I have been reading other peoples fitness blogs and have started to notice a trend. It seems to me that most ‘fitness blogs’ are obsessed with diets (not diet, but ‘dieting’) and seldom seem to be interested in exercise, training and physical fitness.
I started to wonder if this was a problem with society in general, do we think that skinny = healthy? I can’t help but think that if people got as obsessed with fitness as they do with weight loss, they would be killing two birds with one stone… I.e. if you get fit, losing ‘fat’ (not weight) will take care of itself.
The Phantom and the Atom
6 years ago
4 comments:
Hey there!
I think if you are reading women's fitness blog, you might run into a lot of this (weight issues).
I blame the tabloids.
There are however some blogs out there that concern themselves with training and exercise, but nutrition is also an important part of being all around healthy.
Unless you're Michael Phelps.
Hi, yes, I was mainly reading females blogs when I thought of this but i didn’t want to be too specific... I really think, that most people have it the wrong way around, because losing 'weight' comes from fitness and well being so if I’m going to be obsessive about something, it's going to be fitness :) I feel like I get more for my money this way :)
Dan
Dan, flowfit is a body-weight sequence a bit like Prasara Yoga. The clip on my blog has a bit of it. Check it out here: http://hunashaman.blogspot.com/2008/08/holistic-fitness.html
Dan, I could not agree more! However, if I can impart my (biased) scientific view point here I think it makes sense. OK, here it comes again - evolution, testosterone, and muscles, oh my!
Women are deluded about what is attractive to a male and I agree with alice who suggests it might be the media that drives this. The women portrayed in the media are not always attractive. In fact, many of them are really really too skinny. So our female counterparts see, read about, and hear about this and want to emulate this, because "if it's on TV or in a magazine it must be sexy and attractive" Not true. It is well known that males prefer females with a certain waist-to-hip (WHR) ratio (.7 to be exact). This effects is seen pretty much cross-culturally and across generations. Why is this so? Well the .7 WHR represents a biological ideal; i.e. females who have a curvaceous WHR are more likely to become pregnant, less likely to experience difficulties during pregnancy, and produce offspring (children) that are on average slightly smarter and more socially adept. So men actually prefer curvaceous NOT skinny females. For the most part physical fitness training for females accentuates the natural shape (as long as it is not body building training) of a female. It activates estrogenic release and development of hips, etc. Dieting does not do this. In fact, dieting can actually result in an increase of fat storage in the wrong places - the stomach - which detracts from the curvaceous shape which is so attractive to males.
On the other hand, males too diet. I myself have fallen victim to the idea: "I want a six pack, so I will go on a diet" This does not work if you do not have well-developed core muscles underneath. Diet should reflect your bodies needs for energy to conduct your every day life. Think about Michael Phelps - 8 time gold medalist in olympic swimming, as if I had to mention that - he eats 12,000 calories a day, but workouts like a beast! In similar fashion as I mentioned for females, there is an optimal body configuration that is attractive for males - it is the shoulder-to-waist (SHR) ratio; i.e. the V-shaped male). Why is this attractive? Because from an evolutionary perspective this means the fella has high levels of testosterone and is fit enough to defend a female, her young, and hunt for food.
OK, enough science - I agree with Dan - if I am going to obsess about something it's gong to be about fitness and not how many beers I can, or cannot have.
Great discussion!
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