Tracy Anderson should not be allowed to speak to women, much less young women. I obviously believe that Tracy is a fraud, a grifter, and a terrible person who talks sh-t about her clients all the time. She is intolerant of any form of exercise other than her own “method,” she criticizes pregnant women for letting themselves go, and she’s not above using a national interview to mock her business partner’s body. At this point, if some neurotic rich a–hole with more money than sense wants to pay Tracy to say bitchy things to them, so be it. It’s their money and whatever, who cares. But here’s what makes me sick: Tracy is now using her platform to write a book aimed at teenage girls. NOPE.
Why she wrote her book, Total Teen: Tracy Anderson’s Guide to Health, Happiness, and Ruling Your World: “After spending almost 20 focused years helping people find comfort in their own skin, I saw a huge preventative opportunity to make sure teen girls never lose their connection to being themselves and having to find it again. It’s hard for teens to show up for their health correctly when we live in such a trendy world.”
Don’t try to look like the celebrities Tracy trains: “Slow down the noise in your head. It’s all a vicious cycle of some editor sitting up in some tower airbrushing people to look like something dreamy. The issue is that teens need to understand that this falls into entertainment and art. It isn’t real. When you can take a deep breath and recognize a human form that has been turned into art, versus the true natural beauty of the incredible human you are, you can come to appreciate your own physical self. It would be so boring if we were all the same. Knowing that you are enough and you are who you are meant to be can really calm the noise.”
She gained weight one time and it was horrible: “At 19, I gained almost 40 lbs. at school. There wasn’t a support system for me to learn what could be happening or identify and heal this imbalance in a healthy way. I felt awkward and ashamed going to class. I felt like I was failing unintentionally, and it ultimately made me feel like the roadblock was too big for me to live my passion successfully and in a healthy way.”
Feeling comfortable in your own body: “I feel like this is truly key. There is so much noise about what is ‘pretty’ or ‘healthy’ or ‘sexy’ or ‘trendy’ with our physical bodies that people don’t even know how to own their own body or assess what they even want.”
If this was coming from someone who actually seems to have a great figure through healthy eating and smart fitness, I would be all for it. Like, if Jessica Alba was saying this, I would say “go ahead and God bless.” But look at the messenger! Nope. I just feel like Tracy shouldn’t be allowed to talk to teenage girls. It’s like she’s the headmistress of a creepy cult in which you have to guiltily recite the handful of times you’ve eaten M&Ms and after every cult meeting, you recite your goals: marry rich so you can spend all day working out. Tracy isn’t about body positivity, she’s about body shaming – that’s her bread and butter. And if she’s only aiming that message at dumb rich women, fine. There’s nothing I can do about it. But I draw the line at Tracy pushing her message on teenagers.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Never forget she also swindled a lot of people in her early days.
Never forget. Those people in Carmel, Indiana, still want their money back.
She must have made so much money after that. How come she doesnt pay them back?
@Pumpkin Pie: It looks like she declared bankruptcy on her studio and some people recouped some of their money (in one case cited, 75 percent of their membership fees). Indianapolis Monthly has a good article, updated in 2015, about Anderson and her hustle. I won’t post the link there, but you can find it by googling.
Thanks eggyweggs ! Found it !
F*** this little troll…she shouldn’t be advising anyone, but particularly not teenage girls–and I say that as the mother of one.
Hurray! Bulimia Jaw and disordered eating for all, as early as we can instill this trash ass always dieting crap on young minds!! listening to Tracy Anderson about health and body image is like electing Donald Trump for president of the United States
^ This. Disgusting.
This sets women back about 100 years.
