Something changes once you start figuring out how fitness works. It's a bit of a paradigm shift, especially if you happen to be a thirty-something like me who's been getting random exercise through team sports throughout the years but never actually read up on what's happening behind the curtain (or, more accurately I suppose, under the skin).
So it turns out my body doesn't want me to be fit. It takes advantage of it once I am, and it sort of breaks down and dies when I'm not, but it doesn't have to like the process. See, being the product of thousands of years of evolution it doesn't really trust this western civilization thing that's been going on lately; just because I figure there won't be a drought or a lack of antelopes next week that'll mean starvation for sure it doesn't mean there won't be one, you know?
And it sort of goes from there. Processed sugars? Lots of fat? Gimme. It stores it all under the skin, this delicious fuel that can bring me out of a harsh winter in one piece. What, running? Lifting heavy things? Screw that noise. What happens in the gym is the exact opposite of what most people (myself included) thought - you don't build muscle in there, it destroy it so that it can be rebuilt - hopefully thicker and stronger - while you rest later on.
That's what it's all coming down to then. It's a battle between what my body thinks it wants and what I hope I can convince it to do. And, just like every other war, there are no dirty tricks disallowed, no trickery too base or deception too vile. You just have to do whatever it takes to win.
Take the nutritional protocol I've been following. It's called LeanGains, a form of intermittent fasting (yeah, I know, I was scratching my head too). The idea is that you intentionally alternate fasting periods in which you eat nothing with periods of heavy eating where you eat like a pig, picking mostly protein to stuff into your mouth. That tricks your system into tapping into your fat reserves every time to cover your energy needs but keeps it sustained right afterwards so it doesn't also start consuming its own muscles in panic.
Like in every war your body retaliates to these attacks you're launching against its fat deposits. Dieting will normally cause as much as 30%-40% muscle loss in normal males and 10%-20% in obese ones; you wanna lose weight? Hah. It'll eat through your lean mass at the same time, figuring it'll try to conserve that hard earned fat by wasting your far more difficult to gain physical strength instead.
Even worse so losing comes at a price. See, in a diet we lose fat and muscle at the same time as described above, but when we give up the diet for a time and put on weight again we pretty much only gain fat. So after a couple of circles of shedding pounds and putting them back on we just get weaker, with a slower metabolism making it harder to go through it again. Pah!
In the end this is a chess game - where your main weapons become information and consistency. In fact I'd say those are your only weapons, as without both understanding what it'll take for you to win and without actually having the determination to stick to it freakin' constantly, it won't work. It just won't. Your body doesn't play fair, it'll give you the munchies when you're feeling down or relaxed, it'll make you drool when you see that delicious cheesecake on a fridge shelf, it'll keep you hungry even after you've eaten more than enough for a meal.
And there are answers. Our body is a tough opponent but it does have an enormous weakness - it's really predictable. Once you know what's going on you can plan to defeat it at its own game so it can be shaped to do whatever you want from it.
For example, regular weight lifting exercise in combination with high protein intake defeats (or, well, minimizes) the lean muscle loss - victory! Treating weight loss as a maintained condition rather than a race for the summer means I don't have to deflate and expand like some ill-mannered balloon with all of its adverse effects. Understanding how to exercise means I don't just waste my time at the gym on a god-awfully boring treadmill for forty minutes or performing a hundred repetitions of some mini-weight.
Information and consistency vs thousands of years of evolution. Sure. Those are odds I'm willing to take.
2 comments:
Nicely written. Reminded me of the song 'I against I'. I will recommend this article to a couple of friends, Xpapad, Ira etc.
Me? I am ordering Pizza!
Eh, stupid Blogger ate my post. Guess it's not an IFer. Too long to type again, here's a summary.
Telling people they're doing it wrong is really stupid and ridiculous, after they've had tremendous success and managed to alter their life style to something that works for them.
Six small meals does not work for most people, and is not sustainable for even more. There are as many negative studies as positive out there to disprove this theory of eating.
There is just as much research that shows how beneficial IF is for dieting and continued healthier lifestyle choices. Of course, you can find negatives as well. For me, what makes IF attractive is that it fits with how my body's hunger patterns work, and following it with intention only makes it better. Even the thought of six meals a day makes me nauseous.
So, this is where critical thinking comes in. Decide for yourself what works for you. And of course, don't listen to people on the internet that toe the party line without actually researching anything. Especially when they're lecturing you about something on which you've succeeded beyond your wildest expectations.
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