Dear Dr Milrod:

I want to get some advice on being skinny. I do some nature diet shakes and bars, I probably eat 600-800 calories every day. Do you think that kind of stuff works? It should, because I’m not eating a lot of carbs and my calorie intake is less than what I use up. Sometimes I eat a few slices of smoked turkey, a little cottage cheese or fruits and berries, but I try not to go over 800 calories a day.  Is it all in vain? I guess I could work out more, but I do some aerobic exercise and some strength training sometimes.

Give Me The Truth Please

Dear Give Me The Truth Please:

This all sounds like a very unpleasant crash diet. You’ll lose weight, but as soon as you begin eating more than that, you’ll gain again. Aside from that, you’re undernourishing yourself. Unless you’re on major supplements with minerals and antioxidants, you’re not exactly feeding your bone mass which is trying desperately to develop during the upcoming years.

You need to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, simple as that. The key to all of it is to understand your body type and its genetic purpose.
I hate to say this, but some women’s bodies are not entirely adapted to the society we live in now. I don’t know this at all, but I’m just guessing – if you are of average height and not exactly long-limbed, “skinny,” and have some kind of tummy or tushie, chances are that your body evolved in the ancestral environment to do two things: bear children and and work your butt off (literally). Your body was not made to run long distances or squat around the campfire for long hours and ook-ook about the stars; no siree. You were made to dig in the neighbs for roots, pound some dead carcass for your tribe and stir the pot, all the while with some shrieking chitlin on your back. Yep, barefoot and preggers, that’s pro’lly what you were meant to be – and constantly carrying things, moving around and slaving away…and chewing on your kassava. No extra fat on this cave lady, that’s for sure.

So with that in mind, you will have to return to your “default state.” Which in this case would be doing some RUNNING AND HEAVY LIFTING. Every day, practically. So this means going to the gym and literally exhausting yourself for 2 hours at a time. One hour cardio and one hour strength training (5 days a week for the strength part). And THEN live on 3 well-structured meals a day, with NO REFINED CARBS.

This means a breakfast with some complex carbs – a little fresh fruit, a big bowl of oatmeal and a schmear of some vegetable fat.

Lunch means some whole grain with some oil or fat and a protein shake (no sugar or sweetener.)

Dinner is protein again, with loads of greens and maybe some brown rice.

Throughout all this – no processed foods, sugar, sodas, alcohol or anything else that WASN’T FOUND IN THE ANCESTRAL ENVIRONMENT in which your DNA was created. Remember that your body was designed to be a hunter and gatherer, meaning 50,000 years ago (not that long ago, really), and that’s what your lifestyle would have been. If you want to look like you were meant to, then you need to adjust your lifestyle to your genetic predisposition – it’s as simple as that. If you do that, you will have very little body fat and you’ll look healthy and gorgeous. If you “cave in” (no pun intended) to the lifestyle that modern society has constructed, then your ancestral body will suffer. That’s why most people look like crap – they don’t understand that their bodies have not really evolved since the development of agriculture (10,000 years ago, yes) – and then we’re not talking about the kind of agriculture that gets us to go buy a carton of milk at Walmart.

If you really want to understand all this, then scrap the vacays to beach resorts and go hang with Yalis or  Yakuts living in remote traditional environments. You’ll see how hard the women work and how skinny they are. Now I’m not saying you should abandon your life plans – I’m just saying you need to understand your body type and work it to the bone, in order to stay fat-free. And yeah, it’s a bit of an adjustment, but SO worth it when you can undress in front of the mirror and smile to yourself and feel HOT…and then go “rape” some guy, cave-woman style. Try it, you may like the results.

Christine Milrod, PhD