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(This is cross-posted at BlogHer.)

Through the years, I’ve had subscriptions to many of the major women’s fashion magazines at some time or another: Cosmopolitan. Marie Claire. In Style. Glamour. In the past year or so I’ve switched to fitness-related magazines instead: Shape. Fitness. Oxygen. Women’s Health.

My observation: fashion magazines tend to be criticized for showcasing 80-lb. models wearing ridiculously expensive gowns (among other things), but fitness magazines can display unrealistic body types, too. (I’m not saying this is their fault — they choose cover models with washboard abs because they want an alluring picture to pique consumers’ interest at the supermarket checkout aisle. It’s the same reason why celebrities tend to grace the covers of fashion magazines way more often than actual models do.)

As much as I wish these images didn’t affect me, I still sometimes catch myself being hyper-aware of women’s bodies in fitness magazines. And I’m not saying this is always a bad thing. If you see a woman burst through the tape at the finish line of a marathon? Or hoist a heavy weight? Or complete a pull-up (something I’d very much like to be able to do myself)? Now those are images to look up to.

The thing is, I really like the idea of fitness magazines. I like their focus on healthy living, smart eating choices, lifestyle success stories, and new workout ideas. But I also think they can be just as detrimental as their fashion-focused counterparts, and that’s because there are so many women who strive to look like fitness models, to the detriment of the actual “healthy” part. If you’re stick-thin because you do a lot of cardio, but completely skip the weight training? If you eat healthy foods but don’t eat enough to support a healthy BMI? Can you really say you’re doing what’s best for your body?

I’m not trying to preach. It’s just that I understand how easy it is to fall into the trap of trying to look like someone you’re not. I’ll be the first to admit that I spent too many years focused on the numbers on the scale, rather than how I felt physically.

I’m in a much better state, both mentally and physically, than I once was. But even as my thoughts evolve away from, “I want to look like her!” to thinking instead, “I want to see my abs because I know I have a strong core and I’ve worked HARD for that definition,” it’s still possible to get sucked back into the Old Way of Thinking. And when I see photos of impossibly flat abs, or stick-thin thighs, that doesn’t help.

What’s the solution? In my case, as cheesy as this may sound, my internal rule is that I have to follow up any negative thoughts with something positive. For example, as I was writing this post last night, I received the July issue of Oxygen magazine in the mail. (I do like Oxygen better than some of the other fitness magazines out there — they tend to feature women with actual muscles, and visibly strong/fit bodies, rather than women who look like they only eat lettuce.)

I looked at the cover. “Her abs!” I noted immediately. (I tend to get jealous over a nice set of defined abdominals.)

My immediate follow-up to that was, “You just went to the gym and did a mean leg workout. You go, girl!”

And, no, of course that doesn’t mean I can delude myself into thinking I suddenly have a Rock Star Body like this particular cover model. But you know what? You have to be kind to your body, and be thankful for what you do like about it, and all the things you’re able to accomplish. If the magazine really bothered me so much that it made me feel like crap whenever I looked at it? I’d throw it away. Because my sanity is way more important.

Noel Figart says she has “something of a love/hate relationship with fitness literature.”

On the one hand I like to look for information.

On the other? It can be discouraging.

When I see articles about how someone’s life has become so much better since they got thin and look great in a bikini I want to scream, “You’re missing the point!” I mean…of course I want to be found attractive. But ya know, that’s a lot of work to go to get approbation from the outside. And the idea of finding life validation in terms of how sexy I’m seen is kinda scary to me, because it puts my life worth in someone else’s hands. No thanks. See, when I work out, I do it to be stronger. Would I like to look hot in a bikini? Sure. But honestly that’s years away if it ever happens and isn’t much of a motivator to get my ass into the pool or a bar loaded across my shoulders. At this stage it’s the energy to do my day. It’s having physical options.

When LeAnn Rimes was on the cover of Fitness magazine, the blogger at Bliss and Beauty walked by a magazine rack with her husband and had the following exchange:

H[usband]: What! Is that LeAnn Rimes? Didn’t she used to be chubby. Well, I don’t mean chubby, just not that thin.

Me: She was “softer” when she was younger.

H[usband]: She looks really different.

Me: I read [she] took up yoga.

And that was the end of the conversation. Not significant. But if I was “on,” I would have pointed out that of course she looks different. It’s called perfect lighting, hair and make-up experts, body tape, and, the biggie, photoshop. I guess we can’t be advocating all the time.

Leslie at The Weighting Game gives “Reason #15,913 [Why] I love my husband.”

