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Kelsey Wells warns against 'toxic' fitness transformation hoax
Fitness instructor Kelsey Wells has warned fans against fake accounts using her fitness transformation to promote fake diets and tips, saying she has no association with the accounts and is working to take them down.
Part of Kayla Itsines' Sweat fitness app Kelsey famously transformed her fitness between the ages of 24 and 30 but stayed a similar weight, with a famous snap showing her at ages 24 and 30, weighing almost exactly the same but looking vastly different.
Now, however, she says fraudulent accounts are taking her snaps are using them to promote their own fitness tricks and weight loss, though as her snap shows her imperative is not weight loss, rather a healthy body.
"I have been made repeatedly aware that this photo is currently being posted across dozens of Instagram accounts to promote things that I have personally NEVER used, and explicitly DO NOT ENDORSE," Kelsey wrote on the photo.
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"Dishonesty and scams are unfortunately common online and something I am no stranger to falling victim to. I have never paid mind or spoken publicly about this because the choices of others are out of my control."
Kelsey went on to say it was repeated messages from confused followers that prompted her to finally speak out.
"These fraudulent accounts are not only taking your money, they are using my photos to further the very messages and harmful toxic dialogues that I worked tirelessly for years to shed and heal from myself, and now base my entire career on helping YOU detach from," she wrote.
"I know bringing attention to this will not fix or stop the problem. My intent is simply to bring this post home and back to the positive messaging and truth that I created it to carry."
She then listed the principles and facts that she champions.
"My body composition shift in these photos took YEARS, not weeks or months," she commenced.
"I HAVE NEVER used skinny teas, waist trainers, the keto diet, or diet pills and I WOULD NEVER endorse them. Please hear me when I say these things are unnecessary at best and can be dangerous and harmful at worst.
"BE CAUTIOUS with what you see online. Much of it is not real. NEVER buy into a “quick fix” diet product— RECLAIM fitness for yourself and use it as a tool to help you understand that you do not need a quick fix, because your body is not broken.
"MOST IMPORTANTLY: The difference that matters most between these photos is not visual."
She then added a touching and important message to her followers, that it's the mental shift above all that matters.
"I was UNHEALTHY mentally, emotionally, and physically and therefore I failed to see my beautiful body and myself accurately," she wrote. "Utilizing fitness as my primary tool for self-empowerment resulted in simultaneous physical and mental transformations, but let me be clear— MY HEALTH, HAPPINESS, CONFIDENCE, AND SELF-LOVE are the REAL transformation here, and those things are not predicated upon aesthetics. That is not how it works."
The powerful post had plenty of her followers flooding the comment with praise.
"Besides [the] physical change, the confidence shift is written all over your face!!" a fan wrote. "The one to the left is insecure, young, the one to the right is 'I’ve got this!!!'"
"This is why I follow you and use SWEAT- you are HONEST, no BS, real, and state it starts with a healthy mind and internal!" another wrote.
"Coming from someone who has used skinny teas and 2-3 shakes a day, I agree with you Kelsey- unnecessary at best, and for me, toxic to my well-being," another agreed.
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