A Weighted Discussion

In my last rant I touched on how quick fix diet companies win by getting you to use their processed food replacement products and step on a scale.

This public service announcement is focused on how easy it is to believe health is being achieved. When in fact it isn't. The scale is incredibly good at lying to people about their level of health. 

I'm aware of the latest and greatest scales on the market, ones able to spit out a slew of numbers. This is meant for folks unaware of what some of those numbers are as well as people who don't have a fancy shmancy super scale. It's meant to show how the scale (the old fashioned ones) can be extremely deceptive. It could keep you from your goals for a very long time.

Wait...

"Scale weight? Isn't weight just weight?"

No. Absolutely not. 

There are different forms of mass that create the body. Lean tissue mass (organs, bones, and muscle) and fat mass. Organ and bone mass don't change significantly from exposure to properly balanced amounts of whole foods and consistent strength and conditioning practice. So when it comes to measuring healthy progress it's usually assumed changes in lean mass is in the muscles. Yet, fat mass is just that, fat mass.

I always measure clients body fat with the "pinch test." Using millimeter calipers I pinch the same seven areas of the body to measure the thickness of the skin. 

(There are much more accurate methods to measuring body mass such as hydrostatic weighing where you're submerged in water. Pinch tests are simply much more economical and practical.)

These pinch test measurements, COMBINED with, age, height, gender, activity level, AND the scale weight can equate body fat percentage. With this percentage I can track of the numbers that matter to achieving success.

- Scale Weight

- Lean Body Weight

- Fat Weight

- Body Fat Percentage

Why would you want to know these numbers?

Simply watching the scale weight of your body isn't a solid indicator of being healthy but it's the trend for too many people.

Why? Remember all that jazz earlier? 

Watch this.

A person at 195lbs with 10% body fat holds only 19.5lbs of fat making their lean mass 175.5lbs. If you look at the same 195lbs person but now with 35% body, the differences are abundantly clear. 

You see, these numbers matter. They matter when it comes to making a true healthy change. A change that makes people around you stop dead in their tracks and ask, "What the hell did you do? How? You look great!"

Or, "Daaaaaaaaaamn!"

So if you continue to think that jumping on an elliptical or treadmill and gassing yourself out. You ought to think again. Too many people believe long bouts of grueling cardio is what it takes to make awesome changes.

Heavy weight lifting and strengthing metabolic sessions is what gets you to burn fat, build muscle, and feel great.

Healthy change requires a long term progressive system like Training For Warriors (TFW), the system I deliver out of Cottage Grove, MN at TFWEastMetro.

"If you work for the system, the system will work for you." - Martin Rooney

In short...

Any questions?

Persevere With A Side of Determination

I remember when I was in preschool, at three or four years old, I had a mission. I wouldn't stop for nothing or anything. Hell, I had already had my first kiss. There was only one thing left to conquer.

The basketball hoop.

Now the details are a bit foggy. Give me a break its been at least 25 years since. I want to say it was a ten foot hoop. Was it really? I don't know. It very well could have been an eight foot hoop. Considering this happened in 1990ish, I'd be willing to bet it was a ten foot hoop.

Shot after shot after shot.

Miss after miss after miss.

I remember watching the ball fly upward toward the sky, reaching for the basket. Each time reaching the apex of its arch it stalled, motionless in the air, as if the ball were actually contemplating on going in. Only it never did. It was never really close to going in. Never though, did any of my failures keep me from thinking I wasn't capable.

I pressed on.

Shot after shot after shot.

Miss after miss after miss.

Months went by without making it in. I pressed on. I had to. I hadn't made a basket yet and I wouldn't stop until I did. It was all I did when I was given time outside. I never played with any of the other kids. I would just take shot after shot.

I never once thought about how much I suck at shooting a basketball. I never once thought, "I can't." I never let anyone convince me otherwise. And oh did they try.

Adult caretaker - "Why don't you find something to do you know you can do?"

Me - "But I haven't done this yet. I've already done everything else here. This is the only thing I haven't done."

(Not virbatum...but pretty much how it went.)

Then. One day. After months of constant failure. I made the shot. The whole group of kids and adults on the playground stopped playing or teaching to clap and cheer for me. I honestly had no idea people were paying enough attention to me, all those months, to see the amount of work I put into one task. To see how badly I wanted to succeed.

I succeeded. I made it happen. I put the work in and got paid back. Yes, it took a long time (to a preschooler). My success 25 years ago was making the ball into the basket. Today, I understand my real success was in all the days of missing but never giving up. Never quitting because it was too difficult. Never thinking, "I can't." Always thinking, "I can."

"You've got to win in your mind before you can win in your life." - John Addison

My way of thinking still holds true today. And it holds true for you if you believe it is true. Your mind, your thoughts, stop you from greatness first. It isn't your job. Your home life. A lack of time. It's you.

