Monique Rana - Don’t get too thin for health’s sake!

So many of us are obsessed with trying to look like the skinny actresses and models we see on TV, in movies and on magazine covers. What we don’t realize that some (not many) have naturally lean physiques with fast metabolisms, however there would be far more who do not and many of these celebrities must work out daily and nearly starve themselves to maintain their “unnatural” thinness.  But what the media doesn’t reveal is that many of these images have been digitally altered.
            
Even worse, many people may actually believe that this is the path to health.

Here are 5 reasons why trying to be unnaturally thin is not worth it and why retaining muscle is:

1. Fat can be stored inside of you: Although the most visible type of fat resides under your skin, it’s not the most dangerous type of fat. In fact, many people have a significant amount of fat under their skin and are still healthy. You can be too skinny and over fat.

2. Sarcopenia: As you age, your body will naturally lose muscle mass. This gradual loss of muscle mass is called Sarcopenia. If you have little muscle mass to begin with through excessive dieting, you can end up with an extremely frail body with no muscle. However, you can reverse this trend by exercising on a regular basis, and making key focus on resistance/weight training. The more muscle you have, the stronger you become and the more calories you burn!

3. Low density bones: This can be extremely crippling because even the faintest of falls can break or fracture your bones. The good news is that resistance training can make your skeletal system much more dense. This in turn will prevent any unnecessary fractures.

4. Hormone optimization: Being unnaturally thin through excessive dieting affects the hormones big time! For women the menstrual cycle stops, trouble getting pregnant and more prone to post partum depression after the birth. However, having more lean muscle tissue will increase the output of many regenerative hormones in your body. Said hormones will help you burn fat, build muscle, have better blood flow, have glowing skin, etc.

5. Joint preservation: A joint with little muscle surrounding it is a joint that is more likely to get injured. The more muscle you have around a joint the less likely it is for the joint to break under pressure. Thus, being skinny is not necessarily a good thing for your joints.

Striving to be super thin is not the path to optimum health. This message is not for those people who are naturally thin, but those dying to be skinny. No matter what size you are – you can’t cheat the fact that true health and wellbeing is about waking up excited for the day, having a feeling of calm, vitality and steady energy. Health is about cooking and eating nutritionally dense foods most of the time, when we do that we never have to diet! Health is about the sense of empowerment that comes when we take control of our health as an active participant in the process.

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