brent99’s BodyBlog

After months of improvement, I finally took a step backwards.  As punishment, I took new pics to show how far I’ve slid.  Ok, haha, not too far.  I jumped back up to 10% and while I gained 1/2 pound of muscle, that was offset by a 1.5 lbs of fat.  Booooo…..I can’t say I’m too surprised though.  I’ve been following "less is more" but sometimes less IS less.  And that’s likely the case here.  I though I might hold on because I’ve been eating very sparsely, but I’m just glad I held on to my muscle.  The lack of eating has probably hurt my metabolism and I’m down to 10 day cycles, which is too low.  I’ve also pushed the limit on beer, having way too many premium beers in my downtime.  So again, not too surprised I slipped a bit, but not too bad.  I dunno, you look at the photos and let me know!

The worst five words in fitness are: "calories in minus calories out".  That’s for-the-masses oversimplified CRAP.  Total, complete CRAP.  I even found myself buying into that a year or so ago and you know what I found out?  Its crap.  Its simply not true and every fitness person who says that should have their license REVOKED.

Yes, while on the surface it has a slight degree of accuracy and helps complete newbies take that "first step" in the right direction, its kind of like saying people can fly.  We know the formula is wrong because if you test its bounds it fails miserably.  What if we take calories in to zero?  Its been done in studies and I can tell you, its not a pretty picture.  The body simply shuts down and "calories out" goes to zero too.  So now you have to begin building a model that understands this and what you eventually come to is that increasing calories in also increases calories out and you begin to understand that the entire message of the original formula is completely misleading in a rather counterproductive way.

You are here to build a better, healthier body.  That’s the message.  Eat the right foods, eat them in the right amount, develop a HEALTHY metabolism.  But *that* message doesn’t sell, and its too complicated for the average mind.

I also don’t believe in beating your ass in to the ground.  It doesn’t work.  I don’t care what you see on "Biggest Losers".  In fact, what you see on "Biggest Losers" is rather confusing.  They are doing so many things in such an extreme way, its hard to make sense of what is actually working and what is actually happening in their bodies.  I can’t make heads or tails of it because there’s no REAL information other than "they’ve been here for a week and they are losing weight".  I wish I could decipher it.  We KNOW their eating habits are changing drastically.  Many of them could probably lose weight just on that fact alone.  And we know they are burning a ton of calories but again, these people are in such an extreme state, there is only one direction to go.  I don’t think you can apply the "lessons" from the show to most people other than to say a more active lifestyle with balanced eating is going to get you some results.

I don’t believe in "weight loss" as "progress" either.  Bodyfat is progress, not weight loss (and no, they aren’t the same thing).  Yes, losing 20 lbs is a step in the right direction, but WHAT did you lose?  That’s what’ll matter in the long run.

I understand the message has to be watered down for "the masses" so they can digest it.  But you are HERE and you aren’t one of the masses, are you?  So just be aware that the message is muddled.