Once again we see a celebrity telling (or selling) their tale of dietary woe and subsequent triumph to the media. It is always a story in which they win the "battle of the bulge" in a desperate bid to attain the look that the media decrees to be both desirable and marketable.

Claire from Step's (a 90's pop band for those unaware of her) has once again reached her goal to be a size 10 after many years of weight cycling. And as ever, she is back in the media telling her story to a magazine which no doubt played a part in fuelling her disgust at putting on weight. Research shows that teenagers who read gossip magazines are at a greater risk of disordered eating behaviours (binge eating, skipping meals, caloric restriction or making themselves sick). These unhealthy eating behaviours can lead more serious disorders, and at the very least lead to individuals suffering from a lifetime of battling with diets/shame. 

Dr James White who conducted the study is quoted as saying "What distinguishes gossip magazines is the way they ridicule celebrities who are overweight or even just don't conform to unrealistic ideals, and at the same time they praise celebrities for losing weight. That combination of messages of 'fat is bad', 'thin is good' seems to be a particularly potent influence on vulnerable teenagers." I would add that clinically I see fully grown adults who are just as vulnerable, and many have been suffering for years and years. The longer they diet, the harder it is for them to remove themselves from the war on weight, but they all wish they could turn back the clock and do it all a different way.

"This study suggests that there should be greater awareness of the potential impact that exposure to the kind of images of celebrities and models in gossip magazines can have on adolescents' eating habits."

Claire no doubt doesn't realise the potential impact, she's just sucked in by the media circus in a desperate attempt to stay in the limelight. At first it seems like she may of won her 'battle with the bulge", as she states that her yo-yo dieting has created hormone imbalances which have left her infertile. I had hoped to read that she had finally ditched the diets and had spent time restoring her metabolic function, but it appears this isn't the case.

Sadly, it appears Claire is continuing with the diet and exercise regime, allowing herself a measly 1000 calories per day whilst walking everywhere.

This is a battle she cannot win, despite being at her target weight for 6 months the odds of winning the war against the "bulge" are stacked against her. Biologically we are programmed to avoid starvation, which can help explain why Claire's repeated dieting has been unsuccessful in producing long-term results. Set point theory shows us that body fat percentage and body weight are controlled internally. An attempt to diet is an attempt to overpower your set point, and attempting to overpower (or starve) biological mechanisms is just a battle thats unwinnable.

According to the theory, your set point aims to keep your weight constant via various feedback mechanisms, primarily how much you're eating which is used to regulate fat stores and also to alter your behaviour. It can induce hunger or satiety, which in the case of the dieter causes that desire to eat that we all blame on weak willpower. Fatigue and depression may occur as a method of slowing you down to reduce your caloric expenditure. Set point is protective and wants to maintain a level of body fat which it deems safe for the environment you are in (famine etc). Dieters frequently (if not always) initially lose weight, before plateauing as the metabolic rate decreases, body temperature drops, pulse decreases, hormone levels change, fatigue increases and your hunger increases. 

This is survival, your body defends its fat stores for the principle reason of ensuring you remain safe in a hostile (calorie controlled war). Caloric deprivation signals your body to decrease its metabolic rate and with it body temperature, pulse etc. Energy (calories) is used (burned) more slowly, so that you can function at the most basic level on the most meager of diets. Naturally, anything which isn't essential can decrease such as circulation (body temp and pulse), hormone production, growth and repair (tissue, bone, hair etc) and indeed anything which is deemed non essential such as muscle (added benefit of decreasing energy expenditure), fertility etc. You aren't eating enough to power your body, survival is more important than repair and growth. The body reacts to long term energy restriction as it would a famine. Your body becomes cautious and conserves the energy it already has. This innate biological response makes dieting or exercising less and less effective.

For Claire, sadly I think the battle will be an ongoing one until she either surrenders and makes a conscious decision that she isn't bothered about the weight anymore or changes allegiance. Either way, a major step would be binning the gossip mags.

I've blogged about the Concentration Camp diets and cutting back on calories before, even Hitler realised low calorie wasn't good for him. Starvation is my favorite topic, I have no interest in actually starving myself but I am fascinated by the public's desire to limit food intake.

The Concentration or "Auschwicz" plan may seem far fetched and unlikely, but you probably know people who engage in exercise, even extreme amounts of exercise, marathon, boot camps, training every day, training more than an hour etc. They probably also under eat, either knowingly or unknowingly. 

