be a paper-thin slice of cake or one or two "bites" of a cupcake.
Schmidt has also claimed that she restricts her eating so severely because she works an office job and chooses to eat in moderation instead of exercising. However, she sometimes includes her daily steps in her "What I eat in a day" videos. The video where she eats half an ounce of plain chicken for dinner lists her steps as 26,000, meaning she walked or ran close to a half marathon that day. She often posts about her "hot girl" walks or hikes where she walks 6+ miles. So, Schmidt does strenuous or moderate daily exercise but never once talks about fueling properly on days when she walks a half-marathon.
The tell-tale sign that she is a raging fatphobe is that she tries to present the idea that thin people are the only people who are ever shamed for their eating habits or bodies. In her videos, she often tries to garner pity by claiming that there's a "stigma" around weight loss or that she gets shamed for sharing meals, eating less, or trying to be health-conscious. Meanwhile, she peddles the typical fatphobic lie that America glamorizes obesity and over-eating. She knows this is a lie and that the body positivity movement simply wants girls and women to be able to live their lives without being called fat and having their bodies studied, talked about, and scrutinized from age five upward. However, she doesn't want this tiny bit of progress in preventing women and girls from literally dying to be thin, so she lies that people of average or heavy weight are praised, whereas thin people like her are shamed and oppressed.
To be clear, body shaming happens to people of all body sizes. However, it's well-known that being thin comes with a lot of privilege in America and that the country as a whole glamorizes thinness. Any woman who has embarked on a weight loss journey knows how differently heavy people are treated compared to thin people. Many women talk about how, only after losing weight did they experience, for the first time in their lives, being treated like a human being. Often, fat shaming isn't even directed at people who are overweight. Women and girls who are perfectly healthy, live active lifestyles, and eat in moderation are shamed merely for the fact that they're not underweight.
Meanwhile, Schmidt is one of those fat-shamers, posting videos gleefully talking about how she'd rather be called "a bone" than be called "thick" or told that she has a big ass, even though the latter two are often compliments to curvy women.
Then, she turns around, seeking pity, and tells everyone that she's the real victim and that thin people are discriminated against, while, apparently, the millions and millions of women and girls who are too afraid to post pictures of themselves or go out in public for fear of being called fat don't exist.
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