LittleDemon

When I trained a certain martial art, some years ago, there was a lot of pressure to be skinny. The belief was that the skinnier ytou were the more powerful you became because the less muscle mass you had to weigh you down.

It wasnt until I left and trained to become a personal trainer and nutritionsit, did I learn that this was in fact complete and utter bu**sh*t!!!

Power comes from training strength at speed!!!

I went from a healthy 9 stone down to an increasingly worrying 7.5 stone (way under my BMI for 5'3)

I noticed I was lethargic, depressed, fell ill easily, no enthusiasm, I completely lost myself.

I think people who have problems with weight and image are really trying to say that they disagree with obesity so much so that they think bu under eating and being really skinny people will think, oh look that person is far from being at risk of over eating.

I think also in martial arts as in any competitive sport the pressure to be the best and look your best ruins it for a lot of people.

This whole size zero fad is driving me crazy as a PT because now psychologically that I know better I could never deprive my body of food ever again!!

The fact of the matter is we all need fat!! 30% of it it indeed (unless for certain reasons I.E competition e.g Bodybuilding, which again is only temp for competition)

The less food you eat the more fat you gain!! due to starvation mechanism of when we deprive our body of food it goes oh my god jesus christ theres a shortage of food so everything that goes into my tummy i must store as food for protection and insulation of my body. Most cat walk models will actually be arund 90% body fat due to catabolism where the body actually eats its own muscle tissue, this is because muscle tissue is faster to breakdown as an energy source then fat.

The more you exercise the more you need to eat o compensate for what your burning off.

Here is a simple calulation to work out your own calorie intake range.

here is mine as example.

25 x 60 x 1.5 = 2250 (The amount I can eat to maintain my body weight now with exercise)

25 x 60 x 1.5 - 350 = 1900 (The amount I can eat for safe weight loss with exercise.)

to do it yourself do 25 times your body weight in KG then times that by either 1.2 if your a sedentary person, 1.5 you train at the gym or exercise 2-3 or more times a week or 2 if your olympic level athlete.

It's not fun being underweight and your body needs serious carbohydrates for the brain to funtcion. On average a persons brain will use up 6 litres of glucose from the blood stream per day!!!!
Your brain is about 70% fat which protects all the nerves which are responsible for making you, YOU!!
Deprive your body of what it needs and you strave your mind, body and spirit.

The double size zero is rediculous!! people eat less they feel depressed so they eat even lesser!!!

Love your body, you are unique you are one of a kind.

subject brought to life at http://groups.msn.com/pringlefitness

L.D.

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