"Maintaining my weight is so easy!"
"I don't restrict my diet at all!"
"I don't deprive myself of anything."
How many times have you heard or read a celebrity or model say something like that?
Have you ever believed it?
I usually don't. I know how hard it is for someone who is not naturally a size 6, 4, 2, or, in the cases of many supermodels, 0, to remain that size.
Sure, a lot of celebs and models probably fall into the "naturally thin" category. But there are many who have not always been slender, for whom weight loss and maintenance is not effortless.
I think that myth - that weight loss & maintenance is easy - is a very harmful media message. It sets people up for failure. Having trouble maintaining your weight loss? You're just weak. Struggling with the transition from fat loss to weight maintenance? Something must be wrong for you; lots of other people find it easy!
If you want to lose a significant amount of weight and keep it off, you are going to have to work at it. Hard. And there's no shame in that. In fact, I think it's something to be proud of.
I think maintaining weight loss is a matter of perspective. It isn't easy and takes adjusting(/lots of time), but it also requires a shift at your core. Fat loss doesn't necessarily equate optimal health (mentally nor physically) and your body is going to fight to be where it is healthiest. If one's physique goals mean compromising body fat levels that are healthiest for the *individual*, then yes, it will be an uphill battle the entire way.
ReplyDeleteThe key is to tinker, tweak, and adjust until you've found a way of eating and living that is both sustainable and enjoyable. Sometimes that means having a little more body fat than you'd like but it doesn't mean being "fat" again. Having body fat, especially for women, does come with a lot of bonuses: strength, better sleep, more energy/vitality, increased fertility, the list goes on and on. At the end of the day, I am a firm believer that our diet should serve us and not us serving the diet - we only get one shot at this life and I'd rather enjoy it by feeling and being my healthiest ;)
Keep strong, chica <3
I definitely agree - it's pointless and dangerous to maintain a body fat %age that is too low. But I do think, based on my experiences & those of many other women, that even if your body's 'set point' is an unhealthily high BF%, it wants to go back there, and in that case, maintaining is definitely difficult - possibly even harder than losing the weight in the first place! But yes - a healthy level of body fat is great in many ways.
DeleteAh yes, set point. I was once overweight, myself. Call me crazy, but I am set point non-believer. I think it can make things difficult, certainly, but it is by no means a death sentence to one's happiness.
DeleteI guess I'll find out! =) I am a believer right now just because I've always defaulted to 140...even when I struggled with overeating I went no higher than 145 - except once when I recovered from anorexia. (And when I lost weight, I came back down to 140 almost effortlessly.) Maybe it'll be different now that my hypothyroidism is being treated.
DeleteGO JULIET.
DeleteI should say I do think there is a HUGE difference between a person who became overweight for a brief period, versus someone who has been overweight for over 20 years....and there's a big difference between THAT person & someone who has been overweight for 40 or 50 years.
DeleteGREAT POINTS! I do not know how celebrities maintain rock-hard abs year round (oh wait, did someone say that's what they're paid to do?). I do know that it hurts women's body image to hear these messages. You're RIGHT that weight maintenance takes work and self-awareness.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. It's hard to look at an edited picture of someone who is paid (copiously) to look good and step back and realize, "This is not the standard I should hold myself to."
DeleteEvery time I read a magazine article about some celebrity they always touch on "how do you keep up your body?" and the star is always like "oh I just do yoga and I'm vegan!" It's silly. What really irks me in the first place is that they ask about their body. Unless they are in the fitness world, I don't think it's necessary, you know?
ReplyDeleteThat's a whole other issue - that people think vegans are just naturally skinny. You can't eat junk vegan food / huge portions and get away with it!
DeleteThey are so full of shit. I am naturally small myself, but I'm sure if I didn't pay any attention to what I ate and shoveled in Ding Dongs and burgers everyday I'd gain a lot of weight. Thankfully I like eating clean and those choices come more naturally, but everyone makes these choices on some level.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely!! It drives me up the wall when they brag about how much junk they eat. Even if they could maintain their weight eating a ton of garbage, that's not exactly setting a great example!
