1.
Why Do Weight Loss Plateau's Happen

2.
"You can't sing with Abs!!!" AKA Weight Loss and Singing
This is a big controversy in the opera world. The assumption that losing/gaining
weight or obtaining abs will all of a sudden limit your breathing capacity and leave
you unable to sing.
LETS DIVE INTO THIS, SHALL WE?
Where does this come from?
People often point to Debra Voight for big operatic transformations, and she is the
most notable example in today's era. After a scandal in which she was fired from a
production of Ariadne Auf Naxos at The Royal Opera House because she could not
wear a little black dress, Voight decided to undergo gastric bypass surgery.
Voight lost a significant amount of weight. She later on appeared in that same
production and wore that little black dress at the Royal Opera House. However,
there have been many claims that this transformation has taken a toll on her voice
and that she's no longer the artist she was because of it.

3.
The comparison above is not really fair. For one, the two are recorded differently, the
first one almost sounds like it was recorded on a cell phone, the second one maybe
from the CD or a recording of the live broadcast (potentially doctored.) Secondly, the
places they are recording are entirely different venues and performed with different
accompaniment.
If you were to take this evidence alone by itself you might say the product has
diminished, but you'd have no factual evidence to support it other than your basic
perceptions and opinions.
The Classic example of Maria Callas.
This article talks about how the supreme diva lost her weight. Losing about 80lbs or so
over the course of a year, she became recognized as one of the most elegant women
on stage, making her vulnerability as figures like Violetta in Verdi's La
Traviata unbelievably realistic.

4.
"Callas's international career began in 1947 when opera singers were expected to
be overweight. But at 108kg she felt miserable and regarded herself as ugly and
unlovable. When the director Luchino Visconti told her to lose 30kg before he
would work with her, she dropped 40kg.
She then went on to lose another 8kg.
According to legend, Callas's enormous weight loss came about because she
deliberately swallowed a tapeworm. Tosi, president of the International Maria
Callas Association, said she did have to have treatment for worms, possibly because
of her fondness for raw steak, but she dropped the weight by following a diet based
on consuming iodine.
'It was a dangerous treatment because it affected the central nervous system and
changed her metabolism, but she turned into a beautiful swan,' said Tosi.
She never ate pasta and favored meals of rare beef or steak tartare."
Some argue that her weight loss caused some decline in her singing, specifically in
her support, others argue that losing all that weight allowed her sound to become
more clear, less burdened with weight and allowed more freedom. She herself
claimed her health and physical comfort was affected by the weight and decided to
change it on those grounds.

5.
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6.
My Theory.
I've seen this happen more than once. Somebody decides that they want to lose
weight and they go about it in a very desperate manner and lose lots of weight
in a very short amount of time. It's understandable, we as humans are very
impatient and want our results immediately. This kind of body change is going to
take its toll on the whole of the person, not just his voice, although that will be
one of the things that people will put most under scrutiny if you're a professional
singer.
Losing lots of weight very quickly comes from either having a procedure done or
an extreme crash dieting scenario (And yes, I consider some doctor prescribed
things to be crash dieting.) Both of which I do not recommend. In the first
example you're doing something rather invasive and manipulating your body
dramatically, causing you to make a massive change from your everyday
practices in order to not sustain injury.
That's not a natural process, it's a dramatic switch that is going to give you
dramatic results. The second option is going to leave your body completely
drained of nutrition by neglecting food groups and taking strong medication to
alter your bodies metabolism. Also dramatic and more than likely leaving you
miserable, self conscious and create a bad relationship with food.

7.
The difference between these two divas before and afters is noticeable, that's a
fact. However, talking about which one is better than the other (the before or
after weight loss) is a matter of opinion that is shaded heavily by bias. You
could argue all day and get nowhere, because no one will be "correct."
I have a few friends that have gone through transformations that are just as
big, but didn't go under the knife. I'm not going to name names because I'm
not going to bring out their personal lives without discussing it with them in
detail, and frankly I don't have the patience for that. However, what I do know
is this: they ate cleaner, ate less, worked out consistently and committed
themselves to programs and came out the other end singing just as well, if not
better than they used to when they were larger. On the flip side, I've had
friends who have crashed dieted to obtain a goal and have lost significant
qualities to their voice and vocal performance. I'm going to remain just as
anonymous with their names as well.
THE OPERA ABS ASSUMPTION.
There are lots of people out there that want to get abs, and some of them are
opera singers. However, teachers for years have been telling their students
"Don't do it! It will ruin your voice!"

8.
Again, let us look into this:
It's not crunches, its not 10 minute ab videos, and its not a certain exercise. You
obtain ab muscles by lowering your body fat percentage. Plain and simple. Fat
is a subcutaneous layer that surrounds your entire body. You can't pick and
choose where your fat loss will come from. It will happen on its own. That
means that you could do all the situps in the world and you won't see your abs
unless you're below a certain body fat percentage.
The size of your abs can be directly affected by exercise, so you could
potentially see them at a higher body fat percentage, but in order for them to
be defined, you have to strip away fat. It's highly doubtful that you could do
enough exercise to build up really thick abs that are visible through 15% body
fat. Most people store the majority of their fat around their belly, and it's the
last to go. It's safe to assume if a persons abs are visible, they are fairly lean.

