An email advertising this post-Thanksgiving day workout arrived in my inbox last week. Sure, exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, but can you can you identify any problems with an advertisement like this?
Oh, where to start? Exercise Bulimia? Check. Working out beyond the point of exhaustion? Check. Peer pressure? Check. Working out as "punishment" for, God forbid, enjoying a meal? Check. There's so much more, but I'm starting to get depressed.
"HOLISTIC: UR DOING IT WRONG" is all I want to say to that trainer.
Also, WTF? "I'm going to wear a {whatsit} and not stop teaching until we've {my emphasis} burned 800 calories."
One would think that a certified trainer would know that everyone's metabolic rate differs. My guess is that I'm taller and fatter than she is, and will burn 800 calories long before she will.
Stuff like this makes me shake my head. Like others have already indicated the whole idea of working to an arbitrary number, (800 calories by the LEADER'S count no less) is silly.
Exercise should be fun and make you feel good; not be part of some sort of punishing regime done only for the sake of thinking that is somehow balances out with 800 calories of your last meal in some fantasy-style zero-sum calorie game!
For me 800 calories equals 90 minutes running quite hard. Initially I didn't find the ad offensive although I can see how some people could. Do you find ONQI more positive in its approach to food? See my brief post here http://seehowsherunsat.blogspot.com/2008/11/healthy-eating.html
How messed up is our society when we have to do such harsh penance for celebrating a holiday meal? Very few of us gorge ourselves on Thanksgiving anyway. Those of us who spend eight grueling hours on our feet preparing it are often too exhausted to finish our meal anyway. I'd like to think I burned the calories PREPARING the meal. Especially since I didn't have time to eat all day long.
I'm very small, and burning 800 calories would take off close to half of what I eat in an average day. And you know what that would do? Make me hungry!!! And then what would I be tempted to do? Overeat!
Thanks, I'd rather stick with my regular routine of cardio, yoga and Pilates, plus a healthy calorie level and nutritious food. I don't like peer pressure in exercise. I like the way that in my yoga classes the teacher emphasizes that every exercise can and should be modified, and to listen to your body.
For those who want to lose weight, too much hard cardio can just lead to excessive hunger and binges. I weighed more when I was doing way more cardio than I am now, and it's not cause I had more muscle, it's cause I found it very hard to control my eating. If you enjoy that kind of workout, than have at. But there are much more gentle, better muscle-developing ways to get healthy exercise and feel great.
[FYI: Hm I'm using this google account thingy but i've posted before as cggirl....]
You guys are right about the exercise bulimia and exercise as punishment.
Also, this is a little off topic but: April it's obviously your choice to want to weigh less through calorie restriction, but to many people who experience what you describe with exercise - maybe not you personally, as i don't know you - but many people - they would rather weigh less than actually be active and strong and exercise a lot and eat accordingly. And some people - again, I don't mean you necessarily April, just people who might be reading this and be influenced by it - some people are actually too weak to exercise much because they aren't eating enough, because they want to weigh less. Period.
Exercise is wonderful and has many health benefits whether the person loses weight or not. (Which is why I object to the WAY it was advertised in this example.)
And some people's perception of "normal" eating is in fact undereating for their body's needs, so when they exercise and eat to fuel their body, they see this as "overeating" and "out of control" when it's really just being hungry and feeding yourself accordingly.
I know April that you and I have had a discussion about your choice of Calorie Restriction as a lifestyle, but not everyone reading this realizes that's where you're coming from (including when you describe roughly how many calories you take in) so I just wanted to throw a different perspective out there.
This reminds me of going to a Zumba class with a couple of friends who are in Weight Watchers. I was having a blast and sweating my butt off. One of them says afterward, agitated and dismayed, "I can't believe I only burned 400 calories!" I can't believe these guys. A) How accurate is that stupid thing on your wrist? B) It is probably better at sucking every morsel of enjoyment out of your life than telling you how good of a girl you were today.
14 comments:
It seems to advocate purging through exercise. Not cool.
Oh, where to start? Exercise Bulimia? Check. Working out beyond the point of exhaustion? Check. Peer pressure? Check. Working out as "punishment" for, God forbid, enjoying a meal? Check.
