How to change the shape of your body
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Not surprisingly, in this age where ideals of physical perfection are pushed at everyone from an early age, large numbers of people are unhappy about the shape of their bodies. And, since most of us are not Hagunnenons, changing our shape to meet these ideals can present some serious challenges.
This is not to suggest that ideals have not always existed; however the nature of them has changed over time. Look at the paintings of Botticelli, for example, and you will see that the essence of female beauty is to be found in rounded hips and a general plumpness which is actually quite close to the normal shape of women today.
One frightening piece of research found that 79% of women thought that their social lives would improve if they were as thin as Calista Flockhart (star of Ally McBeal). Calista Flockhart is 5'6" tall and weighs just 100lb (20% less than the minimum recommended weight band for a woman her age and height). She's a size 2. And her co-stars on the show are all competing to match her in thinnness - peer pressure at work, even amongst intelligent and highly-paid people.
The fashion industry must carry a substantial part of the blame. They have access to extensive research databases from retailers and couturiers which demonstrates clearly that the average woman is a size 12 top, size 14 bottom, and although growing steadily taller is an average of about 5'4" to 5'6" tall. So all their designs are made to look good on six foot stick insects. The sheer improbability of finding any woman with voluptuous breasts and no hips outside of a catwalk or a Barbie box really hasn't sunk in.
Exceptions such as Cindy Crawford are rare enough to be noticeable. The average model is at least 5'9" tall and generally between 10lb and 25lb below the minimum recommended weight for their age and height.
Nor is this issue confined to women. Most men find it impossible to obtain clothes which fit comfortably. Two-inch increments in waist size, the casual assumption of fixed ratios of waist to chest size, and the reluctance of most men to admit to their actual girth combine to provide the appearance of sacks of potatoes tied up with string.
Yet every newsagent has racks of magazines showing men with washboard abs, when the reality is that most men are more polypin than six-pack. And in truth the classic six-pack is extraordinarily difficult to achieve. Even very fit men often do not achieve this, because it demands a very low body fat percentage which can only be achieved by focusing on very little else. In other words, if you see a guy with an honest-to-goodness six pack the chances are he's as obsessive as any anorexic teenage girl.
How to change your body image
Now that's an odd choice for a heading. You thought this was about changing your shape, but you first have to get your perceptions to match the reality.
One of the strange things which has come out of the research into the widespread nature of conditions such as anorexia and bulimia is that most people's body image is out of tune with their actual shape. One experiment involves use of a mirror which can be bent to be slightly convex or slightly concave, making one look up to three or four sizes fatter or thinner than one actually is. Anorexics, unsurprisingly, almost invariably believe that the image is accurate when it's actually showing them to be considerably fatter than they are. And the converse applies to obese1 people.
So one way to be happier about your body is to be honest about what shape you are. You may find that a realistic set of measurements is less frightening than you think. On the other hand, you may not - but more of that in a moment.
It is important, if you are feeling insecure about your shape, to understand just how wide the variations can be and still remain normal. Too many resources rely on out-of-date information, or take insufficient account of differing physical types2. On the other hand, be under no illusions: chronic obesity is the single greatest health problem facing the USA today, and the UK and Europe are not far behind. If you are 5'6" tall and weigh 120kg you are not big boned, you are significantly overweight and likely to suffer ill effects as a result.
Why should we care?
An excellent question. The first reason is that being unhappy about our bodies makes us miserable. It's also very embarrassing to be unable to run for the bus, or even perform everyday tasks without becoming winded. More importantly, the decline of physical activity in schools means that more and more people are dangerously overweight at a very early age. Most middle-aged people can live for quite some time on the residual fitness from their youth; if one was never in shape, then one has no chance.
Equally, obsession with body shape is very dangerous. Or, more correctly, the desire to achieve a body shape which is not reasonable, Whole classes of girls in schools have been found to be anorexic due to peer pressure.
