Skinny Isn’t An Ideal- Evolutionary Arguments Against Being Thin
Here in the West, we live in an environment where the predominant body image ideal for women is to be thin- being skinny is considered the Holy Grail for many of today’s women and images in the media reflect this idealization as most popular models are ultra thin and further enhanced through post image processing to look even thinner than they already are. The ultra-thin look unfortunately embodies a certain degree frailty and lack of physical ability, with low to no muscle tone and a body weight to height ratio that falls far below recommended standards for healthy body composition.[1] It is somewhat ironic that only a very small percentage of Western women meet the ultra-thin ideal [16] and that over the past few decades women’s body sizes have increased while societal ideas of ‘beauty’ call for thinner and thinner looking bodies.[43] Exposure to the ultra-thin ideal is practically unavoidable as advertisements, television, movies and magazines constantly bombard us with images of tall, (usually white) thin models and actresses with an almost anorexic BMI of under 18.5- one that is far below that of the average American woman. The discrepancy between the unattainable sociocultural ultra-thin ideal and the average Western female’s body has had far reaching effects on the female Western population. So much so that Western female concern over their physical appearance is termed ‘normative discontent’ since the overwhelming majority of women today harbor some degree of insecurity regarding their body image.[44, 45] Such body dissatisfaction is a major is a major risk factor for eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia as well as mood disorders such as depression.[3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] While there are many discussions about the root causes of body dissatisfaction and the fact that attempting to be ultra-thin is unhealthy both physically and psychologically we seldom stop to consider that the idea of being thin goes against our evolutionary past and possibly against our genetic makeup. In this article we look at the ultra-thin standard of beauty from an evolutionary standpoint and show that it not a universal ideal, but rather a path towards shame and misery and that ultra low body fat is not healthy. Thank you for reading my work and do be sure to share it with someone who would benefit from reading it!
Being Skinny Isn’t Ideal- Conflicting Ideas Of Beauty in Other Cultures
While millions of women in Western countries believe that being skinny as an ideal, the models, actresses and celebrities who embody this standard of beauty would have a very difficult time being perceived as attractive by the standards of most non-Westernized inhabitants of our planet. [10] One of the problems is that we like to think that our standards of beauty are somehow ubiquitous, and all women should aspire to be as thin as possible, yet nothing could be further from the truth. Cultures differ widely in their attitudes towards female body fat levels [9,11, 12 13] and most undeveloped countries associate having a considerable amount of body fat in certain parts of the body with high status. [9] The exact opposite of how body fat levels are perceived in North America and Europe where millions of women are diet obsessively in a bid to become as thin as they possibly can- often with adverse physical and psychological consequences. There are exceptions though, as minorities in Western countries (who typically have lower incomes) tend to identify with a heavier look as an ideal, while white women see a far thinner look as being the epitome of what it means to be beautiful. The standard explanation for these different perceptions of beauty has always been that people in poorer countries and those of lower socioeconomic status in developed countries have far lesser access to food. Consequently, a woman who is a bit on the heavier side would be assumed to have an abundant food supply and thus more likely to be both fertile and in good health. A practical ideal that those of lesser means would logically strive to attain. [9]
As reasonable as this may sound, the food supply hypothesis does not stand up to closer scrutiny, as men who are fatter in developing countries are often perceived as lazy and not hardworking- negative traits that make them undesirable as mates. More significant is the reversed notion that being thin in affluent countries is a sign that you are affluent enough to know where your next meal is coming from so you can afford to control your caloric intake.[36] On the surface this certainly sounds does plausible, but thinness cannot logically be a symbol of status because it is impossible for an outside observer to know whether someone is thin because they choose to be thin or because they are impoverished and have a limited food supply.[10] ‘Pro-skinny-as-a-sign-of-wealth’ explanations also do not factor in how being thin would have been an evolutionary advantage for women and how it could ever have been an aid to the continued development and survival of the human species.
