Enough with the “-maxxing”

If you’re chronically online like me, you’ve probably come across a slang-suffix that’s become part of the lexicon despite not being formally added to a dictionary — yet. It’s part trend, part meme. And it’s been showing up everywhere to underscore almost anything.

If you’re confused, let me explain.

I’m talking about “-maxxing,” Gen Z’s latest buzz term, following in the footsteps of “rizz” (charm or charisma), “delulu” (delusional) and “no cap” (no lie). It’s shorthand for “maximize” and is often used alongside a noun or a specific aspect of life that needs improving. The idea is that even the most mundane of things can be maxxed, whether that’s sleep, scent, status — even a particular country, namely China.

Perhaps the most viral example of maxxing is looksmaxxing, a cultural phenomenon that originated in the incel (a.k.a. involuntary celibate) community, encouraging boys and young men to take intense, often dangerous, measures to enhance their physical appearance. That includes undergoing intrusive surgeries, using steroids to bulk up, or using a hammer to smash your facial bones in hopes of accentuating one’s jawline. Looksmaxxing promises one sole goal: that by being exceedingly and unattainably hot, men can achieve the utmost confidence, social clout and sexual success.

Recently, the concept of maxxing has seeped into the lifestyle and nutrition spaces. Certain foods are being consumed in excessive amounts. Overall health is also being heavily refined to the point of unhealthiness. The rhetoric we use to define how we nourish ourselves has always mattered. But it feels especially important now with the revival of diet culture and a newfound surge in weight-loss medication usage. Maxxing pushes us to think in extremes. Balance, it seems, is merely an afterthought — or disregarded entirely.

Felicitas Olschewski explains the maxxing craze best. It’s “a meme-coded way of turning life into an optimization system because routines are controllable, measurable, and highly shareable,” the brand executive and cultural strategist writes on her Substack, “Culture Codes.”

“It’s part self-care, part status signal, part algorithm bait,” she adds.

Indeed, maxxing transforms a generic resolution or aspiration into measurable actions, Olschewski says. It offers people a sense of progress and control. But it’s also all-consuming. The consequence? Obsession.

Last year, proteinmaxxing became a major food trend. The concept of loading up on protein isn’t new per se — it first took off in the late twentieth century when diet and fitness cultures had both gone mainstream. But following a yearslong lull in the craze, protein surged in popularity amid the pandemic’s peak. “Understandably at that time, we were desperate to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe — so health and longevity were at the forefront of our minds,” writes Caroline Tien for SELF.

Social media usage also spiked drastically, with 46 to 51 percent of U.S. adults reporting higher usage months after the outbreak began. On TikTok and Instagram, the protein hysteria reached a fever pitch. Influencers showed off their high-protein diets filled with protein powders, eggs, egg whites, cottage cheese, poultry and red meat. Some also pushed for eating more high-protein snacks, ranging from meat sticks and cold cuts to homemade chicken chips made from seasoned, ground meat. Everyone was hellbent on maxing out on the macro.

“You have really all kinds of people online promoting protein as the key to a healthy diet,” explains food journalist Elizabeth Dunn in an August podcast episode of The Daily. “There are the Make America Healthy influencers, people like Alex Clark. There are definitely the CrossFit bros. There are the strength-training feminists that show you how protein is going to help you get to your most empowered self.”

Brands also hopped on the trend, going so far as to incorporate protein into products that don’t have the nutrient in the first place. IHOP added protein to its buttermilk pancakes. Khloé Kardashian’s snack brand Khloud sprinkled protein onto chips and popcorn. Starbucks and Dunkin’ also infused their most popular beverages with protein.

“In my reporting, I’ve found that over the past decade or so, the number of food and beverage products hitting the market with a high protein claim has quadrupled,” Dunn tells the Times.

Much of the discussion surrounding protein has centered on building muscle and longevity, Dunn says. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as cited by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, adults were consuming an average of 2.9 ounces of protein per day in 2025. That’s roughly 20% more than the recommended amount.

“The broader risk is that maxxing language implies there is always a ‘more,’ always an upgrade, always a failure state,” writes Olschewski. “If you can maxx your sleep, why aren’t you? If you can maxx your relationship, what does it say if you don’t?” In the case of food, if you can maxx a [specific ingredient or item], why aren’t you eating it as much — and as often — as possible?

---

Want more great food writing and recipes? Sign up for Salon’s free food newsletter, The Bite.

---

There’s also a cheeky side to maxxing. It’s been used as a marketing tactic in an attempt to appeal to younger consumers and increase profits. We’ve seen this with fibermaxxing, which first showed up on TikTok in 2024, and has since been featured in Oatly’s Future of Taste report. Prebiotic sodas like Olipop and Poppi have benefitted from the trend — and will continue to. The global prebiotics market is set to increase from $6.95 billion in 2023 to $13.26 billion by 2029, according to market research platform Artizon.

That’s all to say that our food was never intended to be maxxed. Certain nutrients and so-called superfoods were never meant to be heavily prioritized at the expense of other beneficial ingredients. Regardless of how severe the spectrum is, maxxing implies that more is always better. It’s in the name. But that’s not what healthy eating is all about. Per the World Health Organization, a healthy diet is made up of four basic principles: adequacy, balance, moderation and diversity. Maxxing, for the most part, fails to satisfy three of those principles — adequacy, balance and diversity.

It also raises the question of how much food maxxing is necessary in the future to undo the damage of previous maxxing trends. First, it’s protein. Then, fiber, which many U.S. adults aren’t eating enough of already. What’s next? Carb-maxxing to compensate for the lack of carbohydrates in our diets? Or perhaps, raw greens-maxxing?

As the age-old adage goes, “too much of a good thing is a bad thing.” It feels especially pertinent in a new era of maxx eating.

The post Enough with the “-maxxing” appeared first on Salon.com.