Woman's fake 'fit girl' persona called out by family: 'Your weight loss is triggering'.

A same-age aunt and niece got into quite the spat, when she revealed her niece's 'fit girl' online persona was fake, causing a family rift. She told Reddit the whole story and asked:

'AITA (am I the a-hole) for calling my niece out on her 'fit girl lifestyle'?'

throwaway71294729 writes:

I, 21F and my niece 21F (I'll call her Eva, of course not her real name) have always been very close, she's my best friend and I love her to bits. Both of us are (slightly) overweight, though since around September 2022 I've been making a lot of lifestyle changes and have lost a significant amount of the weight.

Eva is also doing her best to lose weight; it was something we planned on doing together, I've been trying to get her to go to the gym with me, or go on walks but she always tells me she either doesn't have time or is with her boyfriend that day. Instead her little brother (16M) has been going with me. I'm really proud of him as he struggled with a lot of the same issues that come with being overweight.

Eva has been posting about her 'fit girl lifestyle' on her social media for a while now, which would be totally awesome if she wasn't going through the McDonald's driveway with her boyfriend almost every day and her brother hadn't flat out told me she fakes most of the posts.

I've never commented on it before and I really wasn't planning to, it's her life and she's allowed to do whatever she wants.

Probably a good idea.

Last Saturday we decided to have a family dinner, everything was all fine until Eva made a comment on how much I was eating. Something along the lines of 'Jesus no wonder you've lost so much weight if that's all you're eating' I ate a very normal portion of food (potatoes, some veggies and salmon).

During the dinner she kept making small comments on both me and her brother and how we were eating to little, working out too much and how we would probably develop eating disorders.

WOW!

I got pretty mad after a while and said 'well maybe if you stopped eating all those McChicken burgers and actually joined us for once you would feel less insecure, then you'd have real content to post on your socials' (something along those lines).

The table fell kinda silent and Eva started crying saying she was 'doing all she could' and 'your and brothers weightloss is so triggering for me'. She decided to go to her room and her boyfriend said i'd been too harsh on her. Eva did not come back to the table and everyone was pretty quiet after.

After we got home my aunt texted that I should apologize to Eva for being mean, I told her I would apologize if she would as well, to both me and her little brother for the comments she made as they hurt me as well. Eva doesn't want to and won't talk to me as long as I won't apologize. Her brother and my mom are on my side but aunt & uncle are mad that I won't do it. AITA (am I the a-hole)?

Well, that's a messy situation!

Here's what Reddit had to say:

AdamALC8756 writes:

NTA (not the a-hole). She learned one of the great lessons in life, don't start nothing won't be nothing.

quantomflex blamed it on social media:

NTA (not the a-hole) - social media is the modern day plague. You did nothing wrong and the world would be better off without the need for self-gratification via “likes”. Cant stand why people love to portray a fake lifestyle online. Whats the point? Why waste energy even thinking about it?

OldManJeepin says:

NTA but...The real TLDR (too long; didn't read) is 'Failure tries to sabotage successful, hard working person's attempt at self improvement by gaslighting, hyper-critical dietary scrutiny, body shaming and just plain jealousy....And fails...Then demands sympathy'! LoL Keep up the good work and never let the losers get you down! They can either join Team Success or F' off back to Loserville....

Not everyone was on OP's side though...

astroproff writes:

ESH (everyone sucks here). Body images and food ought to be considered less a topic of conversation than religion and money. Neither of you are supportive of the other. Leave each other alone.

OP eventually did have a change of heart.

She writes:

Little edit: I've posted this a very short while ago but I'll let you all know I'll be sending her a text. She hurt my feelings and I've hurt hers as well. It was all very in the moment as this has been going on for a while (for months everytime we hang out there's been at least one comment).

I don't wish to fight with her and I'll be letting her know that I was too harsh as I was very fed up with the BS, I'll be telling her I'm sorry but I won't go begging for an apology from her. I'll be taking the high road here, thanks to all here for making me see that :)

For those wondering how her neice could be the daughter of her aunt:

OP clarified:

English is not my first language I might be getting the terms mixed up, Sorry :)

There's so much pressure on body image as is.

Let's hope these two can move on in a positive way or, at least, know not to make comments in the future.