Being Skinny Isn’t Ideal- The Importance Of Fat
Fat has a very unfavorable connotation in this part of the world, but it does nonetheless play an important biological role in human females. Fat acts a as a storage mechanism for calories in the event of reduced food supplies, it provides insulation against cold temperatures and plays a major role in endocrine function by regulating the onset and maintenance of ovulation. [14,15] By storing calories, in our ancestral environments were there wasn’t always ample supplies of food, fat enabled our survival in times of famine and the allowed for the continuation of the species by allowing women to bring a baby to full term and keep the infant alive through successful lactation.[13] Before the invention of effective baby formula in the 20th Century, all human newborn infants who were not breastfed would die of starvation as they are unable to consume any other calorie source besides human milk, so it was imperative that mothers had adequate body fat stores to support the high caloric demand that breast feeding imposes or have the child nursed by another lactating female. [18] Keeping that in mind, from an evolutionary point of view, those who were underweight (sporting the highly coveted skinny look that is idealized in the West) would have difficulty conceiving much less being able to bring a baby to term or breastfeed. Models and those who strive to be underweight today regularly struggle with amenorrhea and very seldom are able to lactate. [19]
Being ultra-thin, would reduce estrogen store and limit not only fertility, but also increase incidence of osteoporosis and the woman’s ability to survive food shortages and the constant physical demands of the pre-agricultural age. Consequently, women with higher body fat levels would have higher rates of survival than thin ones and ancestral males would logically favored ‘fatter’ women as they would increase the likelihood of successful mating and child bearing.[20] Consequently, not having an ultra-low body fat percentage can be thought of as a universal human standard of beauty, one that may have been warped in the same way the human diet has been negatively and radically changed as a result of industrialization and the social and physical changes that come with living in today’s world. That said, if our ancestors emulated today’s Western standard of thinness it would have guaranteed the demise of the human race in our food scarce ancestral environments. [10]
Being Skinny Isn’t Ideal- Changing Historic Standards of Beauty
To support the prehistoric ideal of women not being thin, we have more than enough evidence of the idealization of a rounded female body in prehistoric art [21,22] and as a recurring theme in Western art as well until relatively recently. Our obsession with thinness came hundreds of thousands of years after the origin of our species and the early civilizations that did embrace a skinny ideal did so at a price. [21] Egyptian art for example, shows the idealization of a linear, thin and skinny physique for women of higher status- a look indistinguishable from the underweight, ultra-thin ideal of today. Our earliest records of lactation failure and the need for wet nurses come from historic Egyptian records dating back to 1500 BC as women emulating the thin ideal were apparently unable to breastfeed and we can surmise would have had difficulty conceiving as well. [23,24] In China a rounded, soft belly was an ideal for women as it was believed that a woman’s ch’i or vital energy resided in the lower abdomen. Women were ideally slim, but never to the degree of modern Western standards as they always had some fat in the abdominal region. [25] Ironically, from the fertile looking female portrayals of early prehistoric art to the busty and rounded women of the Renaissance period the idealized female in the Western World was somewhat voluptuous in nature as well. In fact, a certain degree of body fat has been a societal Western ideal from the beginning of recorded Western history up until the 1960’s when Marilyn Monroe’s curvaceous figure was very much the standard young girls aspired to emulate. [26]
In the 70’s, the popularity of Twiggy, an emaciated fashion model signaled a turn in the feminine ideal in print as her image and that of slimmer women sold more magazines compared to those with models whose body composition was more in line with that of the average woman. These changes happened in the arts as well, early photographs and paintings of ballerinas show them as being rather robust in build, but in the mid-20th Century this changed when choreographers such as George Balanchine, (often referred to as the father of classical ballet), envisioned a hipless and streamlined, (one could say boyish) figure as the ultimate expression of feminism in dance. An ideal that did away with the larger and more average sized dancers with healthy BMI’s and replaced them with the new standard calling for performers to be somewhere in the range of 5’7 weighing at or about 95 lbs. A body composition that falls well into the range of being under a healthy weight. [27] It is hardly a surprise that researchers have found that 15% of female dancers are anorexic and that over half display anorexic type behavior, [27] which many credits as a direct result of Balanchine’s standard. [27] Just as models are in magazines, ballerinas in Western societies are also often internalized as an example not only of perfection, but of what the feminine norm should be. Reviews of images in women’s magazines from the early 20th Century to the 1980’s and from 1959 to 1999 reveal that featured models have become significantly thinner over time [25] and one of the ways that this thin standard is achieved is by using younger and younger models. [27] As an unfortunate result, underage girls who should not be engaged in sexual activity are regularly used as a models, dancers and performers representing a societal sexual ideal. [10] One that creates an undesirable pressure on young girls as they are also forced to identify themselves as sexual objects at an early age- and thus are more likely to strive to embody the ultra-thin ideal. [10]
Skinny Isn’t An Ideal- Who Is To Blame?
