For context, a few years ago I struggled with an eating disorder and was underweight. I went through a tragic accident where I had to learn to walk again and it gave me a new perspective on life.

I started eating meat again and worked out / lifted weights heavily. Since then I’ve gained like forty pounds of healthy weight. I also used to feel very insecure so I started posting on my Instagram story just by going to the gym as a way to save the stories on my highlights and see my progress.

Throughout this journey maybe around nine of my female friends have reached out to me and told me that I motivate them and have asked for my routine! Most of my followers are women.

Now tbh, I have gotten some weird DMs but I unfollow those people and/or don’t answer/let them know it’s wrong.

My boyfriend knows all of this.

I recently posted a gym photo in a tennis dress and the dress was giving me a lot of cleavage (shocking to me because I used to be underweight and have no breasts). That day I was very sad and was crying for hours over grieving my dad (it was his bday). So I posted the photo to kind of like hype myself up and also just document that I went to the gym on a challenging day.

My boyfriend told me that that photo was very slutty weeks later and that my gym photos wreak of seeking male validation. He then compared me to his sister and said that she goes to the gym and doesn’t post photos (irrelevant but she is obese and said she’s actively unhappy with her weight and trying to lose weight). I said that’s not fair and I’m just comfortable with myself and I’m not thinking of any sexual implications of it.

I kind of see his side—like my gym photos do sometimes show skin—but I’ve been working out for years and it’s been a habit of mine to motivate me to go to the gym. Should I stop posting these photos?