I was talking to my gf, we’re both getting more active and shit, I’m seeing results, whatever but what i think is helping me with is basically a depression that has been simmering a minute, but I was really thinking about this harmful woman and how we as women have to devote SOOOO much of our energy to this trash… so as we check in on each other, me and my friend just were going on the other day about how mad it made us this state of being.. like YES we are minding our bodies cause we are vain as f*ck AND chiefly health ( cause we both have elders in our families with heart issues etc ) but also like JFC how long as long as we’ve known each other we’ve done diets/or preoccupied about food, is super f*cked up how from infancy this type of sh!t is drilled into us by our mothers/relatives/media/whatever body gets elevated to “the good kind of body to be” … Is exhausting….the fact that as whole human beings we surely should be worth more than being on a f*cking diet/worried about weight etc… yet for other legitimate reasons we should want to be active/mobile or as healthy as possible but this convo is hard to have amid sh*tbringers like Tracy
@QQ: I never got that from family, BUT the whole airbrushing, photoshopping, unrealistic images in the media are a constant. AND their whole purpose is to make you feel “less” and insecure about yourself. Because doncha know… if only you buy this mascara, these shoes, this skin cream, this whatever…maybe you’ll feel like you’re “enough”. Selling products on the basis of boosting someone’s self-confidence is a lot easier if you’ve spent a great deal of time and money making sure young women (and men now, I suppose) feel “less”.
All too true, QQ. I too come from a family of people with medical issues who didn’t take care of themselves. I am an experiment in longevity every. single. day.
Go, girl. Do it for you and nobody else.
Let people who exploit others’ body issues for profit be damned.
She’s so full of shit. She likes to use lots of words and buzz phrases to sound deep and meta and smart, but you can tell she’s just spitting bullshit, even through print.
And this: “I saw a huge preventative opportunity to make sure teen girls never lose their connection to being themselves and having to find it again”
Translates to: I want to see less fat people, so I’m trying to get to them young.
Has she had plastic surgery? Her face is strange.
Ha, perfect translation. The thing is, my kids are teens and I have to say the girls seem more confident and comfortable and strong and empowered than ever, no matter their shape or size. I love it. Of course I’m sure some are struggling with insecurity but they sure don’t need Tracey to offer up any of her crackpot “solutions.”
I agree! It’s heartening to see this younger generation be so ballsy and unapologetically themselves. One of my openly-gay young friends has been posting pictures of himself in drag all over his Instagram, and I love it. Just a few years ago I don’t know that a kid would have felt safe and confident enough to do something like that. Loving this positive change!
I know this sounds kind of bad but i’ve always suspected her face looks so strange because she has bulimia cheeks. My face used to get that exact same weird swollen look even when i was at my skinniest bc the purging makes your face kind of puffy and swollen
Her head is huge, and not just because her body is small. It’s like King Farquad from Shrek.
I hope she reads articles about herself.
Hahahahahahahahaahha you win the internet today King Frquad, I have tears in my eyes that was hilarious. And I was so scrolling down to say ,she has one of the most undesirable bodies from a exercise ‘guru’ that I have ever seen.
I noticed her head is crazy huge and her skin is chalky. Bad skin Or cheap foundation? Dont know. Does she forcus on weight bc her face is less than?
Yep. Definitely has a lollipop head. Wonder if she can take advice as well as dish it out. I’d suggest she work on the hair, the Kellyanne look doesn’t work on anybody, especially those with fiveheads, try some bangs girlfriend and a little conditioner or cut out the extensions.
Making fun of her head and/or body is not making things better for anybody either. I don’t agree with her but two wrongs don’t make a right.
Thank you @lola. IM not a fan if hers either but it makes me queasy just reading comments about the size of her head or her looks.
It may be a bit mean-spirited to comment on her looks, but this is a woman who has devoted her life to making other women feel like shit about their bodies, and has become quite rich and famous because of it. So, I’m inclined to think she is fair game even though I personally wouldn’t do it. The stuff she has said about pregnant women is pretty vile.
This brings to mind when people were saying how ugly Kellyanne Conway is. Normally, I would have said oh cut her some slack. But the times they are a changing. These two women are mean spirited and do nothing to better our world. Conway is a liar and defends her lies with new phrases such as “alternative facts.” You know the rest of her history. Anderson put the target on her back. She is vile and should not speak her madness to our teens. So sorry if you think I’m “shaming” the shameless. Next you’ll say we should be kind to trump…….but duck for cover if you’re not a perfect 10, because he’d call you an ugly fat cow otherwise.
