Generalism

I suppose it was inevitable that discussions of fitness would turn to discussions of weight loss. Which is a shame considering that, in many cases, the two actually have very little to do with each other.

What people typically mean when they talk of weight loss is fat loss; love handles, bat wings whatever, it’s fat, and it’s unwanted. So their aim is typically to get rid of this stuff. Which sounds easy enough. Unfortunately evolution has dictated otherwise.

Y’see, bodies are designed to be great at holding on to fat. In fact, the body stores fat much more easily than it gets rid of it. Way back when we were busy designing wheels and marvelling at fire, food was pretty scarce. Never knowing when the next meal was going to stroll by gave bodies good cause to get efficient at both storage and use. Which is why not only does it store fat easily, it really hates letting it go again.

So you might think it would make sense to drop your calorie intake, starving your body and dropping weight and dress size in the process. The trouble is our bodies are wise to that little escapade; if they witness a significant drop in calorie intake, they go into what some call a “famine mode”, simply holding on even tighter to the fat reserves they already have. A lot of what actually disappears ends up being muscle, far easier to convert into fuel than fat. Hitting yourself with the latest killer diet more often than not gets you weaker and less healthy whilst maintaining existing fat levels.

If that doesn’t sound bad enough, partaking of such activities actually stores up even more problems for the future. Fat takes fewer calories to maintain than muscle; even in a state of rest muscle is busily chewing through calories. If you reduce your muscle mass, you’re lowering the amount of calories burnt in any given activity, slowing your metabolism, and increasing the likelihood that anything you’re eating will get stored as more fat. What makes this even less fun, is that, when you come off your diet and go back to eating “normally”, guess what? Yup, the problem gets worse, because there’s even less muscle to now burn the original calorie intake, meaning even more fat storage.

Gees, what a gip huh? It almost seems like you’re screwed whatever you do. Well, when it comes to dieting, you probably are.

But there is a solution, and of course we all know what it is. We might like to think otherwise, in fact a whole industry banks on it, but we know the only way of keeping fat down and strength and fitness up is to eat healthy fresh food, whilst exercising regularly. The body, much like the mind, needs a constant workout to keep it in good form.

So that’s it then? As simple as that? If I stay focused and work hard I’m going to be in a size 6 by the Summer holidays?

Erm, not quite. We need another reality check. Firstly, as noted, fat takes a long time to remove from the body, in some cases years, and what makes it worse is the less you have, the longer it takes. Law of diminishing returns dontcha know. Also, and this is what gets most people running, or perhaps gently strolling, for the hills, and why the term “weight loss” needs to be stricken from modern society, putting on muscle will not only make you bigger, it will also make you heavier.

And that’s about the point at which a thousand gym memberships get cancelled.

But before you make that call, listen up. Contrary to modern-day programming, getting bigger and heavier when you start out exercising is actually a good thing. An increase in size is a natural consequence of building up new muscle underneath the layers of fat that haven’t gone yet. But you need this first before that fat will go.

What you also need to see during this difficult period is an increase in weight, and this is where all scales should get thrown out of the window. Put simply, muscle weighs more than fat. Now you may end up weighing less overall once your fat levels have lowered, but until that time comes, there is every chance you will end up weighing more.

The good thing about both of these things is that if you see them happening, you know you’re on the right road. You’re getting healthier and stronger whilst increasing your ability to burn incoming calories, to burn fat reserves, and to get even stronger and fitter in the years to come.

It’s a long hard journey, but you know what? Not only will you be blown away by the real benefits gained, you’ll also be quite happily enjoying that chocolate cake with friends happy in the knowledge that you’ve damn well earned it.