Quick Update
Just a quick update on what's happening with this podcast and what's going on at fitnessdrifter.com
Oct 20, 2022•1 min
Fitness Drifter
Body confident health, fitness, and wellness for men. I’ll be talking about how we are impacted by issues like body image, eating disorders, body positivity, health at every size, diet culture, and fatphobia - and how to navigate the impact these can have on our mental health and day to day lives.
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Episodes
How Can Dieting Lead To Eating Disorders
We all start a new diet with good intentions - wanting to make a positive change to our health, wellness and physical fitness. But it is common for dieting to lead down the road towards emotional relationships with food and eating disorders. By some estimates, as few as 5% of people who lose weight by dieting are able to keep it off, and as many as 25% of people who start a diet can end up with an eating disorder. Let's take a look at how that can happen and what we can do instead of dieting. Yo...
Oct 16, 2022•13 min
Intuitive Eating For Men
Let's talk about intuitive eating for men. It's one of the best known tools that dietitian use when helping people improve their relationship with food is often an important part of recovering from an eating disorder. But if you look online, a lot of the content around intuitive eating is more geared towards women. Not that there is anything wrong with that - eating disorders tend to affect women much more than men overall. But I wanted to talk a little bit about intuitive eating for men as well...
Oct 09, 2022•11 min
Anorexia In Men
Anorexia Nervosa is possibly the best-known eating disorder and it is the one a lot of people think of when they hear the term "eating disorder". It is almost always seen as affecting women, but anorexia in men does happen too. By some estimates, up to 25% of anorexia cases are in fact men. I couldn't find a lot of reliable stats on that - just some estimates - but anorexia does indeed affect men and I wanted to run through what this eating disorder is, how to recognise signs and symptoms, its h...
Oct 02, 2022•12 min
Tips For Dealing With Seasonal Affective Disorder
As summer turns to winter, and the weather turns colder and darker, it is common to end up with bouts of low mood, depression, and feelings of lethargy. It's actually quite common to experience this and in some cases, will come under the term Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). It's something I deal with like clockwork, every September-October and then again in January and I have gotten used to figuring out how to adapt. So I'm coming at you this week with some of my best tips for dealing with se...
Sep 25, 2022•12 min
Common Men’s Fitness Myths Busted - Part 2
Following on from the last episode is the second part of my breakdown of some of the most common myths in men's fitness - although to be fair a lot of them are common to all fitness. Just search engines and algorithms make it easier to show up when you go super specific. Anyway, we've got another few tasty myths to break down this time - is eating small meals throughout the day better than bigger meals? How good (or bad) is walking actually for your health? And can you be healthy if you don't ha...
Sep 18, 2022•18 min
Common Men’s Fitness Myths Busted - Part 1
Change of pace this week as life has gotten in the way of me doing some deep dives into topics. But this is part 1 of a two-parter talking about common men's fitness myths and the truth behind them. I've got 12 myths for you in this episode including the truth about toning up, why sit-ups won't flatten your stomach, what kind of workouts actually are bad workouts and more. The transcript and accompanying blog post for this episode can be found here . You can also get in touch: Contact Instagram ...
Sep 11, 2022•15 min
Gut Health For Men
One of the most overlooked aspects of men's health is the gut. It plays a huge role not just in digestive health but in every part of both our mental and physical wellbeing. It's where pretty much all of the nutrition our body gets is extracted from the food we eat. So it's pretty darn important. We're going to look at common gut health issues, the impact of gut health on weight, how to improve your gut health, and why it is so important to your all-around health and wellbeing. And a few things ...
Sep 04, 2022•12 min
Bulimia In Men - Bingeing And Purging
We're talking about eating disorders again this week. Bulimia nervosa and a little bit specifically on bulimia in men. We'll cover the history behind this eating disorder, what it is, what impact it has, signs, symptoms, what recovery is like and I also added some guidance on how to help someone else if you think they are dealing with bulimia or any eating disorder for that matter. Other support resources: BEAT (UK) NEDA (US) Eating Disorder Hope (International) The blog post for this episode is...
Aug 28, 2022•16 min
Orthorexia Nervosa -Taking Healthy Eating To Extreme Levels
Orthorexia Nervosa, or orthorexia for short, is in simple terms an eating disorder where the sufferer becomes obsessed with "pure" or "healthy" foods. And what is deemed pure or healthy will vary from person to person. It's not a commonly recognised eating disorder and a lot of the time we will just tell ourselves we are being healthy and doing ourselves some good. But there is a fine line between healthy eating and looking after yourself, and genuinely disruptive or disordered behaviour. In thi...
Aug 21, 2022•18 min
Male Body Image And Fitness Goals
Fitness goals can be great - they help give you purpose, find new challenges and maybe even surprise yourself with what you're mentally and physically capable of. But it's really important to set the right goals, and from the right mental space. And having realistic expectations is key as well. When you set goals around aesthetics or body shape, it can do a bit of damage to your mental wellbeing - you end up focusing on things that you believe are flaws in yourself. So let's look at how to set g...
Aug 14, 2022•18 min
Body Positivity To Help With Body Dysmorphia
We all can be a bit self-conscious about our bodies and appearance from time to time. But sometimes we can end up fixating on our own perceived flaws to the extent that they almost feel debilitating. That is common with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) or body dysmorphia as it is also referred to. And it is a genuine mental health condition that can cause a massive amount of distress for sufferers, and something you should seek out professional help for. Body positivity encourages embracing your b...