I also have a huge head, like a pumpkin
Even my kids joke about it
My struggle is real 🎃
Why do so many American women get such bad blonde foils? Her hair looks cheap and so dry, same as Gwyneth too.
I have friends who get blonde done at suburban hair salons here in Aus and it looks so natural and beachy… why can’t these women get it done properly?
i’m 100% sure it’s extensions, that’s why it looks so ugly.
I color my hair blonde at home with $9 L’Oréal, and get it trimmed at Great Clips for $13. And mine looks better than hers.
I use NICE AND EASY. Agree completely!
Tracy’s hair looks even worse than it should due to the tacky-looking extensions, but in general – dark roots are trendy now, for some reason. I know women who go to the salon and ask for such hideous hair. One difference – theirs look much better, despite the uneveness, because their hair is not as damaged and wimpy. Gwyneth and Tracy believe that they are health gurus, but it’s obvious just by looking at their hair and skin that they are not having a proper amount of nutrition.
This little gremlin is hideous inside and out
Right, Ill be honest (please dome flame me), but I did a 60 day Tracy Anderson ‘inspired’ boot camp in London about 8 years ago, and it completely (no, completely!) changed my body – not just in terms of how I look(ed), but how much energy I had etc. I was already fairly ‘thin’ to begin with, but had no muscle or energy blah blah blah, generally just felt exhausted and weak. In hindsight, I think it F*cked up my knees, but the specific ‘zone focused’ exercises really did work. Everything I read about her makes me really dislike her and her ethos, but her routine worked for me.
*I was a PhD student at the time – don’t think that qualified me for the ‘dumb rich woman’ club.
Good for you, Claree.
I think everybody’s getting a bit worked up about Tracy’s method, but to be fair, I could totally believe that a ’60 day Tracy Anderson ‘inspired’ boot camp’ could work miracles for your body and your energy levels. Especially if you are thin and not used to doing a lot of sports (which I gather from your comment).
That’s not to say, however, that this woman isn’t a fraud and a terrible person who’s ripped off a lot of people in her early days, uses annoying and possibly dangerous pseudo-science to sell her method and her expensive gym cards, and body-shamed some of her famous clients in public for no other reason than extra publicity.
Yes, her book for teenage girls sounds gentle and positive (‘t’s hard for teens to show up for their health correctly when we live in such a trendy world’), but as Kaiser says: look at the messenger! SHE IS PART OF THE PROBLEM. It’s people like her who make it hard for teenage girls to love and respect their bodies, be healthy and ignore ‘trendy’ crap like Tracy ‘This workout will totally help you lengthen and elongate your muscles like a ballet dancer, never mind that’s not even how muscles work!’ Anderson.
+ 100000
Thanks Claree, I do her method workouts (and have been off and on for 5 years) and they are literally the only exercise for me that I see changes, results, and what I like to see in the mirror if I stick to it. I always say it on Tracey posts here, which are always so negative. That being said, I don’t follow the meal plans because it is just too restrictive and I have a full time job, a husband and three kids!
Good to hear this
Bc reading these excerpts I relate to what she’s saying.
But then I struggled with an ED in high school. I had bulimia for years and it was a nightmare. And I had to unlearn made habits and associations and relearn and gently train my mind and body to be kinder to myself and to celebrate and champion my strengths. At 40 with 2 kids (before my second – I had 2 miscarriages; then a healthy- very healthy! 2nd -my son-weighed 11 lbs 1.6 oz and I pushed him out). I love my body but my boobs sag and staying active is exhausting as a stay at home mom; and I am constantly working toward wellness but I’m also struggling with the totality of my days: I’m with my kids full time.
Any way sorry for the rambling.
I don’t know about her past but I’m interested in what this book says. I will probably read it now so that I can add it to my arsenal…for my daughter as she navigates youth and mean girls and puberty and love and loss with me by her side, communicative and accepting.
Not to be rude, and I’m really glad you found something that worked for you and you stuck to it, but it seems that a 60 day bootcamp with any form of exercise would have results, especially if you weren’t much of an exerciser before.
