Sophia Thiel: The fitness influencer is 30 years old

She impressed millions with her power and became the star of the fitness scene within a very short time. Then Sophia Thiel suddenly disappeared from the public to return with an relentless truth two years later: “I have an eating disorder.” On March 13, the influencer celebrates her 30th birthday – and is now at a completely different point in her life than a few years ago.

Born in 1995 in the Upper Bavarian Rosenheim, Sophia Thiel had to struggle with overweight in her youth. In 2012, at the age of 17, she started bodybuilding and decreased over 25 kilograms within three years. She documented her fitness trip from October 2014, who quickly attracted a huge fan base – and made Thiel one of the first German fitness influencers.

What followed was a comet climb: over 900,000 subscribers on YouTube, more than 190 million video views, own fitness programs, books and lucrative advertising partnerships. A fragrance series, a fitness fashion collection, were created under their brand name, several guides and cookbooks. In 2019 the first edition of the “Sophia Thiel Magazin” was published. Thiel became a brand and a model for discipline and willpower. But what seemed perfect on the outside, she increasingly mashed internally.

In 2019 the shock for her fans: Sophia Thiel completely disappeared from the public. No posts, no videos, no stories – for two years. In 2021 she finally returned to the spotlight and spoke openly about her bulimia for the first time. She noticed the first signs of this in 2015 after her first bodybuilding competitions: “At that time I had secret mate for the very first time. I was so exhausted. My body fat content was super low, which was due to my diets, which actually only consisted of protein and carbohydrates,” she revealed in an interview.

In 2019 the public pressure turned too great, Thiel suffered from a burnout and had to pull the ripcord. “I thought that I had to hold diet every day is the price I pay for it: the price of recognition, respect and success,” she recalled “Desired” at that time. Her whole everyday life was all about eating “like a self -raising prison from nutritional regimes”.

At some point the withdrawal was the logical consequence. “I had so big problems with myself and the eating disorder that it would have been too much to continue on social media,” she explained her break. “Above all, negative comments on my appearance I wouldn’t have wanted to do to myself in time.” The influencer “fled” to Los Angeles and went there for the intensive search for himself.

Since she returned to the spotlight with her book “Come Back Stronger – My Long Search for myself”, Sophia Thiel has been fundamentally changed. Instead of perfection, the once trained fitness icon now propagates body positivity and mental health. In her two -year break, she first had to find out who she is actually and only noticed through her psychotherapy that she was valuable even without a perfectly well -trained body, says Thiel.

But despite her successful comeback, the athlete was not spared setbacks. When she took part in the 17th season of “Let’s Dance” in 2024 and reached 8th place with the professional dancer Alexandru Ionel (30), the pressure again led to major mental problems. “After ‘Let’s Dance’ I got sick and then broken down emotionally. Unfortunately, I also had feed attacks again and got into a depressive phase due to the loss of control,” she reported last June.

Today she has her “demons” under control again, says Thiel. She continues to make fitness content on Instagram, but no longer wants to be defined by her appearance. When she thinks back to her “escape” in 2019, the enormous contrast will become aware of it: “I still know exactly how empty and lost here I walked through the streets – alone, weak and full of fear of the future. Too burned out to be able to enjoy the beautiful things here,” reported. “It feels all the more beautiful now because I realize at what point I can stand in my life today and how incredibly a lot has changed over the years.”

Thiel is currently freshly in love – and that’s why “somehow the hottest time in my life. I really don’t know when I felt so freely and self -determined”, as it said in another Instagram post. For 2025 – and thus also for her 31 years of life – she has decided to continue without pressure, like her: “Instead of unrealistic resolutions, it is about finding my middle and giving my body and mind what it really needs at all levels.”