Online Blogs Promote Unhealthy Eating, And What To Do Instead

In this age of epidemic obesity, overweight teens, and a growing pressure from the media to be super skinny, looking for weight-loss tips on the Internet is like looking for hay in a haystack. However, websites that promote healthy eating and exercise (like Livestrong: http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/) can be overshadowed by blogging websites like Tumblr and Blogspot. Weight-loss bloggers, mostly teenage girls with low self-esteem, are putting their extreme dieting and even eating disorders on the World Wide Web for the whole world to see.

With titles like “I’m Starving,” “Skinny or Die”, “Thin Equals Win,” and “Feeling of Bones,” the blogs have pages upon pages of pictures of emaciated models, called “thinspiration”, or “thinspo” and quotes like Kate Moss’s “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” (She has clearly never tasted Nutella). Many claim to be “Pro-ana” or “Pro-mia” (pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia), and they post lists of tips on how to keep yourself from eating, which include everything from “Drink more water” to “take diet pills” to “punch yourself in the stomach until you’re not hungry”. They also often post a kind of food diary, listing every food they ate that day and the amount of calories in each food. This is not a bad idea in general (research has shown that food journals help you lose more weight), but their total daily calorie count is often less than 1,000 calories, sometimes even less than 500.

Image from: Show Me Your Bones, http://skinny-or-die.tumblr.com/ 

I’m all about free speech on the Internet, but sometimes I wonder if some of these blogs should be shut down by Tumblr or Blogspot. Many of these blogs have hundreds or even thousands of followers, who I imagine are also teenage girls with equally low self-esteem, already being pressured by the media and by their peers to be thin. And these blogs are not helping overweight people reach a healthy weight. They are teaching girls to equate eating a piece of bread with failure, convincing them they don’t “need” to eat, and filling their computer screens with photographs of women that are starved, posed, and airbrushed to look the way they do. Even if their friends and family try to get them help, girls with eating disorders or unhealthy eating habits now have a lifetime supply of support and inspiration via the Internet. There’s no realistic way to stop these poisonous blogs from being created, but we can combat them with a counter-attack of healthy weight-loss tips! So here are a few…
 
1. Crank it up early: Work out harder during the first half of your work out and burn 23% more fat!
 
2. Drink up: Drink green tea or coffee- both boost your metabolism! And don’t forget to always stay hydrated.
 
3. Go hard and go home: Do a shorter workout at a higher heart rate to really boost your metabolism! (as opposed to a longer workout at a lower heart rate)
 
4. Don’t starve yourself: Cut calories gradually (never cut more than 250 calories per day), otherwise your metabolism will slow down considerably.
 
5. Slow it down: you’ll eat less and feel more full if you eat slower. Try putting your fork down or taking a sip of water in between every bite, and chew each bite a certain number of times to make sure you’re not inhaling your food.
 
6. Work those muscles: Do strength training before cardio- it burns more fat and you’ll get awesome muscle tone! (also lifting heavier weights for fewer reps burns more fat)
 
7. Cut yourself off: Don’t eat for at least two hours before you sleep– and have a smaller dinner- your body burns calories faster when you’re awake, and your body needs enough time to digest the food.
 
8. Be the Early Bird: Exercise in the morning to jumpstart your metabolism! You burn more calories for hours after working out, so start this process nice and early.
 
9. Spice it up: Spicy food raises metabolism and burn more calories
 
10. Blame the Alcohol: Watch how much you drink – not only does alcohol have quite a few calories, but just 90 calories of vodka can slow down your metabolism by 73%!
 
11. Don’t get distracted: Don’t eat in front of the TV, or while doing other things. You can get distracted and not realize you are full- making you eat more!
 
12. Eat protein: especially in the morning. Eggs, for example, help you burn more fat than eating the same amount of calories in a bagel.
 
13. Mix it up. Alternate high-intensity and low-intensity cardio rather than exercising at medium intensity for the whole time.
 
14. Don’t forget to sleep! Try to get close to 8 hours of sleep, and you’ll lose more fat than those that sleep less.
 
-tips from CNN.com