Like a 60 day bootcamp of walking briskly would probably see great results if you did it everyday if you didn’t exercise before. Just a thought.
Rant: I am so f**king sick and tired of hearing about how women’s bodies should look. People like Tracy try to make it about “health”, but we see you. Also, we are constantly being told that having a good body is linked to personal happiness, which is total BS.
I’m going to be that person, but no one is telling men how they should look. And there isn’t an obsession about men’s “health” when it comes to their body weight.
Unfortunately, men are being targeted now, too. Mucho money to be made by making guys feel insecure about their bodies. A whole new market is opening up, and the subtle (or not), ubiquitous brainwashing is even affecting grade school boys, not to mention teens, young adults, etc. Have seen this first hand, very sad… and infuriating.
My daughter works at an eating-disorder inpatient/outpatient facility and there are men in the programs also. So, yes, men are targeted also.
Who?!
HONEY. When you have a face like THAT you are in NO position to criticise the looks of teenage girls.
Not to mention trying to dress like them. How old are you, sweetie?
Well, I’m sure I’ll get “you nasty b!tch!” points for this, but here: Tracy’s body is actually quite oddly shaped and her head is wa-a-a-a-y too big for her body. So for somebody who has permanently attached her lips to Goop’s posterior maybe she could just SHUT UP for a while?
F**k her.
As if girls don’t face enough pressure and problems as it is.
Who does she think she is?
You shouldn’t come here and bitch about the message she sends, while commenting about the size of her head. She can’t control the size of her melon. Call her out on her message and her falsehoods, but don’t pretend you are any better if you feel such a deep need to comment on a body part she has ZERO control over.
She may have zero control over her head size, but she does (supposedly) have control over her mouth and her writing. When she’s writing things that are going to make teens feel bad about themselves, and maybe even push them into eating disorders, you bet your butt I’ll talk about her head! I don’t need your permission or your approval.
I have an eating disorder. It started many years ago in high school. I still deal with it every day. I see Tracy is participating in the industry that helps create these disorders. Wow. That’s some bad karma.
I hope it some how gets easier for you. I’m sending love and respect to you.
Good luck on your journey!
Tracy hates anyone who isn’t a size 2. Her “method” involves an insane amount of hours devoted to cardio and not lifting anything more than 3lbs, cause heaven forbid women develop biceps.
I find my daughter’s rugby team, the DC Furies, to be a great representation of fit women of all shapes and sizes. The fact that many of them also work for great causes, Abortion rights, LGBT rights, makes them all the more of an inspiration in my eyes.
But it’s okay to body shame her? How does she not have a good figure? She’s short and boxey like me , she’s not gonna look like Jessica Beil.
When you’re busily body shaming others – and she does, don’t bother to deny it – you leave yourself wide open to the same. And she does not have a good figure. I’m short and boxy too, but then I don’t set myself up as judge and jury on anyone but Tracy’s body – and that’s because she pisses me off.
Huh? This seems perfectly fine to me. Especially when she talks about obsessions with getting whatever current trendy body “that people don’t even know how to own their own body or assess what they even want.” Plus I also think its great for teen girls to learn about fitness rather than just being “skinny hot”, as early as possible. And as she says, they do need a place of resource if the weight suddenly balloons. A lot of these girls right now just end up on dangerous fad diets, eating disorders or are so overwhelmed they give up and the weight spirals into something thats very hard to reel back. I’ll see myself out.
“When you can take a deep breath and recognize a human form that has been turned into art, versus the true natural beauty of the incredible human you are, you can come to appreciate your own physical self.”
Says the woman with giant fake boobs bolted to her chest.
So yeah. I think it’s mostly the hypocrisy.
Except those who followed her for years know her “method” is focused on looking like a model rather than a healthy young women. For people like Tracy, a body like Serena Williams, gained through years of hard work, would be something to be ashamed of.
Forgive me but her own body is closer to an athletes than a model. I’ve actually just googled images of her, she has muscle. Significant muscle actually, not Serena big but bigger than Pink and Ciara at their peaks. So I still dont get it.