DeleteOoh, this has to be one of my pet hates relating to weight and fitness. Good on you for pointing it out. I think perhaps if someone has a restrictive disorder/eating patterns then perhaps maintaining a very low weight possibly does seem easy to them, but for the majority it is such a battle involving masses of hard work and, yes, sacrifice. I don't understand why no-one will 'admit' to controlling the Hell out of their food to be a certain size because frankly if others judge them for it, it's generally through insecurity that they can't do the same. I'm not sure anyone really believes that thin people really don't have to work that hard, deep down, but it does make me hate my body regardless because, particularly with bloggers, when you have the metabolism of a slug and see all of the skinny, very VERY lean bloggers posting about eating SOOO much and being 'hard gainers' it's difficult not to feel p*ssed off when you're busting your ass on 1/2 the calories you're meant to eat and actually gaining weight. I seriously don't believe either that anyone 'can't' gain weight - I am learning to read blogs with a much more discerning eye. It is very disheartening to realise exactly how many people manipulate and lie to their readers. We need more honest bloggers like you!
ReplyDeletexxx
YES YES YES. I completely agree with you. I call BS on the majority of hard gainers.... there are a couple of specific hard gainers I have in mind right now who claim to have sooo much trouble gaining weight (when they are already extremely lean) eating "a ton of food." And then they post the meals they eat and you tally them up and hmmmm what a surprise, looks like they're eating 1200 calories! And then you have the subset who are "trying SO HARD to gain weight" who then post tips & tricks to 'volumize your oatmeal.' Well why in the world are you trying to volumize a relatively low-calorie food if you're trying to gain weight?!?
DeleteAhem. Sorry for the rant. I just hate when people are dishonest. Be a jerk, be rude, be boring - just don't lie.
It pisses me off to no end on either side of the situation. As someone who works out quite a lot, I get so many statements like I wish I could eat as much as you and not gain weight. Excuse me? No, I just work out a lot...I'm not naturally thin so I know this battle all too well. Most of my family besides my immediate family is very overweight because they do not regulate what they eat!
ReplyDeleteI haaate those kinds of comments that, intentionally or not, discredt/take away from the hard work you put in!
DeleteIt's so dang hard to have had the 4 child-spawns and then try to keep my stomachs area in check. Working working working...hard hard hard.
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine it gets much harder every time you have a spawn ;)!
DeleteTotally agree!! It seems obvious now, but there was a long time where I thought everyone just naturally looked good and that I was messed up because I couldn't become fit looking in one day. It's dangerous because it encourages the "all or nothing" mentality.
ReplyDeleteI toooootally felt the same way for YEARS. I believed the interviews in magazines and on TV - I felt like a total failure & idiot!
DeleteYes. Yesyesyes. I've been working to maintain large-scale for more than a decade. It never gets easier. Luckily, after 10 years, I feel like I at least have a set point right around my current weight, but I'm still considered overweight.
ReplyDeleteNow that I'm actively trying to lose 25 more pounds to finish what I started, I can confidently state that the process never gets easy, and I constantly navigate the boundaries and grey areas between "diligence" and "possibly disordered eating" since I have to be so incredibly mindful regarding what I put in my mouth.
Celebrities have personal chefs that do the work regarding the food for them.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a post like this aaaages ago. It really irks me when celebrities tell the public bullshit, because then I have to deal with regular people who are surprised they don't look like supermodels after doing yoga! Haha
ReplyDeleteOh and Juliet's comment is awesome. I wholeheartedly concur :)
I agree! It makes you feel like if you struggle to make healthy choices or to lose or maintain, you are a failure. That makes plenty of people give up...let's call a spade a spade. Weight loss is tough and it sucks.
ReplyDeleteI actually do find it pretty easy to maintain. But yes, you do still have to be thoughtful about how you eat, work out, etc. My approach is pretty easy for me - I eat well most of the week (particularly when I'm at work) but allow myself to have treats every so often.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping this approach will work for me now that my thyroid condition is being treated! It sounds like a nice balanced way to do things!
