GP Warns You’re Probably Taking The ‘Maxxing’ Trend A Step Too Far

A GP is urging people to jump off the ‘maxxing’ bandwagon that’s taken the internet by storm these past few years.

For those who aren’t chronically online, the trend was born from ‘looksmaxxing’ – which describes maximising your physical appearance – which took off via online manosphere forums in the 2010s. (One online streamer known as Clavicular claims to have “looksmaxxed” himself from the age of 14 through a combination of exercise, steroids, surgery and taking a hammer to his face.)

Fast forward to 2026 and we’ve seen interest in sleepmaxxing, fibremaxxing, tanmaxxing, jestermaxxing and even proteinmaxxing gather momentum on social media.

Per The Times, the ‘maxxing’ suffix describes “the act of maximising your time, effort and focus on a particular thing”.

With looksmaxxing it was about optimising your looks; with fibre- and proteinmaxxing, it’s about upping your respective intakes; while with sleepmaxxing, it’s about maximising quantity and quality of sleep. You get the gist.

But health experts are increasingly saying: enough.

Dr Ahmed El Muntasar, an NHS GP who is also a cosmetic doctor, thinks it’s time to stop treating “maxxing” as though more is automatically better.

“It turns sensible health advice into a competition,” he said of the trend, “and encourages people to chase an extreme rather than asking what is appropriate for their own body, skin or lifestyle.”

The expert said he has noticed patients turning up to clinic with burning, redness and breakouts after stacking retinoids, acids, vitamin C and at-home devices in the same week.

Others have been taking long lists of supplements with no clear deficiency or reason, unable to say what half of them are for beyond a vague promise to “maximise” energy, hormones or longevity.

Even protein is getting pushed so hard that shakes are replacing proper meals altogether, he noted.

“The common theme,” said the doctor, “is that the person is no longer responding to what their body needs. They are responding to a number or trend.”

He’s not alone in his concerns. Psychotherapist Billie Dunlevy warned that doing anything to an extreme degree is often “a detriment to other areas of your life”.

Discussing the prevailing ‘maxxing’ trends with CNBC, he said: “[That] obviously isn’t healthy, and that isn’t something that any licensed mental health professional would advocate for.”

Meanwhile clinical psychologist Jennifer Hartstein told the publication maxxing could even “feed people’s anxiety and depression … if it doesn’t work the way they want, or if they fail”.

Some of these trends are physically dangerous, too. Taking a hammer to your face? Not advised. Similarly, tanmaxxing – which sees people try to achieve the most optimal tan possible – has skin cancer experts worried.

Dr Zainab Laftah, consultant dermatologist and British Skin Foundation spokesperson, previously told HuffPost UK: “The ‘tanmaxxing’ trend is concerning because there is no such thing as a safe tan.”

Dr El Muntasar reasons that consuming fibre, protein and taking pride in your appearance are not necessarily bad endeavours. But there’s usually an effective range – and beyond that, the doctor said “the benefits plateau and the risks begin to rise”.

He wants to see better language used on social media, not less ambition. This might look like fibre added gradually as part of a varied diet (rather than ploughing ahead with eating as much fibre as possible and ending up toilet-bound as a result), protein at a level appropriate to your age and activity, and “barrier-conscious routines” instead of a race to stack the most active skincare ingredients.

They say ‘everything in moderation’ for a reason. Fibremodding, anyone?