Of a recent survey I conducted, I found that of 70 participants...not one person was happy with their current body!
Not ONE!
In Australia, the most recent research shows that 63% of adults are overweight or obese, but a huge 80% of women are unhappy with their current body, even though a lot of them are in a healthy weight range. According to SBS, that number is only 45% for Australian men.
The International Journal of Eating Disorders conducted a study with a sample group of 1000 women - with only a quarter being overweight - and still found that 70% of these ladies felt that they wanted to be thinner!
So why are women notoriously so unhappy with how they look?
In the 80s and 90s, runway and magazine models were coveted for their thin frames and the way their small sample sizes hung off them; they became the ‘ideal’ body type. Most people are now aware that this can be unhealthy and unachievable in most cases. At the other end of the spectrum, plus-sized models are now promoted everywhere. While this trend has obviously evolved, there is now, unfortunately, a new sort of role model that has arisen in recent times.
The athlete.
Maybe they are a bikini physique competitor, a marathon runner, or a boxer, whatever their sport is they no doubt LOOK amazing. But the truth is that they have to sacrifice a lot of their overall health for the goal of optimal performance.
Now, obviously different sports require different physiques, and generally speaking, the body of an Olympic powerlifter is not so coveted. But I want to take a close look at a sport that has had a hugely growing popularity in the last 15 years.
Bodybuilding.
These men and women are idolised and considered the epitome of health, their visible muscles, and 6 pack abs are glorified. But the truth is they undergo extreme diets and grueling exercise regimes for months in advance to achieve these results.
Wanting visible abs is actually a very common goal for a lot of people, but the truth is only 1 in 25,000 people have visible abs. The body fat percentage you need to achieve to get visible abs is unhealthily low for most people, especially women.
If a woman’s body fat percentage falls below 15% she will usually stop ovulating. This is a pretty intense way for your body to tell you it isn’t in an optimal state.
Elite athletes, bodybuilders included, forgo optimal health for the sake of performance. A lighter person would be able to run faster and longer with less fatigue, but these athletes are being paid. They are chasing glory, gold, and fame. A lot of the time these people are not working 9 - 5 jobs and hustling their fitness on the side. They are making money off their body: from their Instagram account, the ads they feature in, and the competitions they win.
As it is their job, we tend to see these 1 in 25,000 people EVERYWHERE! They clog our news feed, they advertise all of the products we see and buy, they’re on the cover of magazines, in movies and it seems like every poster for every gym ever has a picture of a sweaty woman with a lean physique and ripped abs.
But there is no disclosure statement included about how incredibly unattainable that is for most people. So unattainable in fact that you are more likely to be a millionaire than have 6 pack abs!
The truth is this person you are idolising probably doesn't even walk around like that all the time. They lean down for a shoot or competition by starving and dehydrating themselves and then the moment they walk off the stage or set they binge because they’re freaking starving from the process. Even most athletes have an “offseason". These advertisements and photos we see, they are just a glimpse…a brief snippet of their lives.
And unless you are being paid a lot of money for those abs most people don’t want to live their lives that way.
So back in the 90s, everyone wanted to be model thin, now everyone wants to be bodybuilder thin. We have been completely and utterly tricked into believing that these people are healthy. We base this on what we see - we see that they exercise, they have muscles and they don’t look starved. But they are. We have entered a new age of the same old shit. Idolising starvation.
And it isn’t talked about enough.
I am here bringing the truth and dropping the facts.
The essential body fat for women is 10 -14%. The optimal body fat percentage for a woman under the age of 40 is 20 - 30% (it gets slightly higher as you get older). That’s a big range and also quite a high number. Female elite athletes and bodybuilders usually operate at around 10-16% which is dangerously low.
I want you to look at the image to the right that shows 27-29% body fat.
This can still be HEALTHY. You do not have to have a FLAT stomach to be in optimal health the same way having a flat stomach does not depict optimal health. This image, this idea needs to be shared. Spread it wide and far.
Body positivity.
Let’s discuss the body positivity movement, the ‘healthy at any size’ idea! I saw a young trainer post a pretty controversial response to an image he saw about the body positivity movement the other day. He reshared a picture of a young overweight woman sitting in front of a mirror with a message about being happy with the skin you're in at any stage of your life. I, unfortunately, haven't been able to find this exact image again. I will include it if I find it at a later stage.