DeleteI think a lot of the problem is that people strive to maintain an unhealthy or unsustainable body type that might not be what their body wants to do naturally. Also, I think it depends on the food you eat. If you subsist on lean cuisine frozen meals, that's not going to work in your favor in the long run, no matter what cal or macro breakdown you think is so great. I think if people focused on improving health more than appearance, all that would eventually line up anyhow. Not that it doesn't require work, or even a ton of really hard work, but if our health isn't worth it to us, what is?
ReplyDeleteIt is ridiculous, isn't it? The name that jumps out to me is Blake Lively. Every article I read about her where she discusses food she talks about how she doesn't exercise and eats chicken pot pie and cheeseburgers all the time. Not only is that not believable in the slightest, it makes women think that someone must be wrong with them if they can't maintain that sort of size effortlessly. Really, losing weight or staying at a low-digit pantsize is difficult to do!
ReplyDeleteBravo! Totally agree! And I also agree that maintenance can be harder then weight loss. I definitely have a weight I just sit at easily BUT it is definitely much higher then I feel healthy/ comfortable / happy at.
ReplyDeleteMethink they doth protest too much - whenever someone spouts all those "I don't..." disclaimers about their diet and weight - automatic side-eye right there.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, weight loss IS easy. Anyone can eat too little for enough time to lose some weight, in theory. It's easy on paper! And - keeping it off? Without wrecking your metabolism and your health? HARD! xx
Definitely. I think it's also easier to lose weight because you have a 'carrot,' so to speak - it's easier to stay motivated when you have the positive reinforcement of the scale, progress pictures, whatever. It's harder to maintain because there's no external motivator.
DeleteIt's also a heck of a lot easier for many of those people in the media, who can afford personal trainers, chefs, nutritionists, personal assistants, special food, potions, lotions and treatments, etc...
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree!
ReplyDeleteIt's not easy! I'd say it's harder than putting on or losing the weight! It's a constant struggle against the two extremes.
ReplyDeleteHey sable! Haven't been online much but wanted to tell you how much i admire you for being so honest about your struggle & your blunt honesty!
ReplyDeleteWhile i absolutely do agree that it's rather annoying to see people post about being a hardgainer while dining on half a piece of salmon, a teeny sweet potato & a bunch of green veggies - i do feel like i have to stand up for us people that really were just born with a fast metabolism.
Despite being a small girl (5"6) I need to eat about 2300 just to maintain my weight, and that's without any cardio, just lifting for 4 days.
Sometimes i feel like i should feel guilty for having a fast metabolism/being thin because fatloss is so easy for me (which i'm realising even more now heading towards my comp). When well.. i was just born like this - and it really isn't always fun! (sometimes i'd love to just eat because i'm hungry, but that would make me lose weight like crazy so i always eat a little extra!)
We're all different :)
Oh - I totally agree! I should have been more clear. I know there are real hardgainers out there - Max is one of them, the lucky jerk! ;-) - I just have an issue with people posting 1100 calories' worth of food and saying they're trying to gain weight. It sets a dangerous example, you know?
DeleteI would like to be you in my next life though. haha!
I'd actually disagree slightly and bet that most celebrities/actresses are the opposite, the AREN'T naturally thin. You can see it in the way that they flip-flop and yo-yo in weight so often. I especially feel for actresses (and models too) who started their careers in their early teens and younger. You can never tell how someone is going to look post-puberty and there's been many a celeb who's growth spurt was out instead of up and found themselves essentially jobless until they lost the weight.
ReplyDeleteIn a weird sort of way, seeing celebrities bounce between weights is a confirmation of how hard weight loss (and maintaining weight loss) really is. If someone who has round the clock access to personal trainers, personal chefs, nutrition consultants etc. and a career-necessity to stay at a certain weight can't always maintain their shape, it makes me feel better about my slipups as a person who doesn't have half those things going for her! It also proves that some body types are just not supposed to be at a certain weight for a long period of time. Not everyone is born to be a size 0!
VERY, very true. I didn't look at it this way but you're right. I don't want to name names - hate commenting on people's bodies! - but quite a few actresses come to mind when I think of the phrase "yo-yo dieting."
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