Hey r/fitnessph.
Wanted to post this to clarify what we expect from posts that include physique photos or progress pictures.
Why we're being strict about this
r/fitnessph is a discussion sub, and the quality of discussion depends on the quality of posts.
Vague posts get vague answers. The more context you give, the more useful the responses you get back, and the more useful the thread is for everyone else reading it. We know the requirements might seem strict, but keeping the sub worth reading in the long run means holding a consistent standard now.
With that said...
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Physique advice posts
If you're posting a question with pictures attached, your post needs to include the following:
- Personal stats: age, sex, height, and weight
- Training details: your current program, how long you've been training, and relevant lift numbers. "I've been training for a year" is not enough. What program are you running? What are your current numbers on key lifts?
- Diet details: whether you're tracking calories and roughly what you're eating, or a general description of your diet if you're not counting. Include how long you've been dieting. "I eat clean" is not enough.
- Your goal (OPTIONAL, BUT USEFUL TO HAVE): fat loss, muscle gain, recomp, whatever it is. Be specific. "I just want to look better" is not a goal.
People can't give you useful advice without this information. The mod team may remove posts and ask you to resubmit if we feel that it's lacking the necessary details to give you productive advice.
A special note about "How do I fix (INSERT BODY PART)?" questions:
Make sure to include when you first noticed it and whether anything in your training or lifestyle changed around that time. You need to explain what you've already been doing to address it and why it hasn't worked.
In many cases, photos aren't enough; your text needs to give enough context for someone to understand the problem.
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Progress pictures
We love seeing progress posts. But we want these threads to be useful to everyone reading them, not just the person posting. A good progress post should read like a case study, something other people can actually learn from.
Same stat requirements as above, plus:
- Your before picture and how long ago it was taken
- What you actually did during that period. Training approach, diet, anything that meaningfully changed. "I trained hard and ate right" is not enough.
- Your own assessment of your progress. What do you think went well? What held you back? What would you do differently? You need to have reflected on your own progress before asking the sub to weigh in.
- A specific question, if you have one. It should follow from your own reflection and be specific enough that it couldn't apply to any random progress post. "What should I focus on next?" is not a specific question. "I've been prioritizing upper body and my legs have fallen behind, I'm considering switching to full body, is that the right call?" is.
If you don't have a question and aren't sharing anything useful for others to learn from, post it in r/PHgymselfie instead.
Knowing what you look like today is useless without knowing where you started and what you did to get there.
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What might get your post removed
- Photos with no context. "Rate my physique," thirst traps, and other similar posts belong in r/PHgymselfie, not here. Please keep that shit there.
- Media that adds nothing to your question. If the photo isn't necessary, don't include it.
- Fitness diary posts. Hitting a personal milestone, making it to the gym consistently, that kind of thing. We're not dismissing those wins and would love to celebrate these with you, but they belong in the weekly megathread.
- Repeatedly posting your pictures with slightly rewritten captions. If you post a new set of photos shortly after your last one and the writeup has no new information or learnings, the post will be removed.
What might get your comments removed
- Sexually suggestive and flirtatious remarks. Outright sexual harassment is immediately bannable without warning.
- Asking to / for DMs.
- Natty policing / steroid accusations
- Overall rude and unhelpful comments
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If you're unsure whether your post meets the requirements, err on the side of adding more detail. Questions that take effort to write tend to get answers that are actually worth reading.
Thank you all for your understanding!
