Here's How You Know If You're Losing Fat

One of my pet peeves is when people talk about trying to "lose weight". This is really bad language and bad language, on a subconscious level, translates into bad concepts which leads to poor action.

In the case of "losing weight" people tend to look at the scale and make decisions about what to eat or how to adjust their fitness routine. This comes across as ridiculous when we know that our "weight" is highly variable and means little in the overall scheme of our health.

I could rip out all of your bones and take your empty, organ-filled skin back and set it on a scale and your "weight" would have gone down drastically. That doesn't mean that you're any healthier. In fact, your not better of in any way...things would be much, much worse for you.

As a practical example, consider the fact that if you ate a teaspoon of salt, your body would respond by hording a full liter of water (or more) in order to balance out the sodium until your kidneys had time to process it out with your urine. I dunno if you've picked up a 1-liter bottle of water lately, but it's not exactly light. Eat a teaspoon of salt in the middle of the day and then step on the scale before bed and your "weight" readings could be a FEW pounds heavier than the previous day...but that doesn't mean your really heavier.

People need to focus on "losing fat" and they need to talk about "losing fat" if their goal is to get lean. Nothing else matters except eating things and doing exercise routines that optimize fat loss. This usually means putting on muscle in order to do it and putting on muscle very often means adding weight on the scale.

You would rather be lean and weight a couple lbs more than you do now than weigh less and have just as much fat on your frame, right?

The Fat-Appetitie Paradox

Conventional wisdom tells us that obese people are fat because they just don't have the will power to avoid overeating. They eat because they are hungry and desire food and thus get fat. At least that's what we're suppose to believe.

Gary Taubes in his book "Good Calories, Bad Calories" submits that what REALLY is at work within obese people is hormonal hijacking. Essentially, he makes the point that people who are obese get that way because hormones in the body drive it to become fat (in similar fashion as hormones in a child's body drives it to grow) and thus the person is filled with hunger and begins seeking calorie as well as feels lethargic and seeks to rest. It's his own hormones that are manipulating him.

I think that this idea makes a lot of sense and is very compelling. I'll have to do some more lookin' into it though before I settle my own views on the subject. It is pretty controversial after all.

They Really Didn't Eat Less In Years Gone Bye

Conventional imagery foisted upon us from multiple sources has convinced us that a couple hundred years ago our ancestors lived in a nearly-starved state working the ground as peasant farmers. Never mind the fact that if this was true and the nation was comprised of a subsistence population we would never have had the level of success that is clear historical fact.

Consider some of the anthropological texts which speak to the type of diet enjoyed by our American and British Ancestors.

Eric Ross wrote of the late 19th century British Diet, "Breakfast consisted of fish, poultry, or game, if in season; sausages, and one meat of some sort, such as mutton cutlets, or filets of beef; omelets, and eggs served in a variety of ways; bread of both kinds, white and brown, and fancy bread of as many kinds as can conveniently be served; two or three kinds of jam, orange marmalade, and fruits when in season; and on the side table, cold meats such as ham, tongue, cold game, or game pie, galantines, and in winter a round of spiced beef."

This was a description of the common fare at a country home. Doesn't sound like the British were hard up for food, does it? They didn't live on a starvation diet in order to remain thin...but they did. But how about in America?

According to Historian Hillel Schwartz, large meals were commonplace as well: "The 75-cent special at Fred Harvey restaurants in the late 1870s included tomato puree, stuffed whitefish with potatoes, a choice of mutton or beef or pork or turkey, chicken turnovers, shrimp salad, rice pudding and apple pie, cheese with crackers, and coffee."

Maybe that was the diet of the rich though, right? Hardly. Here's what Schwartz recalls of the upper-class diet: "When life insurance medical directors sat down to their banquet in 1895, they had clams, cream soup, kingfish with new potatoes, filet mignon with string beans, sweetbreads and green peas, squabs and asparagus, petits fours, cheese with coffee, and liqueurs to follow..."

Wow. People were living it up in the 1800's, huh? Maybe not in earlier times though. Well....maybe that's not true Schwartz finishes up by saying that this food was enjoyed "in two or more courses and thirty to sixty minutes shorter than formal dinners of the previous era, and their portions were smaller."

Looks like we might be wrong in thinking that our forefathers were starved wraiths and that our problem in getting so fat as a nation is that we eat too much during each sitting.

Don't Stare At Another Man's Ass

One thing that I consistently notice at LA Fitness is the simple lack of gym etiquette. I'm not even talking about your run-of-the-mill leaving plates on the bench press bar. I'm talking about OBVIOUSLY weird behavior.

For example, some free weight areas such as the one found at LA Fitness Missouri City TX are a bit cramped. Smith machines and power racks are practically on top of one another. This provides for some very close quarters when busting out reps in either of these areas.

The crazy thing is, I remember seeing one guy finish his set on the smith machine and then sit down as if he were tired on a nearby bench. I dunno why this guy was tired as he had hardly any weight on the bar for doing smith machine quarter squats, but he just sat down as if he were spent.

He then proceeded to STARE at the ass of guy that was doing real squats in the squat rack!

I'm not talking about just staring off into space in the general direction but both-eyes-oogling stare! This is very creepy to say the least and it goes double in a room full of annoying mirrors. The if the guy doing the squats saw that he was getting eye-ball boned he might have lost his concentration and failed a rep or something.

Guys...keep your eyes to yourself in the gym! Do NOT stare at other men!