So the first step is to care, and to know what's normal. More to the point, it's worth knowing that weight alone is a poor indicator. Luckily these days it is fairly easy to get a body fat measurement - most fitness clubs and gyms will do this for you, it takes under half an hour, and it gives you a fairly accurate reading of your body fat percentage. Men should achieve between 12% and 20%, women somewhere closer to 18% to 25% (lucky things). Your weight should probably be not less than 5% below the recommended weight for your age and height, and not more than 5% above - but be prepared to adjust this if (be honest, now!) you are genuinely big-boned, very fit (muscle is considerably denser than fat), or maybe you are petite or have a fast metabolism.Important note: this discussion relates to overweight / underweight within a range from maybe 10-15% under the "ideal" band to perhaps 20-25% above it. If you are outside this area, please please seek medical advice. I'm not saying you're sick, just that following the routines which work for those who are slightly underweight or slightly overweight could cause physical harm. And remember, folks, before embarking on a programme of exercise see your GP or a properly qualified fitness instructor who can measure your blood pressure, heart rate and so on. Better to be fat and alive than thin and dead.
So, how do you actually change your shape?
It's like the old joke about how many psychiatrists it takes to change a lightbulb3. You have to want to change, and for the right reasons. If you are below the weight band but feel you are too fat, please stop reading this now and seek professional advice. I have seen anorexia at first hand, and it is distressing. If on the other hand you're a gym rat and want to get bigger still, keep off the steroids and get a personal trainer. This is for the rest of us.
The normal solution is through one or more of the following:
Diet
A great philosopher once said: Diet is just "die" with a "t" on it4. But, hey, these days diet is much more fun than it was in the carrot juice and three lettuce leaves days. If you want to lose weight, many people swear by the Montignac5 food combining system, whereby certain food groups may not be combined in a single meal. Although recent research shows that this may actually be less effective than the old fashioned EH system6, it has the very definite plus of being interesting. Even if it's only half as effective, the fact that it's easy to stick to without monotony makes it a strong contender.
One other diet which can produce dramatic effects fairly quickly (and sustainably) is to focus on fat reduction. Stop using butter, margarine, drink black tea and coffee, have toast instead of cereal with milk, reduce dairy product intake. Don't overdo it, a certain amount of fat in the diet is essential, but so many modern foods have added fat that cutting out the fat which you add can have an immediate and positive effect.
If you want to gain weight, eating lard by the pound won't do. Well, it might, but you'll end up like the Fat Slags, and that's probably not what you had in mind. A high protein diet, combined with resistance exercise (see below) will help here; you should also ensure that you eat plenty of carbohydrates. Digestive biscuits are good (also a sovereign remedy for morning sickness and pregnancy-induced heartburn, but that's another story).
Current thinking indicates that five or six light meals spread over the day is better than the traditional three square meals of old. This is not an excuse for grazing (you can kiss your waistline goodbye if you sit on the sofa eating Pringles and watching the telly of an evening), but it is a good idea to have some healthy snacks to prevent the body kicking in its built-in emergency systems. One reason so many weight-loss diets fail is that the body responds to reduced food intake by slowing down the metabolism - the "famine response" - which works against you, especially as this also means that the food you eat may be laid down as fat as a buffer against the perceived famine conditions. Which also probably wasn't quite what you had in mind. So break out the crudités, dip them in houmous instead of Sainsbury's rather nice thousand-island dip, and enjoy.
Exercise
Oh my. Is this a thorny subject. Every year in January millions of people take themselves to the gyms and health clubs of the world as a new year's resolution. And between five and six weeks later most of them have stopped going. Why? Because exercise is, of itself, boring. So the secret of a successful exercise programme lies not in the exercises themselves, but the combination, duration and environment.
There are two main sorts of exercise, and both suffer from exactly the same problem: just as you're hitting a rut and getting bored with them, the effect hits a plateau and you stop making progress. There is a way round it, but you have to have a good gym. The secret of a successful exercise programme is as follows:
- Commitment. You have to mean it.
- Goals. Use the SMART technique (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed). So, set yourself a target of two pounds lost per week for one month, or two kilos added to the bench press each week for a month.
- Variety. You have no idea how boring it is running towards a mirror image of yourself. So ask the trainers in the club for suggestions - two minutes running at 7mph on the flat, one minute at 6mph on a 5% incline, repeated four times, for example. You are paying for their expertise; use it!
- Regular re-assessments. When you join most clubs they'll assess you. You can generally get a re-assessment any time just by asking, and they'll help you work out a new programme with new challenges and different exercises. If they don't, you're at the wrong place. Find a better gym.
