“All I am eating is six chicken breasts a day”, “I can’t eat anything but fruit before 3pm” are just two of the wacky diets I have heard people say over the past few days. Has the world gone mad? Scarily these statements didn’t come from the mouths of failing weight reducers or insecure teenage girls, but from fitness professionals. The people who are suppose to be setting a good example to the general public about following a healthy lifestyle.
Fitness instructors undergo intensive training to understand the mechanisms of the human body and how it responds to nutrition and exercise, therefore have the knowledge to understand the importance of following a balanced diet. It is apparent however that these seemingly “healthy” individuals have their own insecurities and are willing to ignore the textbook to try and gain results.
Six chicken breasts wrapped in lettuce a day would provide an estimated 650 calories, 125g protein and 8g fat, about 1/3 of the government recommendations. Chicken itself is a very healthy food to consume; it is a source of iron and a good provider of fat soluble vitamins A and E. Eating just six chicken breasts a day certainly is not balanced and is potentially dangerous.
The idea of this diet choice, is to “increase lean muscle mass and decrease fat” however due to the low calorie intake it will result in the body utilising muscle to provide energy, decreasing muscle size and shrinking metabolism rate. This means the body will hold onto any energy intake and store it as fat, the complete opposite of the diet intention.
Additionally it lacks vital micronutrients such as calcium, leading to bone diseases such as osteoporosis. Irregular cardiac rhythms may occur due to the poor nutritional status which could lead to collapse and coma.
As well as the health concerns with this dietary abuse it is inevitable that the eater will not be able to stick to it, often resulting in a binge. The binge is likely to consist of ‘bad’ foods, such as chocolate, bread, cake or crisps. The consequence of this binge will leave the eater feeling overwhelmed with guilt for falling off the diet plan and over eating and therefore leading them to restrict their diet again – ultimately resulting in a viscous starvation->binge->guilt->starvation cycle.
An additional hypothesis as to why fitness professionals may undertake these crazy diets to gain aesthetic benefits is due to the psychological term “starvation syndrome”. This recognised condition occurs when an individual goes on a strict dieting ritual or other weight control behaviour such as the chicken diet. They begin to develop a dysfunctional scheme for self evaluation. It is likely they would over evaluate their eating, weight, shape and their control as well as how far away they are to achieving perfection. This leads to a low self esteem, leading to further restriction of diet and other weight control behaviour and more intense starvation syndrome.
Seeing as fitness professionals are surrounded by people in the gym attempting to achieve perfection all day every day as well as attempting to achieve their own body perfection it becomes a fixation. Their desire to accomplish the ideal body over rides their knowledge of a healthy balanced diet and this is when the unconventional dieting rituals appear.
It is a common assumption that low body confidence and restricted eating is associated with women, however recent research amongst sports participants revealed that 13% of males admit to binge eating at least once a week. A binge is defined as a period of excessive or uncontrolled indulgence and this may be due to the restricted diets that some sports participants may consume. Further research performed by Fairburn and Wilsom (1993) revealed that dieting either contributes to or at least exacerbates binge eating.
An additional study found that individuals in high levels of physical activity such as fitness professionals tend to be very careful about what they eat and often experiment with various dietary programs to enhance appearance and performance. However Bean (2003) concluded that there is a very thin line between paying close attention to detail and obsessive eating behaviours. This suggests that intensive training combined with food restriction such as the chicken breast diet may lead to an obsessive preoccupation with body weight and calorific intake and potentially chronic disordered eating.
Although vital for everyone to eat a healthy balanced diet it is even more vital that those taking part in regular exercise eat well to replace stores they utilise when working out as well as ensuring nutritional status is maximised. A balanced diet should follow the eatwell plate and the following eight tips:
1. Base meals on starchy foods
2. Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables
3. Eat more fish
4. Cut down on saturated fat and sugar
5. Eat less salt
6. Get active and achieve a healthy weight
7. Don’t get thirsty
8. Don’t skip breakfast
(NHS live well)
The simple facts are that it is incredibly hard to continually follow a balanced diet and those that are not motivated enough, but know they should be, such as fitness professionals often go in search for quick fixes. These unusual quick fixes will undoubtedly lead to failure, guilt and potentially a negative relationship with food. It is often helpful to take a step back and realise the importance of eating to live and not living to eat. After all food should fun.
References
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/1061/chicken-health-and-dietary-patterns
http://www.swedauk.org/Research/published/dissertation.htm
Ogden 2003
