When Kayla Itsines set up her Instagram account back in 2012, the 19-year-old only ever planned to share her personal training clients’ ‘before-and-after’ photos.
Flash forward 13 years and the Australian fitness influencer boasts 15.8m followers, counts Victoria’s Secret model Candice Swanepoel among her celebrity fans and has an estimated net worth of $171m.
But despite achieving international success beyond her wildest dreams, Kayla’s rise to fame hasn’t been without its fair share of hitches – and this month, she found herself at the centre of yet another controversy.
Last week, the mother-of-two, who first found fame with her ‘Bikini Body’ guides, went viral on TikTok when she criticised other content creators for ‘sexualising’ their workout videos for engagement online.
In her video, which amassed over 1.5m views before it was deleted, Kayla insisted she ‘was not being a hater’ – but expressed her frustration with seeing so many glute workout videos filmed from a provocative angle.
Describing how the online fitness industry has become ‘so sexualised’, the star said: ‘That is just not what I wanna see when I’m having my morning coffee.
‘I know that particular angle gets likes and it gets engagement and I know you wanna advertise your booty programme.
‘But like for me, I think it’s more like because I have a daughter and (when) I’m scrolling, and she’s sitting next to me, and I’m like “Oh my god, I don’t want you looking at another girl’s (bottom) from that angle”.’
Pictured: Fitness influencer Kayla Itsines in her deleted TikTok, where she ‘shames’ other creators for their ‘sexualised’ workout videos
However, the video was met with backlash from viewers – with many arguing that Kayla was the ‘start of this problem’ and blasted her ‘hypocritical’ take.
In a response video, which has amassed over 46,000 ‘likes’, TikToker Rach McQueen said: ‘Show your daughter the original Bikini Body guide from 2014.
‘(It) recommended 1,200 calories, 1,600 max (per day). How many women would say their daughters developed eating disorders from reading that? At 7am? When they should have been eating breakfast?’
‘Kayla is the reason why I still can’t use MyFitnessPal without spiralling,’ one viewer commented.
‘Oh I’m a victim to this,’ another added. ‘At 14 years old, the (Bikini Body Guides) were my bible unfortunately.’
‘I (followed Kayla’s programme) after having my son in 2016, a third said. ‘It was scary how thin I got.’
Here FEMAIL reveals Kayla Itsines’ rise and fall as she faces backlash for ‘shaming’ other content creators.
‘Dangerous’ bikini body guides
Pictured: Fitness influencer Kayla Itsines modelling a Triangl branded bikini on a beach in November 2014
Pictured: Kayla Itsines showing off her washboard abs as she promotes her Bikini Body Guides in the 2010s
Despite having her heart set on becoming a personal trainer as a teenager, Kayla’s parents Jim and Anna – who were both teachers – encouraged her to go to university.
After graduating from high school, the social media star, who competed in ‘natural bodybuilding’ competitions, went to university to study to became a P.E. teacher – but knew early on it wasn’t the right fit.
Kayla told her parents she was taking ‘a year off’ from her studies to train at the Australian Institute of Fitness, where she became a master trainer before then taking a job at a women-only gym in Adelaide.
In an interview with 9Honey, Kayla recalled: ‘My mum was like, “No, what are you talking about?
‘(She was like,) “What are you going to do when you’re 70? Be a personal trainer? Go to university and go do something”.’
In her new role, Kayla noticed her clients were consistently wanting to target their abs, arms and thighs, which led to her creating her ‘Bikini Body’ workouts.
Pictured: Kayla Itsines modelling a bikini in Bali in 2015. The following year, Kayla was named one of Time Magazine’s 30 most influential people on the internet
Pictured: Kayla Itsines with her ex-fiance Tobi Pearce, who suggested she turn her workouts into an e-book in 2013
When she joined Instagram in 2012, Kayla began sharing her clients’ ‘before-and-after’ photos – with her following sky-rocketing to 12.5m in just four years.
In March 2013, Kayla’s ex-fiance Tobi Pearce, whom she shares five-year-old Arna with, suggested she release e-books of her workout and diet programmes, which she named the ‘Bikini Body Guide’.
In one of her original guides, which were aimed at women aged 16-25, Kayla’s sample meal plans for people wanting to lose weight only totalled 1,200 calories. This was later updated to go up to 1,600-1,800 calories.
Following the backlash to Kayla’s recent video, some of the star’s old fans have been sharing their ‘trauma’ from following her restrictive guides.
After snippets of the workout and diet plan were shared on TikTok, one user responded: ‘This gives me PTSD.’
While others branded it ‘toxic’, another added: ‘Omggg this brings back so many traumatic eating disorder memories at 16.’
