Be featured in Health magazine

This is Stephanie from Health magazine. We're doing a story on the best unexpected weight loss and diet tips from real women, and I'd love to hear some of your stories.

If you're interested in being featured, please fill out the following form and e-mail it, along with a high-resolution head shot, to stephanie_wu at health dot com.

Full name:
Age:
Hometown:
How much weight lost (ok to estimate):
Your surprising tip(s):

Thank you!

Update: the authenticity of this post has been verified by Igor.

Original Post by healthmag:

Full name: FloggingSully
Age: 26
Hometown: MD
How much weight lost (ok to estimate): 10lbs
Your surprising tip(s): Don't follow the workout tips in Health, they're garbage.

Original Post by floggingsully:

Original Post by healthmag:

Full name: FloggingSully
Age: 26
Hometown: MD
How much weight lost (ok to estimate): 10lbs
Your surprising tip(s): Don't follow the workout tips in Health, they're garbage.

 

 

 Win ^

LMFAO!

I wrote this email to Health Magazine a little while ago... needless to say, they didn't change anything. So I share it all with you now. Enjoy the rant.

Dear Health Magazine:  

Please stop. Please please please stop perpetuating the myth that all women can do is cardio, yoga, pilates, and 5lb weights to lose weight. You aren't doing us any favors.  

In your Oct 2008 issue, you answer the burning question "What's Healthier? Cardio or Spot Training"  

Well... since one of them doesn't exist, it does seem like you've biased the answer.  

There is NO such thing as spot training. It just doesn't work. Working a muscle does NOT cause the fat above it to be burned at a higher rate. Only because magazines like yours keep mentioning it do people believe that it does, leading them to do ridiculous numbers of crunches and leg lifts (don't even get me started on your 50 tummy-shrinking tips, of which a horrendous number were related to crunches or pilates-type moves, and when giving examples of weight-bearing exercises, you mentioned walking, running, and jump-roping - yet not weights?).  Doing some squats, deadlifts, and lunges (with real weight, not just 2lbs), would do a lot more for their whole body, in less time. In fact, I dare you to just once have a picture of a woman lifting a weight that at least equals the weight that she probably lifts every day, whether it's picking up her kids, the grocery bags, or her laptop computer. Do you really think the heaviest thing we can lift is a bag of flour?  

But that doesn't mean actual weight training doesn't work. You know, with heavy weights that will actually allow you to MAINTAIN your muscle mass, especially during dieting, when so many women lose their muscle mass from under-eating. And it only gets worse with age.  

Cardio isn't the "proven best line of fat-blasting defense". In fact, whether a deficit is created by diet alone or diet and cardio, the results are the same - people lose fat and muscle. When they add weight training, they lose the same amount, but less of it is muscle - they lose mostly fat.*  

Pilates may make your posture better, but that doesn't actually shrink a muffin top - it just makes you stand taller. Or maybe make you realize that you need higher waisted pants that fit. But in terms of getting "toned" (please look up that word and stop using it improperly - it has nothing to do with how the muscles look under your fat and skin), pilates won't do much. Yoga may make you less stressed or more flexible, but it isn't going to make you svelte on its own. Both employ body-weight exercises. Those are good... to start. But it's not enough. And telling us that it's what celebrities do - you are just buying into what their PR people say. If you bother talking to their real trainers, you'll find that most of the women whose bodies we admire train with weights, and train hard. I hear Giselle has a pretty impressive Romanian deadlift. Funny you've never mentioned that in your magazine.  

I've been tempted to write before, when you have given examples of tricep extensions to slim down your arms or twists to whittle your waist. But when I saw you compare cardio to a myth, and say that cardio is the winner...  well, you pretty much reached the limit of my patience.  

On behalf of all the women out there who deserve to have strong and healthy bodies, don't be like Shape and Fitness, and, god-forbid, Cosmo. Tell us the truth.  We deserve it.

WIN!

Haha

posting in an epic thread.

