We’ve all heard some form of the following phrases:

“I need to get in shape”, “I’m out of shape”, “That person is in great shape”, “I used to be in great shape”

But I’ll bet you’ve never heard anyone refer to “a shape”…as in “I want to change my body shape”

This may sound like nothing more than a semantic error but I think a more important distinction needs to be made here.

I think that people assume being IN shape also means obtaining A shape. But this is not the case at all.

You and I could get IN shape to run a half marathon without actually changing the look or shape of our bodies. These are mutually exclusive items.

Each man is 'in shape' for his sport, but they each have a different body shape.

The type of training you do both cardio and weights as well as the specific dietary approach you take will determine what your body ends up looking like.

It is entirely possible to be IN shape without looking like it. It’s also possible to have a great shape without being IN shape.

You can have a great VO2 max, be able to run 10 km’s, lift heavy weights and play sports 4 days a week and do all of the things that would describe someone as being “in shape” while still being overweight without a desirable body shape.

The point is the health, cardiovascular and performance benefits of regular training can be realized by many people who see no change in their body composition. This is what I would call being ‘in shape without a good shape’

But I think this isn’t what people want. My guess is that people don’t do all of that work just to say they can run father or lift more weight or be healthier without also looking the part.

The key to also having the body shape to go along with the other benefits is a control of your calories that allows for a lower bodyfat percentage along with specific weight training that builds the muscles you want in the proportion you want to get the shape you want.

The next time you or anyone says anything about getting “in shape” stop and think to yourself if what you or they really mean is getting to a specific looking body shape.

John

Recently I was having a discussion with someone about weight loss, but the conversation quickly turned into nutritionism speak and the merits of various functional foods for ‘health’ and ‘metabolic’ effects. The person I was talking to kept asking about various ‘phytonutrients’ and the importance of items like blueberries for their ‘antioxidant’ effect and other items that have similar health claims associated with them.

This was becoming a somewhat difficult conversation for me to follow because I couldn’t understand what this person was really after. At first we were discussing weight loss and how much weight they could realistically lose over the next 6 weeks or so. Then the conversation ended up on things like phytonutrients, antioxidants, phytosterols, fiber, the glycemic index and on and on.

It became clear to me that they really had no clue where to even start as far as losing weight and tracking how the hell they were even going to go about doing it. Withing 10 mins of chatting both of our heads were spinning.

I had to stop them and refocus them on the topic at hand, which was supposed to be weight loss.

This story is typical of the type of questions and conversations I end up in with people who want to lose weight but don’t really know what is the driving force behind it (a caloric reduction).

Of course there are limitless ways you can choose to eat, and from a purely weight loss stand point I think it makes little difference. Many of our competitors in the Adonis and Venus contests have lost a great deal of weight doing all manner of diets (low carb, high carb, low and high protein, and all fat levels). There was no consistency to the type of diet, the only consistent thing across the board was a consistent caloric reduction.

There is a point when the type of food matters, but not for the reasons you've been told

Maybe…Maybe at the lower bodyfat levels (sub 10%) it might help to limit certain food choices that contain sugar and saturated fats to help the process. But this might be more of a water retention thing than a true fat burning thing. This isn’t to suggest that reducing the water you carry is irrelevant because it certainly matters. Being bloated with water could easily be the difference between a visible 6-pack or a smooth midsection. So even once the fat is low enough there is still an effect your food choices can have on your look…this is why bodybuilders are so meticulous about their diet and preparation in the final 4-5 days before a show.

For the most part almost everyone can get to a visible 6-pack without really worrying about the exact food choices as long as the total calories are less than you’re burning.

Getting a handle on your calories is the first and biggest hurdle…once you’ve got this taken care of then and only then can you start worrying about what specific foods to eat for their claimed benefit.

John

Chris Hemsworth as Thor

So I’m waiting at a stop light and I notice what appears to be a big guy walking down the sidewalk. There are a bunch of cars in the way so I can only make out his calves, and his hands. Calves are pretty big, and hands and forearms also appear to be a good size.

I can catch the rough tempo and style of his gait, and then it hits me. I can’t tell if this guy is overly fat, or overly muscular. As the cars start to move forward it is revealed to me that the man walking down the street was probably in his mid 50′s, hadn’t seen the inside of a gym in 30 years and was approximately 100 lbs overweight.

The troubling part is that he walks and moves exactly the same way as the powerlifters and bodybuilders from our gym. I wonder if I walked the same way when I was chemically enhanced and weighed 250lbs pounds…possibly, but I can’t remember and nobody ever mentioned anything to me…I certainly hope not.

It’s taken me a long time to get over my need to be bigger and now it just looks silly when I see normal guys eating and training their way up to be as big as this overweight man and ending up looking and walking just like him too.

The new wave of hollywood comic book action hero’s also helps with this point. Ryan Reynolds, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Hugh Jackman etc. The key to the look each guy has is that they’re muscular but also very lean.

