If you lose even ONE POUND OF MUSCLE, you are too thin.
That is the primary distinction that I make between girls losing bad weight and losing good weight. When a girl looks gross skinny, it's almost always a result of losing weight the wrong way - losing muscle.
Oh sure, no one sets out to lose muscle. The set out to lose "weight". Notice I never talk about losing "weight" in any of these articles? I'm not interested in losing weight, and you shouldn't be either. The scale has nothing to do with how you look or feel. You should be concerned with losing fat, and your body fat percentage. Losing fat is ok. If you lose ANY muscle at all, I'm going to be really angry with you.
You see runway models are gross. I know, all of those girly magazines out there are telling you that runway models look good. That's where I come in, I'm a boy. It makes me kind of unique in the women's fat loss world, this whole being a boy thing. So I can tell you, guys think runway models are gross. Guys like Victoria Secret Models. There is a huge world of difference.
So what is the distinction between runway models and Victoria Secret Models? Probably about 20lbs difference, in terms of scale weight. I gaurantee you Victoria Secret Models are much leaner. In fact, Leticia Casta talks about how she wanted to be a runway model, and that before she became a super-model, she was told she was too fat! Can you believe that? It's friggin' crazy.
So lets talk about that, how crazy that is. Leticia Casta is pretty lean (bodyfat percentage), but she isn't so lean that she doesn't have breasts. There is no guy in the world that would trade a healthy looking Leticia Casta for a gross looking runway model. So why is the fashion industry obsessed with girls that are so skinny they look like boys? I have no idea. Do the clothes hang better on girls that look like boys? Not my area of expertise.
So now I come back to body fat percentage. When a girl looks gross, it's because she's lost muscle. This can happen for a lot of reasons. If you starve yourself, you will lose muscle and look gross. If you do too much cardio, you will lose muscle and look gross. If you don't eat enough protein, you will lose muscle and look gross. Have your body fat percentage tested. Keep track of your muscle to fat ratio. It's the ratio of muscle to fat that will determine how good you look, not your scale weight.
My hottest clients are really little girls who weigh a lot more on the scale than you would think. They have some muscle. They look like Victoria Secret Models. They don't lose muscle ever. They lose fat, and they look sexy, lean, toned, and HEALTHY. They are strong, strong girls. They can do pullups and handstands and hard pushup varations. They can do bodyweight deadlifts and lunges with heavy dumbbells. They are healthy and strong. They eat all the nutrients they need - they eat protein, carbs, and fat, in small meals, often. They eat like five times per day.
Look like an athlete
So lets say you've achieved enlightenment, and you are focused on body fat percentage instead of scale weight. This is actually one of the biggest steps you can take in terms of having a healthier relationship to your body image. The next step is - what is a good body fat percentage?
24-30% you are a pretty cute girl.
At 21-23% body fat or below, you are really, really hot. Whether you know it or not, guys are checking you out all of the time.
18-21% is rockstar lean.
I never take girls below 18%. Below 19% most girls don't have breasts, and they look like really fit boys. In fact, some of my female clients look better at 23% than they would at 18%. It's an individual thing to your body. But somewhere in the 18-23% range is where you are going to look really really hot.
So what happens when you get into that magical range of 18-23%? You're done. You are as hot as you ever need to be. Many clients have a really hard time accepting this. Which goes to show how bad the body dismorphia (distorted body image) is in our society. Or maybe it's just that most people can't ever deal with the fact that they are "good enough".
The truth is though, when you hit in that 18-23% range, you are a really really hot girl. You are done. Your next goal shouldn't be a body composition goal, it should be a fun goal. A fun goal like: Doing your first pullup, your first one legged squat, running your first marathon (or even better - running a really fast 5k time), climbing a mountian, who knows, what ever is fun for you. Set a performance goal. And enjoy the fact that you are hot enough already.
My book The Stubborn Seven Pounds: How Go From Good To Rockstar, comes with an eight week journal. One of the exercises in the journal is to write down one thing, every day, that you love about your body. Try that. In your workout log or your food log - right before you go to sleep at night or first thing in the morning when you wake up - write down one thing that you love about your body.
By Josh Hillis
Author of How To Lose The Stubborn Seven Pounds: Take Your Body from Good to Rockstar.
National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT) and Performance Enhancement Specialist (NASM-PES)
Russian Kettlebell Challenge Certified Instructor (RKC) and Combat Applications Specialist (RKC/CAS)
