GETTING SHREDDED!! ARE OUR FITNESS IDOLS REALLY AS HEALTHY AS THEY APPEAR? What you can’t see
How many of you are following various ‘fitness’ models because they ‘look amazing’ and they inspire you to want to look like them, and so TRY to stick to some kind of diet for weight loss? Yeah... I’m guilty of that too!!
So what do we do? We restrict our eating, lower our calories, cut out sugar, cut out fats, essentially… we start starving our bodies in the dire hope this will help us shed fat, tone up and get lean! And you know what.. 9 times out of 10 it works! Happy days! We are looking great, we are smashing goals, we may even step on stage and compete in a fitness or bodybuilding show! Why not? So lets keep going with this low calorie diet and see how lean we can get. Initiate ‘competition prep diet’ – 15-20 weeks of strict dieting, over exuberant ‘cheat meals’, low energy levels and training. It’s getting to the point where you are starting to dream about peanut butter covered chocolates and big cheesy pizzas. Oh you can’t wait to stop dieting so you can ‘binge’ on all that lovely food you have been depriving your body of for so long.
SHOW DAY! Killed it!
You made it to the stage and you looked sensational! You know you did, because you posted your ‘transformation’ pic all over FB, got 150 ‘likes’ and everyone told you how amazing you are! Totally time to celebrate with that jar of peanut butter or nutella (you have handy with a spoon the second you get off stage) and that pizza you have been dreaming of. My god they tasted sensational!
DAY ONE POST COMP
BREAKFAST! Pancakes, bacon, ice cream, maple syrup, chocolate sauce, eggs, toast, butter, iced coffee. Oh man it all tastes so good! No more limitations as to what you can eat. Let the scrumptious meals continue to roll on into your mouth. You can go for gold now! The rest of the day runs fairly similar where you are indulging on all those tasty food groups you have been depriving yourself of for so long. Life. Is. Good!
1 WEEK POST COMP
You are 5-10kgs heavier in 1 week!! What the hell?! Time to pull it together and back to healthy eating.
4 WEEKS POST COMP
You are feeling fat, bloated, depressed. You are struggling with energy and motivation. As for weight loss, well geez that doesn’t seem to be happening either. What the hell is going on? No one told me this would happen.
8 WEEKS POST COMP
You have tried to get back into dieting but it’s just not happening. The weight you put on after comp has far exceeded where you even started BEFORE the show. Not only do you look and feel physically different, but this is starting to play with your mental state in a serious way too. Your self esteem has plummeted and you are struggling to feel good about yourself when social media is throwing all these fit looking bodies your way. HELP!
Now that I’ve taken you through what happens to almost EVERY SINGLE person who competes in a bodybuilding/fitness show, the severity of weight gain ‘post comp’ is extremely varied for everyone. This is purely due to the way they ‘dieted’ to begin with and how they handled their calorie consumption coming out from comp.
And so this leads me into the nitty gritty fun stuff! Our ‘Thyroid’. What does it do? And why is it important? This is a very simple and basic explanation. The thyroid gland is responsible for controlling the rate of our metabolism. In lament terms – how fast or slow our body breaks down food for energy. So what is the link between the thyroid gland and dieting? Well, our bodies are EXTREMELY smart machines that were designed to do whatever possible to survive. Eating a ‘restrictive’ or low calorie diet as seen in many people dieting for fitness or bodybuilding shows simulates starvation and therefore triggers our body to flip into survival mode.
To put it very basically, the thyroid is controlled by the ‘hypothalamus’ in the brain, which stimulates the pituitary gland to release ‘Thyroid Stimulating Hormone’ (TSH). This release of TSH produces T3 & T4. ‘Active’ T3 is what binds to the cells in our body and regulates our metabolism. The amounts of T3 & T4 created are directly aligned with our calorie consumption and how hard our body needs to work to metabolize these calories. So, you can only imagine what happens when we start to lower our calorie intake to dangerously low levels. The less calories we consume, the less T3 & T4 is produced, which ultimately leads to a slowed metabolism.
So, lets go back to post comp. You have done some serious calorie cutting to lose weight for your show, this has slowed your metabolism and your body is very strongly in survival mode. Now that you don’t have to diet anymore you return to eating whatever you want with no regard for calories at all. However, your body is still in a slowed state of survival. So, you absorb everything and gain some serious weight. This weight gain not only plays havoc on your body physically, but more seriously, mentally. So what can you do to avoid this physical and mental catastrophe?!
Obviously the objective of competing is to lose as much fat as possible and bring your leanest physique to the stage. So cutting calories HAS to occur right? Taking care of your thyroid during this time IS POSSIBLE, if you know (or are working with someone who knows) what they are doing. Consuming foods such as:
- Tuna (selenium)
- Spinach, mushrooms (zinc, iron & copper)
- Fish oil (omega-3’s)
- Coconut oil (MCT)
- Colourful berries & vegetables (antioxidants & B-vitamins)
These foods all help support healthy thyroid function and can be inclusive of your competition diet. This will help maintain a stable metabolism and will therefore limit your risk of severe weight gain post comp.
Coming out of comp can be a very stressful time for every athlete. You can feel ‘lost’ with no real direction or goal to strive for. That’s why people turn to food. So, if you want to lose weight or are seeking guidance and support and you don’t know how, make sure you talk to someone WHO KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE ON ABOUT! They should put you on a diet and exercise regime that is low risk to any serious health issues. Otherwise, there are a few key things you can do:
Eat all the dam colours of the rainbow! This will make sure you are not only eating your necessary ‘macro’ nutrients, but also taking care of your ‘micro’ nutrients.
Don’t cut out food groups. That means consuming fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts etc.
Eat wholesome foods (this means foods that DON’T come out of a packet).
Include cardiovascular and resistance exercise into your routine.
Coming out of comp, DON’T BINGE on everything! Just gradually become more creative with your meals and slowly add more calories. This will increase your metabolism again and you will avoid serious mind boggling weight gain.
They are my five main rules that I LIVE BY! No I’m not ‘shredded’ 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year. But I’m happy and flexible with my food.
So, the next time you are scrolling through your instagram and are oogling at that chick with the raging 6-pack that she appears to have ALL YEAR ROUND, think about the serious health implications that low calorie diet is having on her body. Focus on yourself, what you do, the decisions you make, the person you are and what you can do to be the best, happy, glowing, healthy version of you!