If you want to make something happen. You need to rewire the mind to think a different way. Your self-talk needs to be, "I can."  There's no amount of oppression in life, internally or externally, that can make anything impossible. Accepting oppression as the truth is what makes things seem impossible.

Believe in yourself. Believe you can. Believe you will.

You can.

You will.

Diets: Why It Works Now and Not Forever

You should read Diets: Let's Be Real before getting into this one.

To show you why I believe diets do more harm than good. Let's look at the "science" behind these diets and why real science can debunk the illusion of what healthy is. 

There is a common modality throughout almost every single diet/weight-loss program, of the thousands I've looked at...

RESTRICTION.

The word alone reminds me of growing up. Whenever I did something wrong in my parents perception, I was grounded. However, they read in a 'parenting book' to call it restriction. It's the only restriction I've ever known. I never heard of a diet that restricts food until I stepped into the industry. Wait...

People actually do that to themselves?

Restriction is the most common way weight loss programs work. Essentially, they're all designed the same way. Look at any diet and you'll see it restricts something from entering your body. Macronutrients (macros) are your Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Fats. These are the only things on Earth that can give you energy to sustain life.

Not energy bars. 

Not prepackaged shakes. 

Not energy drinks. 

Just Macros.

A few terms are commonly used to suck a person into frenzy of money wasting, powder mixing, food avoiding, obsession(s):

• Low Carb
• No Carb
• No Fat
• High Protein
• Low Calorie
• Cleanse
• Detox

Doctors say the same things!!!
Here's another Doctor saying the same shit!!!
Here's a University with my same opinion...

Tangent:

I understand these companies can (and do) spit a slew of articles and studies at you to support their claims. Yet the majority of them say the exact opposite of their claims, lack evidence, are poorly executed, or simply show insignificant data. These companies hire and pay people for the single task of searching for studies. Sometimes, if you search hard enough through these peer-reviewed articles you can find information completely unrelated to the product it's meant to sell. It may just have the name of an ingredient in the title of the article. Meaning you've been lied to and cheated out of your money by brilliantly constructed marketing. Have you actually read any of this "evidence?" If you have, did you actually understand what you read? Do you understand all the statistical data? Do you make the time to read pages and pages of information? Or even read the references cited in the study? 

Studies are used and cited in other studies. The more (solid) citations the better but not a single one should be over looked either. 

Let's just say if you partake in these (or have in the past) diets and programs like the ones listed in Diets: Let's Be Real, it's possible you didn't understand anymore than the price tag, the claim, "supporting" peer-reviewed articles exist somewhere, and the directions.

Let that soak in for a minute...

Back to restriction...

It doesn't matter which macronutrients the restrictive diet is focused on. Most likely, being deficient in a macronutrient, is being deficient in one or more micronutrients. Deficiencies of micronutrients and macronutrients can lead to chronic disease(s), poor performance (even sex), cognitive functioning, organ malfunctioning, and more. More importantly, the body will only allow so much change (fat loss) with restriction. The body recognizes a deficiency and adapts to the intake (or lack thereof).

"I lost some weight so I stuck with the diet but the scale just won't budge anymore."

The body is incredible at adapting. It adapts to the environment the body is exposed to. With a restrictive diet your body adapts as well. Your body decreases cellular metabolism, increases muscle catabolism (body "eats" muscle for energy), and non-survival functions slow or stop completely. Some non-survival functions include: reproductive organs (trying to have a baby?), cognitive function, and some endocrine gland functions (hormones). These adaptations is why people are more likely to end up with a higher body fat percentage than when they started a diet. For some people, this negative response only takes a few days, to others a few weeks, but the response is the same. A slower metabolism. 

Diet, lose weight, plateau, return to normal eating habits, gain, diet...

That's what people experience on the norm. What I see is...

Wreck the metabolism (diet), loss scale weight, stuff face again, gain, wreck the metabolism further, lose scale weight, stuff face again, gain...

For you visual learners this...

Equals this...

She's not done either.

Results can happen a number of ways and the change on the scale is different for each scenario. It goes like this:

Eating the right amount of whole foods and training a specific way will result in muscle gains and fat loss...example:

-5 pounds of fat and +5 pounds of muscle = zero pound change on the scale.

On the contrary, the reason why it's possible to see ginormous changes with a quick fix diet...

(-5 pounds of fat) + (-5 pounds of muscle) = -10 pound change on the scale.

Remember your muscle mass is your metabolism. (Keeping it simple)

A higher metabolism is an adaption the body makes with gains in muscle mass. This means less effort to maintain a healthy body (scale) weight. The organs function better, hormones potentially balance, bones strengthen...even sex is better. 

The time has come for everyone to face their own music. To be honest to themselves. To accept that a lot of work goes into being healthy and taking care of yourself. To make the choice, the right choice. 

This desire for a quick fix is sure to end in a quick mess. 

Do the right thing for yourself.

"It doesn't matter what you know if you don't DO what you know." - Martin Rooney

Bottom line. Take ACTION.