There are worrying trends starting to emerge in both women and men in Ireland due to the influence of social media according to Martina McCarthy, a senior Strength and Conditioning coach, with Sport Ireland.
"People have always wanted to be thin, people have always wanted to look a certain way and I think because you get so many images on social media of what you should look like - I think there is a dangerous influence of trying to look a certain way and not necessarily having the knowledge to do it in the healthiest way," she told Cliona Foley.
"It is possible to be lean, it possible to be strong and powerful and there are healthy ways to do it that I think sometimes people miss because they're so eager to get to a certain way of looking.
"So, our whole thing is about educating athletes on how to manage their bodies - how to get the best out of their training. Generally our advice would be to eat more than they think as opposed to less because people always see restriction: 'If I eat less - I'll get stronger, I'll get better.'
"But our message is generally the complete opposite.
"In order to fuel performance, in order to fuel training - very few people actually meet the minimum requirements, in terms of calorie intake, to do that.
"So, our biggest education piece tends to be: 'Eat more' which is contrary to what people actually think. So, that to me is there are dangerous trends in people's perceptions of what they have to do to look a certain way and our education piece tends to be the exact opposite of what's out there on social media," she added.
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