It’s been all over the news and the blogsphere, discussed ad nauseam, the fact that Michael Phelps, swimmer extraordinaire, resident hottie, and man who gives hope to folks with big ears everywhere, eats 12,000 calories per day (not a typo—you read it right—twelve THOUSAND calories).
Obviously as an elite athlete (really this term does nothing for him—there should be a classification for the super duper crème de la crème like Phelps, Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, and hot French soccer phenom Henry) Phelps trains for hours everyday—really it’s a full time job. He says he trains for 30 hours a week, assuming he takes one day off, that means he is working his body to max 5 hours/ 6 days /week. And have you seen the muscles on him—muscles burn more calories than fat. So 12,000 calories seems completely reasonable.
Okay, so why am I writing about Michael Phelps on a weight loss blog (beside the fact that I am a woman in my early 30’s whose husband has been on a business trip for 3.5 weeks and this gorgeous specimen is paraded on my television every night)? Because there are a lot of former athletes who end up being fat, and not just 15 lbs. heavier than they want to be…
There are many, many examples of this out there. You need look no further than the Nutrisystem commercials starring Dan Marino and other retired athletes. Think about “The Biggest Loser”—Matt Hoover (former all-star college wrestler), and Roger and his former teammate from the last series.
And science backs this up too, a 2003 study by Dr. Gabe Mirkin published in the Washington Times shows that former athletes are more susceptible to storing body fat once they are no longer competing compared to a sedentary non-athlete. The good news the study reported is that former athletes who continue with an active lifestyle tend not to have the weight issues.
So what can a former athlete do? May I suggest NOT taking my approach (the basic do nothing, eat everything you did while playing high school and college sports, and ignore the 8-15 pounds your pack on every year while intermittently doing half-hearted attempts at Weight Watchers, et. al.). It’s just like anything else, if you body is moving less, it needs less food.
Maybe if we viewed our bodies more like gas tanks we would eat differently? I mean, could you imagine someone driving up to a pump, filling the tank full, then continuing to let the gas flow right onto the ground (“oh, don’t worry, the car thinks it tastes really, really good and we only do this on special occasions”). The gas is wasted, just like what all that extra food is—waste—if it doesn’t end up in the toilet, it ends up on your hips, thighs, belly, back (ugh—back fat is the worst!).
Are you a former athlete? Did you gain weight after you ‘retired’?
When you have been an athlete and you gain weight there are a whole host of issues you face. Embarrassment. Trainers and other fitness professionals talking down at you like you have no idea how to walk in a straight line. A feeling of defeat. Here you are, a once uber-competitive person now considered by some to be less intelligent, less able-bodied, less of a person than ‘average’.
You may have judged overweight people before….and now you find yourself one of them. You may have a distorted body image. Over and over again I hear how people see themselves as fat still, even when they’ve lost a great deal of weight; sometimes former-athletes have the reverse problem—they don’t view themselves as fat. I can think of so many times when I weighed over 250 lbs. and I thought I looked strong and athletic and really I was not. I would see a picture of myself and say—“wow that is an exceptionally bad picture”—I would argue with the scale—this scale doesn’t work right…I would even argue with the clothing’s lines—oh, this is cut small—I’m not really an 18, a 20, a 22, or gasp a 24. But I was.
So, if you are a former athlete who has packed away the pounds it’s time to start today to train for the biggest contest of your life—just that--your life! That’s right, you are in the a battle to save your life, why live half a life or be unhappy anymore—you certainly have a competitive side—pull that bad-boy out and put it to use TODAY! And if you still an athlete, remember, training does end and you won’t be working out 2, 3, 5 hours a day forever—the food is just fuel and your body needs less and less the less you do…trust me you don’t want to have your hopes hanging on the chance you can get on the The Biggest Loser, Former Athletes Edition .
There are many, many examples of this out there
Posted by: g star jeans | September 21, 2011 at 06:18 AM