So, imagine my glee this morning when I received an advert to join a boot camp. The diet that people were advised to consume was;

I think they seriously believe that its good to eat something with the intention that the effort of eating it will leave you as empty, as if you never consumed it in the first place. Its like drinking a diet soda because you need energy even though it technically has no energy. Or the stupid "eat celery because it takes more calories to digest than it actually contains" comment. Two PT's I had the good fortune to work with at VA even thought that celery contained no calories what so ever. Possibly the best argument I've ever been in.

Next up the recommendation to reduce your intake by 45% at each meal. Seriously, this is insane. Firstly you should eat enough to satisfy your appetite (appetite is a wonderful indicator of what your body needs). Secondly this fails to take into account what the current breakfast is. We may have a serial dieter that already only eats an apple for breakfast, yet now she is condemned to 45% less of the apple.

Then its recommended to consume only 1000 calorie a day so that it won't effect the metabolic rate. Now anyone whose ever spoke with me or read my blog should know that this is farcical. Again this fails to take into account the metabolic needs of the individual. Expect a host of symptoms;

Physical changes.

• Decreased heart volume 

• Slowed pulse rate (and almost certainly low body temperature and raised cortisol)

• Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) reduced by 40%. Just what you need if your concerned about weight!! 

• Voluntary movements become slower. Your thyroid is regulating (slowing) your energy expenditure. 

• Subjects feel and act older 

Personality Changes 

• Increase in apathy and depression. 

• Sensitivity to noise. The body is overloaded and doesn't have enough energy to cope.

• General feeling of ineffectiveness. 

• Loss of ambition and narrowing of interests. We no doubt conserve ourselves for important actions. 

• Increased neuroticism and hysteria.

• Almost 20% of the subjects suffer severe “character neuroses” and some suffer both violent and hysteria psychoses. 
 
Food obsession/disorders 

• Increased interest and preoccupation with food (talking, preparing, making meals last longer using a variety of methods such as sucking food). 

• Heightened craving for food. Is it any wonder when we starve ourselves, its self preservation.

• Became possessive about food. 

• Increased gum chewing (eurgh), smoking, drinking of coffee and tea, and nail biting which also links in well with increased cortisol secretion.

• Purchased useless items and/or hoarded money. Clothes, foods, shoes, handbags, I see it all. 

• Some escaped and binged with feelings of guilt (some followed by vomiting) 

Social Activities 

• Responsiveness, tolerance, happiness, and good humor gradually disappeared, very irritable and with only sarcastic humor remaining. 

• Reluctance to participate in group activities. Not wanting to go to work etc and when they do resorting to the above. 

• Self-centered and egocentric 

• Food becomes a central topic of conversation, such as the need to cut back, avoid fats, craving cake or chocolate and discussing it with ones friends.

• Not able to control emotions, tears, tantrums, anger are all hard to control on a LCD.

Next up we are told to limit fruit to two portions a day. Poor old fruit, full of vitamins and minerals, a great way to get natural sugars is out of the window and condemned. Stuff that, enjoy the fruit and eat it as often as you like!!!

Yediot’s journey into the Nazi records death records documents that on Monday, December 7th, 1942, "a hard laborer in Auschwitz received 450 grams of bread, 30 grams of margarine, and 125 grams of cheese."  

• 450 grams of bread is anywhere between 1,166 calories for whole wheat bread and 1,197 calories for white bread
  
• 30 grams of margarine is anywhere between 127 calories and 212 calories (remember margarine used to be more nutritious than it is now.
  
• 125 grams of cheese (call it cheddar just for the sake of argument) has around 504 calories.
  

So calorie intake in December 1942 was possibly somewhere between 1,797 and 1,913 calories.  The American College of Sports Medicine currently advocates less for those looking to lose weight, oh and when you begin starving yourself you should also make sure you exercise at least 3 days per week but preferably 5 times for 30 mins.

The exercise part of boot camp involved;

Hard to know how this compares to hard labour in a concentration camp, but its certainly excessive even for someone whose not on a restricted diet.

So their you go, the extreme end of it is that someone could be doing 7 1/2 hours of exercise a day on 1000 calories. Now this may be an extreme version but don't forget lots of people are doing mini versions...eating low calorie and going running. Joining a gym and going low carb etc.

Ancel Keys, of the University of Minnesota provided us with his amazing study in which his subjects lived in a dorm at the University of Minnesota. As previously described their diet was restricted and they were required to walk 22 miles a week (4.4 miles per day if you go for the ACSM exercise 5 times per week). Not the biggest amount of exercise when you compare it to most current recommendations for weight-loss. 

