Reflecting on Fitness Culture
Richard Simmons' recent death has made me reflect on fitness culture. In the late 1980s and 90s, Simmons provided an excellent resource to women. He made fitness and moving your body fun and accessible (and silly in the most unironic way)! Just load that VCR tape, and you could be 'Sweating to the Oldies' in your living room. Along with Jane Fonda and Suzanne Somers, Simmons shaped my memories as the earliest fitness influencers.
Women everywhere donned their bodysuits and leg warmers to sweat because that was the goal! Sweat, burn as many calories as possible, and lose weight (or maintain that slim figure). My mother's generation was the prime market for it, and I'm sure many Gen-X kids did those workouts with their moms and grandmas, discovering the fun in fitness. Not me, though. "Sweat? That sounds terrible." – 15-year-old Lea in 1989.
The Era of SlimFast and the “Eat Less, Move More” Mantra
In the Era of SlimFast, Nutrisystem, Lean Cuisine, and Crystal Light, the message heard by millions of women was clear: eat less and move more to lose weight. Kate Moss modeled that skinny is better. I was not immune to this message.
Health-conscious women of that era and the generations that followed tried to do everything right according to the current culture. We ate like birds and tried to burn as many calories as possible. However, while well-intentioned, this message did a disservice to women. While we measured our worth by the number on the scale, the muscle was wasting away with every decade.
The Misconception About Muscle Building
Many overlooked (or didn't know) that women can get fitter and healthier by lifting weights and eating enough to fuel and thrive in their bodies (enough to build muscle). This seems counterintuitive to the decades-long brainwashing we've been exposed to.
There wasn't a lot of muscle-building marketing aimed at women at that time or even in the decades to follow. Women were afraid to gain any muscle, fearing they would look like men. It's why the word 'toned' gained popularity. Women could get lean and toned, even though the only way to tone a muscle is to grow it. Muscle either shrinks (atrophy) or grows (hypertrophy); there is no tone—it is marketing. I don't mind the word, though. Call it what you want, but building muscle is what gives that firm, toned look you are after.
The Importance of Muscle Preservation
As you age (I am talking to you, women over 40), you may be concerned about how your stomach or arms look in the mirror, but it’s time also to start thinking about what your body will be able to do in the future.
Squat so you can get up and down from a chair (or the toilet!)
Deadlift so you pick up kids or grandkids (or those Amazon packages from your front porch)
Overhead press so you get items up and down from the top shelf
Lunge so you can go up and down stairs
Do heavy carries so you can carry the dog food home from the grocery store
It’s not just for vanity; strength training is training for life.
Unless we do something about it, we lose 3-5% of our muscle mass every decade from age 30. If you are not actively working at gaining or preserving muscle mass, you are likely losing it. And while losing muscle might decrease the number on the scale, it is the worst outcome for your health and metabolism. Your body composition changes if you stay about the same weight but lose muscle. Fat goes up, muscle goes down. It's one of the reasons why you might start noticing more fat when you haven't changed your diet or exercise routine.
Muscle loss means a loss or lowering of strength, independence, balance, resilience, and metabolism. In our aim to get slim as a generation, we may have sacrificed the most significant contributor to our overall health and longevity—muscle.
If you lose muscle every decade, how long until you lose your independence? Until you need help getting up and down from the toilet? Until a fall becomes a severe health risk? You eventually lose your independence when you don't have adequate muscle mass to move your body. If you start now, you can delay this as long as possible.
Strategies to Prevent Muscle Loss
Progressive Strength Building
Progressive strength building of all the major muscle groups at least two times a week is a great start. Progressive is the key here. As your body strengthens, you must continue challenging your muscles to grow.
It may be an unpopular opinion, but if you attend a fitness class or boot camp that uses the same weights each week, which is heavy on cardio and leaves you breathless, you are probably not progressively strength-building. Just because you are using weights does not mean you are strength training; this is another form of cardio. I am not anti-cardio. I am a running coach and a dedicated runner. Cardio is excellent for your health and can aid in weight loss but does not build the muscle you need, and when not combined with strength training and adequate nutrition, it can contribute to muscle loss. Cardio fitness is necessary, but more is required to maintain and grow your muscle mass.
The Necessity of Eating Enough
If you are in a constant calorie deficit (forever eating fewer calories than you burn was the overarching goal of the '90s, '00s, and beyond), you are likely not giving your body the fuel it needs to build muscle. You will likely experience one of several outcomes: you will not build (or maintain) muscle, you won’t improve your fitness or strength, or you may get injured or sick because your body won't have the calories it needs to recover.
While a calorie deficit can drive fat loss, it shouldn’t last for years and must include all the essential nutrients your body requires. In other words, if you’ve taken the all-or-nothing approach with a restrictive diet since 2010 and are not seeing the results you want, it may be time to consider a different strategy. I say this with empathy and kindness because it is precisely the mistake I made for nearly a decade: eating too little, then going off the diet, but overeating and still undernourishing. I wasn’t giving my body what it needed to thrive.