Read my comment above. It’s more about the messenger than the message.
The message is a pretty big problem.
Didn’t have the foggiest who this one was, so I Googled.
Yet another “lifestyle guru” preaching the psychobabble-garbage-gospel about how we should be comfortable in our own skin (cue eyeroll), yet who’s had so many “enhancements” that’s she’s virtually unrecognizable, and who looks to have enough botox in her forehead to paralyze a horse.
The supportive words are all there, but as usual, they barely mask the undercurrent of hatred for women’s bodies that runs deep in all of these “empowerment” peddlers.
“this woman body shames women!”
Half the comment proceeds to body shame and pick her apart because apparently, that solves the issue.We fight body shaming with more body shaming.
Anderson is selling a product to a particularly vulnerable demographic, and people have a right to question the quality and effectiveness of that product. Especially since she looks to be her best customer. Look at a picture of her from even just a few years ago. She very clearly does not practice what she’s preaching.
She’s not intolerant of other forms of exercise, she’s just very clear that if you want the results she promises you have to do her program, not her program plus, say, powerlifting. Just like a bodybuilding coach will tell you not to spend much time on the treadmill, or a marathon advisor will tell you now’s not the time to start bulking up. If you want specific results beyond general fitness, you have to stick to exercise that actually gets you those results and avoid exercise that works against you getting those results.
I don’t know why she gets such a bad rap over other trainers. Every type of fitness guru has a different style and different idea of the ideal body, and that’s what they promote and work with their clients on. Tracy’s thing is getting a dancers body, Jillian’s thing is a sort of ‘mainstream ripped’ look (very toned but very far from a body building physique), Shaun T’s thing is low body fat and very high cardio fitness levels, Jackie Warner is basically a Jillian with more focus on getting properly ripped, and then there’s all the yoga and pilates guru’s who value flexibility above all else and all the bodybuilders turned trainers who’ll tell you cardio is the devil. You decide what you want to achieve, and you pick the person or style that best suits that.
Her job as a personal trainer is to tell her clients what they need to work on. It’s not body-shaming. No one pays a PT thousands of dollars to tell them they look perfect as they are. That’s like going to the dentist for teeth whitening and them telling you that shade of yellow suits you. It’s their job to point out your issues and work with you towards improving.
She’s actually pretty gentle and kind as far as PT’s go. She takes on clients who are never going to achieve brilliant results, which is something many famous PT’s absolutely will not do. Her video’s are fairly refreshing as there’s not a lot of weight talk, it’s just here’s what we’re doing. Her pregnancy and post-pregnancy videos are especially great for that, I ended up doing them exclusively as every other video and class I tried had people constantly going on about fitting back into your skinny jeans. When it comes to food she’s not bad. She has a few stupid 1-2 week detox/fad diet things, but beyond that she’s about moderation, and unlike most PT’s she doesn’t act like junk food is bad, she just doesn’t advise eating much if you’re trying to lose weight.
You don’t know why she gets such a bad rep over other trainers? Here’s why:
1. The main problem here is not that she’s intolerant of other forms of exercise. It’s that her method is complete quackery and she’s using dangerous pseudo-science to sell it.
2. It’s quite a different thing sharing fitness insights about your client (e.g. ‘Gwyneth’s ass is flat as a pancake!’) with other people than your client. Let alone letting the whole world know (blabbing about your client’s ‘problem areas’ to a magazine).
3. Bad business decisions, fraudulent practices, ripping people off. Google it.
And a lot of what she preaches has been debunked by anyone with a cursory knowledge of physiology. Most women do not get biceps like Serena Williams by lifting weights. I take weight lifting classes and there’s a woman who is size 4 tops and deadlifts 150 pounds with ease. And I follow a lot of ballerinas on instagram and many of them are lifting weights (women need strength to be able to help with lifts in dance).
That whole “problem area” guru-speak thing needs to die. It’s rarely to do with improvement or positivity, and never about being healthy. It’s pinpointing people’s insecurities so you can exploit them. And most of the time, “spot training” doesn’t even work. It just perpetuates this cycle of there always being something you have to “fix.”
