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Most athletes appreciate the beauty of their strong muscles and healthy bodies,
but some hate their body fat with a vengeance. One of my clients, a basketball
player, yanked a handful of flesh around his hips and cringed, “This spare tire
drives me crazy. I hate the way it bulges over my uniform shorts. I always feel
so fat compared to my teammates.”
Mind you, this athlete wasn’t overweight or overly fat. His body was 10 percent
fat while the average 24-year-old man's is 15 percent fat. However, when he compared
himself to his colleagues, he perceived himself as a blimp. Like most scantily-clad
athletes, he somehow always seemed to be too fat and never able to get perfectly
thin. Even among the nation's top women runners—a very lean group—body fatness is
an issue. When surveyed about their desired weight, more than half wanted to lose
about two to four pounds.
The fact is this: Although you can change your body to a certain extent by losing
fat or building muscles, you can’t do a complete makeover. Even if you lose the excess
baggage, sometimes you still won’t end up with the body you think you should have.
Unfortunately, the media strongly promotes the idea that everyone is supposed to
possess a beanstalk body and that the apples and pears among us are slothful gluttons.
Far from the truth! We all come in different shapes and sizes unique to our genetic
makeup. Just as some of us have thick hair, others have thin hair; some have blue
eyes, others have brown eyes. No one seems to care about hair thickness or eye color,
but the media has made us all care about body fatness.
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As a result, too many self-conscious
people feel inadequate because of repeated failures at transforming themselves into a shape
they aren’t meant to be. For example, one husky high school soccer player wanted to transform
herself into a petite ballerina, an unrealistic vision. She thought that she could diet
away the excess pounds and become lean and lanky. She failed to recognize that she had
little fat to lose. Most of her weight was solid muscle, not flab. Like it or not, you
are born with a specific body shape that is yours for life.
If you are dissatisfied with your body, you might think the solution is to lose weight,
pump iron, or do thousands of sit-ups. This “outside” approach to correcting dissatisfaction
with your body tends to be inadequate. Concern about what you look like is really a
mask for how you feel about yourself. Given that about 25 percent of your self-esteem
is tied to how you look, you can’t feel good about yourself unless you like your body and
feel confident with how you look. Weight and body shape issues are often self-esteem issues.
The best approach to resolving your body shape issues is to learn to love the body you
have. As I mentioned before, much of what you look like, your shape and size, is genetically
determined. You can slightly redesign the house that nature gave you, but you can't
totally remodel it, at least without paying a high price.
Don’t dwell on the negatives, but instead love all the good things your body does for you.
It rides bikes, runs, and lets you have fun. A healthy body can come in all types of
shapes and sizes. You can even be fit and fat. With practice, you’ll come to learn that
appearance is only skin deep and that your real worth is the loving, caring, and concern
you offer to your family and friends. You'll be able to muster the courage to face scary
situations, like putting on that bathing suit or skimpy running shorts and feeling at peace!
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