Shape Magazine arrived in the mail a few days ago and, upon spying Ali Larter on the cover in a bikini, he pointed to the impossibly long vertical line bisecting her chest and torso and said, “She is SO airbrushed! How can people think that’s real?”

God, I adore him.

When actress Angie Harmon was on the cover of Shape magazine last year, she said she never goes to a gym. Stephanie from Back in Skinny Jeans thought it was irresponsible for a fitness magazine to convey that message.

[T]he byline reads, “Angie Harmon How she got this body. No gym. No Trainer.” In the magazine article, Angie says she keeps her great shape through weekend activities like swimming, hiking, and bike rides with her two girls and hubbie Jason Seaborn. [...]

[F]or her to say that she stays this skinny with just fun family activities is kinda fantasy land, and not really a good article for Shape magazine. I mean isn’t the whole point of Shape to help us stay fit and healthy through exercise, food, and well being[?]

I think Angie just has a really high metabolism and is one of those ladies who is just naturally on the thin side. Again, I don’t know her personally and for all we know she doesn’t eat much. When actresses say they stay magazine cover thin by not working out I tend to call shenanigans.

Erica Bartle (nee Holburn) helped put together a “body special” for a magazine last year, and had this to say about her experience.

Yes, women’s magazines make health and nutritional information accessible for women who really need it — many get encouraging letters from readers who have been inspired to take control of their health and lose weight. But there also needs to be a message about weight loss not being the key to happiness. Show me a skinny, carb-deprived woman who’s smiling and I’ll give you a hundred bucks (Nicole, Mary-Kate et. al. could barely muster the energy for a smile, surviving as they do/did on Starbucks coffee).

Taylor Ryan at Real Women Lift says “Celebrities and Their Workout Secrets Are Nothing But Bologna.”

Apparently Beyonce is able to maintain her bootylicious body because she resist[s] cravings for southern food. [...] I can guarantee you that Beyonce does a bit more than just say No to fried chicken and Mac & Cheese. I pray that people do not really look to the stars for fitness advice because it is very doubtful that…useful tips and programs are going to be given to get the body you want.

I am not saying that these stars do not have a great diet and exercise program but the tips that are often given or their claims for why they look the way they do are often skewed. Real muscle and leanness comes from a proper fitness and diet plan. I promise it is not going to happen if you walk your dog around the block each day for your sole exercise or if you pass on the collards.

Fitness model Jamie Eason did an interview with Fat Fighter TV. She was asked, “How hard is it to look that good?!!” Her response:

[Jamie]: Unfortunately, it’s not easy! If it were, everyone would look fit all the time. People need to realize, women especially, that what you see in magazines is not only enhanced with Photoshop, but many models are photographed around contest time or the women have trained specifically for the shoot. I will be the first to admit that even with my best efforts, stress and hormones alone, will add 8 to 10 pounds of water weight that are sometimes unavoidable before a shoot. It is very difficult to achieve the perfect look we see in magazines, and nearly impossible to maintain it for any length of time. Age, hormones and genetics are all big factors.

An upside to all this? Technology. Blogs. The freedom we have to write whatever we want — both good and bad — about our bodies and how we may feel about them at any particular time. BlogHer co-founder Lisa Stone and Contributing Editor Suzanne Reisman were interviewed for an article that appeared in Fitness magazine: Body Confidence 2.0: How Technology Is Changing Women’s Body Image.

Over the past 12 months, a viral movement has begun — a grassroots effort to take back the way women’s bodies are represented in America. “What we are seeing is a backlash to the homogenizing of women’s bodies via airbrushing and digital manipulation,” says Lisa Stone, cofounder of BlogHer.com, a Web site devoted to what women are saying and writing online. “More and more women are realizing the power of the Internet to reach out to other women in affirmation of what our bodies really look like. We see that we can turn the tables on how technology is used in the larger conversation about body image.” [...]

In the past five years, we have shifted from a society that uses the Internet to receive factual information to one that uses the Web to share anecdotal advice — and women are leading the charge. “Women are the ‘connectors’ in our communities,” says Stone. “The Internet is another forum for doing that.”

Do fitness magazines affect you, either positively or negatively? If you read them, which one is your favorite?

Related Reading:

Kelly at Fitness Fixation has an issue with magazines that make women look too perfect (doesn’t everybody sweat when they work out?). She dislikes all the “preachy, uptight fitness advice I find so appalling in most women’s magazines” and she wants to start a “blog campaign for sweaty models who don’t smile when they exercise.”

Ace Fitness: Fitness Magazines and Image Disorders

Zen Habits: 17 Fitness Truths To Get You In Great Shape. (#13 is “Don’t compare yourself to magazine models.”)