During is prep for his role as Thor, Chris Hemsworths trainer explained that the marvel people wanted him to get his shoulders as wide as possible to give him that heroic looking shoulder to waist taper…sounds like the Adonis Index…

Chris Evans as Captain America

All the muscle in the world won’t do a thing for your look if it’s covered in fat. In fact, the more muscle you have mixed with a high bodyfat level the bulkier and fatter you’ll end up looking. Unfortunately many guys will be so afraid to ‘lose muscle’ they’ll let the best years of their life go by being fat in a desperate and futile attempt to build more and more muscle for some non existent day in the future when they think they’ll finally be ‘big enough’ to start stripping away the fat.

It’s sorta like buying a ferrari and then leaving it in a garage for the entire time you own it, never getting in it or every letting it see the light of day. This to me is the similar to spending countless hours in the gym trying to build muscle but all the while concealing it under a thick layer of fat. What is the point?

Excessive bodyfat will always obscure and cloud your ability to tell how much muscle you really have and how well your effort in the gym is paying off.

John

I was looking at the calorie counts on a few baked goods at panera bread the other day while trying to decide on what to eat. Many of the items were within 50 calories of each other but there were some big calorie bombs in there that were 200-300 calories higher.

Some of these items are double the calories of the others.

A 200 or 300 calorie difference is quite obvious and a no brainer if you’re trying to reduce calories. There is simply no hope of losing weight if you’re consistently making the highest calorie choices when you eat. But the real trick to getting really lean is also making the 50 calorie choice as well.

When it comes to losing weight every little bit counts, even the difference between a 200 calorie item or a 250 calorie item really matters. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but over the course if a few days and a few weeks these little decisions could add up to losing a pound of fat or not.

If you eat 3 times per day, and you find a way to cut out just 50 more calories each time, that is an extra 150 calorie deficit each day x 7 days that is already 1050 calories for the week…or a 3rd of a pound of fat. Add that to just an extra 15-20 minutes in the gym to burn an added 50 calories and it all starts to add up.

Once you understand the concept of calories in vs out and what your daily calorie needs are, the little things really do matter. This could be the difference between having sugar or sweetener in your coffee, or having milk vs cream in your coffee.

Even taking a fat burner can add a few extra calories to your daily burn. And all of it matters.

Weight loss is tough. Effectively dropping even 1 pound of fat in a week takes a daily effort. And it’s the little things that seem trivial that will end up determining if you get there or not.

We all tend to selectively forget some of the food we eat when we add up our daily intake. Making the effort to find the lower calorie choice in as many was as possible will always serve you well.

John

It’s been approximately 16 months since I last had my blood tested and I just got my test results back today.

Everything checks out A-ok. Last time my HDL numbers were a little low, so I took a fish oil supplement which brought my HDL up nicely into a cardio protective range.

This is the stuff I take.

If I didn’t get my blood tested last year I wouldn’t have known that my HDL was low. I didn’t make any big dietary or lifestyle change, I simply added some fish oil and continued doing whatever else I was doing from an exercise and diet standpoint.

The point is that you’ve got to know where you are in order to know what you need to do (if anything).

For me the only thing that needed attention was HDL. The solution was quite simple as there is good research to show that taking a fish oil supplement that is high in EPA and DHA can have a potent effect on raising HDL. So I took the simplest approach and added fish oil. The specific brand I used was from BlueStarNutraceuticals. I am biased towards their brand because I helped them develop it, but I also trust them because I know the quality of the ingredients.

I’m sure there are plenty of other good fish oil supplements on the market. And if you’re going to take one make sure it’s got the highest level of EPA and DHA possible (these are the two essential fatty acids that we take fish oil for in the first place).

With that said, you probably want to get your blood tested first to know if you even need a fish oil supplement in the first place. There are other reasons to take fish oil besides low HDL. It can improve dry eye syndrome, it can help with some skin conditions as well as joint problems.

The point is to do some homework on whatever your symptoms are and why you think that a fish oil supplement might be right for you. Then if possible test whatever it is that you want to change before you take the fish oil, and test it again a few months later. This is the only way to know if it’s working.

For me the test was easy and the proof that it was working was pretty obvious as I had a defined number to look at.

For things like joint pain, inflammation, or dry eyes it’s going to be a bit more subtle and you’ll have to keep a journal of how you feel on a daily and weekly basis specifically about the given condition. Looking back through your journal will be the only way to notice if things are improving because these changes happen slowly and gradually.

If you start using fish oil and you think things are improving but your not sure, the only way to get a definitive answer is to stop the fish oil and see if your symptoms come back. It a minor inconvenience but this off-on-off approach is the only way to know for sure if it’s doing what you want it to do.

Better to know than to just be guessing.

John

P.S. If you want to check out the fish oil I used you can see it here > Omega Blue