@peanutbuttr
“A lot of what she preaches has been debunked by anyone with a cursory knowledge of …” could apply to pretty much everything she says.
Tracy’s “thing” is a laser focus on weight management to the detriment of everything else it takes for a body to be healthy. She demonizes food with an extensive “never eat this” list that has no basis whatsoever in nutritional fact.
Binge exercising using Tracy Anderson-approved equipment and methods, taking purifying “cleanses” using Tracy Anderson-approved recipes and supplements, and drastically cutting calories are all literally the opposite of moderation. Replacing an adult’s meals with baby food is definitely not about moderation.
Dismissing her starve-the-body dieting/exercise philosophy as a “few stupid diet things” is precisely the danger when a lifestyle like this is aggressively marketed to girls and young women. Anderson’s methods and philosophies are fringe-y and extreme. They are not healthy, they aren’t supported by medical or nutritional science, and some of her theories about eating and how human metabolism works are well-known anorexia triggers.
A good trainer WILL tell a client she looks perfect as she is. And then follow it up with “But we’re gonna make you look BETTER.” Because the only way to be truly healthy is to focus first, foremost, and always on how you FEEL. Look at the whole body in the mirror, and not just the bits and pieces that people like Anderson (and the dieting industry, and the cosmetic industry, and the entertainment industry, etc., etc., etc.) tell you aren’t good enough. Positive, sustainable body fitness will naturally follow.
There’s one new report on teenage obesity (USA only)
http://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Obesity-In-Children-And-Teens-079.aspx
and one old 2012 about the weight loss industry.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/100-million-dieters-20-billion-weight-loss-industry/story?
id=16297197
It’s a huge field to earn easy money. She’s just one of many.
“Dumb rich women”
Kaiser, you summed this up perfectly.
Also, Goop’s shopper demographic
Well, I agree with most of you about finding this woman crazy-annoying and phony. It’s somewhat amusing to watch her and former bff Madonna compete over who appears to “care” more about people’s health & fitness.
(Forgot to add)
…all the while never admitting to their own eating disorders.
This isn’t particularly relevant, but her hair always looks so greasy to me
Grifters gotta grift
She does suck but more importantly, where can i get that dress?
It seems exhausting to always be on a diet…to always worry about your dress size. My God is there nothing else to think about? You wanna lose weight? Go live in a third world country for 6 months. Voila !
This is the woman who created the “baby food diet”. (http://www.alternet.org/story/156011/baby_food_diet_americans_are_spending_$50_billion_a_year_dieting_–_and_we%27re_getting_crazier_by_the_minute ) Alternet.
Callen Pinckney, an actual ballerina developed an exercise program in the 80s named Callenetics http://www.livestrong.com/article/336961 .
I’ve used this; it’s great Each exercise includes specific modeling/instructions for people who have neck, back or knee problems for anyone with neck, knees or back problems. She’s had these problems.
She has so much botox in her face that the only way she can smile is by opening her mouth in a surprised expression
why does her hair look like that
Tracy Anderson is terrifying. I enthusiastically paid for and attending a ‘live’ training in her ‘method’ and she was not welcoming, nor was she thankful for people who took time and money to be there to learn and support her upgrade of Jane Fonda/Callisthenics which is a total rip-off and BS that she could even call ‘movement’ her method. She did not smile unless the camera man or director told her to (of course we were all being filmed). And she could give a sh*t about anything other than herself, her own look and pumping up her insecurities by judging everyone around her from the too skinny to the overweight to Moms who ‘let themselves go’ to obese teens. What a fraud this poor excuse of a human being is. Does she do anything philanthropic or care about those less fortunate or with less fortunate genes!?! Hell no! What a pity, woman. I hope your children grow up with more grace, class and character than you. P.S. Your products SUCK.
Body shaming a woman youre complaining because you believe SHE bodyshames. …… hmmmm… makes ZERO sense. Her methods are brutal but they work. You can easily adjust her food plans and you dont have to be mega rich. Believe me.. I lost 30% body fat and gained muscle. SHE’S not the only guru on the world but she IS effective.