Fit Villains: Selfish, Shameless, Sassy, Fitness.

Excerpt from ‘I Gained Weight’ via Fit Mama Training

So I’ve taken more rest days in the last month than I have in almost 2 years.  Not being able to workout is really hard for me.  It has become a very important part of my mental health and I look forward to it (almost) everyday.It makes me feel strong, refreshed, clear-headed, calm and powerful.  I did not feel those things lying on the couch with a box of kleenex.

Holidays happened.  I ate well.  And by well I mean prime rib and mashed potatoes.  I had every intention of eating the amazing holiday food, just not all the mediocre stuff before.  And that I did. 

My stomach has also been jacked up in this mess so I wasn’t able to rest and eat lots of fresh produce.  I don’t know about you, but when my stomach is churning a big leafy spinach pile doesn’t sound like a good idea.

So I gained weight.  Not a lot.  My measurements have changed.  Not a lot.  But I am bigger than I was at the beginning of last month.  Here’s the kicker. 

I don’t give a shit.

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Saw this gallery a while back, and while it is CRAZY fascinating to peek into a world where weight GAIN was the obsession, I can’t help but notice that the emphasis on looks and the marketing used was oh so similar to what we have today…despite the difference in ideal body trends.

I’ve seen these ads on several pro-curvy sites, and while I agree that they’re awesome to look at, they speak to the fact that women were still expected to fit an ideal. While women nowadays starve themselves, have liposuction and plastic surgery to attain what they consider to be the ideal body, in those days many naturally thin women engaged in unhealthy practices too: they spent money on products and special ’pills’, they ate unhealthy foods and gorged themselves way more than their bodies needed and avoided exercise all to gain ’attractive pounds’. 

It’s not which ideal that’s popular that’s the problem. It’s the fact that we maintain and try to attain that ideal instead of demolishing having one to begin with. When we attack each other for reinforcing or ignoring the ideal, we hurt all of us. It doesn’t matter whether it’s size zero, or size 22: women across the ages have gone out of their way to try to fit whichever body type was popular. And there is no one that’s better than another. No one should be made to feel bad about the body they’re in. 

There is no right way to have a body. 

See more here.

Hey there beautiful & frustrated,

This is a love letter and a plea to help your body do its thing. This is for the girls who are killing themselves with deprivation & workouts, but aren’t seeing diddly in terms of results. This might be you now, or this might have been you at some point.

The number one way your body burns calories is through your metabolism. Your B.M.R (basal metabolic rate), is how much your body burns in a day, on its own, based on your build, composition, hormones, activity level (not workouts, just in general), sex, age & more. This is the amount of calories you need to consume in a day to keep your weight as is while doing pretty much nothing. For example, on a day when I don’t workout, I need to eat about 1700-1800 calories to keep my weight as it is. On days when I DO workout, I eat up to 2300 or more. Why? Because my metabolism allows for it. It will fluctuate over time, so paying attention (not obsessively, but overall) will allow me to make adjustments as my body changes.

When you create a calorie deficit WITH your B.M.R. through diet & exercise, this is how you lose weight. It is NOT about exercise & diet alone. They work WITH your basic metabolism. The higher this number is, the more you can eat, the easier it will be to create a deficit and the more efficient your body will be overall.

Alright… Basic part over. Now, on to why you aren’t losing weight eating 1000 calories a day (or less).

When you don’t eat enough (or create too big a calorie deficit through exercise & diet), your body will lower your metabolic rate over time. It doesn’t happen right away, but over a few weeks your body can go from burning an impressive 1500-2000 calories on it’s own, to a fraction of that. That’s why you might lose weight for a short while, then you plateau. Your body has self-defensed it’s way into a lower calorie output for your B.M.R: and it will do this to preserve energy to do things like keep your heart beating & digest your food.

It does everything it can to stop you from depleting your calories; it needs them! Suddenly, that huge deficit you’re making actually lowers your B.M.R, and can cancel all your hard work right out. And when you start eating normally (like you do at the end of a fad diet)? It will stockpile all that calorie jazz: you might experience a fast gain. Your body doesn’t know when the next ‘starve’ is coming. It’s not a bad thing, your body’s not the asshole. It’s saving itself from YOU.

So, you starve. You lose a little. Your body freaks & tries to hold on. You stop losing. You eat normally. You gain even MORE than you lost. Pattern repeats. No fun.

The trick to weight loss is to create a small enough deficit while eating regularly & sufficiently to keep your basic metabolic rate high (and not freak your body into ‘gotta hold on’ mode). I know quick fixes are tempting, but the pattern speaks for itself. This is why extreme diets do not work longterm (if you’ve been on more than one, you already know this).

Raising your metabolism takes time, but not long. You may gain a wee bit, but that will come off sooner than later. It requires eating the amount that satisfies your body and your goals: not just focusing on the deficit. And eating healthy, clean foods.

So, if you’re eating too little, if you’re stuck, if you’re not losing and worried that eating more than 1000 calories will make you gain: you’ve freaked out your body. You need to eat more, strength train, and boost your metabolism. Muscle needs more calories to work, so the more muscle you have, the more you’ll burn (and the better you’ll look). Cardio exercise can burn fat, yes, but also muscle. You don’t wanna lose that muscle.

This works, I swear. You’ll start making yourself better able to lose weight, both necessary weight AND vanity pounds.

Or, you know… Keep doing what your doing. I can’t tell you how to run your life. But I can tell you it’s more fun to eat, hit your goals, and NOT be stuck in a shitty pattern that you already know isn’t working.

Give yourself permission to gain a few pounds to raise that metabolism. The weight won’t stay there long, it will come off once your body’s back to normal and you’re creating a healthy deficit instead of an unhealthy pattern. Just saying!