I’ve been interviewing some fitness and figure competitors as well as some bodybuilders and people who coach these types of competitors for their shows. After speaking with many of these people I’ve started to realize that there is a fundamental disconnect between the idea of ‘fat loss’, ‘muscle building’, and obtaining a particular look.

For people with 20% or more bodyfat, the main issue is simply fat loss. until you’re sub 10% none of the advanced bodybuilding nutrition techniques are going to make any difference.

At this condition the type of foods and when he ate them will make a difference on how Arnolds Abs looked.

Once you start reaching the single digit bodyfat levels things start to change. This is when the types of food you eat, when you eat and how you train can change the look of your body on a moment to moment basis.

Let me repeat, unless you’re in single digit bodyfat %  none of this will matter.

And this is the problem most people have when they’re ‘researching’ how to get in shape. Most people hear about what bodybuilders and fitness competitors are doing but don’t realize most of the advanced techniques are only put in use and of benefit for people who are already leaner than most of the population would ever hope to be.

For the vast majority of people, getting down to 10-12% bodyfat (for men) and below 20% for women is going to be attainable with a rather simple plan of eating less total calories (no matter what they are and when you choose to eat them).

This will get you in better shape than 95% of the population. Taking it to the next level and stepping on stage is where the more advanced techniques start to matter.

The take home message is to first be honest with where you currently are. This will determine where to best place your effort and focus.

John

When you’re facing the challenge of changing your body, developing muscle and losing bodyfat you have likely accepted the idea that you must exert your will over your body. For example you have to lift weights to force your muscles to grow, and you have to consciously lower the number of calories you are eating in order to stimulate a fat loss.

We All need Social Support to get where we want to go

But there is another level to this and that is exerting your will over your environment. You may have tried to get in shape in the past but certain environmental cues are not helping you such as cookies that are always  in the cupboard, or places you frequently eat that are become difficult to navigate without overeating (such as coffee shops and restaurants).

An even bigger environmental factor is other people. They will invite you to eat with them, they might tease you and tell you you’re obsessive about weight loss or fitness, they might tell you their opinion of the ‘correct’ way to lose weight and point out that ‘you’re doing it all wrong’.

In all of these cases this is your environment pushing back against you and you must exert yourself against it to get where you want to go.

Modern western societies can be defined as “obesogenic environments” that pull you towards a sedentary lifestyle of overeating and minimal activity.

When you decide to take action and get in shape be prepared to exert yourself in the gym, but even more so, be prepared to exert yourself against the environment you’re living in. This is where social support can go a long way to helping you get in shape.

Making a change is hard enough on its own, but doing it alone makes it even tougher. Finding like minded people to support you is a big key to getting to your goal and not second guessing yourself the whole way.

Finding a support network is a way to help stack the deck more in your favor and build some momentum to get the change you want.

John

I was recently browsing some diet/health headlines…in one of the opening blurbs to a post I read the following words “vegetables that are ALLOWED on this diet…”

Allowed?

When was the last time you were in a position to have an allowance? Maybe when you were 8 year old.

These cats don't care if they're 'allowed' to eat Ice Cream

The idea of having things that are ‘allowed’ vs things that are ‘forbidden’ is a dangerous concept promoted by most extreme fad diets.

This type of thinking can lead to psychological barriers and issues associated with food when people end up eating something that is ‘forbidden’…and we all do no matter how strict we’re trying to be on any diet.

This is a dis-empowering position to be in as you’re blindly following rules set out by someone else, and in most cases for no good scientific reason (see blood type diet, GI diet, atkins diet for a few examples of nonsensical food category restrictions).

Many of these diet recommendations can do more harm than good as they can seep into your consciousness and you eventually believe you’re a bad person for eating things that are not ‘allowed’ by the latest diet you’ve tried to follow.

Keeping a positive mental and emotional state is far more important than giving yourself a star every time you do as your told and eat what is ‘allowed’ and avoid what is restricted or forbidden.