Full name: Linda
Age: 44 (almost 45)
Hometown: USA
How much weight lost (ok to estimate): 49.5-lbs
Your surprising tip(s): Believe it or not, Eat!!! 

What about tips from a guy? I am male, 19 years old and I lost 130 pounds by counting calories and exercising. I read Health magazine while working out at my gym. It's not a perfect magazine but I'm just glad that there is SOMETHING health-related for me to read at my gym, most of the other magazines are Hollywood-related and have nothing to do with getting in shape or losing weight. Think I'll shoot her an email/pic and see what happens...

Mo.

Full name: Merylwhite1
Age: 22
Hometown: Wellington (New Zealand)
How much weight lost: gained 80lbs from anorexic low, now at a healthy weight
Your surprising tip(s): Why can't we focus on health rather than weight? Fastest way to lose weight - chop a leg off. Other things health readers would find surprising: lift heavy, eat well, avoid diet food and switch your subscription to Oxygen.

GREAT letter amethystgirl. Did they give you any response?

meryl - yes, in fact, I got an email back from "askhealth Generic" (seriously, that was how the email was addressed)

Thank you for writing to Health with your concerns. We really appreciate readers like you who take the time to voice their opinions to us. Please know that I will be passing your email along to our editors, who take our readers' comments very seriously. We depend on letters from readers like you to keep us on target with our audience.
 
Thanks again for writing. We really appreciate it, and we thank you for being a part of the Health family!

But seriously, I guess this would be mine:

Full name: amethystgirl
Age: 28
Hometown: Maryland
How much weight lost: 30 lb
Your surprising tip(s): eat well, lift heavy, get strong, be happy

I love it! I just love it! Everyone here at CC, you are just AWESOME!

Health Magazine:

Original Post by merylwhite1:

Full name: Merylwhite1
Age: 22
Hometown: Wellington (New Zealand)
How much weight lost: gained 80lbs from anorexic low, now at a healthy weight
Your surprising tip(s): Why can't we focus on health rather than weight? Fastest way to lose weight - chop a leg off. Other things health readers would find surprising: lift heavy, eat well, avoid diet food and switch your subscription to Oxygen.

GREAT letter amethystgirl. Did they give you any response?

I've been thinking about donating a kidney and some blood. Maybe some bone marrow. I'd be losing weight AND saving lives. Perfect!

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your responses! I've spoken to Igor, who sent out an e-mail on my behalf which some of you may have received.

@amethystgirl I hope your e-mail was received by the correct editors. We are currently reworking several of our features now, based on reader feedback. Look for the October issue to see some of our changes!

I'd love to continue to hear unexpected, fresh new tips from anyone who has them. Thanks again!

- Stephanie

Stephanie, the problem you're going to run into --  have already run into -- is that there are no "hot new tips" on weight loss, just the same ol' same ol' that no one wants to hear. You should see people's faces fall when I tell them that I lost my first 50 pounds and maintained the loss for eleven months by measuring everything that went into my mouth, logging it in a journal and getting up off my rear and exercising. They don't want to hear it until they're ready. You won't get any amazing new tips from this group, just hard work and perseverance.

Regards,

Patricia

I myself have enjoyed some of the tips from that magazine and several others.  I like switching it up every now and then to break away from a monotonous routine.  I've lost 98 pounds so far and got 43 more to go :)

I've only lost 9 lbs (only another 8 to go) but I've got a couple of tips...

1) I've learned to be be patient and eat to live, not live to eat. Weight may not come off fast, but I only need to ask myself "how do I feel?" to know if I'm eating well and exercising enough (or too much).

2) Nothing tastes better than feeling great! If I eat poorly, I feel terrible. If I eat well, I feel good. 

3) Sugar is the devil!

4) I still love pizza ... but I have to earn it first in my training!

What, its only limited to women? *cry*

Full Name:  Amy Cohn

Age: 28

Hometown: Atlanta

how much weight lost: 100lbs

your surprising tip(s): 

1.)  6 days of strick discipline, one day of anything goes

2.)  Listen to your body.  Not just for cues for hunger but for what foods your body really likes and needs.  For me, grains, sugar and alcohol are not any good and give me GI symptoms; fat is my total friend I can eat 2-3 times as many calories from fat as carbs and not fluctuate in weight at all and my tummy is very happy.

