When talking about weight loss for women, so many people have shared with me that the message they keep getting from doctors or other health practitioners is to ‘move more and eat less’
Every time we hear that someone has been given this advice off the back of a 15minute consultation it makes us pretty mad!
The statement is normally based on a whole heap of assumptions, and little, if any, questions are asked to create an accurate picture. If someone has little understanding of what you are currently doing and what you are currently eating, their advice may be completely irrelevant or just plain wrong.
And while this may be appropriate advice for some, in our experience, it’s more likely to cause more harm than good.
What could be so wrong with this statement “eat less and exercise more”?
After running a boutique fitness studio for over 10 years, here’s our experience on the topic.
1. Weight gain, metabolic damage and yo-yo dieting
This constant rhetoric of needing to eat less is causing entire generations of women to cut calories too much.
When we teach our ladies at SWC how to fuel their bodies for optimal results, more often than not they are gob-smacked by the amount of food their body needs to thrive.
In our experience, most women think they should be eating less than they need, which results in them cutting calories too much and causing other health issues.
This is a brief summary of the danger in cutting too many calories or doing it for too long;
- Almost always results in diet culture, binging episodes and yo-yo dieting
- Almost always results in weight gain because it’s an un-unsustainable way to live
- Causes metabolic damage (which results in more weight gain)
- Causes irritability, fatigued, brain fog and often enhances anxiety and depression
- I could go on, but I think this is a pretty convincing starting point…
We have worked with many women who were restricting their calories more and more every time they received this messaging. And it was the wrong message for them!
Perhaps a better rhetoric is to learn how to fuel your body for optimal health 🤔… that’s how we like to look at food anyway.
2. Overtraining
One of our members was told to ‘move more and eat less’ to lose weight when she was already training 5 times a week and under fueling her body. This led to more overtraining, poor recovery, stress and eventually, you guessed it, more weight gain.
Not only can these symptoms turn into quite serious health conditions, they also make you feel like life is always hard and exhausting.
Not great for your confidence and general mental health!
3. Emotional damage
Women are already pretty good at blaming themselves for their weight gain and telling themselves they are not doing enough. Stack this emotional pressure on top of a health practitioner telling you to ‘move more and eat less’ when you are already doing your best…how’s that for your mental health?
This statement can be very damaging to women both mentally and emotionally, especially when women are going through hormonal changes. Again and again, we hear stories of women being told that physical symptoms of menopause are ‘normal’ and they should just keep reducing their food intake and exercise more if they want to lose weight during this life phase.
But going through menopause is NOT the time to starve yourself ladies! It’s the time for compassion so that you can successfully navigate all the symptoms that come with hormonal changes. Most of all, your body needs to be well nourished to help ease the symptoms of menopause, many of which can be eliminated with the right advice but worsened when undereating.
As with all advice, when in the wrong hands it can cause more harm than good.
Our advice is to
- Learn how to fuel your body for optimal health, and weight loss will become a side effect of being healthy
Or
2. Seek advice about exercise and nutrition from industry experts who can provide up-to-date and relevant advice, and have the time to understand you, your body and your goals before giving guidance.
Strong Women Can provides personal training for women who want to become their strongest, healthiest and happiest selves, and this often includes sustainably weight loss.
To help our women achieve this, we provide program design and nutrition that is completely personalised to ensure best results for each and every individual.
Enquire NOW to find out more
Contact us at [email protected] for more info.
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