How You Can Be Lighter But Still Fatter

I was chatting with one of my personal training clients about these body transformation programmes and fast weight loss programmes. She told me she had been comparing her results to her friends. Her friend had lost two stone by just drinking shakes and eating bars and she had only lost a stone in 4 weeks, so she wasn’t too happy.

Comparing yourself to others is often a bad idea. I used to do this myself too, many years ago. Anytime I went to the gym, I always felt inadequate. I compared myself to the biggest and strongest guys. So I felt I was the skinniest and the weakest.

Comparing myself to them just made me feel bad. I’ve now realised ultimately you can only improve on yourself. Trying to compare yourself to others is pointless and counterproductive. Sadly there will always be someone slimmer, fitter, stronger or (insert your own goal here) than you.

What you can do though is compare yourself to you. Are you improving? Look back on the last 6 months, with each month as a “snap shot” would each month be an improvement from the last?

Are you on the right track? Have you gotten closer to your goals?

If the answer is yes that’s great, you are doing okay. Keep it up. When a plan is working, consistency is the key. Another reason that comparing yourself to others is a bad idea is that quite often you are comparing apples to oranges and not apples to apples.

In today’s example you have two ladies who have issues with food and ultimately their weight. They have opposite approaches. One lady is addressing the real problems and learning how to eat properly and detoxify the body. She has lost a stone which is good for 4 weeks.

The other lady has not addressed the problems she has with food she had gone straight into an aggressive diet, she has avoided eating and is just using shakes and bars, but she has lost two stone. My prediction is the lady who is learning and correcting the destructive behaviour will do the best in the long run.

The lady who is looking for the quick fix will probably get to a point where she feels happy and comes off said shakes and bars and go back to the old way of eating and put the weight back on.

Why do I think this?

Ever heard someone say “It isn’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it” well it’s certainly true in this case.

This is why…

1. Using shakes and bars does not fix the real problem – how you eat.

2. Dieting without detoxification is pointless.

Researchers found that dieting without detoxifying is one of the best ways to get fatter.

In a study at Laval University, in Quebec, scientists showed that the rise in circulating toxins during weight loss led to a drop in the resting metabolic rate and a reduction in the most active form of thyroid hormone (T3) which drives metabolism. This is why losing weight too quickly on a transformation programme or a shakes and bars diet is not the best strategy.

Fast weight loss usually means you are losing your muscles. Body fat levels stay pretty much the same. So as a result you are getting lighter but fatter and your toxicity levels are not reducing.

So with all that said, steady weight loss is the way to go.

Don’t sacrifice long term success for short term weight loss its just not worth it.

Take care,

Rich