There's so much more, but I'm starting to get depressed.
"HOLISTIC: UR DOING IT WRONG" is all I want to say to that trainer.
Also, WTF? "I'm going to wear a {whatsit} and not stop teaching until we've {my emphasis} burned 800 calories."
One would think that a certified trainer would know that everyone's metabolic rate differs. My guess is that I'm taller and fatter than she is, and will burn 800 calories long before she will.
Stuff like this makes me shake my head. Like others have already indicated the whole idea of working to an arbitrary number, (800 calories by the LEADER'S count no less) is silly.
Exercise should be fun and make you feel good; not be part of some sort of punishing regime done only for the sake of thinking that is somehow balances out with 800 calories of your last meal in some fantasy-style zero-sum calorie game!
A punishing regime. Those were my thoughts exactly, April.
Wish I had known about that earlier.
Other than that, it's sort of a bunch of crap.
how much exercise does it take to burn off 800 calories? ouch. i'd go into cardiac arrest very quickly. very sad stuff.
Where to begin? How disgusting is that?
And off topic, but I thought you'd be interested to read this:
http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2008/11/female_artists_1
For me 800 calories equals 90 minutes running quite hard. Initially I didn't find the ad offensive although I can see how some people could. Do you find ONQI more positive in its approach to food? See my brief post here http://seehowsherunsat.blogspot.com/2008/11/healthy-eating.html
Eight hundred calories?? Is she insane???
How messed up is our society when we have to do such harsh penance for celebrating a holiday meal? Very few of us gorge ourselves on Thanksgiving anyway. Those of us who spend eight grueling hours on our feet preparing it are often too exhausted to finish our meal anyway. I'd like to think I burned the calories PREPARING the meal. Especially since I didn't have time to eat all day long.
This lady is encouraging exercise bulimia.
I'm very small, and burning 800 calories would take off close to half of what I eat in an average day. And you know what that would do? Make me hungry!!! And then what would I be tempted to do? Overeat!
Thanks, I'd rather stick with my regular routine of cardio, yoga and Pilates, plus a healthy calorie level and nutritious food. I don't like peer pressure in exercise. I like the way that in my yoga classes the teacher emphasizes that every exercise can and should be modified, and to listen to your body.
For those who want to lose weight, too much hard cardio can just lead to excessive hunger and binges. I weighed more when I was doing way more cardio than I am now, and it's not cause I had more muscle, it's cause I found it very hard to control my eating. If you enjoy that kind of workout, than have at. But there are much more gentle, better muscle-developing ways to get healthy exercise and feel great.
april
I'm with Palmtreechick.
[FYI: Hm I'm using this google account thingy but i've posted before as cggirl....]
You guys are right about the exercise bulimia and exercise as punishment.
Also, this is a little off topic but: April it's obviously your choice to want to weigh less through calorie restriction, but to many people who experience what you describe with exercise - maybe not you personally, as i don't know you - but many people - they would rather weigh less than actually be active and strong and exercise a lot and eat accordingly. And some people - again, I don't mean you necessarily April, just people who might be reading this and be influenced by it - some people are actually too weak to exercise much because they aren't eating enough, because they want to weigh less. Period.
Exercise is wonderful and has many health benefits whether the person loses weight or not. (Which is why I object to the WAY it was advertised in this example.)
And some people's perception of "normal" eating is in fact undereating for their body's needs, so when they exercise and eat to fuel their body, they see this as "overeating" and "out of control" when it's really just being hungry and feeding yourself accordingly.
I know April that you and I have had a discussion about your choice of Calorie Restriction as a lifestyle, but not everyone reading this realizes that's where you're coming from (including when you describe roughly how many calories you take in) so I just wanted to throw a different perspective out there.
This reminds me of going to a Zumba class with a couple of friends who are in Weight Watchers. I was having a blast and sweating my butt off. One of them says afterward, agitated and dismayed, "I can't believe I only burned 400 calories!" I can't believe these guys. A) How accurate is that stupid thing on your wrist? B) It is probably better at sucking every morsel of enjoyment out of your life than telling you how good of a girl you were today.
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