Fit Villains: Selfish, Shameless, Sassy, Fitness.

When it comes to fitness and body image, I’ve taken a pretty firm stance. All bodies are good bodies. You can’t hate yourself healthy. You can’t determine someone’s health by looking at them. Comparison is the thief of joy (and pointless). What your body can do is more important than what it looks like. And the needs of our bodies trump the needs of our egos, when it comes to keeping them healthy. (Ego needs are important too, but they cannot be solved with diet and exercise. That’s about attitude and changing how you think and feel about your body).

Along those lines, I don’t post ‘fitspo’ images here. I don’t believe it’s necessary or helpful to compare ourselves to others, and I also recognize that much like the images of very thin models we’re used to seeing in magazines, many fitness models are also photoshopped and represent unrealistic ideals to aspire to. And in my body positive space, there’s simply no room for any of that. 

Don’t get me wrong: I think some of these women are bad ass fitness rockstars. I’m at a place now where I can admire their bodies without feeling negative about my own. But I’m acutely aware that even they don’t look like that in real life. I know that the kind of life I’d have to live to even come close to their bodies is NOT one I want. I train hard. I eat healthy. I like my body. But i have a life outside of the gym. And it includes cake, wine, pizza and sometimes bacon. I need my body in order to live my life, but my body doesn’t rule my life. 

The shift from very thin, emaciated looking role models to the ‘fitspo’ girls seems like a slightly better alternative at first glance. But it’s INCREDIBLY important that we not swap one unhealthy ideal for another. (honestly, we shouldn’t have any ideals). The truth is that many fitness models employ incredibly unhealthy techniques in order to get as lean as they are in pics and in competition. They also don’t look like that all year round.

Competitors often go a few days without significant water, eat very restricted amounts, and can drop to body fat percentages that can rival those of anorexics. Models spend weeks prepping for shoots so they can be at their absolute leanest - not necessarily healthiest. And despite being as ‘perfect’ as possible, when it comes to photo shoots, there’s hair, makeup, lighting and THEN they are digitally altered to soften features, remove flaws and highlight desirable traits. Very often, fitness models often have veins removed from their arms and legs to soften their features (when you’re that lean with muscle, they pop out a bit). Many competitors have breast implants in order to give them a more ‘feminine’ look (boobies are made of fatty tissue. When you have less fat on you, especially in the single digits, the boobies get significantly smaller). Plus, most train specifically for shoots and competitions: even they don’t look like that all year long. It’s not realistic to expect even the best of us to measure up. 

And the biggest kicker (that no one ever tells you): not every woman can lower their body fat percentage to fitness model and competitor levels healthily. We’re not designed that way. A few can get there while keeping their health in check, but most simply can’t. And there are many risks involved with getting that lean when you’re part of the ‘can’t’ group. 

Infertility problems, hormonal issues (including loss of period), hair loss, bone loss, hair loss and organ failure are some problems women might run into after years of restriction and over exercising. During competitions, dehydration is a real problem: limiting water intake allows muscles to pop, but isn’t very good for your body (many competitors drink wine to further dehydrate). Laxatives are also used to reduce bloat. They shit out their insides to get even the smallest advantage. It’s interesting to see an industry based in health glamorize competitors who engage in unhealthy practices in order to compete with each other or show the world how ‘fit’  they are. 

While I love seeing muscled ladies represented more in general, we need to be more careful about linking health and aesthetics. We also need to be aware that fitness models are also airbrushed, photoshopped, digitally altered and that their bodies can be just as unrealistically attainable as the very thin models we see in magazines.

Bottom line: don’t compare yourself to others. Don’t idolize certain body types (admiration is fine. Idolization, not so much). And engage in practices that encourage your health and personal fitness goals (pushups, running a 5K, lifting heavier etc) instead of aspiring to a certain body type. Your body is not her body. You can only do the best YOU can. Your number one priority should be taking care of the vessel you’ve been charged with. You’ve gotta live with it a LONG time. Treat it well. 

I came across this AMAZING quote from a Facebook friend and wanted to share it with you. As a former fitness competitor, she dealt with her fair share of body issues and shares some realistic perspective as to why that ‘lean’ look isn’t necessarily as healthy as you might think. 

Via Go Kaleo

For a woman to have visible abs and muscle definition through her thighs, her body fat needs to be down in the low teens or even single digits. There are MAYBE 2% of the female population who can be healthy with a body fat percentage that low. The rest of us will experience hormonal issues, infertility, bone and muscle loss, impaired nerve function, brain fog, depression, anxiety, compulsive thoughts and behaviors around food and eating, fatigue and more.

I’m going to say this and it’s going to piss some people off. **Any guru who encourages people to pursue that aesthetic is irresponsible.**

I am still recovering from my ‘fitness model diet’. My weight is restored, but I am not 100% yet in regards to hormonal function and appetite regulation. And I was only at my lowest body fat %age for 2 months or so. I wasn’t even underweight, just low body fat. A healthy female body has body fat reserves that function as an endocrine organ! Yes, that body fat has vital endocrine functions and losing it puts our health at risk. We are healthiest, for the most part, at between 15 and 25% body fat, and most of us will have jiggly thighs and only the suggestion of abs in that range.

There are outliers, for sure, but they are a tiny percentage of the population and the rest of us need to get good with putting health before aesthetics for the sake of our sanity and the people that love us.