Your Body Is A Son-Of-A-Bitch

So, I hope you enjoy this attention grabbing headline. That being said your body is an amazingly adaptive, resilient, complex, some might argue divinely inspired machine. However, when it comes to fat loss it is indeed a son-of-a-bitch. But for good reason. In a not-entirely scientific blog I’m going to talk about why. Also, why tons and tons of yoga and cardio is just going to make you “skinny-fat.”

If your genes didn’t at some level tell your body to store fat they would not have made it this far in evolution. In the rapidly developing nascent study of genetics, science is discovering evidence that are genes “remember” famines. Fat is an essential component for energy as well as hormone production. Your genes survived this long because your body is efficient at storing fat for times of famine and want. Also, it takes little to no energy for your body to keep this fat around. It’s not evolutionary costly. So, what about muscle? Your body sees muscle beyond what is immediately required as a luxury. 

A coach of numerous physique and bodybuilding competitors I asked had this to say: 

“When I’m programming for photo shoots or stage, the primary goal is looking good and part of that is retaining muscle mass. While I like to maintain some sort of heavy training elements within the programming (i.e. 1 -2 compound exercises per workout, I tend to lean more towards hypertrophy programming ranges for the majority of the exercise."

I’m currently in week ten of a twelve week cut. The various motivations for this cut will be revisited in a following www.sayerfit.com newsletters, but one reason why my cut has been successful from an aesthetics stand point is that my program has largely consisted of big volumes of hypertrophy work (think generally the 8-12 rep range). To demonstrate here is a pretty sweet video of me doing my 4th set of 8 rep rack pulls at 378lbs.

So, my point. Your body is supremely adaptable. But what messages are you sending it? If you are cutting calories but only lifting 3lbs weights, the message you are sending is “food is low, need for muscles (which burns calories just existing) is low as well.”  You must threaten your body into building and retaining muscle.

Me after having less than a great time crashing to 159lbs

I say fat is like a car that's paid off already, not pleasing to look at, it does a job sure but you don’t even have insurance for it because it’s so replaceable. Muscle is an awesome sports/luxury (whatever your’e into) car that the insurance is through the roof because hey frankly “it’s fun and badass.” If you had this car and it cost $300 a month in insurance and you never got to drive it, would you keep it around? That’s how your body feels about a shapely pair of glutes, sick biceps, or pecs.

Gradual Cut 9 Years Later, Much Happier This Go Around.

So, this is in no way meant to be an all inclusive guide to your fat loss journey. But next time someone tells you they are planning to lose weight by drastic calorie cuts and Pilates (which is actually WWI era physical therapy), Yoga, and tons of cardio think about what adaptive signals might be sent to their body & brain and suggest they throw in some squats. Or don’t, unless you really care about their results because sometimes the best way to make an enemy is to tell someone something they need to hear (whoa things just got dark for a second). Ok, in closing I hope you gained a new insight or were at least entertained. If you want help with your own journey, I offer detailed training and nutrition programs customized to your schedule, gym access, and life $250 a month with Interactive Coaching.