Size 'does' Matter

Heyyy Girls!!!
There is a very famous quote that I would love to share with all you gorgeous ladies out there. Here goes,
"The average woman would rather have beauty than brains, because the average man can see better than he can think."
Does it ring a bell? For me it does. It bring a sense of deja vu because there have been times when I've found myself trying to hard just to catch the attention of someone I fancy. I'm sure its happened to everyone reading this. But does having the sexiest figure and most gorgeous face is all that matters? If yes, to what lengths are we willing to go to attain it? With the rising popularity of skinny jeans and size zero body measurements, the pressure to look like a million bucks all the time is rising on every girl. But does this million dollar body actually exist? Or is it just another hoax of the fashion and beauty industry? Are the people who promote the mantra of "Thin is In" work out as hard as we do and make as many dietary sacrifices or are we just a bunch of fools? Lets find out...

Kim Kardashian in a Photoshopped picture

In today's day and age things have changed. You can see the change in people's mind and the attitude. Its quiet simple actually: Looks Sell. The media is flooded with pictures of beautiful men and women having physiques that can one can only dream of possessing. These un-realistic images create un-attainable goals for us and we end up succumbing to look thinner than we need to be or look younger than we actually are. Fad diets, liposuction, enhancement surgeries are as common among today's generation as getting a new hairstyle or buying a new pair of jeans. What we don't realise is the long lasting damage we do to ourselves in this rat race. Today, I'll be sharing with you the pro's and con's of all these diets and surgical procedure that are suddenly being advertised everywhere.

Size Does Matter

Isabelle Caro, a french model who died of anorexia related complications 

When celebrities loose weight, it makes the headlines in the 9 pm news! Yeah, that's become a trend these days. Stop eating all together or barely survive on glasses of orange juice and cups of green tea or black coffee to supress your hunger pangs and when you do lose weight, get your publicist to get you in the media to talk about your "weight loss" through exercises and healthy diet. Most of the times our celebs undergo body sculpting surgeries to get that fab body. Well in all honesty, you can't really blame them. They live extremely stressful lives with hectic schedules so working out can't always be a priority. That's when tummy tucks or butt implants do the trick. The sad part is that it has a direct effect on the mind of the young and impressionable among us. Women succumb to fad diets and there are some desperate enough to start skipping meals and even stop eating altogether.

Steroid abuse has become alarmingly common among young men these days

 Men on the the other hand need to flaunt six pack abs too! They remove all fat and carbs from their diets and start using supplements to achieve quick results. But these 'short-cuts' are very short term and extremely harmful. Hair fall, brittle nails, dull dry lifeless skin, dark circles under the eyes, irregular menstrual cycle etc. are just a few of the many ill effects of such fad diets. Men who use steroids and other such supplement or work out excessively using heavy weights suffer from liver and kidney disorders, low immunity and there was also a case recently wherein an ex-model/actor suffered from impotency after leading such a lifestyle for a couple of years. Eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, orthorexia nervosa etc. also plague many. These eating disorders have also resulted in un-timely death of many young women.

Side effects of steroids

                                                           The Healthy way to Skinny

Yes, contrary to popular belief there is a way to loose weight and get into a pair of leather pants without avoiding food. Its the simple, tried-tested and successful formula of Exercise + Healthy Eating. If you have already heard of this before and wondering where to start to get results you want, lets get into how to apply this formula on yourself for immediate healthy and sustained weight loss:

Weight loss happens when your body is deprived of calories required daily to maintain your current weight. This is known as your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). You can easily calculate this online. Now 1 pound of fat is made up of 3500 calories. Yeah, that sounds like a lot but we can easily loose these pounds by following the tried tested healthy weight loss formula. When you lose weight by following fad diets and or completely skipping meals, you may see the numbers dropping on the weighing scale but this isn't "Fat Loss". Its simply the loss of muscle and water stored in your body. Your body is deprived of the food it needs to survive and in response it enters what is known as "Starvation" zone. Here, the body starts breaking down muscles to survive and preserves fat because fat is what would help us survive in case there was an actual famine and we indeed starved to death. Now fat has more volume than muscle which means that 1 pound of fat in your body would take more space than 1 pound of muscle. Muscle in lean and burns upto 30 calories on its own, in a day. While 1 pound of fat which makes you appear bigger/wider burns only burns upto 10 calories. So now we know that Muscle has higher metabolic activity than Fat which means that we should have a high muscle mass and lower fat percentage to look lean, be strong and stay thin the healthy way for the better part of our lives.

Health Experts say that our physique is a result of two important factors put together. They are Diet + Exercise. The importance of our diet cannot be under estimated when trying to loose or maintain our weight. The importance of diet and exercise should be put at the ratio of  70:30. Yes, our body is influenced up to 70% by what we eat. Any amount of exercise can't help if your dietary habits are poor or unhealthy. Its important to eat a balanced diet comprising of all major food groups. There is a common myth of avoiding carbohydrates and sometimes even completely eliminating them from our diet. This is extremely harmful because carbohydrates give us glucose which is the fuel for our body. Eliminating carbohydrates from our diet can cause constipation, bloating, tiredness, mood swings and bad breath among other problems. Avoid refined carbohydrates like white flour or white rice and try to opt for the healthy alternates like multi-grain flour and brown/red rice which are loaded with fibre and vitamins and will help you fight hunger pangs caused due to fluctuating blood sugar levels.
Include the three essential food groups Protein, Carbohydrates and Fat in your daily diet in recommended quantities and combine this with regular exercise for a healthy and efficient weight loss. Also break down your meals from 3 large servings to 5 small ones spread all over the day to keep your blood sugar levels stable and your metabolism high preventing your body from starving and storing fat.

Here's hoping you enjoyed this read! Please become a member of my blog for regular updates of other such informative articles that every young girl can relate to.