- JUST DO IT! You have to go, and keep going. Three or four times a week. Sounds like a lot? Well, it might be - but it's the same amount of time you probably spend keeping up with soap operas, and it's much better for you.
There are other things, such as buying really comfortable shoes (one local shop has a machine which takes an imprint of your foot as you run) and enrolling in classes. Misery loves company, and you can't beat a good old-fashioned circuit for burning the calories.
So, to the two main forms of exercise. They are:Resistance training
Resistance training is weight-lifting dressed up. It does good things for your self image (especially if you're a bloke) and it makes you more able to carry out everyday tasks, because you're that bit stronger.
Much more importantly, resistance training builds bone density and thus helps combat osteoporosis. If you're a woman or a man with prematurely grey hair (guilty as charged, m'lud) you should be doing at least some resistance training for the sake of your long-term health.
What else does it do for you? If you are underweight, it helps you gain weight in a healthy way. And since muscle weighs more than fat it's more productive too. If you weight train you are less likely to injure yourself moving things around the house (unless, of course, you decide to pick up loaded wardrobes using your new-found strength) and it gives your partner a kick as they explore each new muscle.
The downside is, there are a lot of people who weight train seriously with the aid of drugs, most often steroids. These destroy your heart; Arnold Schwarzenegger has had open-heart surgery. He also illustrates the other downside - loss of flexibility. Be very careful to maintain full joint movement in your programme. Arnie reputedly can't tie his own tie anymore.Cardiovascular (CV) training
This is the heading under which sweaty out-of-breath type exercises are grouped. Typical CV exercises include running (usually on treadmills), stair-climbers, rowing machines, cross-trainers and the like. Here's where you'll lose that tummy. You can do abdominal exercises (sit-ups, for those of us aged over 30) for the rest of your life and never achieve a flat stomach; fifteen minutes on the cross-trainer three times a week and you won't recognise yourself.
The common thread with CV exercises is that you burn energy, usually by using the legs (these are the easiest muscles to work, so a soft target for any serious calorie burning).
If you're underweight, then approach CV exercise with great caution. This researcher lost 20lb in six weeks. You should probably stick to exercises which build strength as much as burning calories; the rowing machines might be a good choice.WARNING: If you are significantly overweight, or very unfit, and you set out to run a marathon on the treadmill, you might just end up in a wooden overcoat. Seriously. The use of a heart-rate monitor (available fomr about £30) is very strongly recommended.
Surgery
This is a bit extreme. All surgery - and I mean all carries a risk. Surgery which involves a general anaesthetic involves a quantifiable risk of death. Always. So you have to balance the benefits of liposuction against the chance that you might not wake up from the anaesthetic. Also, if you're not following a pattern of good diet and regular exercise, the chances are that within a very short time those rolls of fat are going to be right back there.
Facelift jokes are cheap (but often accurate), but the positive effect on self-image can be dramatic; however, you are again up against the risks of surgery. Some cosmetic surgery is less frivolous than others (discounting the likes of the heroic Simon Weston7) - in some cases drooping eyelids can actually reduce vision. But in the main cosmetic surgery is papering over the cracks, and should only be considered if it's recommended by a medical practitioner who won't be making money out of it.
Conclusion
In truth, there's no way to have the body you always wanted without some effort. On the other hand, swapping EastEnders in front of the TV with a bag of crisps, for The Archers on the treadmill at the gym, might not impact overmuch on your lifestyle and it'll probably improve the rest of your life beyond measure. Who knows, signicifant others might be even happier with "the new you" than you are yourself....
1An emotionally-charged word if ever there was one. The word obese is defined as "excessively fat" - this would normally be a body mass index (BMI) of over 30; around 20% more than the maximum recommended for your height2A case in point: at 6'1" tall and 84kg (185lb) this researcher is actually considered overweight by some height/weight charts on the Internet, and at the upper limit of the acceptable range; however with a 32" waist and a 44" chest, any significant weight loss would almost certainly be unhealthy.3the answer is, only one but the lightbulb has to really want to change4It was Garfield, actually5"Eat Yourself Slim," by Michel Montignac started the whole thing6Eat Half. You follow your normal diet, but cut the portions. What can I say, it's the oldest system in the world and it worked for me7A soldier who was badly burned in the bombing of the Sir Galahd in the Falklands war, and who now works tirelessly for charity