The knee jerk reaction is to blame the media for the unhealthy idealization of the skinny, mannequin look- but it would be a mistake to do so as they are more a reflection of the problem than the actual cause, a problem that has been in existence among upper class European women since the 1500’s, long before the media had a firm hold on our collective consciousness.[28] While some studies do find evidence of negative effects of media exposure to thin ideals on female body image[29,30,31], those studies have never been conclusive and when reviewed are regarded as correlational at best. Equally important is that a considerable number of studies have contradicted the idea that media images are the genus of the ultra-thin body ideal. Research that has shown that media exposure to ultra-thin portrayals of women have no effect or in some cases, even positive effects on women without pre-existing issues of body dissatisfaction or eating disorders.[32,33,34,35,36] The disparities suggest that something far more complex than media pressure drives the female Western desire to be thinner,[28] Another common misconception is that women manage the way their bodies look to please men, but (as many men can readily attest) research shows that the preference for thinness is one usually imposed on women by other women. In fact, several studies have found that the average North American male tends to prefer women who are significantly larger than the skinny ideal. [37,38]
The facts of the matter require us all to look a little more closely at the issue, as like so many societal problems, it comes perhaps as a result of several social issues rather than one simple causative factor. The role of women in influencing the thin body ideal, for example, is seldom discussed, but studies have found that a young girl’s body image is influenced almost exclusively by their mothers and female peers. [39,28] Other studies find that the strongest effects on female body dissatisfaction are not from distal influences such as the media, internet, movies, magazines and television but from comparisons to close associates or unfriendly females. Dissatisfaction that increases significantly in the presence of an eligible male.[28] The most interesting finding though, is that body dissatisfaction is reported as being consistently lower in the presence of an eligible male among girls whose BMI fall within in the normal range and actually higher in underweight girls.[28] While being ultra-thin may be a societal ideal, women who embody that much coveted look tend to feel the most degree of discomfort in the presence of other females and a desirable male.[28] This particular study was done with women who were mostly Hispanic but it does call for more research into the subject with other ethnic groups.
Skinny Isn’t An Ideal- Why Ideals Tend To Be Unattainable & The Importance of Self-Acceptance
The fit look is becoming more and more popular among women and it can be achieved by simply following a healthy lifestyle as Christine Coen demonstrates.
It’s an extremely complex issue- with several other possible economic and child bearing related motivational factors, but there is one common thread between our current Western preoccupation obsession with thinness and our ancestral glorification of the rounded fatter look among women. Both ideals where just that- ideals. Ones that represent an idea that is for the most part unattainable by most of the population in both eras. To illustrate this point, we need only look at the limited food supplies and active lifestyles of modern hunter gatherer ancestors to see that actual obesity or even being overweight (and the chronic problems that can accompany it) was improbable among pre-agricultural humans. [40,41] We need only look at the women of modern hunter gatherer tribes to see that obesity is not a norm even though it may be thought of as being favorable. Women from hunter gatherer tribes tend to be what we would consider ‘athletic’ by today’s standards- with good muscle tone and muscle definition, [42] with a look that many Western women in the fitness world strive to attain. In fact, many routinely subject themselves to unhealthy and restrictive diets while over exercising in the name of attaining that particular ‘fitness look’ as an alternative to the ultra-thin ideal, a look that often focuses on the realization of a certain look rather than a healthy lifestyle. It does not have to be this way as it can be attained without extreme measures, but unfortunately the extreme approach is the one most common in our society. All the while the ‘athletic’ looking hunter gatherer women look westward to the curvier and rounder looks of typical of Western women as an ideal that they would love to emulate.
In the end it seems that we are almost hardwired to idealize what we are not, however, it is important to not compare ourselves with others or any standards about how we should or should not look as ultimately, it’s what you can do that determines human fitness and longevity, not what you look like. Imagine how much more we could accomplish as a society if issues of low self-esteem were reduced by a societal shift from it being all about how you look to a communal idea of self-acceptance with a priority placed on being healthy and about how you feel? Just imagine? A healthy lifestyle with a proper diet and regular exercise may not make you look like you should be on the cover of a magazine, but it can make you feel that way- and that’s far more important.
