Sad Article about Zagitova's Eating Habits

[Ophelia]

This thread is a hot mess.

 

[qwertyskates]

Hmmmmm



Ok ok that's not fair, you're estimating. But look at what you're saying here.



At least do some back of the napkin calculations. 1200 grams of vegetables and 200 grams of protein per day .... that's around 1200 calories worth of food.

Nope...do your math again.

2400g of vegetables = 800 calories.

1200g of vegetables = 400 calories

2 eggs = 200g = 300 calories.

I make my own oil and vinaigrette dressing = 100 calories.

Try eating 2 pounds of mixed carrots/celery/broccoli (1000g) a day, just try if you can eat it all. I definitely can't, so I still have room for nuts and chocolate, plus that occasional 3-course dinner at a good restaurant!

 

[moonvine]

Zagitova is slim but doesn't look underweight for her age - at least not as it comes across on TV.

I never realized how tiny any of these skaters are until I saw one in person for the first time. They look much bigger on TV to me, maybe because there is nothing to compare them to.

 

[moonvine]

This is fake news. No way you can do figure skating like Alina does by under eating.

Adam was eating 2 or 4 slices of bread a day for some time. I can't remember the exact amount.

 

[qwertyskates]

Adam was eating 2 or 4 slices of bread a day for some time. I can't remember the exact amount.

That I find shocking....there's no nutrients in that at all. Plus margarine is an artificial fat that is a molecule away from a plastic. He could have eaten a lot of vegetables, quinoa, flaxseeds and lean protein like eggs, fish and beans for the same caloric intake.

This is what I'd call anorexic because the quantity and quality of food are not enough to live on, and in fact quite toxic to health.

 

[oatmella]

Adam said for some time he was eating 3 slices of bread a day, with some fake butter spread on top. He won Nationals during this time.

 

[brightphoton]

Nope...do your math again.

2400g of vegetables = 800 calories.

1200g of vegetables = 400 calories

2 eggs = 200g = 300 calories.

I make my own oil and vinaigrette dressing = 100 calories.

Try eating 2 pounds of mixed carrots/celery/broccoli (1000g) a day, just try if you can eat it all. I definitely can't, so I still have room for nuts and chocolate, plus that occasional 3-course dinner at a good restaurant!

you're eating 2 eggs and a salad a day?

Okay then

 

[qwertyskates]

you're eating 2 eggs and a salad a day?

Okay then

False.

Next time, try weighing 1200g of vegetables, rucola, endives, carrots, and see how much it is!

It is more like 10 salads a day!

You try eating 10 salads a day and let me know if you feel like you're starving, ok?:sarcasm:

There are also vegans who won't eat any animal protein, so their caloric intake is even lower than mine.

Math is hard. :disapp:

 

[moonvine]

That I find shocking....there's no nutrients in that at all. He could have eaten a lot of vegetables and lean protein like eggs, fish and beans.

This is what I'd call anorexic because the quantity and quality of food are not enough to live.

I think he was pushed to lose weight by his coach and didn't know the right way to do it, so was just eating as little as possible. That's just what I think though, I could be wrong.

 

[qwertyskates]

I think he was pushed to lose weight by his coach and didn't know the right way to do it, so was just eating as little as possible. That's just what I think though, I could be wrong.

I understand if they want to lose weight, but I'm so sad that he went about it in a harmful way. If I were his coach, I'd buy/make Adam's meals for him, especially if Adam is unable to make them due to time or finances. It doesn't cost much to put together a mostly vegan meal.:noshake:

 

[ancientpeas]

Nuts are very high in calories. Crazy good for you but high in calories. 23 Almonds is 163 calories.

I've lived on 800 calories a day, 60 grams of carbs (no dairy, no fermented foods, no yeast, no condiments whatsoever, no fruit (because of its sugar content) mostly vegetables and protein). I did it for 6 weeks. I was miserable. Getting all the garbage out of my diet helped my skin and hair and digestive system but I was miserable. I know enough about diet to know this: No one should live on 800 calories a day for long periods of time unless they have a lot of weight to lose and even then you run the risk of resetting your metabolism which will just make your efforts to lose weight harder. Your body will cannibalize itself to stay alive. An adult person with knowledge of the consequences might make the choice to live on less than 1000 calories but a young person who is still growing and has no knowledge of the long term effects of those choices should never be encouraged to do so.

