- Joined
- Nov 12, 2009
chuckm is right. Starving yourself won't change the body type that you're genetically programmed to have.
Let's put it this way: Would you rather have Liza looking the way she is now--broad in the hips and shoulders--or would you rather have her be so weak from self-starvation that she can't land her jumps?
Liza is 16. Should I correct myself? The VAST MAJORITY of teenage girls enjoy ice cream.
All starving herself will do is mess up her metabolism and ruin her jumps. Look at Leonova, she eats once a day and she's barely thinner than she was before and her jumps are a mess. She did lose some weight but she's always going to have short, muscular legs and a fuller chest, that is just the way she's built and she could jump fine with that build before she decided eating a fraction of the calories she needs per day was a good idea...
Gede eats once a day and did lose a lot of weight but her jumps have gone MIA and she didn't even make the FS for Worlds. In both cases, these girls were better jumpers/more consistent before they started the questionable eating and losing weight. You don't need to be a stick to be a good jumper. There are lots of skinny girls who can't do triples or can't rotate them and some of the best jumpers in the sport were more solid in their figures - Ito, Harding, Slutskaya, Hughes, etc. A lot of girls will put on weight the years following puberty and then lose it later or it becomes redistributed as they become adults, Liza is likely just going through this phase now. Plus I have seen pictures of her mother, she is short and stocky so chances are Liza's genetics have predisposed herself to being built like that which is something her diet and exercise regimen can only change so much.
For the record, the only area I think Liza looks thicker in is her thighs, and that's only because they are so muscular. She doesn't have much of a waist but that's likely due to her age and short stature, but otherwise, she looks like a fit, athletic 16 year old. And she can still do the jumps perfectly, maybe not consistently, but if she can do 3lz-3t and 2a-3t with ease like we saw her do so many times this season with her current body shape, then to suggest she's unfit or her body type is hurting her jumps doesn't really make sense. Stamina might be an issue and something she could work on, but from what I can tell, the issue is mostly nerves, and fatigue, she was sick numerous times this season.