Marketing de influência fitness nas redes sociais: impactos na construção de hábitos saudáveis e nas decisões de consumo da geração Z

Abstract

The growth of social media has expanded the presence of digital influencers in the fitness sector, intensifying their insertion into the daily lives of Generation Z and into the construction of lifestyles associated with physical activity. In this context, this study aims to analyze how social media influencers affect fitness practices and fitness-related consumption decisions among Generation Z users. The research is exploratory and qualitative in nature, using semi-structured interviews with young individuals who practice physical activities as the data collection technique, and Content Analysis as the data analysis technique. From the analysis of the interviews, it was possible to identify an explanatory model of fitness practice, highlighting its antecedents, internal dynamics, and consequences. The results indicate that fitness practice is structured through the articulation of practical understandings, rules, objectives, competencies, materials, and meanings, which organize participants’ everyday lives. Within this model, digital influencers are not configured as central decision-making agents, acting predominantly as a peripheral influence associated with symbolic, motivational, and aesthetic stimuli. It was observed that young people adopt a selective and critical stance toward digital content, mobilizing their own knowledge and references external to social media for decisions related to training, nutrition, and consumption. It is concluded that influencer marketing is integrated into the context of fitness practice without determining it in an absolute manner, being appropriated and re-signified by young people, while simultaneously contributing to processes of belonging, social distinction, and the construction of bodily identity.