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

You can go to this link to find out how to enter: Transformation Contest

Here is a look at some of our previous contestants:

Pierre was one of the first winners

Ron won the overall at the first contest

Rich finished second overall in the second contest

Nate also won cash in our second contest

The result of two contests...amazing

(sorry ladies this one is for guys only…venus index is coming in October, there will be a contest for the women then)

So why bother entering a contest anyway?

1) It gives you a clear time frame to set your sights on

2) Gives you motivation to make a serious change in your body in a short period of time

3) Teaches you to challenge yourself and support others who are competing to challenge themselves too

4) Introduces you to a community of rare people who have entered and completed a contest (most people will never try this sort of thing and will never know how much their body can really change)

5) Teaches you what is truly possible when it comes to changing your body when you put your mind to it

6) You can win MONEY!

I’m sure there are dozen’s of other personal benefits you can get from competing in a transformation contest and they’re all good.

This is why we hold frequent transformation contests and they’re getting bigger every time.

Look, I can build you a workout, I can show you how to do it, I can write as many motivational blog posts as possible, and I can give you the best nutrition and fat loss program and information around…BUT I can’t make you follow any of it.

That part is up to you.

The best I can do is give you money of you follow what we say…and that is what the contest is for. I’m simply asking you to follow our recommendations take a couple pics and collect your winnings!

If you’re serious about changing your body don’t wait another day, make today the day it all changes. (and for the girls make mid october the day when the Venus Index workout comes out!)

John

Muscle Building Happens In The Gym

I think many people run into a problem trying to make their workouts do more than they really can. For example the other day I was at the gym and saw a personal trainer making her client push a sled (loaded with 150lbs of weight) back and forth across the entire length of our gym (about 30 yards).

The poor guy pushing the sled must have been at least 70lbs overweight and I’ll bet he is hoping that these workouts are going to somehow make him lose weight.

This is a perfect example of having the wrong expectations. If that guy doesn’t start revamping how much he eats (aka eat less) then all the sled pushing in the world isn’t going to cause him to lose any weight.

It just seems like a lot of wasted effort because pushing that sled around isn’t even building his muscles in a way that will look good when he finally does (if ever) lose the weight.

The point is not to mix up what your diet and your exercise can do.

Use the gym primarily for building muscles and use your diet for weight loss.

IF you don’t have much bodyfat to lose (ie: you’re in that last 10lbs range) then you can certainly accelerate the process in the gym…but it’s still dependent on keep your calories in check.

The bottom line is to stick with a consistent workout for building muscle and use your diet to lose bodyfat.

John

Best Sumo Wrestler EVER!

Body fat is distributed all over your body but it’s not an even distribution. For example there is a at least a little bit of fat stored in places like your forehead and the back of your hands, but obviously this isn’t a major fat storage site.

For men the main site of fat storage is the gut/belly, and for women it is a mix of hips/thigh/butt and belly.

Each person will have a slightly different specific pattern but the general trend for men and women are more or less the same.

There are different specific locations of the fat.

Visceral fat is the fat that is stored underneath your abs and is all around your organs. This is basically what makes up a ‘gut’. Researchers are finding out that this fat is what contributes to a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes)

Subcutaneous fat is the stuff just under your skin that you can pinch. This fat also accumulates in the belly area for a double whammy on top of visceral fat. Lower body fat is also subcutaneous.

Intra-muscular fat is within the muscles themselves.

We store fat close to the middle of our bodies simply because from an evolutionary and functional perspective it allows us to still move around and use our arms and legs.

Think of it the other way around. If we stored all of our fat in our arms hands feet and legs it would be a functional disaster. We wouldn’t be able to walk or move our arms.

So as people get heavier they start to look like a sphere, with the additional fat all accumulating in the gut and butt area.

The reason it seems to take so long to burn fat from these areas is simply because more fat accumulates in there.

It takes longer to remove enough fat from these areas to see a difference. So when you’re losing weight it shows up in places with minimal fat first, such as your face, hands and arms. This doesn’t mean you’re not also losing fat from your belly or hips/butt, it just means there is more to lose from those spots and it doesn’t show as quickly.

We don’t like to admit it, but many of us have or had enough fat stored in our bellys/hips/butt that a 10-20lbs loss still doesn’t look like much…that just means you have another 20 to go before these area’s really start to look lean.

Every fitness competitor and bodybuilder I’ve known or worked with is always shocked the first time they diet down and realize how much fat they really had to lose.

It’s always more than they think, and they always end up lighter than they guessed they would be by contest time.

John

He could stand to lose some weight regardless if its fat or water.

“Weight Loss” is the term most people use to describe their dieting efforts. It’s not uncommon to hear people refer to ‘wanting to lose weight’ or needing to ‘drop a few pounds’. Regardless of what the exact words are, the point is always some sort of reduction in ‘weight’.

Fitness competitors and bodybuilders tend to speak more of ‘fat loss’ or reducing ‘bodyfat’ levels.

Reducing body fat levels will also result in weight loss, but to a bodybuilder there is a distinct difference, and that is the understanding that there is also a certain amount of ‘water weight’ that also must be dropped to get ready for a show.

In both cases overall body weight will be reduced (either from a reduction in body fat or body water).

When you embark on a weight loss program you will likely lose both body water and body fat. There is no need to make a distinction between the two as it is advantageous to both your health and your overall look to reduce both.

It’s not possible or practical to try and divide fat loss from weight loss, and it’s not worth your effort or attention.

Focusing on a reduced calorie diet will take care of both and get you to where you want to go.

John