Please note that all material is copyrighted and DMCA Protected and can be reprinted only with the expressed authorization of the author.
High Intensity Lever Arm Chest Presses 595lbs and 325lb for Reps!
Arguably one of my favorite pieces of home gym equipment has to be hands down the Lever Arms.
It feels just like a Hammer Strength Machine Press and it seriously hits your pecs!
My training partner, @egcitrin and I went all out on our last sets, with an isometric hold thrown in to up the intensity!!!
Still training and hope you are too!!!
Thanks for tuning in and as always, Excelsior!!! #naturallyintense
#naturalbodybuilding #naturalbodybuilder #highintensitytraining #highintensitytrainingtips #betitanfit #ryourogue #hometraining #homeworkout #roguerack #fitover40 #naturalbodybuildingvideos #naturalbodybuildingtraining #naturalbodybuildingtips #naturalbodybuildingmotivation #leverarms #chestday #chestworkout
My back today, no pump and nothing fancy!
They used to call me "Back Man" back in the day and it goes without saying that it's my strong point.
It's a muscle group that's a bit like legs, in that many people don't put that much emphasis on it as it's not a Hollywood muscle like chest, shoulders, abs and arms.
It also, like legs, requires a lot of work and a hard back workout can feel like a leg workout as you should be almost on the floor if you did it right.
I train my back and all muscle groups just once a week with Naturally Intense High Intensity training, so we are talking about a workout that can last about 10 minutes.
But it's 10 minutes of pure and utter hell, and look out for some more videos coming soon from me on back training.
Thanks for tuning in and as always, Excelsior!!! #naturallyintense
#highintensitytraining #naturalbodybuilder #naturalbodybuilding #fitover40 #backworkout #naturalbodybuildingtips #backtraining #highintensitytrainingtips #drugfreebodybuilding
High Intensity Training For Natural Athletes.
For the past thirty plus years I have been training with a system I named Naturally Intense High Intensity Training.
And it helped me go from a 125lb skinny teenager into a successful natural bodybuilder training only THREE TIMES A WEEK with workouts lasting 10, 15 to 20 MINUTES at the most!
It sounds too good to be true but it's not only the cornerstone of my success but also has helped the hundreds of men and women I have trained with it as well over the past three decades.
Most of the popular high intensity training protocols out there were designed for and popularized by enhanced athletes, and they miss by a large mark some important factors that come into play for those who don't use drugs.
I hope it can help you as much as it's helped me and you can see the full video on YouTube by clicking on my bio link- or just look me up there (Kevin Richardson- Naturally Intense)
Thanks for taking the time to look at my work and as always, Excelsior!!! #naturallyintense
#highintensitytraining #hit #highintensityworkout #naturalbodybuilder #naturalbodybuilding #fitover40 #naturalbodybuildingvideos #naturalbodybuildingtips #highintensitytrainingtips #drugfreebodybuilding #personaltrainer
5w
High Intensity Training: Pull Ups & Heavy Dumbbell Rows!
Compound sets are tough!
Going from one exercise to the next for the same muscle group without rest can really tax you!
One of the basic principles of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training is that every workout is different and this is an example of doing just one set going all out.
This was the last exercise for shoulders and back and the pull ups started off easy enough, but started to bite towards the end.
Next it was straight to the 100lb dumbbells for 8 grueling reps of rows.
(I was going to go with the 120lb dumbbells, but @egcitrin in her infinite wisdom suggested that the 100lb ones should be more than enough!)
Still training hard and I hope you are too!!!
Thanks for watching and as always, Excelsior!!! #naturallyintense
#hometraining #homeworkout #homeworkout #roguerack #highintensitytraining #naturalbodybuilder #naturalbodybuilding #fitover40 #naturalbodybuildingvideos #backworkout #pullups #naturalbodybuildingtips #backtraining #highintensitytrainingtips #drugfreebodybuilding
I Still Get Sore Even After 30+ Years of High Intensity Training!
So the answer to the question as to whether or not I still get sore from my training is:
YES!
A resounding yes!
I still get really sore, in fact as I am in pain as I write this as there isn't really a way for my body to adapt to the type of workouts that I do because with Naturally Intense High Intensity Training, every workout is different, so there's never a point where it gets easy!
Thing is, as bad as it gets, it's still something I look forward to as it hurts, but in a good way!