9.
The Tight Abdomen Theory.
"This singer made the supreme mistake: working out hours per day at a gym. (I
DO recommend reasonable exercise on a daily basis for any singer, but NEVER
heavy weights that build up the neck muscles.) His abdominal muscles were so
tight and tense that he could not breathe properly. This made it extremely
difficult if not impossible to relax a low breath into the body. After 6 months of
study, I suggested that he make a choice: continue to embrace extreme
exercise and STOP singing or adopt moderate exercise in order to sing well. This
created such an emotional crisis for him that he left the studio to seek other
instruction.
In his mind I am sure he felt that he could continue bodybuilding and still sing
well. This did not happen and, due to a lack of musicality, he never became an
accomplished singer. His inability to create a musical phrase was a direct result
of over-exercising the body to the point of locking the breathing muscles. It
reminds me of a phrase that a friend of mine made many years ago. “Real
talent is choice making!” This singer made a choice that cost him his career.“

10.
This is taken from one of my favorite websites on singing, and is a teacher I truly do
believe in. My teacher has studied with him and believes in his teaching. David L.
Jones. Many would consider him a master teacher and I'm inclined to agree with
the majority of his teachings. However, this bro don't lift.
I do not know the circumstances that surround this case, so therefore I cannot pin
point the cause of his problems, vocally, physically, or even mentally! I don't know
what kind of lifting he did, how large he was, if he used drugs to be competitive,
what his training split could potentially be or what he even looked like.
What David cites is thick neck muscles and a tight abdomen.
Here's the thing: I've seen the exact same incorrect singing behaviors in someone
who is overweight, and doesn't exercise or someone who is skinny and works out
moderately. Tension is tension and inflexibility is inflexibility. I'm sure Mr. Jones was
not inferring this, but I feel people (including myself) have mistaken his words.
Having weight (specifically fat) around your stomach won't give you the ability to
have "deep breathing," and having visible ab muscles won't keep you from being
able to fill your body with lots of air. This stems from having flexibility in those
muscles that come with specific training. Most average people who begin singing
lessons do not have the flexibility in their abdominal muscles to sing operatically.

11.
Whether its the length of the phrases, the volume required to sing it professionally,
or the manipulation of the mechanism you have to train specifically to produce
that kind of quality of sound. I actually argue that doing big compound movement
exercises will help develop these muscles exponentially.
Case in Point: Low Breathing and it's necessity for Squats and Deadlifts.
With that belt on you can literally see and hear how big and deep his breaths are.
Is he breathing the healthiest way possible? Maybe not, but he's also not
concerned about his vocal health. Most of us will never lift weight this heavy, and
it's not necessary to do so. However, doing exercises like this actually PROMOTE
beep abdominal breathing and controlled exhalation because, just like in singing,
the air creates a cushion for our muscles to push against. Even just breathing
against a band of resistance like a weight belt is going to reinforce that inner
abdominal wall. Making it stronger and capable of filling more with air, or more
specifically, be able to do more with the air that is stored. Caruso was once quoted
to say that you should be able to sing any phrase with a thimble full of air...or
something like that. I don't think we require as much air to sing as some people
make it seem, but I think it is important to breathe correctly to have air
conservation skills.

12.
With specifications to having strong neck muscles. I personally don't have very big
neck muscles, They flare up quite a bit when I lift, but having big traps comes from
very purposeful training and genetics. You can develop a very thick back and
trapezoid muscles from doing deadlifts and rack pulls, but your genetics will only
take you so far.
What makes me think that David Jones heldentenor may be on some form or
additional testosterone boost (Which we'll go into an entirely different article
about some other time) is because of the thickness of his voice, the description of
his neck muscles and his tight abdomen. If he was on some form or anabolic
steroid that could have way more of an effect on his singing than any exercise a
person can do.
Regardless, almost none of you will obtain a competitive body building physique
that is described by Mr. Jones, either out of no interest or lack of commitment or
time, so don't keep yourself from doing crunches because of one extreme
example.

13.
GREAT OPERA SINGERS WITH GREAT BODS.
I'm not gonna say that every opera singer that I've seen with a great body has an
equally great voice. I'm not even going to say that the majority of opera singers
who have good looking bodies have voices that aren't terrible. That's putting too
much of my opinion into something that I've frankly grown to care so little about
that its remarkable. I do have a few examples of dudes with great bods that are
dominating opera in all ways awesome, the one I will share with you today is:
I'm a big fan of Fabiano, and not just because he's a bro with a great voice and now
a pretty nice physique. I'm immensely impressed with his determination to be the
best. That same determination basically made him look like an insane person in the
documentary The Audition. Hell, I'm not convinced he's not crazy, but I don't care
when it comes to seeing him sing on stage. The man delivers the goods. Fabiano
has not always been in great shape, but he documented his path on his blog. He's
an interesting dude to say the least.

