“How to Build a Non-Cellulite and Fat-Free Butt in 9 Weeks.” That’s the subtitle of Tosca Reno’s The Butt Book
Reno is one of those perky motivational speaker types. At age 40, she weighed over 200 pounds. She was depressed, stuck in an unhappy marriage, and generally living an unfulfilled life. That’s when she decided to reinvent herself. She started weight training and competing in bodybuilding contests until eventually she turned herself into a bona fide fitness guru, writing articles for Oxygen magazine and launching her own series of diet books, The Eat-Clean Diet
The Butt Book is a quick read, but still informative. Who knew the English language has so many synonyms for your bedonkedonk, or that there’s such thing as a “Wonder Butt Bra?” As you would expect, Reno focuses on weight training as the key to sculpting a cellulite-free tush. If you’re worried that weight training will make you bulk up, Reno gently puts those fears to rest. “Don’t worry about getting bulky muscles,” she advises, “You didn’t worry about getting a bulky, fat butt, did you?” Oh, that Tosca!
You’re probably already familiar with most of the exercises she recommends. Squats, lunges, and hip thrusts are all pretty well known. She reveals an exercise called “prone hyperextensions” as the “well-kept butt-building secret.” It’s the exercise that prompted her to write “pain is progress,” so proceed at your own risk (plus, it involves a special machine you’d have to find at your local gym).
Several chapters of The Butt Book are devoted to an explanation of Reno’s Eat Clean philosophy. She recommends the typical weight-training diet: low-fat, high protein, lots of complex carbs and between meal snacks. She advises that all dietary fat intake should be kept to a minimum since fat is “stored away by the body in case of future starvation situations,” a theory now in doubt by a large segment of the medical research community (more on that in an upcoming post). But it was good to see her critique of the calories-in-calories-out theory of eating. As Reno explains, it’s more the quality of calories that is important.
In spite of the book’s subtitle, Reno doesn’t say much about cellulite directly. The one exception is a question in the Q&A; section at the back of the book where a reader asks her about dry brushing for cellulite reduction. She tells the reader that exfoliating the skin can’t hurt, but the problem is much deeper, claiming that cellulite is caused by a “junk-food diet and inactivity.” I’m curious to see what CI readers think about that claim. Do you agree with her explanation about what causes cellulite?
You might also like:
“The China Study” by T. Colin Campbell, Part I
“Fat: It’s Not What You Think” by Connie Leas
“Beyond Cellulite” by Nicole Ronsard
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Sorry, you asked something.. I was too preocupied by the picture.
I think there is something to be said about the old chinese weightloss secret, less eating more exercise. It always amazes me at food portions people eat, then at walmart they take the little motorized carts, God forbid they walk around the store on their own means of locomotion.
claudio
Hi, Claudio! Thanks for commenting! You bring up an interesting point, and one I hope to discuss at greater length in future posts. I think most people would agree with you. The answer is simple: eat less, exercise more. Right? Strangely enough, the scientific studies consistently show that this method just doesn't work. Even when calories are restricted to a strict amount or when exercise is mandatory, people vary widely in their ability to lose or even gain weight. The "exercise more, eat less" theory assumes that exercise and calorie consumption are independent variables, meaning you can change one without affecting the other. But what if they are dependent variables? More to come on that one…
The less I ate the fatter I got. I walk all the time, actualy cleaned hotel rooms for 8 hours strait. Didn't start lossing weight until I started eating more. Imagine that Claudio, if you paid attention to the surrounding influences and not just the surface you might see more, as in it may hurt those people to walk, and maybe that is the only meal they have had all day. Unfortunatly some people can only afford one meal, and they make that the super cheep super sized delight!
What prompted you to start eating more? I think a lot of people notice themselves getting bigger and then try to eat less and less, so that it becomes a vicious cycle. It's great that you were able to break that pattern and see results! Did you change your diet in other ways, too? Thanks for sharing!
Anonym:
I maybe should have worded it better not just eating less, but eating better. I suffer from same afliction. I don't eat breakfast and dependent on how busy I get, I sometimes skip lunch then I'm famished at dinner and I snack all night till I go to bed. So actually eating less, but not the right stuff in the right portions. Thus, I usually put on some weight, especially if I don't run or exercise.
I do pay attention better than most since it's kinda my occupation. "may hurt those people to walk" I'll give you that, in some instances, but then why are those same people without a Handicap placcard sitting in their car, WAITING for 5minutes to park 3 spots closer to the door, than park a little farther and walk a little more. And as far as making that one meal be the cheep supersized delight? Please. Big Mac Supersized with Diet Coke is about 5-6 bucks. I buy it quite a lot. For 5 bucks you can go to any grocery store and get significantly more nutritious and filling food. It's a matter of convenience and in my case at least at times lazyness. I'd rather have the convenience. It's a matter of self choice and determination. Kinda like my smoking, I try to quit, but won't until I decide that I really want to.
Claudio
I have to agree with Claudio on that one. Fast food might be cheap in relation to a restaurant meal, but it's not cheap in relation to the good ol' fashioned grocery store. And it can't compare to the frugality of an even more ol' fashioned backyard vegetable patch (organic and all!). But on the other hand, a lot of people barely have time to get to the grocery store and buy fresh produce, let alone tend to a vegetable garden.
Jenny at nourishedkitchen.com just wrote an excellent post about how spending the extra money to buy a free-range chicken is offset by the fact that it's so nutrient-dense, it can easily provide 5 solid meals for an average family. As she says, "good food costs good money," but it's a wise investment to make.
http://nourishedkitchen.com/1-chicken-5-meals/