Geschatte leestijd: 4 minutenFajah Lourens was a guest on Eva Jinek’s show. A great opportunity to spread more nonsense and casually cause a couple of eating disorders.
“The absolute queen of Dutch fitgirls”
Fajah Lourens appeared on Eva Jinek’s show. She’s going to release a second book of her Killerbody diet and gladly joins for promotion. Soon after, her appearance garnered considerable criticism. High trees catch a lot of wind. As the “absolute queen of Dutch fitgirls” (as Eva put it), you can expect plenty of criticism. However, if you start spouting rather concerning nonsense, you make Fajah-bullying a bit too easy.
Personally, I find “absolute queen of Dutch fitgirls” to be an insult to all those fitness athletes who are miles ahead of Fajah Lourens in terms of experience and expertise. The OFGs, Original Fitgirls. The women who embraced fitness as a lifestyle long before Fajah took her first steps as an actress and model. The OFGs who find themselves back on the playground where it’s all about popularity and nothing about substance.
Why another book by Fajah Lourens?
A better question is: why the first book? In a previous article, I wondered why people prefer to read diet books by celebrities instead of the work of experts. Furthermore, I questioned why celebrities think their popularity equates to expertise in unrelated fields. Like Fajah Lourens, who has many followers, happens to take an interest in fitness, and voila!!, “bow to your new fitgirl queen”.
Illustrative is how her first book came about. Fajah explains on Eva’s show that this was her publisher’s idea. Fajah began to explain her reservations. “Great!” I thought. So, she does question whether, alongside her fame and a coincidental interest in fitness, she has any other qualifications to write a diet book. How wrong I was. Her reason for doubting? “I’m not big enough online yet.”
So, the requirement isn’t so much whether you have a good message to deliver. It’s mainly about having enough online followers and potential buyers. Now we just have to wait for Fajah’s first cookbooks to come out, followed by a clothing line, Killer Fitqueen or something. If you need a photographer to beautifully capture that line, Fajah, I’m available. As a fitness photographer, I don’t judge.
I only do that as a blogger.
Fajah Lourens: woman needs on average 1300-1400 kcal”
Fajah Lourens explains that 1200 kcal per day is not that little at all. She doesn’t have a high metabolism, she states. About 1350 kcal per day. So, a deficit of 150 kcal wouldn’t be that significant when you want to lose weight. If it needs to be quicker, she lowers her daily intake to 1000 kcal.
Then it turns out that Fajah is indeed a very knowledgeable coach. Eva asks Fajah what the daily requirement is for an average woman with a job and two children who is very active. As a coach, I couldn’t answer that. At most, based on statistics, but I would quickly say that they’re of little value for individual advice. I would need more information. I don’t need “an average”.
Fajah already has her answer ready before Eva finishes her already limited description of this theoretical Dutch woman:
“1300 to 1400 Kcal” is her firm answer.
Coincidentally, exactly the same as Fajah’s requirement. Apparently, the average active woman with a job and two children, like Fajah, has a slow metabolism. Apparently, Fajah Lourens represents the average Dutch woman.
Not according to the Nutrition Center, which assumes 2000 kcal per day [1]. But well, I can’t do much with that either. Averages don’t mean much to me. Let’s fill in the picture a bit more. For example, by saying that it’s about a 30-year-old woman, 1.71 meters tall, weighing 55kg. Let’s call her Ingrid. Ingrid is not exactly heavyweight. Ingrid “moves a lot and is active”. Let’s say this means she trains 1 to 3 times a week. According to the Harris-Benedict formula, Ingrid would need 2093 kcal per day to maintain her weight. If she never trained, this would be around 1620 kcal.
So how the hell do you come up with 1300 to 1400 kcal as the daily requirement for the ‘average’ woman? That must have been a shock for Ingrid when she tuned into Jinek. She eats around 2000 kcal a day and trains regularly, but according to Fajah, she’s getting fat. “Weird,” thinks Ingrid, “I haven’t noticed anything.”
Nice for inspiration and motivation
It’s illustrative of a problem I described earlier in an article about role models. In that article, I tried to explain that it’s fine to follow someone as a role model, but it’s less wise to follow their example.
No, that’s not the same.
Follow for inspiration and motivation, not for information. What works for that person may not work for you. I dare to doubt that Fajah represents the average woman (with a job and two children).
Maybe I should take comfort in the thought that Fajah is mainly the face of the ‘killer body’ brand. A cute face to stick on while the real experts do the work. Kind of like the hope we currently have for America. Granted, Fajah looks nicer than Trump.
As I’ve said before: I don’t blame Fajah. Why not make money where you can? Not everyone needs to be guided by scruples
(noun. Pronunciation: [skryˈpyləs] without scruples, without moral qualms).
“But it works!”
Fajah refers to the results showing that her approach is effective. You know what else was effective, Fajah? Expedition Robinson. You know from your own experience. Yet I wouldn’t send everyone to a deserted island to lose weight. Concentration camps, those were also effective for weight loss.
Effective is not always the same as wise. Eating less than you need isn’t rocket science. Providing a responsible, personal, advice that helps someone find the right balance, especially in the long term, that’s the art. A reason why as a coach, I’m not very keen on before and after pics as a measure of your success.
Thanks, Fajah Lourens
Lately, several Dutch fitness bloggers seem to have a bit more self-reflection and warn about the dangers of going too far in fitness. We too have examined our role when it comes to the influence of fitness and diets and the extent to which this could lead to an eating disorder. However, Fajah seems to have missed that development.
Maybe Fajah needs another ten years of experience and study. Then she’ll come close to the experience and knowledge most of us have when we think we can share something meaningful about fitness and nutrition. More importantly, then she will have gone through all the mental highs and lows that we all experience. Then at least she’ll know what the hell she’s talking about.
The best news, however, is that soon we can also consider an eating disorder as a Dutch export product. Fajah hopes to have her book published in 50 countries. #proud
References
- voedingscentrum.nl/nl/mijn-gewicht/overgewicht/spelregel-2-minder-eten-om-af-te-vallen.aspx
