Eating restrictions are often mentioned in comments under content that is food-related. For the case of mukbang YouTubers, eating restrictions were mentioned in 6.22% of thin mukbang YouTubers’ comments and 12.67% of not thin mukbang YouTubers’ comments.
Within this code category, two major themes appear: starving or fasting, and dieting.
STARVING AND FASTING
For comments that mentioned starving or fasting, there was a trend in explaining that mukbang videos were commenters’ inspiration to engage in these activities. These types of comments show up zero times in thin mukbang YouTubers’ comments but show up eight times in not thin mukbang YouTubers’ comments.
This comment attempts to relate to other commenters in saying that the reason behind watching this video is to help them not eat and to continue their fast. This could be because the content is genuinely satisfying, or, as found more often in these comments, because the commenter is repulsed by the eating done in the video, making them lose their appetite.
Alternatively, the opposite seems to happen when watching thin mukbang YouTubers where commenters are inspired to eat or are given a craving for some type of food by watching the video. These comments appear twenty times under thin mukbang YouTubers and zero times under not thin mukbang YouTubers.
The cravings given to audiences from videos made by thin mukbang YouTubers could be because commenters feel more comfortable eating since the person that they are mimicking is a thin role model for them. Possibly, this relates to thin beauty standards that are not present when watching not thin mukbang YouTubers and could explain the opposing effects that audiences had under both categories.
DIETING
For comments that contained mentions of dieting, two themes emerged. The first of these themes are comments that explain that they are living vicariously through the creator while they diet at home. These types of comments appeared four times under thin mukbang YouTubers, and fourteen times under not thin mukbang YouTubers. These were the only comments present that mentioned dieting for thin mukbang YouTubers. For not thin mukbang YouTubers, a second theme emerged of dieting out of disgust, which appears eleven times.
The theme of living vicariously through the creator is where the commenter is jealous of the creator and wishes that they could be eating the same way, but do not for various reasons. However, for the theme of dieting out of disgust, the commenter is repulsed by the creator and is inspired to stick to their diet or start a new diet.
This is an example of a commenter “living through” the YouTuber. They are grateful for the video as they can vicariously imagine themselves eating the food that is in the video without actually doing so and without breaking their diet.
These comments show the disgust that audiences seem to have towards not thin mukbang YouTubers that is not present towards thin mukbang YouTubers, despite the same video content. This supports the idea that audiences see not thin mukbang YouTubers as motivation for themselves because they do not want to be the same weight as the YouTuber. They see the not thin YouTubers as disgusting and gluttonous while thin mukbang YouTubers can avoid these reactions due to their more media-normative bodies. Someone thin is praised for eating while those who are not are berated.