After graduating from high school, the social media star, who competed in ‘natural bodybuilding’ competitions, went to university to study to became a P.E. teacher
Following the backlash to Kayla’s recent video, some of the star’s old fans have been sharing their ‘trauma’ from following her restrictive guides
A third said: ‘As the parent of two teenagers, I’d be mortified if I knew they were following this plan. Why did we do it to ourselves?’
Speaking to The Advertiser in 2022, one former follower labelled the BBG ‘dangerous’ and said the messaging kickstarted her disordered eating.
She said: ‘They are, to date, one of the most harmful and destructive images that feed disordered eating and exercise behaviours (for me).’
In an interview with Bloomberg in 2016, Kayla admitted that she wished she had never called her programmes the ‘bikini body’ guides.
The star explained: ‘Do I regret calling my guides Bikini Body? My answer is yes.
‘That’s why when I released the app, I called it Sweat With Kayla. Sweat is so empowering. I love that.’
At the height of her fame, Kayla was named as one of Time Magazine’s 30 most influential people on the internet in 2016.
That same year, Women’s Health announced they would no longer be using the term ‘bikini body’.
However, it took the star another six years before she officially rebranded her guides to ‘High Intensity with Kayla’.
Backlash over ‘Sweat with Kayla’ app price
The mother-of-two, who first found fame with her ‘Bikini Body’ guides, went viral on TikTok when she criticised other content creators for ‘sexualising’ their workout videos for engagement online
Undated photo of Kayla Itsines enjoying a beach day in a bikini. The star became a millionaire thanks to the success of her Bikini Body Guides
In November 2015, the social media star released her workout app ‘Sweat with Kayla’, which was met with immediate backlash.
The app was designed by the trainer’s team to transfer her popular Bikini Body Guides to a mobile format, offering weekly coaching, 28-minute workouts, meal plans and new guides for existing members.
The app offered $4.61 per week for the 12 week program (normally $120 for 12 week meal plans), new workouts, categories and recipes.
But 93 of 137 reviews of the app on iTunes were just one star – as fans labelled the app as expensive, buggy and frustrating for those who have already purchased the program.
‘I’ve bought two of her programs now and they cost $120 each. But I can’t use them in the app unless I pay all over again? It’s so unfair, and really she always talks about her community and loving us, but this app isn’t for us, it’s for her own gain,’ a loyal customer and fan, who chose to remain anonymous, told Daily Mail Australia at the time.
‘I’m a HUGE Kayla Itsines fan. I’ve bought all her plans and follow them to a T, I even lost quite a bit of weight…I think Kayla needs to know it’s (the app) not good enough, I mean we all supported her and now she’s really big and has kind of forgotten about us.’
In November 2015, the social media star (pictured) released her workout app ‘Sweat with Kayla’, which was met with immediate backlash
The Sweat with Kayla app charged members $4.61 per week for the 12 week program which was normally $120 for 12 weeks
‘She did email and offer the first month for $1 but what does that do? She also says that it’s cheaper now??? $20 a month is not cheap AT ALL. You can get a gym membership for that.’
Kayla argued the app was more than 50 per cent cheaper than her previous products and that is was a ‘deliberate way of making the product more available’ to her consumers who are ‘predominantly in university’.
‘Rather than paying an upfront fee, Sweat with Kayla membership is merely the price of a large cup of coffee each week,’ the social media star said.
Slashes ‘at least 30 staff’ from company
After selling her company to iFit for $400m in 2021, Kayla received a flurry of negative press when 30 members of staff lost their jobs.
After selling Sweat with Kayla, the star stayed on as the face of the brand and continues to be involved in running the business
Kayla Itsines (pictured doing one of her workouts) received a flurry of negative press when 30 members of staff lost their jobs
Kayla stayed on as the face of the brand and continues to be involved in running the business.
But subscriptions, which cost $20 per month, started waning once gyms re-opened after Covid restrictions were lifted.
Headquarters in Adelaide boasted almost 100 employees before the sale to iFit – however, according to the Advertiser, that number dropped to 45.
A company spokeswoman would not confirm exact numbers, but she did say the business were reducing costs and forcing redundancies.
‘Sweat, along with others in the digital fitness industry, has experienced recent headwinds due to changes in customer demand and the effects of gyms returning to pre-pandemic operating levels as pandemic restrictions have eased,’ she told the publication.
‘Following on from the review, there will be changes to our organisational structure which will result in redundancies across the business.
The company’s largest market is in the US, but last year it was reported that subscription revenue had dropped by 16 per cent in the 2020-21 financial year, equating to a $9.5million loss.