14.
Ol' Yeargain went through a huge transformation, and I'm continuing to transform
my body. I went from being a big ol' chunky dude to a guy who has visible abs, and
I did it over the course of 8 months. Has it had an effect on my singing? Why yes,
yes it has.
I honestly believe that losing all that weight has immensely improved my singing,
and potentially opened it up to be the kind of voice it was always meant to
be...(But, more on that later.) I have way more energy, I'm singing longer legato
lines than I ever have before, and my voice has literally gotten bigger. Not
immensely bigger, but specifically my middle to my upper middle have become
way more capable of putting out substantial volume.
I don't know if its getting older, gaining more experience, learning different
techniques and having time and practice to apply them or if its directly a result of
the fat loss. I have no clue. What I do know for certain is this: I don't get as vocally
tired singing anymore because I'm not physically as tired from singing, staging or
basic movement. I'll never forget when I was at my heaviest and most inactive
singing the role of Germont in La Traviata at school. I had a section where I had to
kneel down and then stand up whilst singing. By the time I stood up I was so out of
breath that I could barely finish the difficult section of "Un di quando..."

15.
The other difficulty is finding a balance. I'm currently in love with going to the gym.
It's the thing I look forward to the most when I get up in the morning. The next
thing I get excited about is eating, then after that its singing. I still practice
regularly, but my busy training, eating, and work schedule has made it take a back
seat. For people who consider themselves Gym Rats and have worked hard to
obtain their physiques, sometimes we get obsessed and allow our abilities in our
professional word diminish as a result. The gym and fitness is a scapegoat for poor
time management. As in the case with the heldentenor that David Jones taught, he
probably could have maintained his impressive physique and built up flexibility in
his abdominal muscles if he allowed the time to do purposeful training in that
area.
IN CONCLUSION AND MY SUGGESTION.
If you're trying to lose anywhere between 10-40lbs, don't stress about this. At all.
You're not going to lose your voice because you don't have love handles anymore.
That's just ridiculous. That's something that can easily be accomplished via exercise
and diet and won't require an enormous amount of life changing decisions, just a
series of inconveniences. Don't let your voice teachers who aren't doctors or
nutritionists scare you away from going to the gym and staying healthy. Most of
you won't obtain career threatening physiques unless you're getting body builder
lean (good luck) or developing an eating disorder.

16.
In contrast, when I recently sang Frank in Street Scene I was capable of standing
from a kneeling position whilst singing and performing a decrescendo on an E
natural. That would have not been possible in my earlier years.
The Difficulties.
Most of my difficulties have all come from diet and poor planning. I did not realize
at first how muscular singing could be, and as with anything muscular, your body
needs the right fuel to operate at its highest level. While singing Frank in Street
Scene I was doing low carb cycling in order to lose a significant amount of weight
before the opening of the show. It was highly effective, but also rather miserable.
There were often rehearsals where I would sing having ingested almost no carbs
during the day. It was during these days that my vocal performances lacked and
vocal production would actually tax my back and ab muscles (Literally sore.) Like
most singers, I try to keep the wear and tear out of the throat, but when your
muscles are being underfed, you're putting extra strain on tendon and cartilage. I
discovered this fairly early on in the process and made sure that anytime I had a
performance that I would feed myself an excess of carbs and sugars on those days.
The result was phenomenal. I got comments from my director about how great my
singing was on the days I ate with purpose, and he hardly ever went out of his way
to give me a compliment. (He knew my ego didn't need anymore feeding.)

17.
For those of you who may have upwards of 50lbs that you want to lose: do it slow
and do it smartly and do it with exercise and diet. Build strength while you're doing
it, increase your metabolism and vocalize EVERYDAY! I mean practice 10 times
more than you would. Your muscles must rise to the occasion if you're going to
shed all of that extra weight on your body. Be confident in your technique and have
an understanding of what you're doing physically. If you were one of those people
that has always been able to open their mouths and produce perfect sounds, you
need to evaluate why you make those sounds and how its happening while you're
losing the weight, because when your normal variables are cut out of the equation,
your voice is more than likely not going to know what to do. Like any important
decision in your life, you have to weigh the potential pros and cons and then make
an informed decision and follow an educated plan in order to be successful. It's a
lot of steps and a big process, but the more you step out of line from the beaten
path the greater your gamble.
Alright, since I think its not right to talk about someone else's singing or physiques
without showing your own, here is a clip of me singing some Classic Music Theater
from my recital rehearsal, where I was probably the skinniest I've ever been. You've
seen enough of me shirtless, so close your eyes and listen up.