I came across something the other day that made my left eye start twitching uncontrollably – as it tends to do when I get extremely frustrated/annoyed.
I was glancing through some old fitness magazines, when I came across this little gem:
Don’t snack back the calories you burn?
As in… eat less and exercise more? As in… don’t refuel your body properly?
As in… set yourself up for complete failure in the long run?
It’s no wonder that so many women have disordered eating/exercising habits when they’re constantly being bombarded with garbage advice like this by all of the popular fitness magazines – the same fitness magazines that advocate adhering to a strenuous workout schedule and a 1400 calorie a day diet.
Fail, fail, fail.
Thankfully, there are actually some sources of good advice out there…
… they’re just not found in the popular media.
I know that I’ve been mentioning The New Rules of Lifting for Women a lot lately, but that’s because I honestly adore this book – especially the chapters about nutrition. The authors don’t promote any kind of “lose 7 lbs. in 7 days by eating 1200 calories a day” quick-fix garbage that only ends up screwing you over in the long run, but they offer advice that’s meant to increase your strength, your health, and your metabolism…
Mmm. Advice after my own heart…
I used to buy into the whole “eat less and exercise more” mentality, and while, sure, you may see results quickly, they’re probably not exactly the kind of results you want… especially in the long run…
Your body adjusts to starvation, which basically means that the more you restrict, the more you keep having to restrict in order to get the results that you’re essentially killing yourself for.
You also have the pleasure of experiencing the oh-so-pleasant side effects of starvation, including fatigue, depression, decreased performance, and hormonal imbalance.
Fun times… Except, not really.
So why are we still being sold that kind of advice? And why are we still buying into it?
Instant gratification.
We want to see results, and we want to see them yesterday – nevermind the consequences. And there are consequences… saying goodbye to delicious food being one of them…
Steel cut oats topped with banana slices, wild blueberries, and coconut butter.
Cookie and Muffin messes…
English muffin with cream cheese/jam & almond butter … Banana bread over yogurt
I eat, and I eat a lot, which consequently gets me a lot of funny looks. It used to make me self-conscious, and question if maybe I was eating too much, but any less and I feel like absolute garbage. I know what I need, and if other people want to be miserable on their starvation diets, that’s their prerogative. As for me, I’ll continue to eat like a horse and enjoy the metabolism of a cheetah, thank you very much.
. – . – . – .
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the whole “eat less, exercise more” mentality, as well as any experiences you have with properly fueling and exercising 😀
I actually read that caption differently- a lot of women who are clinically overweight or obese do the right thing by starting to exercise in an attempt to lose weight, but then eat MORE than what they burned and end up gaining weight, which can be very confusing because they have started exercising. While you can obviously take this to extremes, as many of the above comments do a great job of pointing out, I don’t think the caption in the magazine is wrong or inherently evil. I think it just simply doesn’t occur to many women that they need to continue to watch their food intake even after they start exercising.
The way that you eat, and the way that you have learned to listen to what your body needs, is much more sophisticated than the majority of women out there. Most people do NOT know how to listen to their bodies yet, and warning women that they do need to continue to think about what they eat even when they are exercising isn’t the same as endorsing disordered eating, in my opinion.
How do you lose weight if you eat the calories you burn?
I eat about every 3 hours starting at 6am. People think I’m absolutely crazy for eating all the time and are shocked by how I can stay fit eating oh so much. Properly fueling your body … requires FUEL! I always feel so bad for my family/friends/coworkers who are starving themselves trying to loose weight.
DIETS DON’T WORK – end of story.
Cheers to you for providing your body proper nutrition, we should create the “I eat 6+ times a day club” 🙂
I’m a little bit confused.
I know that for me, I absolutely have to refuel if I’m exercising more. My body just can’t afford to lose any weight. I inherited my dads genetics, so I’m lucky in the sense that I can eat A LOT and not worry about gaining. On the other hand, my mom and my brothers are overweight- and if there not eating less and exercising more, then how will they lose weight? I feel like calorie restriction is more sensible than say, some ridiculous low carb, high protein diet…but is it just as bad?
Oh, and let me just point out that I am soooo not criticizing your blog. I actually really love your blog, and I’m asking you because I really respect what you have to say 🙂
I could not agree with you any more! I think it is so often put out there that we need to eat less, but it is just so stupid! Calories fuel us, our metabolism, muscle growth, EVERYTHING!
Can I just say amen? So many magazines fill their pages with articles that are misleading – especially to young and impressionable girls. On the other hand, this books sounds amazing (and right on point) – I need to pick it up! 🙂
Holy Hell! I need this book! Dang it! Why do I not have it?!?! It sounds like some stuff I could really use to read. So sad I don’t have it.
Ps… I’m not advocating exercising hard and eating 1200 calories a day -obviously that’s not enough!
Taking in adequate calories and fueling properly is key, no doubt there! But if your goal is weight loss than it is important to watch your portions/snacking. I think a lot of people don’t have a good grasp on proper portions and overestimate the amount of calories they are burning during exercise – and then they dont see the results they are looking for!