I, for one, would rather hear from Eteri herself what she believes is acceptable eating habits for her students than speculate any further.

 

[moonvine]

I understand if they want to lose weight, but I'm so sad that he went about it in a harmful way. If I were his coach, I'd buy/make Adam's meals for him, especially if Adam is unable to make them due to time or finances. It doesn't cost much to put together a mostly vegan meal.:noshake:

I don't know about Adam, but if I eat a vegetarian meal I am hungry enough within the next several hours to get the shakes. Then again I'm sure it's more filling than 3 slices of bread.

 

[oatmella]

I understand if they want to lose weight, but I'm so sad that he went about it in a harmful way. If I were his coach, I'd buy/make Adam's meals for him, especially if Adam is unable to make them due to time or finances. It doesn't cost much to put together a mostly vegan meal.:noshake:

According to The NY Times article that reported this, it sounded like his coach was actually ok with this diet. Adam wanted to be skinny and his favorite food is toast.
He ended up breaking his foot which made him realize this diet was harmful.

 

[moonvine]

It is too simplistic to reduce the complex relationship between food, eating habits, health to lower calories = lower nutrition.

There're a lot of scientific studies out there about caloric restriction and aging.

You can eat a 2000 calories cake and your body's needs for nutrition are not met, and it is starving. You can die from this diet.

Whereas eating a 800 calorie diet with lots of colorful fresh organic vegetables, healthy fats and lean protein of various kinds is vastly superior to a conventional high calorie (1600+) diet of meat, dairy and potatoes.

The key isn't number of calories but quality of food nutrients.

I don't believe in protein shakes either, as a lot of nutrients in nature are processed out of those.

The World Health Organization has defined a starvation diet as 1200 calories or less. That's for a normal person, not a competitive athlete 1600 calories is not a "high calorie" diet. Based on USDA guidelines, an inactive woman of normal weight who wants to maintain that weight should be eating 1,600 to 2,000 calories per day. It goes higher for moderately active and active women. Active women need 2,000 to 2,400 calories per day for healthy weight maintenance. I'm willing to bet the calorie recommendations are higher for adolescent girls and higher for competitive athletes.

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/daily-recommended-caloric-intake-women-6675.html

 

[moonvine]

Of course but 800 calories of healthy foods is still way too low - I just told u above what these types of diets are used for and the health risks involved it’s ridiculous Eteri is making/allowing this for Alina

800 calories per day is the type of diet that causes the body to cannibalize its muscles for energy. That's why recovered anorexics like Karen Carpenter can die of heart attacks, because they've damaged their hearts too much. I'm also willing to bet most of these girls have Exercise Associated Amenorrhea, which can cause health issues later in life.

 

[qwertyskates]

I don't know about Adam, but if I eat a vegetarian meal I am hungry enough within the next several hours to get the shakes. Then again I'm sure it's more filling than 3 slices of bread.

I think everyone is different and we all need to find our own comfort level to live healthily.

There's no one size fits all, a smaller, thinner person will need fewer calories. It doesn't matter what "average" means. There will always be a spectrum, a bell curve, with lower calories at one end and higher at the other, possibly corresponding to size and metabolism. I'm not horrified that someone eats more than average, so I hope no one freaks out that some of us eat less than average.

My nickname is "beanpole", so I've never been fat, but I didn't diet in any way, I just ate what I like and it happens to be lots of vegetables, fish, eggs, sometimes duck and definitely a little foie gras or chocolate.

I've always eaten less than most people I know, and disliked even the taste of butter, cheese, bread, lamb or beef - I was super picky. My body got used to a particular diet/taste from when I was little, so it didn't feel like dieting at all.

I also have male friends who find vegetables bitter and disgusting and never touched any. They weren't fed vegetables when they were babies, but a lot of sweet stuff, carbs and meat. The earliest meals set up your tastebuds for life.