The message the trainer had shared was that the “body positivity” movement was encouraging more people to be overweight. He argued that there was no excuse for being overweight and that every person has the same potential for health, fitness, a normal BMI, and a ‘healthy’ waistline.
However, this is far from the truth. I shared a National Geographic study with this young man that highlights information that I have known for a long time. I now want to share this with you.
People that are overweight as children and teenagers gain more fat cells, and then have those fat cells for the rest of their lives. So, with childhood obesity on the rise, this is going to be true for more and more people.
Again, this information needs to be more widely known. If a qualified personal trainer doesn’t know that information, then how will the general population ever understand it?
Now, what does this information really mean?
I personally was overweight as a child, not a lot but enough to be teased for it. Whilst being bullied is never a fun time, it has shaped me into the person I am today. Because of those extra fat cells that I gained as a youth, it will always be that little bit harder for me to maintain my body at the size I want it to be at. I will always need to eat healthier and exercise more to be the same healthy size as others that were a healthy weight in childhood due to this fact.
I am lucky I decided to make a change early. I am glad I can look back on a horrible time in my life where I was bullied for my weight and appreciate that it was my turning point, which not only lead me to a healthy life but inspired me to pass on my knowledge to others. I decided at 12 to learn more information about diet and nutrition and had to teach my mum what sort of foods to feed me. If I hadn't been teased maybe I would have just kept eating these foods that my parents didn’t realise were so bad for me, maybe I would have gained even more weight and struggled even more as an adult.
But my scenario is not the case for everyone. Children don't have control over what they eat. These days 20% of children under 18 are overweight and 15% are obese. These children are being set up to fail.
If you are overweight or obese as a child, then have decided to get healthy by committing to exercise and eating healthier foods as an adult, you may lose some weight but the rest of it might not budge. You may feel better due to eating nutritious foods, drinking more water, and moving your body. You might feel stronger, have fewer aches in your joints and no longer feel out of breath on a simple walk around the shops. The truly important things. But when you look in the mirror, you don’t see any more change. So when some young, fit-for-life trainer preaches to you, telling you that you aren’t working hard enough and that you have as much potential as the next person to get a 6 pack… how much is this going to affect you? How will it make you feel?
If you feel sad and hopeless, thinking why even bother when nothing is working, I suck, I can't do this… This might be a contributor. Harmful messages might send you spiraling back to where you started and then some out of shame, self-doubt, and self-pity.
This is where the body positivity movement comes in. You may have reached your weight-loss potential, especially if you were overweight as a child. Your weight loss journey may have ended but your HEALTH journey will never stop.
To me, the body positivity movement isn’t about accepting your unhealthiness as a way of life or an unchangeable thing that is a part of who you are. It is about loving yourself enough to continue to take care of your health and overall well being regardless of your body weight.
To me, it feels like in society people are all too happy to comment on our weight like it is a sign of our overall well-being. “Hey, you have lost weight, you look amazing!” But we really have absolutely no right to comment on someone’s weight. Positively or negatively. You have no idea how someone got where they did, you don't know anything about their journey just by looking at them and you may be promoting bad eating habits by commenting on what you perceive to be someone's success.
But weight loss does not equal success and we are all FAR MORE than what we look like.
Try commenting on someone's energy or their glow rather than their weight. Because ultimately HEALTH is more important than weight and weight is not always a depiction of health.
We know that there are morbidity risk factors that increase as someone becomes more and more overweight, but reminding someone of those risk factors doesn't give them the ability to change. Focusing on the negative is no way to go about eliciting a healthy response in anyone.
If you love yourself, you will be more likely to want to take care of yourself. To nourish your body. To move with joy, to find gratitude in each day, to take time to do things you love because you know that you deserve it.
I want to spread knowledge and truth. I want everyone to know these three things.
One. Visible abs do not make you healthy.
Two. If you were overweight as a child you will always struggle to lose weight, and that’s okay. It doesn’t mean you should stop looking after your health.
Three. Commenting on someone’s weight is never okay and absolutely none of your business.
Normalise belly fat, normalise cellulite, normalise the health journey, not the weight loss journey, normalise small success, normalise complimenting someone’s energy or their smile rather than their body fat percentage
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