3.)  The hardest part of losing weight is redefining yourself as "not fat".  It changes the way people treat you.  I forces you to shop places you never have before.  Old stereotypes are replaced by new ones.  It is a very odd and awkward transition.

Original Post by nnylyma:

3.)  The hardest part of losing weight is redefining yourself as "not fat".  It changes the way people treat you.  I forces you to shop places you never have before.  Old stereotypes are replaced by new ones.  It is a very odd and awkward transition.

 AMEN to that. I had no idea it was going to be so hard...for me it came to a point where my coworkers were going to take my clothes from me so I would go buy some that fit.. that being the outward problem. self esteem being the hardest to over come...I look in the mirror and I don't see the weight loss I went from almost a size 18 to size 10-12.  I'm not done, but honestly I feel just as heavy and more uncomfortable with every roll and bulge than I did 50+ Lbs. ago.

I also completely agree with the splurge day.  We need it to stay the course. Dieting is NOT a temporary thing it is a lifestyle change.

Full name: Stephanie Greenside
Age: 33
Hometown: Virginia Beach
How much weight lost (ok to estimate): 50lbs+ and still going.

Your surprising tip(s):
Eating the right amount of calories consistantly. I was suprised that some  days I would have  to actually look for small snacks because I hadn't eaten enough that day. I found that Roller coaster eating (not enough one day and too much another) leaves the body doing exactly what it does on a real Roller coaster...not knowing what to do with the food it has...keep it or give it up. And of course your body doesn't react instantly to the amount of food you consume; so if you didn't eat enough the day before, now your body is in starvation mode.  The following day you eat too much your body wants to keep it because of that previous day. Maintaining the calories that is right for you to lose weight consistantly and your body doesn't go into starvation mode and the weight comes off.

One other thing is that the occasional splurge is MANDITORY. Diet is NOT a temporary thing it is altering your way of life, which is why so many people unfortunately gain their weight back. They stop whatever system or routine they were on to lose the weight..and revert back to old habits. The Splurge gives just a little taste of the forbidden fruit that way your not left feeling deprived and tempted to give up. A diet is not a jail sentence. It is just smarter choices and awareness of what we are doing and putting into our body. Oh, how I love Girl Scout Samoa cookies, my splurge 3 cookies (225 calories and we won't talk about the fat grams) instead of 1/2 a box (900 calories and you REALLY don't want to know the fat grams!!!) I would have devoured a year ago;  but I won't say no to a craving.  I will just be smart about it watch the portion and adjust my calories and meals to compliment it instead. 50lbs lost and I'm not done yet.

Original Post by amethystgirl:

meryl - yes, in fact, I got an email back from "askhealth Generic" (seriously, that was how the email was addressed)

Thank you for writing to Health with your concerns. We really appreciate readers like you who take the time to voice their opinions to us. Please know that I will be passing your email along to our editors, who take our readers' comments very seriously. We depend on letters from readers like you to keep us on target with our audience.
 
Thanks again for writing. We really appreciate it, and we thank you for being a part of the Health family!

Wow, that is just an awesome response.  Really let's you know they took the time to really consider your comments.

It got me curious as to how they would respond to someone who wrote them and said something like "I read your magazine religiously.  I follow every tip and take it all to heart.  The pounds have been just melting off of me and I owe it all to your magazine.  You guys truly have your finger on the pulse of weight loss success.  Keep up the good work, because you are the Bible when it comes to how to live a healthy lifestyle."

I'm not sure, but I have the feeling the response would be something like:

Thank you for writing to Health with your concerns. We really appreciate readers like you who take the time to voice their opinions to us. Please know that I will be passing your email along to our editors, who take our readers' comments very seriously. We depend on letters from readers like you to keep us on target with our audience.

Thanks again for writing. We really appreciate it, and we thank you for being a part of the Health family!

But that's just a guess.