This is probably one of the most misunderstood concepts with regards to body composition, building muscle and burning fat and just looking good. Whenever somebody thinks ‘in shape’ they automatically assume ‘fit’ and ‘healthy’. Just because somebody has a six pack or a low body fat percentage it doesn’t necessarily mean they are healthy or have a high level of cardio vascular fitness.
And the opposite is true also, just because somebody eats ‘super clean’, no fast food, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates and all there fruits and veggies, yes they are eating well for health benefits but this does not guarantee to get you in to shape, in fact you can eat super clean and still get fat and even lose muscle. And its definitely not necessarily how to get in to shape. Exactly the same way that drinking lots of water is good for you as its going to keep you hydrated (and alive!) but has nothing to do with how much fat your body will store or lose.
However i do want to say this though, studies have proven that there is a correlation between how healthy a person is to how much fat a person is carrying. So therefore purely by lowering your body fat percentage you reduce your risk of diabetes, heart disease etc.
I know this can seem rather counter intuitive to begin with (and i’m certainly not trying to scare monger to discourage healthy eating, obviously healthy eating is a good thing), but these foods are not necessary to eat just for fat loss purposes, i’m not saying its healthy or a good idea but i can get ripped of just eating McDonalds alone for example. I’m not saying i do this i’m just speaking hypothetically. However i do eat fast food fairly regularly even in to the later stages of losing fat, and i still lose 2lbs consistently every week on the burn phase of the Herobody Lifestyle Program.
So what are you saying? Eat clean or don’t eat clean?
i’m not saying to do either! i’m a believer in choice, i’m not your dad you don’t need me to tell you to eat your fruits and veggies or you wont get any dessert, i’m here to help people get in to shape and look good, that’s it, by teaching you how food affects the body, how to train, how to build muscle and how to burn fat, that’s it, what foods you choose to incorporate in to your diet after this is your own business. Thats what Herobody is all about.
Yes man!
let me try to explain it another way, have you seen the film Yes man? with Jim Carrey? if not, the film is about a man who says no to everything, but to open his mind to new things he signs up to a covenant where he now has to say yes to everything, but in the end the guy explains this was just to open him up to new opportunities, its still actually your decision to decide when to say no and when to say yes, thats like eating clean and the Herobody Lifestyle Program, i explain time and time again to people you genuinely can eat whatever you want and still get in to great shape, but this is just to open your mind to the idea of it, but your not going to want to just live on fast food alone for the rest of your life. you have to find your own balance, what makes you happy and what you can stick to realistically. does that make sense?
In my opinion, here is the reason why there is confusion regarding this matter;
There tends to be a correlation between clean eating and weight loss for some people, this is not because the food is magical, but instead because the person has stopped over eating because they don’t have much variety of food options anymore or they just don’t enjoy the foods they are eating that much, this however is not usually sustainable because sooner or later this person falls of the wagon, reverts back to old eating habbits, and then they put the weight back on again.
Pro athletes eat super clean to optimize there performance, this is because 0.01 seconds can be the difference between an Olympic gold or silver medal, so these guys take everything to the extreme, including there diet. You however are not Usian Bolt or Christiano Ronaldo, you are just a regular man or woman who just wants to look damn good on the beach, who just wants to know exactly how to get in to shape, so don’t be so hard on yourself it really is completely unnecessary. This brings me on to another topic that after doing so much, doing more will not yield directly proportionate results, but i will save that for another day.
Bullshit marketing! i once read something in a paper as a teenager that nearly gave me an eating disorder! (well, not really, but you get my point), it read ”you will need to run for 20 minutes on a treadmill to burn off 2 squares of chocolate”. Knowing what i know now about food i can not begin to describe how disgusted i am at stupid statements like this! Its a prime example of cherry picking information to only give half the facts in order to scare people in to a specific agenda. Its also why most studies are not worth the paper they are printed on, when you begin to understand science, hypotheses and how information is collect, you realize that you can almost ‘prove’ anything under the right conditions, and isn’t it strange how some of these studies on the body that would convince you to buy a supplement is actually in fact funded by the supplement company themselves? talk about a conflict of interests! But again, a topic for another day.
