If you are a road warrior, you have probably never thought of yourself as a body builder. But, if you have ever wanted loose weight, you probably are body builder and just don’t know it. For a long, long time, I hated the idea. I loathed it . Eventually, I I learned to embrace it because body builders know how to loose weight better than anyone. Here’s why. Physical fitness and looks are two separate things. One is mostly governed by how hard you work out, the other by diet. One is mostly governed by training program, the other by social perception. Mostly….
Sure, they are related statistically, but any individual can have a completely different physical relationship between the two. You could be the big guy with a belly roll, and still out sprint a smaller guy. You could have better cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, strength, explosive power, and speed – and, still have a deposit of fat around your midsection. Statistically, high body fat relates to health problems and lower performance, but specific individuals, who train really hard, but still eat like crazy, can crush performance and be healthy. On the other hand, you could have a very good diet, look very healthy, barely work out, be weak, slow, and have barely any endurance. That’s because fitness and looks are two completely different aspects to general health and general fitness.
They are related, but not 100%..
To get to the elite levels of fitness (competitive sport level) or elite levels of body shape (body building) you absolutely have to do both. But, as a regular business person with a sedentary job, you can surely have a decent, healthy combination of both. So, if you weigh 260 lbs and want to weigh 180 lbs or weigh 160 lbs and want to weigh 130 lbs, you will have to adopt the methods of a bodybuilder. You will have to count calories, you will have to “cut” as they say in body building. Trust me, they know how to do this, they have been doing it since the 1950s. If your goal is to lose weight, you have to cut. Cutting is a technique which focuses on reducing body fat. The goal of reducing body fat is primarily to change how you look and feel, not how you perform. Your performance may increase, it may not. You might lose strength, but you might get faster because you’re lighter. It will all depend.
Decide what your goals are. Do you want to look “better” (your perception, or the world’s perception?) or do you want to perform better? Embrace your goals, don’t feel bad about yourself. Don’t underestimate yourself. If you do let yourself feel bad or underestimate yourself, you will just waste precious time in life – waffling. So, grab your belly roll if you got one and and tell yourself, “this is just for looks” – if you care about looks, adopt the art of the body builder. If you don’t care, embrace it. If you want to build muscle and have fun, lift weights. If you want to run faster, practice sprinting. If you want to run further, build up distance in practice If your goal is medical health, it will take a combination of nutrition and exercise.
Fitness, looks, and health are all different things. They are different physical goals. At he elite levels, they are particularly related, but at normal human levels there is a lot of leeway. So, the next time you look at some bigger guy or girl walking down the street, try not to judge them, they just might kick your butt in a sprint or out run you in a distance race. Never judge physical fitness by their physique.