And if you've ever really pushed it and felt the aftermath a day or two after training, you know exactly what I mean!
So keep training hard, know I believe in you and as always, Excelsior!!! #naturallyintense
#musclesoreness #legday #naturalbodybuilding #naturalbodybuilder #naturalbodybuildingvideo #naturalbodybuildingmotivation #naturalbodybuildingtips #drugfreebodybuilding #bodybuilding #highintensitytraining #highintensitytrainingtips #gymlife #workout
Change the Focus: Looking Good Comes From Feeling Good!
Want to know why I train as hard as I do and never miss a workout even though I haven't stepped on stage in a bodybuilding competition in 19 years?
Want to know how I stay on diet 100% without flinching?
The answer is simple.
I do what I do because it FEELS GOOD.
I couldn't care less that my body fat percentage is under 10%.
It's nice, don't get me wrong, but I don't eat thinking I need to stay lean.
Nor do I train thinking that I need to be muscular.
I eat the way I eat because I feel good when I eat that way.
I train the way I train because I feel great when I train that way.
And if I could leave you with just one gem of wisdom towards helping you realize your goals, it would be to stop focusing on the result and instead focus on enjoying the process.
As a natural athlete, realizing your potential often takes years. Not months, years.
And so you have to find a path that sets you up for the long game, and one that also makes you FEEL BETTER in the process.
Forget about the six pack, forget about losing weight, forget about building muscle, and instead focus on what you need to do in order to accomplish those goals.
Because if you do, everything in life just gets better!
That's the "secret" if there ever was one and so focus on the Path, enjoy the Path, know that I believe in you and as always, Excelsior!!! #naturallyintense
#naturalbodybuilding #naturalbodybuilder #naturalbodybuildingvideo #naturalbodybuildingmotivation #naturalbodybuildingtips #highintensitytraining #drugfreebodybuilding #nodrugs #fitover40 #fitoverforty #naturalbodybuildingforlife #abs #sixpack
High Intensity T-Bar Rows (Home Gym Style)
Rows are one of the cornerstones of my back development and with variety being an important part of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training, being able to do a variety of rows training at home is critical.
Which is why I love landmine T-Bar Rows.
Back in the day at 5th Avenue gym we would stick a barbell in a corner and do T-Bar rows with an Olympic bar and a triangle grip attachment, and I wish we had landmines back then as this set up is much easier (and you don't destroy the wall!, which we often did back at 5th)
This was my last set and I ended at 225lbs which is fairly conservative, but this exercise has a way of sneaking up on you and the weight feeling a thousand pounds heavier towards the end!!!
For the equipment-minded, t's a @repfitnessequipment landmine attachment on my heavily modified @roguefitness Monster Lite Rack with a Rogue Fitness T-Bar.
Still training, and I hope you are too!!!!
Thanks for watching and as always, Excelsior!!! #naturallyintense
#tbarrows #backtraining #backworkout #roguefitness #repfitness #naturalbodybuilding #naturalbodybuilder #highintensitytraining #highintensitytrainingtips #hometraining #homeworkout #fitover40 #naturalbodybuildingvideos #naturalbodybuildingtraining #naturalbodybuildingtips #naturalbodybuildingmotivation #ryourogue
Do You Outgrow Muscle Soreness Over Time?
I have trained with Naturally Intense High Intensity Training for the past 33 years and the question I am often asked is do I still get sore after all these years?
It's a great question, and one my clients always raise and in this video I go over my experience over the years with delayed onset muscle soreness and the answer might surprise you!!!
Click on my bio link to find out and see the full video on my YouTube Channel. (If you ever have any issues finding it, send me a DM and I will happily send you a link.
Keep training hard and as always, Excelsior!!! #naturallyintense
#musclesoreness #doms #delayedonsetmusclesoreness #legday #naturalbodybuilding #naturalbodybuilder #naturalbodybuildingvideo #naturalbodybuildingmotivation #naturalbodybuildingtips #drugfreebodybuilding #bodybuilding #highintensitytraining #highintensitytrainingtips #gymlife #workout
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Click To Get A Copy Of Kevin’s Free Ebook On The Role Of Exercise In Reducing Abdominal Fat!
Featured everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to network TV, Kevin Richardson is the international fitness consultant for UNICEF, natural bodybuilding champion, creator of Naturally Intense High Intensity Training and one of the top personal trainers in New York City.
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