I went for a short retreat at a zen monastery in South Korea once and the monks were eating a bowl of rice soup with a few soft purplish peanuts in it for most meals, no seasoning, as they followed a strict Buddhist diet.

That I found very, very hard, I quit after 2 days.

The older monks were really old, 80s-90s, and they lived on this for years.

So...it's really relative and subjective, and I'd say I don't have any desire to go below my standard fare, and no one should.

What can be helpful is to cut out the bad stuff, the M&Ms, sugary sodas, chemicals packed sauces and junk, while eating one's favorite natural food.

As can be seen in the chart, cutting out just a handful of junk is a drastic cut of 800 calories.

I don't know what Alina eats - I saw a segment when she ate sushi with her grandmother - so I hope that her meals are adequate for her training and packed with nutrients. Definitely not bread or margarine, but if as in the segment, the Japanese style vinegared rice, raw fish, seaweed, greens are healthy and low in calories.

 

[Shayuki]

Personally, I believe in three simple principles:

1. Eat generally healthy food(common sense).
2. No snacking and only eat when hungry. And when hungry, actually eat a proper meal.
3. Stop eating when no longer hungry(Not when full).

This sort of a thing helps especially if one eats outside or encounters something unexpected. For example, I might feel like eating pizza at times. Now, it of course has tons of calories and is way too much, but I find that I can go around 9-10 hours without getting hungry after eating a pizza. So I just feel comfortable waiting until I'm hungry again before eating. And having added the calories together, I find that eating the pizza added barely any total calories to my daily meals, simply because of me waiting until becoming hungry again before eating again.


As a general rule, I think starvation diets are very dangerous and harmful. The body's metabolism adapts to them and it becomes harder and harder to lose fat. Then the answer would be to eat less and less and this is where eating disorders can develop. We find that on the extreme weight loss TV shows for instance, many of the contestants quickly regain the weight after they stop their extreme training regime. Oftentimes, their metabolism becomes damaged by the rapid weight loss, permanently. I'd just avoid the starvation diets completely... But I guess I can understand it if one needs to diet a bit for some event around 2 weeks in the future or so.

 

[Feline Feeder]

Since this was translated from Russian and it's not an entire article, we can't jump to conclusions. She may have closed her mouth and not eaten all day for weeks on end, or she may have closed her mouth and not eaten when the dessert cart rolled by with 10 cakes on it. We don't really know.

There is a difference between having a strict, healthy diet and an eating disorder. In 2014, two women were predicted to be top contenders in 2018. Neither of them made it to that Olympics, and it wasn't because they were vegans or health food fanatics. They were anorexic or bulimic.

Alina peaked at the right time. The odds are not great that she'll last another four years. She should eat what she wants, finish school and enjoy her life.

 

[Cindy1983]

This article about gymanstics is relevant. https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/spo...ith-Verbal-and-Emotional-Abuse-475001253.html

I'm not surprised at the article or that Alina said it. Even if it is fake news, what gives it traction is that it does one of 3 things: 1) takes something with a grain of truth and blows it (sometimes WAY) out of proportion, 2) confirms what is already believed, or more accurately what people WANT to believe or 3) preferably both.

I've always had questions about what really happens at Eteri. We'll never really know because there is probably a lot of secrecy in the national sports program in that country. We'll never really know unless a former pupil writes a tell-all.

There was a Canadian that said that the Canadian ladies compete past puberty because of lack of success. Reading between the lines, I think that they may have found a way of coaching them through the setbacks that puberty will inevitably bring. There's a HUGE difference between a 'this-is-a-setback-we-can-work-through' mentality and a 'this-is-a-catastrophe-that-we-need-to-head-off' mentality. The one gives the skater some hope that things can get better. The other is negative and induces fear of what shouldn't be feared.

 

[AshWagsFan]

We didn’t see this coming? Look at how thin and frail Zhenya became once she began to grow and as her body changed through injury this year. It’s reallt unfortunate, Eteri should teach the girls a technique which will LAST for them, and allow them to get stronger instead of remaining thinner and getting ever so slightly weaker as they grow up.