Looking at that caption you found in a magazine made me sick. What kind of message are healthy people sending to other healthy people? Food = fuel. DUH! It makes me almost NOT want to even read those magazines any longer.
You probably know exactly what I’m going to say about all that stuff… I bought into it so deep! Even before I developed a true eating disorder, I honestly believe that in order to loose weight, I had to burn off not only the calories I ate but MORE than what I ate! (you know, to create a “deficit”… because bodies CLEARLY don’t need calories to, you know, SURVIVE or anything…) I would bike (the only thing I could do, because, to make matters worse, I was recovering from a career-ending riding injury) for 5 hours everyday. From the moment I got home from school, until 8 PM. Then I would have a bowl of lettuce and chicken breast (for the proteins so I wouldn’t lose muscle!) and go to bed. Ugh. I was DUMB.
Magazines are the print version of the infomercial. It’s all about instant results for the low, low cost of starving yourself.
BTW, your food photos are awesome!
Very well said! I think the moment that I realized how ridiculous “eat less, exercise more” is was when I was worried about an upcoming race. I was a bit heavier than I had been during the last two years and I didn’t want my time to be slower. Come to find out, I ran my fastest time ever and felt strong during the whole race! Even though I was heavier, I was healthier! Now I eat what my body needs and don’t worry about staying a certain weight!
what the hell, thats actually insane. Seriously the media can be so bad when putting messages out there, and they dont seem to care the damaging effects it can have upon people.
Food is good; i’m learning that, and it upsets me when media do things like this, because it makes you feel like your going against the norm. So thank you lovely, for putting the message out there, that eat less, exercise more, is not right, nor should anyone else believe it.
By the way, the oats mmmm look so good. 😀
Love Jess xx
You go girl! I eat a lot too. And had to get over the self-conscious about eating a lot thing too. Media is really good at making it seem like a girl should never be seen eating, let alone eating full sized meals numerous times a day. To hell with that. I’m damn proud of how much/often I eat. In fact, every time my hunger rolls around I want to thank my body for having an awesome metabolism. I just wish everyone else felt the same!
SO glad I found your blog, my posts are usually similar to this! my whole take on this eat less excerise more thing is that you can eat a lot of food and still be physically fit its just a matter of WHAT you are putting in your body and if you are waiting 2-3 hours inbetween each meal to eat. I need neeed need to eat every 2 or 3 hours but I make sure I eat the right foods that are going to keep me feel full and satisfied. I usually eat large meals full or lettuce spinach tomato avocado chicken peppers (all good for you stuff) then I eat lots and lots of fruit a couple hours later. I find that this combo helps me feel full quickly but my metobolism begs for more of these good foods only a couple hours later. The result? well I weight 113 lbs and workout 5 ot 6 times a week. I dont stay in the gym for over and hour and half ever. So i tend to eat more than I excerise but like i said its just a matter of putting good for you food in your body and waiting 2-3s between each meal.
To me eating right you need to put quality food in your body and then the quantity of the food will not matter, as much. One huge type I have for being such a low weight that I am (113) is to eat fruits and veggies as much as possible. It’s what I live off of… I do however pair my veggies with chicken tofu or fish. Pairing meat with veggies is a key to my lunches and dinners. Snack usually include some fruit because the high water content makes me feel like I ate a lot even though the caloric count of fruit is so low!1
Amen woman! Yet again we posted something very similar at the same time! know I you wrote this last night, but I talked about the need I feel to exercise constantly too! Ughh such an annoying and relentless though but one that can be overtaken
good post. i just posted on the topic of orthorexia and an excellent book for those with it…i have limited access to internet now so can’t write more on it just yet, but must, the book is really eye-opening and relevant to bloggers (more than they realize).
wish i culd do something. big failure. honest. most people take a few months off. me? a few years….a short walk is my exercise..and i think its just me being depressed and lazy. ridiculous.
I agree with you 100% on the topic! The other month, my favourite women’s running magazine had the advice of eating 1200 cals a day, and doing at least an hour exercise (mainly running, mind). I was furious! That is a starvation diet! REAL nutritionists wouldn’t even say go below 1500 cals, for weight loss, WITHOUT exercise, so to see 1200…arhghghghg. I tweeted them and was like ‘boohiss, shameful folk’ but they didn’t reply. I haven’t bought the magazine since!
I’ve never understood half the stuff that Shape & Self magazines put out there. Eat 1200 calories a day and work out super hard.. your body needs fuel and clean, whole foods as well as healthy fats and carbs! No fat/no carb/low calorie diets do get you pretty instant results but you start depriving yourself so much that eventually you get tired of telling yourself no and you break.
That book looks really interesting and I’m gonna have to pick it up. I love books that have sensible info on nutrition.
oh my goodness I’ve been LOVING this book hardcore. I haven’t started the workouts yet because I want to really read and understand what they’re talking about. It’s such an inspirational book. The way he writes is hilarious and yet so informational.
I can’t believe how little I used to eat a day. Now I can’t stop grazing and munching on foods.
