Magazines say the dumbest shit sometimes.
So over the past 4 years, I have accumulated somewhere around 150 magazines regarding health and fitness etc. These include Shape, Self, Womens Health, Fitness RX, HERS Fitness, Oxygen, Women’s World and many more. I even would read the health portions of Seventeen and Cosmopolitan just to see what they had to say.
These ones I found are the most reliable: Oxygen, HERS Fitness, and Womens Health. Shape was iffy, and Self, Seventeen, Women’s World and Cosmo were sometimes just straight up crazy.
What to expect in Self that is ridiculous: The health section in this magazine often features “smart swaps” in restaurant foods that will help you lose pounds in a year. This includes things such as swapping out a 650 calorie sandwich for the 400 calorie sandwich even though the other sandwich may be made with less nutritional ingredients or it is simply smaller. Then it claims you can lose 10 pounds in a year by making that simple swap. Guess what. Unless you are counting the calories in your day to make sure that you don’t add in those 250 elsewhere and eating that same damn sandwich everyday, those ten pounds aren’t going anywhere.
What to expect in Seventeen: I understand why Seventeen has a dilemma. They need to appeal to girls of all sizes and activity levels. They can’t just straight up tell girls to cut calories incase girls that shouldn’t are reading. However, they shouldn’t be dishing out the false hope that if you do a 15 minute routine of ass workouts and make a veggie pizza as an after school snack that you will have a rockin’ body by prom! It’s okay to not promote dieting, but be realistic Seventeen.
Cosmo: I love , love, LOVE Cosmo. However I do not read it for their health tips. They kind of mix the Seventeen approach with the Self approach. They usually reccommend low cal cocktails and a few arm workouts and tell women that they will have great arms in a flash! Well spot reducing isn’t possible Cosmo, the body loses weight evenly. So promote full body workouts next time. Also don’t forget that no matter how low cal your cocktail is, alcohol is empty calories so should be used sparingly. If a women finds out that her cocktail is half of the calories, that’s just more of a reason for her to have 2 or 3. It is important to mention that low cal doesn’t mean consume a lot more!
Women’s Day: Women’s Day is generally targeted towards older women, which makes it all the more ridiculous. The cover story is ALWAYS some crazy ass detox diet that will lose 20 pounds. The worst part is that every single month it’s the same thing inside the article. They give you a 1200-1300 calorie diet to follow and some sort of exercise plan. YES! That is the key to losing weight! It’s too bad they promote it by saying the beets in your morning smoothie will flush out 2lbs per day. They were so close to having it right, then they inject it with so much false hope that women are guaranteed to give up in a week.
So my point is, when you are reading these magazines that aren’t mostly or all focused towards health and fitness (like OXYGEN! it’s AMAZING AND IMFORMATIVE!), don’t take the crazy tips to heart.
These ones I found are the most reliable: Oxygen, HERS Fitness, and Womens Health. Shape was iffy, and Self, Seventeen, Women’s World and Cosmo were sometimes just straight up crazy.
What to expect in Self that is ridiculous: The health section in this magazine often features “smart swaps” in restaurant foods that will help you lose pounds in a year. This includes things such as swapping out a 650 calorie sandwich for the 400 calorie sandwich even though the other sandwich may be made with less nutritional ingredients or it is simply smaller. Then it claims you can lose 10 pounds in a year by making that simple swap. Guess what. Unless you are counting the calories in your day to make sure that you don’t add in those 250 elsewhere and eating that same damn sandwich everyday, those ten pounds aren’t going anywhere.
What to expect in Seventeen: I understand why Seventeen has a dilemma. They need to appeal to girls of all sizes and activity levels. They can’t just straight up tell girls to cut calories incase girls that shouldn’t are reading. However, they shouldn’t be dishing out the false hope that if you do a 15 minute routine of ass workouts and make a veggie pizza as an after school snack that you will have a rockin’ body by prom! It’s okay to not promote dieting, but be realistic Seventeen.
Cosmo: I love , love, LOVE Cosmo. However I do not read it for their health tips. They kind of mix the Seventeen approach with the Self approach. They usually reccommend low cal cocktails and a few arm workouts and tell women that they will have great arms in a flash! Well spot reducing isn’t possible Cosmo, the body loses weight evenly. So promote full body workouts next time. Also don’t forget that no matter how low cal your cocktail is, alcohol is empty calories so should be used sparingly. If a women finds out that her cocktail is half of the calories, that’s just more of a reason for her to have 2 or 3. It is important to mention that low cal doesn’t mean consume a lot more!
Women’s Day: Women’s Day is generally targeted towards older women, which makes it all the more ridiculous. The cover story is ALWAYS some crazy ass detox diet that will lose 20 pounds. The worst part is that every single month it’s the same thing inside the article. They give you a 1200-1300 calorie diet to follow and some sort of exercise plan. YES! That is the key to losing weight! It’s too bad they promote it by saying the beets in your morning smoothie will flush out 2lbs per day. They were so close to having it right, then they inject it with so much false hope that women are guaranteed to give up in a week.
So my point is, when you are reading these magazines that aren’t mostly or all focused towards health and fitness (like OXYGEN! it’s AMAZING AND IMFORMATIVE!), don’t take the crazy tips to heart.
