Strong Curves book promotes a woman who's 5'8 and 115 lbs as clients' "ideal" body. Is the weight estimate just off?
- Thread starter ezra21
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@dynamitex It's about the ideal body weight in general and how the ideal body weight could be quite miss-leading. Therefore I posted an in depth article about the ideal body weight, yeez
@ezra21 Yes, he also lists stats for Jessica Alba and Zoë Saldana on his website to make a point about lifting weights making women "bulky" which peg them as underweight (his take is that they can but won't if you control your diet to maintain a low body weight). He also charmingly encourages women to build their glutes not for performance but because men will let women with nice asses get away with anything. This is why I really don't like Bret Contreras and find it so exasperating that he's the best women can do in terms of effective training advice (because I can't fault the programme itself). He actually says in the aforementioned piece about Jessica Alba and Zoë Saldana that it's great that "we" have made big strides in helping women overcome restrictive eating disorders, before going on to advocate a BMI that can only be obtained by undereating. He's just as much a part of the pro-eating disorder establishment as women's fitness magazines.
saintnisha
New member
@saintnisha Just ignore his crap about the "booty". The majority of the information is absolutely sound and the routine itself is good.
@saintnisha It's still a great programme, don't worry. The workout itself is totally worth it. I've seen wonderful results with it 
@ezra21 Yes, pretty much, i.e. in his conception by maintaining a low body mass they don't build enough muscle to look "bulky" despite being reasonably lean. Here is the article I'm talking about.
@dawn16 I guess he's just trying to give a particular subset of women (models in LA or the like) what they want, but I think it should come with a disclaimer that this type of physique isn't necessarily healthy or easy to maintain.
My husband and I were watching Jessica Jones, and I asked whose body was more difficult to maintain- actor Mike Colter's or Krysten Ritter's. Here's another shot of her in a dress at a premiere.
He was like "Oh definitely Krysten Ritter's is tougher. You've got to stay near starving. Mike Colter's isn't even ripped, he's just big."
I'm glad he thinks the same way I do.
EDIT: In the show they do a decent job making Krysten Ritter look a bit more substantial with light wash jeans, flat boots, and a bomber style leather jacket worn open with a winter scarf or a loose flannel shirt. If I wear that I look like a hobbit.
My husband and I were watching Jessica Jones, and I asked whose body was more difficult to maintain- actor Mike Colter's or Krysten Ritter's. Here's another shot of her in a dress at a premiere.
He was like "Oh definitely Krysten Ritter's is tougher. You've got to stay near starving. Mike Colter's isn't even ripped, he's just big."
I'm glad he thinks the same way I do.
EDIT: In the show they do a decent job making Krysten Ritter look a bit more substantial with light wash jeans, flat boots, and a bomber style leather jacket worn open with a winter scarf or a loose flannel shirt. If I wear that I look like a hobbit.
oldblighty
New member
@oldblighty What's your TDEE? If you're eating 1800 calories a day and not able to gain weight, you might want to see a doctor as sometimes the inability to gain is a sign of a medical issue.
Otherwise I'd say don't sweat it. Krysten Ritter looks great in my opinion. It's just a difficult weight for most people to maintain without greatly restricting their caloric intake possibly resulting bone loss and amenorrhea.
Otherwise I'd say don't sweat it. Krysten Ritter looks great in my opinion. It's just a difficult weight for most people to maintain without greatly restricting their caloric intake possibly resulting bone loss and amenorrhea.
@ezra21 Can confirm, I'm a dude with a physique similar to Mike Colter's. I whatever I want but still relatively healthy during the week, make sure I have at least 150g of protein a day, drink beer on the weekends, and lift heavy 4x a week on a push-pull split. I also run 3 miles twice a week to help stay a little bit lean. I look in shape, but it's easy since I don't worry about my diet at all aside from 2x a day protein shakes.
@dawn16 Wow you don't have to restrict calories at all? Not that it's easy to eat healthy and work out all the time, but it's the restricting calories that's hardest for me.
I think it was Gwyneth Paltrow maybe another celeb who said "always try to stay slightly hungry, never eat past 60% full." I can imagine doing that for a week for a photo shoot but that's like their day to day life.
I think it was Gwyneth Paltrow maybe another celeb who said "always try to stay slightly hungry, never eat past 60% full." I can imagine doing that for a week for a photo shoot but that's like their day to day life.
@ezra21 I wouldn't say I don't restrict calories - I eat fairly healthy during the week, but I don't count anything.
I eat like a pig on the weekends and kill the better part of a case of beer though. My working out basically balances that out, and I consume enough protein that any surplus becomes mostly muscle. I'd call my last 12 months essentially a recomp - my weight is nearly identical but my strength, muscle mass, and overall build is improved big time.
I eat like a pig on the weekends and kill the better part of a case of beer though. My working out basically balances that out, and I consume enough protein that any surplus becomes mostly muscle. I'd call my last 12 months essentially a recomp - my weight is nearly identical but my strength, muscle mass, and overall build is improved big time.
@dawn16 He fails to mention that a lot of models do have striated muscles but that it's photoshopped out. Sometimes they even photoshop out muscle definition then make their waists smaller.
This is the same model in different swimsuits. The left is not retouched.
Or with Cameron Diaz they removed her Adonis belt (which starts showing when you're very lean) then tapered her waist some.
So photographers and designers are promoting an impossibly thin frame and then erasing the muscle and bones that begin to appear when you approach that weight. (Not that it's all one group of people's fault; it's a cultural and societal phenomenon that everyone sort of feeds into.)
This is the same model in different swimsuits. The left is not retouched.
Or with Cameron Diaz they removed her Adonis belt (which starts showing when you're very lean) then tapered her waist some.
So photographers and designers are promoting an impossibly thin frame and then erasing the muscle and bones that begin to appear when you approach that weight. (Not that it's all one group of people's fault; it's a cultural and societal phenomenon that everyone sort of feeds into.)