Aug 07, 2022•17 min
Health At Every Size For Men
One of the most misunderstood (or maybe misrepresented) concepts in body positivity and in health and fitness more generally is the Health At Every Size (HAES) movement. It's common to assume that it promotes unhealthy lifestyles and ignoring weight in the context of health. That is definitely not true - it is saying that people should feel empowered to pursue health regardless of their weight and acknowledges that while weight is one crucial health marker, it is not the only important one. So I...
Jul 31, 2022•17 min
Male Fat Shaming And Fatphobia In Men
Fatphobia is the discrimination or maybe even hatred of larger bodies that are carrying a higher body fat percentage. It's a form of harassment, bullying and body shaming and it is widely known and regularly called out (rightfully so) for women. It is something that seems a lot more widespread and prominent for women. But male fat shaming is also a thing and men can experience fatphobia too. Here are a few thoughts on fat shaming and fatphobia from a man's perspective. You can find the correspon...
Jul 24, 2022•17 min
Burnout Recovery - Slow Down
We're all feeling it at the moment. On top of just the normal everyday stress that life throws at us, we're all - and with good reason - having to deal with a lot more. We're in the middle of a cost of living crisis, we're still in a pandemic, new political controversies across the world every day, climate change, high inflation. These are things that affect all of us and it has been weighing on my mind and affecting my mindset a lot. So I am stepping away from my planned and scheduled content p...
Jul 17, 2022•9 min
How To Handle Gym Intimidation
Stepping into the gym for the first time... or a new gym... or a new area of the same gym... or a new gym class... They can all feel scary, and intimidating and give you a slightly nauseated feeling in the pit of your stomach. I went through that when I started my fitness journey, and when I kept re-starting my fitness journey. In fact, I even wanted to lose 40 pounds before I started at the gym. Gym intimidation is very real, and it can get in the way of you doing something that can have a dram...
Jul 10, 2022•13 min
Male Abdominoplasty And Male Chest Reduction Surgery - Real Experience
Sharing my experience from planning, the build-up to, having and recovering from my dual male abdominoplasty and male chest reduction procedure in March 2022.
Jul 03, 2022•27 min
Cosmetic Surgery In Men
There wasn’t a lot of advice or information out there for men on cosmetic surgery when I had my surgery in March 2022. So here is some general advice, things to consider, tings to look out for, and some insight from my own experience of having a male abdominoplasty and male breast reduction.
Jun 26, 2022•31 min
What Does It Feel Like To Lose 140 Pounds?
From my heaviest to my lightest, there is about a 140 pound (or 63kg) weight difference in my body. As someone who has been on that journey and is nearly half the weight he was at his heaviest, I do get a lot of questions - how long did it take, what diet did I follow, what exercises did I do, how did it happen, what made you get to that weight in the first place, how am I keeping it off... So please forgive me a bit of self indulgence as I walk you through the longest and often most challenging...
Jun 19, 2022•25 min
Binge Eating Disorder In Men
Binge eating disorder in men is much more common than a lot of people think. It is actually the most common eating disorder in men and by some estimates, it is thought to make up around 40% of cases. So let's take a closer look at binge eating disorder, more about what it actually feels like (and no, it's not just a case of saying to yourself to stop eating), some of the common myths, and how I got my binge eating disorder under control. Transcript: https://fitnessdrifter.com/binge-eating-disord...
Jun 12, 2022•24 min
Beach Bods And Dad Bods
For men, we keep talking about 2 very distinct body types as almost "idealised" - the beach body, and the dad bod. Let's have a short conversation about men and beach bodies, men and dad bods, and a few thoughts for those of us that didn't tick either box. Transcript available here: https://fitnessdrifter.com/dad-bods-beach-bods Protein World ad and controversy: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/27/beach-body-ready-america-weight-loss-ad-instagram Men's beach body ready ad: https://th...
Jun 05, 2022•9 min
The Impact Of Negative Body Image In Men
I've spent my entire adult life dealing with weight, dieting, and body image issues and I know I'm not alone - by some estimates, around 50% of men are dealing with body image issues as well. When we talk about body image in general terms, I think (or at least in my own impression) it is a conversation that has been skewed more towards women. And I don't think that's unreasonable - women have had it bad with being judged for their bodies so prominently, so obviously, and for so long. And fortuna...
May 29, 2022•20 min
Men And Eating Disorders
According to some estimates, somewhere between one quarter and one third of eating disorder sufferers are male? Yet it's not that commonly talked about, often ignored, sometimes misdiagnosed, definitely can be stigmatised and can often leave male sufferers feeling like they are completely on their own with their own battle. Let's try to change that. In this episode, we are going to cover: My own battle with weight, body image and disordered eating, which has spanned YEARS Some shocking stats whi...
May 22, 2022•36 min
Fitness Drifter - Body Confidence & Fitness For Men
Hi. I'm Abhi. For pretty much my whole adult life, I've struggled with my weight, fitness, body image, nutrition, disordered eating, and a whole lot more. While those are things that can affect anyone, as a guy I felt like there was nothing out there for me. And a lot of the time it made me feel like I might be the only guy in the world who's battling with these things. As it turns out I'm not, but there still aren't a lot of us guys openly talking about these issues. That's why I wanted to star...
May 15, 2022•55 sec
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