Influencer banned from TikTok for ‘dangerous’ weight loss tips

An influencer who was banned from TikTok for sharing controversial weight loss tips has hit back after her content was labelled “dangerous” and “harmful”.

Liv Schmidt has recently amassed a following of nearly 700,000 people with her videos, which experts and nutritionists describe as an “unhealthy devotion to being thin.”

Critics accused Schmidt of glorifying eating disorders by emphasizing that “it is important to stay slim” – and demanded that the 22-year-old company employee’s content be removed.

TikTok has since taken action, closed her account and stated that her posts on the topic of “eating disorders” violated the community guidelines.

While many welcomed the move, New York-based Schmidt quickly defended her controversial advice after it sparked widespread outrage.

“For me and my personal aesthetic, I like being thin and there is nothing wrong with that,” she explained in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

“Weight is a sensitive issue, but viewers want it.”

She also claimed that her desire to “save America from obesity one person at a time” – as her now-deleted TikTok bio states, according to the WSJ – stems from her own personal struggles with feeling comfortable in her body.

“I'm trying to build something authentic,” she told the publication, which reported she was “confused and upset” by the decision and said she felt “misunderstood.”

However, her critics argued that Schmidt's “What I Eat in a Day” TikTok videos – which linked to a curated Amazon store selling supplements, ankle weights and protein powders, as well as a “skinny group community chat” with a $9.99-per-month subscription fee – were “incredibly harmful,” with some calling the account “disgusting.”

“Not a day goes by that I don't thank God I didn't download TikTok until I was in my 20s,” one person shared on Reddit.

“I want our youth to be better off. Young girls are and will continue to die because of this crap being spread on the internet,” another shared.

Another wrote: “It's deeply creepy when a 'normal' influencer posts food like this and acts like it's normal. ESPECIALLY because there are so many girls on TikTok who are too young to understand that it's not okay to eat like this.”

According to the Australian Government Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), food contains energy, nutrients and other components, the intake of which in inadequate or excessive amounts can lead to health problems.

The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend that Australians eat a wide variety of nutritious foods from the five food groups every day, including plenty of vegetables, fruit, grain products (mostly wholegrains), lean meat and poultry, and dairy products. Drinking plenty of water is also important for good health.