How to Tell What Makes You Fat

If you are a ballet dancer, or thinking of becoming a ballerina or a man in ballet, or any other style of dancer, you have probably not escaped the thought of what makes you fat.

This one thought in and of itself is an occupational hazard in the realm of dance training. So how do you tell what makes you fat?

This quick video gives a good demonstration of what makes you fat.

The idea that eating fats will make you fat is a basic mistake.

For most people, excess insulin makes them fat and not the fat itself.

Where does excess insulin come from?

At what age are you susceptible to be cursed with excess insulin?

Whether you are ten years old or an adult, you need to understand what the glycemic index is. It's not too difficult a thing to learn.

You eat carbohydrates, meaning starches such as bread, crackers, rice, corn and potatoes.

These foods release sugars into your system and keep your bodies going.
Processed carbohydrates, like cereal from boxes, flour products, candy bars, power bars, digest as sugars that get dumped into your bloodstream fairly quickly.

The higher a food resides on the glycemic index, the faster it will release its sugars. 

In order to regulate your insulin levels, make sure that you are eating foods from the lower end of the glycemic.

This pretty well eliminates fast foods and junk foods.

Complex carbohydrates such as multi-grain sprouted breads, beans and legumes, as examples, are foods that are not processed.

They are left alone to be eaten as nature made them.

They are full of vitamins and minerals and digest with the sugars releasing more slowly into your system.

This requires less insulin to regulate the sugar levels in your blood.

When you eat processed carbohydrates that transform quickly into sugars, more insulin is needed to regulate your blood sugar.

Eventually your body gets used to the high insulin levels, and ignores the insulin.

This is called insulin resistance. Once you advance into this stage of metabolism, it is much easier to gain weight, and much harder to lose weight.

A couple of decades ago, this was considered a middle-aged condition, or an elderly condition, leading to Adult Onset Diabetes. Not any more!

Notice the word fat has nothing to do with any of this!

You may have heard someone lamenting "I have slow metabolism, so I cannot stay thin!".

This is a result of eating the wrong sugars, not from eating fat.

White sugar used to be the no-no.

Now it is high fructose corn syrup, which overwhelms our bodies and makes us crave more carbs.

Even worse, the calorie-free artificial sweeteners also make us crave carbs!

Is this some kind of trap?

Let's get back to fats, which are present in fresh, unprocessed, real foods made by nature. Meats, fish, vegetables, nuts, seeds, dairy products, eggs, and oils.

FATS!

"Essential fatty acids, in a ratio of two (omega 3) to one (omega 6) and at levels of about twelve to fifteen percent of total caloric intake, increase the rate of metabolic reaction in the body. This increased rate burns more fat into carbon dioxide, water and energy (heat), which results in fat burn-off and a loss of excess weight." 

- Udo Erasmus, author of "Fats That Heal Fats That Kill".

You mean you can eat food that "results in fat burn-off and a loss of excess weight"?

That is what Erasmus, and other doctors such as Al Sears, state.

Dr Atkins of the Atkins Diet fame spread the same information.

For ballet and other dancers who need a high energy supply, regeneration of muscle mass on a daily basis, and endurance for performances, it is good to know how to tell what makes you fat, and what makes you strong.

Stay well! Read more about healthy omega oils.

Lose Weight - in Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes

Many teenagers have a "weight problem". At the National Ballet School of Canada we were weighed once a week.

Our weight was posted publicly in the lunch room, from week to week.

On Fridays when my class got weighed, we skipped breakfast but drank a lot of coffee - so as to stimulate urination, water loss, and loss of weight.

"What Dancers Really Eat" source.

We went into ballet class at 9:00 with no food. It was humiliating, since we were growing children and constantly gaining weight. Our height and musculoskeletal structure wasn't noticed.

What an intimidation technique!

The funny thing is, I had no weight problem before I went to the school. I was so thin as a child that my mother had all kinds of tricks and punishments to make me eat.

Unfortunately at the time, little was known about metabolism, and good diet. A weight problem wasn't connected to hormone imbalance, or to hormone mimickers in low quality foods.

Nothing wrong was done. Currently ballet schools are extremely concerned with proper diets.

The absolutely most incredibly talented dancer in our school at the time also had a weight problem. She was chosen for a solo by a visiting Russian teacher.

She lost tons of weight and danced brilliantly. People were riveted when she stepped onto the stage in the school show. Time and space stopped when she danced.

But after he left for Russia she gained weight again. Then a few months later she was supposed to go into the National Ballet Company. She didn't. We heard that she ended up in the hospital with a "tropical disease".

Huh? Looking back, I don't believe it. I think she starved herself. Too much.

About a year later I met her on the street. I was going through a "I'll never dance again" period. She was working at a phone company and actually helped me get a job there. (I lasted three months).

After I severed all ties with the ballet school, I mysteriously lost weight. My mother called me "the skull", I was so thin.

A famous ballet story that deals with weight control leading to drug addiction is "Dancing On My Grave" by Gelsey Kirkland.

source.

What does this all mean? Firstly, it means we knew nothing about being thin and being healthy. No one's fault at the time.

But we do now! So how do you fit into that size zero tutu?

We really don't know enough. And everybody is different. Some people don't metabolize fats well, no matter the quality of food.

Some people don't need much sugar and would not eat that whole bowl of blueberries shown above. 

I remember an amazing moment after I'd just finished my Cecchetti teacher's exam. My examiner was Margaret Saul, much feared at the time. (and somewhere in her eighties).

My exam was the last of the day - and after my exam partner and I left the studio, Ms. Saul came out.

She smiled at me and said "You have plump arms - like Karsavina. They make just the right line". (Cecchetti's pupil and partner to Nijinsky).

I was stunned. Karsavina? Tamara?

So, it's just a matter of perspective.

Fats do not make you fat. (If you can metabolize them).

Carbs make you fat. White foods, breads, grains, pastas...potatoes. Unless you're one of the lucky ones.

Proteins, vitamins, and minerals are found in meats, cheeses, dairy products, vegetables, legumes, nuts, salads and fruits. Not enough for you?

Unfortunately our culture is tuned to the diet industry and the processed foods industry. Fake flavors, preservatives, which can mess up your body chemistry.

You have to eat fresh foods.

Here's a post about healthy fats from the updated end of this blog.

Hormonal imbalance and weight gain is another important topic.