The Importance of Protein Intake
If muscle building is a priority, getting enough calories to grow muscle is part of the equation, including enough protein to support the muscle-building process. The general recommendation is 0.7-1 gram of protein per pound (or goal body weight if overweight). At the very least, if you are an adult woman who weighs over 120 pounds, especially if you are active, 100 grams of protein a day is a good starting point. Have you tracked? Many women assume they are getting enough because they eat chicken, eggs, a protein shake, and nut butter (technically a fat source), but once they track, they realize they are drastically under their protein goal.
The Metabolism Myth
Understanding Metabolic Adaptation
Another downfall of extremely low-calorie intake is that your metabolism adapts to the intake and slows. Women often come to me for coaching and tell me about their slow or broken metabolism. Your metabolism is doing precisely what it is supposed to do; it is not broken. You give your body fewer calories, and it slows to adapt so that you can live on fewer calories. It is keeping you alive. Tell it thank you!
How to Reverse Diet for Metabolic Health
The good thing about metabolism is that it is adaptable, meaning you can help speed it up by eating more. If you slowly increase the calories you eat, your body learns to use them. It helps with muscle building and gives you more energy to go about your day. Calories are literally energy. You might even lose weight. Why? Because when you eat more, you have more energy, move more, and build more muscle (which burns more calories at rest than fat), and as a bonus, you feel better overall!
Of course, it’s not just about adding random calories. What you eat to support your health is essential. Consuming a lot of junk or highly processed foods can lead to overfeeding and undernutrition. When adding calories, they should come from primarily protein, healthy fats, whole food carbohydrates, fiber, fruits, and vegetables.
It’s essential to remember that extended low-calorie diets stress the body, leading to higher cortisol levels, which can prompt water retention. Thus, you could lose fat but not see it on the scale.
If you are on an extremely low-calorie diet, slowly adding 50 to 100 calories daily (often called a reverse diet) can help speed up your metabolism over time. It’s not a quick fix. It takes time and patience, but after a period of maintenance calories, you can get the fat loss rolling again with a deficit if you are experiencing a plateau.
Low Energy Availability in Athletes
Another downfall of low-calorie intake for athletes is Low Energy Availability (LEA). LEA happens when athletes don't eat enough to support training and their basic biological needs. The over-exercising and under-nourishing diet culture of the 1990s bred this behavior.
Your body protects you, so you don't die (Thank you, metabolism), but you are not thriving. Your performance decreases, you have less energy, decreased metabolic function, immune function, and bone health, and you are unable to maintain a regular menstrual cycle (assuming you are pre-menopausal and not on hormonal birth control). You feel like you must eat less and less to avoid gaining weight.
You can get by on low energy availability for a while, but it doesn't last. It always catches up to you.
Age and Muscle Building
What worked for you in your 20s, 30s, or even your 40s may stop working as you age. It is not usually because your metabolism automatically slows as you age; it is because you move less, lose muscle, and do not consume the nutrients your body needs. Your actions have led to a slower metabolism, not your age directly. This is good news because you have more control than you may have assumed. I am not suggesting that there are no age-related declines or that hormones don’t impact us as we age; of course, it is the natural life cycle. However, too often, I hear women blaming their slow metabolisms on age when they haven’t yet addressed their lifestyle.
If all your lifestyle factors are in place, you get adequate sleep, manage stress consistently, do regular strength and cardio exercise, have your nutrition dialed in, get proper rest and recovery, and you are still not seeing results, it may be worthwhile to have your hormones checked and talk to your doctor about the next steps.
It’s Not Too Late
It's not doom and gloom, and it's NOT too late. You can turn it around. I wish I had started lifting weights in my teens and 20s, but those weren't my choices, and we can't go back—only forward. I didn't start lifting weights until my mid-thirties and didn't get serious about lifting heavy weights until my forties. As a result, I am fitter and stronger at almost fifty than I ever was at twenty or thirty. You live and learn.
I have an 82-year-old client who is a lifelong athlete but only started lifting weights consistently over a year ago when we started working together. Guess what? He is getting stronger all the time and developing phenomenal balance. It is not too late for him, and it's not too late for you (but don't wait; the earlier you start, the better!).
TAKE ACTION:
To have a lean and muscular body, and probably more importantly, to age well, get serious about a progressive weightlifting routine that strengthens every muscle group at least two times a week to start. Eat enough calories to support your goals and prioritize getting enough protein. Add quality sleep and healthy stress management; you will have a recipe for strength and health as you age. Need help?
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Questions? I’d love to help.
Coach Lea
I am a personal trainer, running coach, and master health coach dedicated to helping you get strong, body and mind!
