Tracy Anderson's Singular Focus On Being "Teeny Tiny"

Despite evidence to the contrary, celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson now claims she never advocated a baby food diet. But even if she doesn’t want adult women eating like children, she still says they should be “teeny tiny” creatures.

Anderson’s publicist tells The Daily Beast that she never advocated the bizarre diet, which Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Lady Gaga were all accused of following. This is a bit hard to swallow, since last year she held an event promoting the “TA Baby Food Cleanse” at her L.A. studio, and told Marie Claire U.K. that the cleanse was a great way to “eliminate toxicity, break bad habits but still have your digestive system going.”

While Anderson is distancing herself from one unhealthy idea about weight loss, she’s promoting another one: Her new “30-Day Method.” She claims the method will “start the journey to your teeniest, tiniest point,” in a video on her website.

“Teeny tiny” has essentially become Anderson’s catchphrase. In countless interviews, she repeats some variation of, “I can give you a teeny-tiny dancer’s body.” While other celebrity fitness gurus at least give lip service to their program being about health, Anderson is mainly focused on making her clients the “perfect” size — “tiny,” of course. Actually, scratch that; women should be in a constant state of striving to be the “teeniest, tiniest” they can possibly be.

Anderson has claimed that she, “spent five years doing research to show the body could be reshaped against its genetic build.” In other interviews this switches to having, “spent literally eleven years researching how to sequence leg movements to make sure that you don’t do the same leg movement over and over again.” Yet her five, or perhaps eleven, years of “research” haven’t actually given her a solid grasp on what it means to be a healthy adult woman.

Among her more ridiculous claims is that conventional exercises like running don’t work because they can build muscle and “a bulked-up bottom is not a pretty one.” Also, aging isn’t a natural process, it’s a sign a woman isn’t trying:

If your body looks old at 50, it’s only because you’re not making the effort.

And similarly, every woman whose body changes post-pregnancy is just lazy:

The skin will always come back to the muscle if you work hard enough. Even if you have loose skin after having babies. I’ve done it a million times.

Though Anderson is often described as a health and fitness expert in the media, it seems she’s more of an expert in promoting dangerously strict diet and exercise plans, and the idea that women, not natural body processes, are to blame if they aren’t “teeny tiny.” It isn’t all that surprising that despite her shady business dealings and the accusations that she hires uncertified trainers, she remains a media darling — Anderson is the human personification of the lie that women are only beautiful if they’re extremely thin, and should constantly be trying to achieve a non-existent “perfect” body.

The Crazy Baby Food Diet [The Daily Beast]
Tracy Anderson Method
Tracy Anderson: “Madonna Is A Perfect Pupil, It Is Gwyneth That Gives Me Cheek!” [The Mirror]
Tracy Anderson On How To Get Madonna’s Arms: Gyrate – and Eat Carbs, If You Want [New York Magazine]
Tracy Anderson: Guru By Appointment To Her Madge, Madonna [The Telegraph]

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