I am very worried about my girlfriend. She has done gymnastics pretty much here whole life and she is in great shape. She weighs like 125 and has a very low bodyfat level. I’m not sure the exact percent because she has never been tested but I’m pretty sure it’s about as low as girls can go and still be healthy. Anyways she is a senior in high school and is quitting gymnastics because she wants to do cheerleading in college instead. To be a cheerleader though they require you to be within a certain weight range (110 being the upper limit). They do not make any height considerations or anything and she is not extremely tall but she is taller than most girls. she has no clue when it comes to nutrition and will not listen to me. She wants to get down to 110 which would require her to lose 15 pounds of muscle because she doesn’t have any fat to lose.
She keeps saying she is fat because when you pinch her stomach you can grab a little bit of skin (about the same amount I have on my arm) , but she is convinced it is fat. I don’t want her to lose 15 pounds of muscle because not only would that go against everything I stand for, but it would also take away from her great body. Her body is freaking perfect right now! I wish I could show you some pictures to prove it. And believe it or not, this isn’t the worst part. Not only is she trying to lose 15 pounds but she is trying to do it the wrong way. All she had for lunch today was 1 fucking taco from taco bell. how do i convince her that by doing this she wont get any lighter she is just going to replace the hard earned muscle with fat by slowing down her metabolism. How can I get through to her that instead of having a god damned taco for lunch she would be better off eating more food (healthy food) and just stop eating junk food like chips, cake, cookies, etc. Why is our society so fucked up. its makes me pissed about how the common teenager is not only uneducated and miseducated about nutrition, but also all of the pressure for the girls to be super skinny. no wonder so many teenage girls are anorexic. it is truely sad.
How the hell could they not consider height and bodyfat%? That’s crazy. Her best bet (if you can’t talk her out of it) is to focus on losing water weight while eating healthy but very low carb. Boxers start spitting an hour before weigh-in and can drop a pound or so this way. Damn, this is a sad case.
Originally I thought that they would take bodyfat levels into consideration, however in competitive cheerleading perhaps their total weight (over 110, whether bodyfat or muscle) is considered to put you at a disadvantage (because they have to be launced high into the air). Hence the 110 max rule. More info is needed on whether or not this is a one time weigh-in weight or if it is going to be monitored throughout the cheerleading season?
I agree that it sucks. To inject some objectivity, why not get some calipers and figure out what your girlfriend’s body fat % really is? At least then she has an objective measure of how much fat she has (I’m guessing not very much at all) and where she stacks up against the rest of the world.
I have been there, in fact i still am. My girlfriend danced when she was in High School and that kept her in amasing shape, eventhought she pretty much ate like shit. then, when she got into college, she was no longer dancing everyday and she put on a little fat. -she still mantained the same weight, but she lost a little of the muscle that she had gotten from the stretching and what not. So then of course she comes to me for advise on how to ‘tone up’ Now she has been training with wieghts ever since i have known her, so she has that part down, so i explained to her that it is her diet. No matter what i tell her though she does not make any changes to her diet. she just looks to the fact that “well Sara looks alwsome and she eats like me!” or “liz lost weight real quick with that one pill.” then we end up arguing about it. It is hard to get poeple to do things, or even try things, that are unconventional…Now what really pisses me off is the fact that she started taking Xendrine. I would not really mond it if he diet was in line but it is not. I also asked her that other day if she knows what it does to her body and how it works, she simply said “it burns fat” I don’t know what to do with my woman either
Ill tell you why they dont take height and bf into consideration. Because after a girl gets over around 115 it gets extremely hard to do stunts with her. You need the girls to be as small as possible. My stunt partner weighs 100 lbs. She has deep visible abs and a good amount of muscle. When you take the requirements of a sport into account, what you believe goes out the window. I would never want anyone to lose any muscle but she has no choice if she wants to cheer. By the way, where is she looking to cheer?
Also our girls as well as guys have to weigh in every monday. The girls have to stay within +/-5lbs and the guys cant lose weight(unless its an obvious reduction in bodyfat).
I can’t believe I’m gonna say this. Try a keto diet. The first 8 pounds or so is all water, so that will help. But 15 pounds? That’s a lot of weight for anyone, let alone someone already in good shape. I have a friend who is a professional dancer, he has to lift women all day long, so I understand why they have to be so light (and most dance companies limit bra size to a B cup) But can’t she get involved in another sport? This doesn’t sound all that healthy. If she is small already even a good diet will not help her lose weight, cause it doesn’t sound like she has much fat to lose. Good luck…if nothing else make sure she EATS, watch closly for signs of anorexia and bolemia, they are frighteningly common.
first I would call the athletic director at the school and see if it realy is a “rule” maybe she is going by what someone else told her, maybe she is correct, but if you call and I would probably say that my kid was thinking of going there not my girl, you can atleast find out for sure. as far as convinceing a woman of anything they already have an opinion of, GOOD LUCK. it generaly does NOT happen, maybe you can in a round about way help her decide whats right (things as stupid as leaving oprah on when she has a show on anorexia, and yea I know that might hurt you more than looseing the wt. would hurt her) but if she has her mind made up, GOOD LUCK. peace
If the school is school is serious about competing, there will be weight limits. Our biggest girl weighs 120 but she is 5’9 and has the best technique of anyone on the squad. But there is a huge difference in stunting with someone who weighs 110 and 120.