Their average daily calories during the semistarvation period was about 1600 calories a day again (still more than lighter life and various other dietary regimes, including this boot camp one). Prior to the study they ate approximately 3200 calories daily (an amount that I find normal and aim to get most of my clients to).

What did they get for their trouble?

• lethargy (obvious when your not eating enough energy)
  
• irritability
  
• anxiety 
  
• dizziness
  
• cold intolerance (requesting heavy blankets even in the middle of summer)
  
• muscle soreness
  
• hair loss
  
• reduced coordination
  
• edema
  
• ringing in the ears
  
• inability to concentrate
  
• no sex drive
  
• obsessed with food
  
• eating with elaborate rituals
  
• added water to their plates to make the food last longer
  
• collected cookbooks, recipes and began cooking
  
• one self mutilated and cut of 3 fingers
  
• one became severely suicidal
  

Does any of this sound familiar?

Key's study is scarily close to the standard recommendations for weight loss, which is typically a 500-1000 calorie deficit daily for goal of 1-2 pounds a week, combined with moderate exercise. Remember the effects it had (6% of the participants ended up at the psychiatric hospital) and it really makes you wonder why people are encouraged to start diets which actively promote semi-starvation and malnourishment. Sadly people do begin such low calorie regimes, I know I certainly consult with my fair share of people whose psychological state is reflecting the effects of starvation.

Diet clubs, boot camps, gyms, old people starved in hospitals and "care"-homes. Find anyone who is restricting food (either calories or food groups), or engaging in excessive exercise that is inappropriate for their needs, and you will find a whole host of the symptoms listed. If someone invites you to boot camp, run for the hills, they may have a gas chamber...

Bobby's mum has a resting metabolic rate (how many calories she burns at rest) of 1750 calories per day. When she takes into account her activity this becomes 2363 (lets call it 2400) calories. Whilst she isn't the most active person in the world, she is doing more than resting (i.e lay on her back breathing). This means that she needs 2400 calories each day for her body to maintain it's functions at the level of activity she currently maintains. Most people think of this figure purely as the amount she needs to maintain her weight but your metabolism is much more than just weight. If she runs a deficit something has to give, yet most people assume that it is as simple as relinquishing fat to cope. 

Bobby's mum has decided that she wants to lose weight by going on a diet. The diet guru gives her 1200 calories, because he says Bobby's mum is a woman, and the diet gurus training manual says thats what women need to lose weight. Bobby's mum respect authority and follows the diet, miraculously she loses 10 pounds in two weeks and is ecstatic about the weight loss. Bobby's mum doesn't realise that this weight loss is not just some fat, but valuable muscle (along with water etc). In fact, Bobby's mum isn't bothered what she's lost, as long as the scales read less than they did at the beginning. Bobby's mum was warned that something would have to give is she ran a deficit, and her body has countered the energy deficit by reducing her muscle mass, decreasing her body temperature and pulse, decreasing her desire to be active and making her more aware of food.

Bobby notices that his mum is struggling to stick to the low calorie amount, temptations everywhere. She says she's just addicted to food and needs to change her behaviour and stop being such a pig. Bobby has noticed that she is often quite short tempered and that the central heating in a lot higher than usual. However, harmony is eventually restored when Bobby's mum goes back to her old eating habits which makes her warmer and less cranky.

Bobby's mum lost a lot of lean body mass along with maybe a little body fat, her thymus disappeared and she gets sick a lot now. The less muscle Bobby's mum has the lower her metabolic rate goes. She used to need 2400 calories to maintain her health yet now she has retested as needing only 1600 at rest and 2160 calories to maintain her new metabolism. She returned to her old eating habits and gained back the old weight plus more while eating exactly like she used to. Her guru suggests either going lower calorie or trying 1200 calories and then training with him 3 times per week to burn calories that way.

Bobby's mum tries this method many times over the next few decades while Bobby grows up. Bobby's mum encourages him to eat well and to finish his dinner. She even rewards him with food and scolds him by denying it. Does Bobby grow up with a healthy attitude to food? Possibly, but more than likely not.

Your kids are watching you, they copy you and want to be like you. You can't hide your cycles of fasting and binging, they will learn from you and then break your heart when you watch them grow up with the very same disordered eating that you had/have.

Eat and prosper!