I can honestly say whenever I have a bedtime snack and a breakfast before my workout I feel SO much better and I have a great workout. Food is fuel and it is necessary.
Great post!
Hormonal imbalance? I think I’ll pass 😉
Anytime I hear eat less, I get turned off. I’m totally in love with food and could never starve myself.
amen sister!! I think that idea is complete garbarge! we dont want to ruin our bodies, but make them stronger 🙂 I love the line about eating like a horse, having the metabolism of a chetah ahahaha (same her though gurl, same here!!)
Awesome post…in my experience eating less and working out more makes everything suffer – including the quality of my workouts. I have trouble feeling hungry right after the long run sometimes, but boy is it fun to “snack back” the calories I burned
Excellent post! You raise a lot of good points. I have a friend who is on a ‘diet’ and the more I hear about it, the more I think “uh, terrible idea”. I remember thinking that 1,200 was enough and I HAD to exercise to maintain. Bad things happened. Now I know my body needs more, don’t restrict and make sure your body is fueled with good wholesome foods. I’m a scavenger so I eat throughout the day (5-6 meals). It’s embarassing since I eat when others don’t (i.e. snacks), but I know that’s what my body needs. It’s sad to think of the torture some bodies go through by not refueling properly.
Such a fab post! What a load of tosh that magazine is! I ran 13.1 miles yesterday and I made sure I ate those calories back by eating a massive chocolate and nut butter filled smoothie. I hate how the media automatically assume we are all wanting to lose weight, I’ve lost weight and now I’m trying to maintain so I have to make sure I’m fueling and re fueling myself correctly as I really don’t want to lose any more. I think your post has also just pushed me over the edge and on to Amazon to order that book! 🙂
Oh girl, seriously, just every single post you do just makes my heart sing. I refuse to buy magazines about diets and exercise because I know that these kind of ridiculous things are in them. There was a time when I was over-exercising and restricting throughout the day and making myself incredibly miserable. There would be days where I would actually be crying whilst working out because I was so depressed…doing this for a long time ended up in me binging every night, not going to bed until after midnight because I was too busy uncontrollably stuffing myself until my stomach hurt because my body was crying out for food and couldn’t take it anymore. I was so unhappy and it just wasn’t a life. Now I fuel, re-fuel and man I eat like a horse! I actually don’t eat in front of my friends out of fear of them judging how much I eat throughout the day because I’m embarassed. I guess I shouldn’t be and I should take pride in how much I eat now compared to my dark ED past but I don’t know..it’s something I still need to overcome. I honestly don’t know how women can workout and eat 1200 calories because it’s torturing their bodies…they must feel so depressed inside too.
IYou raised some good points here 🙂 I always hated that “eat less, exercise more” approach. It leaves you drained, tired, unhappy, and what´s the point of having a slender figure when you don´t have enough energy to walk, talk, have fun and enjoy yourself? Of course, I have been there to. I exercised a lot and thinks like pre-workout snack or after-workout snack didn´t ring the bell in me. I was constantly tired and exercise was no fun. Now I really enjoy my workouts and I enjoy my meals as well. I also often get strange looks when people se how much I eat, but when my body needs it, my body gets it – I´ll take care of it 🙂
Oh gosh, been there done that. Just yesterday I remembered how few years ago, I had lettuce and cottage cheese for dinner after my karate practice. Not eating the calories I’ve burned during the hard practice. Awful. Now I know better. I eat a ton, probably more than a lot of girls my age, but who cares. Do I workout every day? Nop. Don’t have the time or the energy for that. But fueling myself properly every day, regardless of the workouts, is making me pretty happy and healthy. I am glad I’ve realized that.
And, hun, your eats are always looking so yummy, and inspiring 🙂 Because of you, I’ve tried so many great combos, and made so many great yogurt messes. Thank you for that 🙂
Well, at the beginning it really works. You have the perfect metabolism and the weight just falls off. It’s like a month later you’ll have the killer body you’ve always wanted but then the fun part ends because your body refuses to play your self-destructive games and you face all the ugly consequences of the quick fix diet delusion. Been there, done that. Now I think it’s much better to give my body the energy it needs to function and let it decide what to do with it. As for magazines, I try to avoid them as much as possible.
I used to go by the exercise more eat less whole philosophy and you just realise it leaves you moody grumpy and not good at all! Way better to ust eat responsibly and regularly!
I hope this post gets a lot of search hits, because it is necessary. Back in February, when I first started running, I was attending a “boot camp” and I asked the instructor how many calories I should be eating. KNOWING that I was running 4x a week, she still said I should only be eating 1200 calories. Or maybe it was 1100. Either way, I was fortunate enough to have friends/do research and realize that that’s not only not okay… but could’ve been dangerous.
That said, these days I don’t worry about calories. Maybe I should be, cuz I don’t tend to reach for healthy foods like you do, but I think I’ll survive the way I’ve been going.
1200 calories running 4x a week? Omg. People shouldn’t be eating that little even if they’re NOT running 4x a week. That’s just insane.