Just wanted to throw in something. Is she wanting to cheer at a big time school? In other words, is this a “big school or nothing” desire? I cheered at a small college, and my stunt partner was a muscular 130 lbs. It was obviously more difficult stunting with her than some others, but she was actually one of our best.
thanks for the replies so far. i tried talking to her about it a little more and she said that it isnt a written rule or anything but like goldberg said, if someone else that is 100 pounds is just as good as her they will definately take the lighter girl. she wants to cheer at UCF (central florida). i found out today that all she ate was cereal for breakfast, a bagel for lunch, and a piece of wheat bread for dinner. i started to try to explain to her how fucking stupid that was and she bursted into tears saying that she didnt know what to do and that she feels like shit now that she has quit gymnastics. i at least was able to show her the formula for calculating calories that john berardi gave in the massive eating article. i just wish i had that graph that either john or tom incledon had at the orlando seminar that showed how when you go too far under your caloric needs you actually gain more fat. after she left my house she said she had a couple of eggs so i guess that is somewhat of an improvement but not much.
Maybe telling her that there’s a good chance she’ll fall flat on her ass due to a lack of nutrients and energy will help, and that depriving herself of food is not going to improve her stamina and performance, only hinder it. Try leaving a few female fitness magazines lying around, ones that promote proper eating and that show pictures of fit AND healthy models who EAT. If it were me I would outwardly complain to the cheerleading coaches that they are promoting unhealthy ideas to young people and that I will try out anyway as a HEALTHY person, even if I don’t make the team. But that’s just me…
Naw, man, he was asking if you were in drama because you’re using so many frikkin’ exclamation points and getting so riled up, not because of your stunningly large vocabulary. Look, when I was in HS the main activity was basketball (I went to school in da ghetto), and I have a vertical of slightly less than an inch. The PE instructor (a woman, ftr) came to me and offered to unlock the weight room every day for me so that I could lift and not play a sport I was poorly skilled at, and disinterested in. PE teachers aren’t the evil sons of bitches they used to be… if you talk to the instructor, explain your goals, and ask to work it in to the class, he/she’ll probably let you. And here’s a tip: the instructor is probably at school already, getting ready for the next year, running summer school PE, or whatever… go ahead and contact him/her and try to make arrangements in advance.
One more thing. The biggest guy I’ve ever personally known was a football player in HS. He was 6’6", could bench 320, was about as wide as a doorframe, and was trim (no real abs, but the rest of him was lean as hell). All they did in practice was weight train and run. Now, we didn’t have the best team, but none of the guys were suffering any losses of strength for the running. Just something to think about.
No offense to anyone, but those that are making the arguement that it is unhealthy simply dont know the requirements of the sport. This isnt the cheerleading you see at football games and basketball games. This is competetive cheerleading and small girls are a requirement. In one pyramid i have to throw a girl around ten feet into the air into another girls hands over her head while she is on another guys shoulders. Try doing this with a 100 lb girl and then do it with a girl that weighs 125. By the same token, i weigh 237 and am a lot better at toss stunts than the guys on the squad that weigh 180 or less. Its just the requirement of the sport. If she cant get down to 110 then maybe she wasnt made to be a cheerleader.
Yeah my woman’s doing the same thing too…no matter what I try to do or say, she’s pig headed enough to just not eat rather than eat properly (“But see?? I lost 4 pounds this week!”) Which makes me cry…she’s genetically gifted to put on muscle, yet EXTREMELY PARANOID that any muscle development will make her look “bulky” (nothing’s sexier than a muscular woman IMHO)…
SOMETHING also must be done about the attitude women have about "toning"..."NO I don't want muscle but I want to tone" is what I hear my love say all the time...WTF!?? The rags continually harp on toning and women just lap it up!!
Since she’ll believe anything in the rags, I think us guys should pool our money together and take out a “fake” ad which has some top fitness “model” (ie. TMag) talk about proper dieting…along with “healthy chick” photos…
Problem is, nobody would print it just because it would actually help way too many women.
Women will (sooner or later) start to realize (*E prays*) what's going on in the media that's keeping them from being healthy...god her MOM swears by SlimFast...*UGH*
goldberg, I do not think it is healthy and I do not think the “requirements” matter when you consider whether its healthy or not. do you think gymnasts are “healthy” no?( I answered for you cause I can not believe any sane person believes it is). but it IS a requirement in their “sport”.after all does anyone think the stuff pro BB’s do to themselves is healthy? but it is required in that “sport”(I have such a hard time calling it a sport it is NOT funny). peace