First of all, there has been some controversy over this season's winner of the "Biggest Loser TV Show." I caught wind of it on Facebook and a quick google revealed that the winner looked more anorexic than fit. Now, it is a competition to see who can lose the most weight, not necessarily the most body fat or look the best. Hopefully, the contestant will put some muscle back on her frame now that it is over.
That brings us to a discussion of Thin Vs. Lean! Here we go!
Nutrition: Thin Vs. Lean!
Often people will look at a thin person and think to themselves; now that person is nice and lean. But, is that really always the case? Does being thin have a direct relationship with being lean? In order to answer this we must examine what it means to be thin verses what it means to be lean.
You can define being thin as having a small circumference size. This would be denoted by small waist, arm, leg, and chest diameters as well as a low body weight, all in relation to overall height. The definition of being lean, however, is measured by overall body composition. This would be denoted by a low percentage of body-fat verses percentage of lean mass (muscle and bone).
You may be surprised to know that thin people quite often are not lean at all. In fact, many thin people have a much higher body-fat percentage than you might think!
Now you may be thinking; how is that possible? Thin people don't look fat, so how can they have much body-fat? Consider this example: Two women at 40 years old are both 5' 7'' tall and both weigh 120 pounds. Woman # 1 has a body-fat percentage of 25 and a waist size of 30. Woman # 2 has a body-fat percentage of 16 and a waist size of 27. Both look thin, but woman # 2 is clearly leaner.
What could be the cause of this? How could both women be the same age, height, and weight, but one is so much leaner than the other?
One culprit can be atrophy. Atrophy is the term used for loss of muscle due to inactivity. It can be from a sedentary lifestyle combined with age or from disease or injury. Atrophy can begin to occur in people at around the age of 25 who are sedentary or do no resistance training or strength training. By the time a person reaches their mid to late thirties a significant amount of muscle can be lost if no resistance training is being done.
Once atrophy begins, up to 1 pound of muscle is lost per year and is replaced by nearly 2 pounds of fat! As muscle is metabolically active tissue, when it is lost, your metabolism slows down allowing for extra fat storage. This translates to up to 10 to 15 pounds of lost muscle and up to 20 to 30 pounds of extra fat by age 40! So if a person does no form of resistance training it is likely that by age 40 even though they appear thin they will have a higher percentage of body-fat than meets the eye.
Resistance training is often omitted by people, even those who do exercise for general health. Many people will walk, jog, and bike for fitness, but resistance training is just as important! Aerobic exercise will develop little to no muscle.
Indeed resistance training is a recommended activity for anyone looking to have a healthy living. Nowadays, even many cardiologists are prescribing resistance training for their heart patients because when the skeletal muscles and strengthened, the heart experiences less stress during normal daily activities, like grocery shopping or vacuuming the carpets.
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends resistance training 2 to 3 times a week for all apparently healthy people, especially adults. If you need help putting together a resistance training program you can go to CoachKira.com or FitnessMakeover.com for programs.
Remember, that just because a person is thin does not mean they are lean. While being overweight is a determining factor in accessing risks to your health, so is carrying higher percentages of body-fat! Don't aim to be thin, aim to be lean!
Motivation
Whether you realize it or not, your subconscious mind picks up on all of your positive or negative statements that you say or think about yourself!
Think of your subconscious as a sponge. It soaks up tons and tons of information, some of which you are not even aware. Everything that you come into contact with in your daily life gets absorbed into your subconscious and will stay there forever, as you are not able to filter through what gets to your subconscious mind.
You may think questions to yourself such as, "Why am I so fat?" and your subconscious focuses on the fat part. It doesn't hear the rest of the statement. It focuses on fat and that is what becomes programmed into your mind. Subconsciously you will keep feeding that part of your mind with the word "fat" being the focus. This is why it is so important that when people use affirmations to end their battle with binge eating disorder they are careful of what they say and think. By filling your subconscious mind with negative statements about yourself, you will get what you don't want, even though that is not your intention.
The subconscious mind accepts any and all information because it does not know any better. This is also why affirmations work so well: Your subconscious cannot distinguish what is real and what is not real. You must use this to your advantage! When you find yourself thinking a negative thought, it is imperative that you counteract that statement with a positive one immediately.
The main purpose of reprogramming your subconscious mind with affirmations is so you can change your current reality. What is it that you want in your life? What do you wish to attract in your life? How do you see your future in terms of binge eating?
Since your subconscious mind makes up about 90% of your whole mind, can you imagine what can happen to your life by incorporating affirmations daily? Your dreams can start to become your reality. Binge Eating can start to become a thing of your past.
Affirmations can help with all areas of your life including: fears, anxiety, personal development, and improvement with yourself. By adding affirmations to your life, your self-esteem and confidence will grow more than you can ever imagine!
Right now you may be at the lowest point ever, because you binge or have other issues. You may not be happy in your life and wish to change. You want a happy ending, but are unsure of how to get there. Even though there are obstacles in overcoming binge eating disorder, don't let that discourage you. Don't focus on how long it may take. Take each day and live for that day. Focus on not binging that day and start positive affirmations:
"I control my eating"
"control my emotions before eating"
Remember that ending binge eating will come with the help of subconscious change. Notice what will happen to your life and welcome the new you with open arms!
Training:
Focus on effective abdominal exercises! Check out Get Fit TV podcast for the proper form. Swinging your legs does not constitute an ab exercise. It only works the hip flexors and not the abs! Pelvic tilts are key when doing lower ab focused exercises. Check the ebooks at the ProShop for more info! Here's how to do the reverse ab curl the right way!
Create new habits and new thoughts. Grab my new book, (available in paperback) "Mindset Makeover," available at The Book Patch.com. Contact me for private coaching at CoachKira.com.
Get all the most recent episodes on iTunes or download this episode here:
Fit 196 Eliminate Bad Habits, Thin vs Lean and Abdominals
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