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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at MSU chapter.

Something repeated over and over again in the past months is that the times we are living through are unprecedented, uncertain, and unusual. Something that hasn’t changed, however, is the unwavering flood of diet plans and weight loss goals that come with the new year. 

An industry that’s worth billions of dollars already has the ability to hit even harder this year with the “Quarantine 15”. This on top of stress caused by the pandemic is not a great combination. 

Should you have used this time to up your workout game and revolutionize your diet, now that you’re home all the time? How bad should you feel for how your body has changed in the past year? Many fad diets that give quick results don’t last long, leaving many users to gain back the weight because biologically, a human body isn’t equipped to lose a substantial amount of weight in a short amount of time. 

This year has been so stressful and challenging that there were higher priorities: shifting your whole life online, worrying about finances or living situations, taking care of your mental health, or trying to live and be productive without any of the usual structure or schedule. 

Of course, ad peddling bars and shakes or an influencer on Instagram wouldn’t be concerned about that, a $72 billion industry would focus mostly on continuing to be able to profit off of insecurities and social standards of beauty. 

Madison Reinhold is Marketing Director, Events Assistant and Staff Writer for Her Campus at MSU. She leads the Design Team which produces content for social media as well as merch and recruitment, in addition to planning team events and contributing articles to Her Campus. Madison is a senior studying journalism with a concentration in writing, reporting, and editing, with minors in women's and gender studies and history. She also interns for MSU's Center for Gender in Global Context, creating social media content, contributing to their newsletter, and editing their department magazine. She previously interned for local non-profit The Women's Center of Greater Lansing. Additionally, she works for MSU's College of Social Science Office of Student Success, providing supplemental instruction to students. In her precious free time, Madison is attempting to write her first novel, playing fetch with her dog, Hazel, or finding a new niche history book to obsess over.
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