We’re adults and should be treated as such. Being free to choose food you like to eat and keeping your total calories in control is the key to losing weight and maintaining your weight without feeling like a total failure every time you stray from the acceptable food list someone has arbitrarily written (let me repeat, most of these good and bad food lists are not grounded in science).

Eating a variety of foods, and keeping your calories in control is the driving force behind weight loss, weight maintenance and preventing diet associated disease.

A little common sense is all it really takes.

John

I just got back from Las Vegas and it never ceases to amaze me how large a human body can get until I walk past someone who appears to be well in excess of 300lbs.

Unless you're pregnant with twins you should never "waddle"

One of the things that starts to become apparent is that morbidly obese people don’t walk as much as they ‘waddle’.

This got me thinking…at what point does a person start to become concerned enough with their weight to do something about it…this could be dieting, working out, taking some sort of drugs or even lap band surgery, gastric bypass, whatever.

At some point carrying around that extra mass is worse for you than any of the alternatives.

To me it’s a choice between a slow but certain premature death (staying morbidly obese) or the chance at a longer happier life with whatever risk is associated with the chosen intervention (surgery, drugs, exercise, dieting etc)

I’ve never been morbidly obese so I don’t pretend to know what the psychology is in this state, but once your walking turn into waddling I’d imagine that it’s high time something has to be done for your own survival.

I’m not saying it’s easy, and I’m not saying there is a perfect solution, but I am saying that doing nothing at all is almost certainly worse than the alternatives.

John

It has become apparent to me that many of the problems people are faced with in diet and fitness are due to a lack of understanding of the definitions of some of the most basic concepts.

This is me at my ideal Adonis Index, around 180lbs. I have no idea what my bodyfat % is and I don't care.

It may be that much of the anxiety and the roadblocks people face on a day to day basis can be reduced or eliminated by having a better and clearer understanding of what they are trying to do. This starts with having clear definitions of each of the major issues in health and fitness, and today I want to talk about the definitions of ‘overweight’ vs ‘overfat’.

Overweight vs Overfat

“Overweight”

Overweight is a designation that comes from the Body Mass Index rating scale that indicates how heavy a person is compared to their body size. It’s a tool clinicians can use for recommending lifestyle changes or interventions to a patient. Researchers can also use it as a way to assess population data when determining relative risks of disease in large groups of people.

For most people who are dieting and going to the gym they don’t care about being overweight per se, it’s more accurate to say that most people want to avoid being “overfat”.

“Overfat”

Overfat refers more specifically to the amount of fat compared to lean mass a person is carrying. You can be overweight and not necessarily overfat, and you can be overfat without necessarily being overweight.

Most people are more concerned about being over fat than overweight. There are general cutoffs for each designation that are used to indicate relative risk of various diseases, but overall most people don’t care about these cutoffs, they just want to look better.

For most people, the goal or target look that they’re after can’t be defined in terms of overweight or overfat, and until now there was no words for it besides ‘being in shape’.

I think this is a lousy way to describe a health or fitness goal and instead would rather use a goal that specifies exactly what the actual shape is you’re trying to get into.

And my research has obviously lead me to an answer that ends up being the Adonis Index for men and the Venus Index for women.

Both of these designations account for weight, fat mass, muscle mass, and most importantly the overall shape (which is what everyone wants anyway).

Nobody cares if they are in the healthy bodyweight or bodyfat range if their shape isn’t what they want. There are many people I have worked with that weren’t overweight or overfat but were still entirely unsatisfied with their body SHAPE, and that is because they never knew what shape to work towards.

To start off the discussion on definitions I suggest throwing overweight and overfat out the window and replacing them with body shape goals.

Having a body shape goal provides a much more specific target that automatically accounts for weight, fat, and muscle mass. Working towards any of the other targets by themselves will never ensure that you’re also getting to the shape and look you really want.

Let the shape be your soul focus and the other metrics will fall into place along the way.

John