Influencer legal battle
Kayla’s viral video was met with backlash from viewers – with many arguing that Kayla was the ‘start of this problem’ and blasted her ‘hypocritical’ take
In 2023, Kayla Itsines found herself in another PR storm – when she tried to block a former employee from launching her own app.
The Bikini Body Training Company tried to block Queensland Crossfit guru and Instagram star Cass Olholm from launching her new fitness app, Train With Cass, which was supposed to launch on the Apple App Store in October 2023.
Just like Sweat with Kayla, Train with Cass offered a mixture of training videos that paying subscribers can follow from home.
The company, represented in the South Australian Supreme Court by Nicholas Swan, on Tuesday said Ms Olholm, who worked as a contractor for Ms Itsines before leaving in February that year, had breached restraint of trade by preparing her new business.
Bikini Body wanted Ms Olholm to obey a 12-month restraint of trade clause, which would prohibit her from competing with the company until February 2024.
However, Ms Olholm, represented by Thomas McFarlane, argued the restraint period expired after six months and her new business can proceed.
At a hearing, Judge Dart recommended the two parties pursue mediation to avoid spending ‘very large sums of money’ on lawyers,
However, the two influencers failed to reach a settlement and returned again to battle it out at court, with potentially millions of dollars hanging in the balance.
The two influencers (above) were close collaborators in the fitness space, with Ms Olholm regularly appearing in Ms Itsines’ Facebook videos
In 2023, Kayla Itsines sought to delay the launch of her rival Cass Olholm’s fitness app, Train with Cass
Mr Swan argued Ms Olholm had potentially pulled custom from the Sweat app, reading out a number of comments left on her Instagram celebrating the proposed launch of her new venture.
‘The time couldn’t be more perfect for me, my Sweat subscription ends in October, so excited for your app’,’ Mr Swan said reading out one reader’s post.
He also argued Ms Olholm’s ‘attractive force’, or the goodwill she possessed and which Bikini Body had paid her for, should not be used to build up a rival business inside of the 12-month restraint clause.
‘The main question in this case, as we see it, is whether until February next year is a reasonable time,’ he said.
‘That is the core point. In our respectful submission, 12 months, in the context of the history of this matter, in the context of the nature of the business, in the context of what is involved, is eminently reasonable.’
Mr Macfarlane said it was unreasonable for the company to try and restrain Ms Olholm’s goodwill, something he said she had built up herself over several years, including years when she was outside of the company, and something that was outside of non-compete protections.
Following their lengthy legal battle, Train with Cass finally launched in January 2024.
Backlash from fitness community
Pictured: TikTok user Anna Vann references Kayla’s controversial video and joked about filming from the star’s ‘favourite angle’
Speaking directly to Kayla, Olivia Lannelli – who shared footage of her workout – wrote: ‘Yeah I couldn’t enjoy a morning coffee for years because you had me terrified of the calories in a tablespoon of milk but sorry about this video of my glutes’
It’s been over two weeks since Kayla Itsines posted a video berating other fitness creators for filming from ‘that angle’ – but the backlash shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.
In response to the deleted video, the weightlifting community have doubled down on their workout videos – and posted clips mocking the ex ‘bikini body’ guru.
Sharing footage of her glute workout, online coach Anna Vann wrote in her viral TikTok: ‘Good morning from Kayla Itsines’ favourite angle x.’
One fan commented: ‘This angle is exactly what I want to see, it inspires me so much.’
Another added: ‘You go girl!’
Referencing Kayla’s video, a third said: ‘Keep. Ruining. Coffees.’
Meanwhile, TikTok user Olivia Lannelli posted her own response video, which amassed over 2.5m views, earlier this week.
Speaking directly to Kayla, Olivia – who shared footage of her workout – wrote: ‘Yeah I couldn’t enjoy a morning coffee for years because you had me terrified of the calories in a tablespoon of milk but sorry about this video of my glutes.’
Sharing their own experience of the Bikini Body Guide, one wrote: ‘I was afraid of MANGOS because they are the “highest calorie fruit”.’
Another added: ‘That damn bikini body guide set me back so much mentally.’
‘So happy the girlies are healing,’ a third said.
Commenting on Kayla’s most recent Instagram post, one former fan wrote: ‘Hey Kayla, at 17 I was too scared to put a teaspoon of milk in my morning coffee because I was following your bikini body guide.
‘Took me YEARS to have a healthy relationship with food afterwards. Hope your coffee this morning tasted better than mine did!’
Writing on a separate post, another sarcastically wrote: ‘Your instagram ads are so sexualised, I don’t want to see that on the internet!’
