Hey Bold Babes! it’s transformation Tuesday! And, guess what that means… No, literally… guess. Because, we are very confused. We read this post a few weeks ago about Carrie Underwood making a transformation on MSN. You can find it 
It seems as though, in a good majority of the later photos, Underwood’s arms are thinner. Is that transformation significant? The weight loss? We really don’t know. But, we did a quick search on Instagram for #transformationtuesday (from 4 different accounts: a personal one, our body positive one, a food blog, and a marketing brand) and found some interesting results. Please keep in mind that all of these results are biased based on what we tend to search for. And, the reason we used different accounts is because we wanted to see if results vary, which they did, but only slightly. We recorded and analyzed both “Top Posts” and “Recent Posts” with the Hashtag #transformationtuesday only. All Instagram accounts had between 1500 and 3000 followers and followed between 500 and 1000 accounts, varying in topic and type of followed account. Here are some snapshots of what we found after we compiled the results:
Weight and Size
Top Posts: 76/80 posts were weight related (95%)
Recent Posts: 71/80 were weight related (89%)
Out of the top 80 posts we recorded and analyzed, nearly all of them had to do with weight and size. Transformation Tuesday seemed to encompass a weight and size discussion or change.
Positive Weight Loss (As a portion of the Weight and Size Group)
Top Posts: 71/80 posts were showing weight loss (89%)
Recent Posts: 67/80 were were showing weight loss (84%)
Out of the same top 80 posts, most of them touted weight loss or firming up. This was recorded subjectively, but the results were coded using qualitative measurements (captions, size of the person posting, definition and tone of the image)
Stagnant/Weight Gain (As a portion of the Weight and Size Group)
Top Posts: 5/80 posts were weight related (6%)
Recent Posts: 4/80 were weight related (5%)
Out of the same top 80 posts we saw, this was the hardest thing to record and understand. And, we may have missed some posts who did this. But, a little over 5% of the posts discussed weight, but discussed shortfalls in the weight loss plan, set backs, and other factors that had been difficult for the Instagram account holder.
Other Physical Change
Top Posts: 2/80 posts were weight related (3%)
Recent Posts: 5/80 were weight related (6%)
A small percentage of the #transformationtuesday posts discussed other physical factors, such as a loss of acne, dressing better, new makeup styles, or simple aging (ie. a couple who had been dating as early as 2013, now growing into adulthood, a young man growing facial hair, etc.)
Personal Growth Only
Top Posts: 2/80 posts were weight related (3%)
Recent Posts: 3/80 were weight related (4%)
This was an astonishingly small number. Those who discussed personal growth ONLY were less than 5% in both “Top” and “Recent” posts. There were, however, discussions about personal growth in the captions of weight loss posts. However, it would have been very challenging to analyze every single post’s caption for a quick blog article. If someone wants to fund our research, we will absolutely record all of the captions and analyze what was more dominant: personal growth or weight loss.
Personal Growth (TOTAL)
Top Posts: 9/80 posts were weight related (11%)
Recent Posts: 12/80 were weight related (15%)
100% of the posts that had photos about weight gain or stagnant weight and other physical changes did also discuss personal growth. Add those to the STRICTLY personal growth posts, and 11% of the Top Posts discussed Personal Growth. 15% of the Recent Posts discussed Personal Growth
Interesting Tidbit: All of the four instgram accounts we used to analyze had the same results except for our own @boldmz Instagram account. Three of the four accounts had 100% of the same images: Weight or Physical Attribute related posts, only a small percentage of those discussing the lack of weight gain or other physical attributes (0-1 across all accounts and all categories). We saw Personal Growth, weight gain, and other types of “transformations” MOSTLY in our @boldmz Instagram account. We’d like to thing this has to do with the plus positive content that we curate and find on that account. We do recognize the bias of that account, as well as the bias of the accounts used, as they are small and have varied levels of who they follow and for what purpose. We specifically did not use our largest Bold Media Instagram account as that account follows nearly 2000 people and mostly writing/communications accounts, which may skew data in another direction. But, next time, we’d like to include it.
The bottom line is that “Transformation Tuesday” seems to mean “weight loss.” This is totally fine and it is not our place to judge or comment on why that is what it means. And, we applaud those who are living a healthy lifestyle, whether that means weight loss or not! But, we just want to note that your transformation can mean whatever you want it to! We’ve gone through a few transformations ourselves, from our own personal growth to our website! And, our CEO, Christopher Salute, does struggle with his own weight gain. You can find him at our pool parties being one of the last ones to take his shirt off!
We’ve also seen transformations in how our readers look, feel, act, and think. So, BE BOLD and remember that your transformation is your own… but heck, staying just the way you are for a Tuesday is okay too… as long as you love yourself!
A few notes on our models/photos for this article:
Special thanks to @Mel_Mayhem and @CheyanneMedland on Instagram
We also wanted to note that the featured image of the woman holding a tape measure to her waist is a free stock photo. But, when went to add it, it was labeled as “Portrait of cute obese woman standing against mirror in gym and measuring waist size with tape after workout, looking upset and confused.” Just think about the implications that most/all of those words produce.
Lastly, the weight loss transformation photo was taken from Yahoo! Inc’s free photo service, flickr.
