Focus shifts from health to fitness: Tanya Rybakova, the social networking phenomenon of fitness bloggers, myths about eating disorders and intuitive eating

Tanya Rybakova is known in social networks as “the same girl who lost 55 kilograms” – at the age of 14 she weighed more than a hundred kilograms, went through extreme diets, experienced bullying and shame because of her own body, and now helps others cope on the path to a healthy lifestyle once on her own with what he had to go through. Now she has several hundred thousand subscribers, her own educational projects, 20 thousand students, and the book “How I Lost 55 Pounds Without Dieting” – and if that’s not proof that you’re a healthy lifestyle expert, the results speak for itself better than any of them. words. ward. How to lose weight without Eating Disorder (Eating Disorder)? What is the basis of a healthy perception of your body? How did the phenomenon of fitness bloggers on social media affect the perception of the female body? Promise to Tanya Rybakova!

How did the phenomenon of fitness bloggers on social media affect the perception of the female body?

The popularization of the body cult, of course, affects the masses. Since childhood, you come across “ideal images” in magazines, movies, and social networks. Instagram* caught an explosion of naked bodies at the very beginning. And when you look at someone else’s beautiful, slender, athletic body, you start comparing yourself to it. This can distract you from accepting your own body and make it the best version of yourself and your attributes. The focus is on health, vitality and the transition from high energy levels to forms.

Many things on fitness blogs are standardized. For example, in a fitness bikini there are criteria for judging the body. And by looking at them, you begin to treat the body as an object. This, of course, negatively affects the psyche.

What is the basis of a healthy perception of your body?

First of all, contact with the body. The ability to hear it, understand the signals, take care of it. Most people misunderstand their body because there was once a disconnect. For example, due to nurturing by parents or psychological moments in dysfunctional families. In this case, the person perceives himself as an object, a culture of attitude towards the body and disregards it. At the heart of my approach to working with clients is regular practice, the ability to hear yourself, and contact with the body through explaining your needs, as well as how the body’s physiology and psychology of thinking are interconnected, in accessible language. . Since I grew up without a health culture in my family and weigh over 100kg, I regularly give lectures to educate more people and teach about a healthy body image.

What should ideally be training for a person with dysmorphia?

An overly critical attitude towards one’s body is a matter of psychological deviations in one’s perception of one’s own body.

Education should be fun and based on a competent approach to the educational process. Most people come to the gym just out of hatred for themselves and their fat. Think of your body separately from yourself. They do not consider it an integrated approach and psychological thinking, working with discipline and having fun.

Our brains are biologically programmed to seek pleasure. As a result, pleasant sensations that allow you to regularize the training – establish the discipline and come to a conclusion.

Is Intuitive Eating the Path to Healthy Eating or a Marketing Tactic?

Over time, this formulation has become a popular marketing gimmick, but the question is who put what into it. In my opinion, intuitive eating teaches contact with the body, working with emotions, healthy regulation of eating behavior, as a result of which a person begins to feel himself, stops overeating.

But! There is such a moment – when a person eats salt, sugar, fast food for a long time, he will intuitively be attracted to sweet and harmful. This approach to intuitive eating isn’t always the way to lose weight, it doesn’t mean eating intuitively.

I use Heuristic Eating in my work, but this is only part of the toolkit I work with. I combine an integrated approach – in any case, there are certain systematic steps that must be followed to achieve a result. Neurophysiology, psychology, nutrition in the complex give incredible results.

Who is intermittent fasting suitable for and is it necessary at all?

I worked at an American start-up dedicated to intermittent fasting (now, by the way, it has grown into an international company) and in the process I reviewed many scientific articles and doctors’ opinions on the subject. Yes, there are benefits to eating with long breaks between meals. You think less about food, your mind becomes clearer, your blood sugar level rises. But that doesn’t mean you have to eat everything – it’s important to approach nutrition the right way, we’re not just a calorie-burning stove. Food quality plays a big role.

And it’s worth remembering that we are all different – we have a different digestive system. For some, different numbers of meals and breaks between them are appropriate. First you need to check your gastrointestinal tract.

How not to lose yourself in the process of losing weight and not gain RPP?

Most overweight people already have RPP, and the question here is rather how to detect and neutralize it.

My answer is to lose weight competently with a professional who provides accurate and step-by-step information – this is already an important part of success. Hurrying to gather information is ineffective. If you’ve gotten to the point where you can’t get into the shape you want, you’re not satisfied with yourself, then it’s not a fact that you’re going to stretch yourself. This requires a lot of information. Ideally, you should find an integrative expert who has knowledge in different fields, connects them, builds on scientific evidence and provides support.

If you are losing weight alone, you are constantly evaluating yourself, you are constantly dissatisfied with yourself. This leads to depreciation, objectification of the body, and most importantly, deterioration and emotional overeating.

Accordingly, finding a person you trust is already great. You can work with a psychotherapist, a trainer and a nutritionist at the same time – gather several experts to guide you to make the process most competent. I have been working in various fields for over a decade to provide an integrated approach.

And of course this is a story about working with the psychology of the head and thinking. After reaching an illiterate specialist, you may have more problems than before.

Why does society bully overweight women and openly support obese women?

Maybe it was because of the hype around slim bodies first and then body positivity. This is a prime example of a good idea that became a marketing gimmick and made headlines and magazine covers.

For me, body positivity is about loving yourself, accepting your body, taking care of it. Obviously, overweight people are not very healthy. They have a large amount of excess fat, which disrupts the functioning of the body, disrupts biochemical processes and leads to hormonal disruptions.

How does sex affect the development of the body?

Conscious sex is a way of knowing yourself. It is an opportunity to exchange love and have fun. But unfortunately, we often encounter false partner evaluations, especially during adolescence. This can negatively affect the process of self-knowledge and the subsequent choice of partners.

Is orthorexia worse than bulimia?

These are completely different eating disorders. Orthorexia is an obsession with a healthy diet and lifestyle. One of the extremes, both orthorexia and bulimia, speaks of the rejection of one’s body, the lack of contact with it.

Why is eating disorder so common now?

We are not taught to love ourselves, to touch our bodies, to listen to ourselves in different situations. Society, media, movies create images with which we begin to compare ourselves from childhood. There are also such situations in the family – the mother is not satisfied with herself, the child sees this and begins to adopt a pattern of behavior.

One of the reasons for this is the misconception that losing weight does not solve all problems. You need to work with psychology, habits, lifestyle. Then you change not only your body, but your whole life. Often, people have a very direct association in their minds: “I will lose weight and everything will be fine.” But it has no depth. For this reason, people lose weight with diets and disruptions and only reinforce their eating habits.

How not to miss the first alarming bells of the ED appearance?

The number one alarm bell is emotional overeating. Write down how you ate for a few days and see if overeating is driven by negative emotions and stress.

Alarm bell number two is a negative attitude towards yourself and your body. Pay attention to the thoughts in your head. The language you use to communicate with yourself. How do you evaluate yourself in your head? Are you your own best friend or harsh critic?

* Recognized as extremist and banned in Russia.