Not amazing diet results? You hear and read a lot of hyperbole and it’s important to know how to take/use that information.

I am in the Running: A FEVER gym today on the treadmill. I rarely use a treadmill. But today is a little different. I was planning to take my annual hike with my friend Robert, but it’s raining. And though I have definitely been out on the trail in bad weather, I decided to stay inside today so I could record a video for you. View it at https://youtu.be/pqYF0mMooJA

I’ve already been to the gym today, and yesterday I played racquetball. I’m putting in more activity because I am in a situation which requires me to burn more calories. I have gained some weight. And though I know weight isn’t the number I should be concerned about, I do. I do! Because it is so ingrained in our society and culture, and I’m on that same train of thought. It is difficult to get away from that, so the weight number is something I am concerned about. I dont’ have good numbers lately for my body fat, which is the real indicator of how well I am doing. That’s in my head, but there is a part of me that wants to pay more attention to that weight number. I think my body fat it is about 29%, certainly in the high 20’s. My goal last year was to lose 100 pounds. My goal this year, even if I gain weight, is to reduce my body fat to the teens, ideally 15%. Not happening so far, so that’s why I’m stepping up my acitivity.

It would be easy to drift back into my starvation diet because I could drop weight quickly. But I know that’s not the way to do things, and I am sticking to my guns on that. Thus far my body fat numbers have shown that I am gaining muscle, which works against the weight-loss theory. But that is exactly what I want to do. Gain muscle and lose fat.

So I am just trying to do the things I need to do. In addition to adding more activity outside of my strength training, I want to be sure I am taking all of my supplements every day. And at some point, I want to catalog these and list the reasons I take each one of them. Look for an episode on that, and you might also want to check out my episode “All About Supplements”, at http://RunningAFEVER.com/67.

Why do I want to take supplements on days that I don’t work out? After all, I am only lifting weights four days a week. But my body is constantly rebuilding. I know from experience that the supplementation I am currently using works. It helps me perform better in the gym, and I am building muscle and changing my body composition, assuming my diet is solid.

Also, even when I am not lifting weights, I am still building muscle, just on a smaller scale. Hiking builds less muscle than lifting weights, but more than walking. But even with walking, there is an isometric component. And there is an aerobic/cardio component to lifting weights. The mix is just different.

So even on days and nights when I’m not working out, my body is constantly at work, building something. I want it to build fat and not muscle. I want it to burn the protein and other things I am consuming, and not burn the muscle I already have. Because losing weight means losing fat and muscle, and gaining weight means gaining fat and muscle. That is a biological certainty. The advantage we have is the knowledge that we gain muscle slower and we also lose it more slowly than we lose fat.

So what’s wrong with amazing diet results? We want not amazing diet results. It’s difficult because we are, or I am at least impatient. My clothes are fitting tighter, and that is not comfortable, and I don’t want to be in that discomfort, I’m wired to avoid discomfort. It takes discipline to live in it, but that is what I need to do. To get you to click on a YouTube video, a producer will title it “Lost 30 Pounds in 3 Hours”, or something similar. Without cutting off a leg, that’s just an insane statement, an outright lie. But that’s what we think we want.

The problem is that this can lead to behavior that is not only unhealthy, it does not achieve what we want to achieve. I don’t want to be amazed with what’s happening to me day to day, I want to be slow and steady. Many bodybuilders will spend several hours a day in the gym. I don’t think this is necessary, or even beneficial. What is necessary is maintaining the discipline of consistently showing up.

Unless you are on drugs, this discipline is essential to getting results. If you are on drugs, you can do almost anything in the gym and build muscle. But if you choose not to do that, you need to be there every day, progressively increasing weight. If you aren’t able to do that, you probably need to take a break. I’ve taken plenty of breaks lately, so that’s not the case with me right now. And I’m seeing good results as I am able to progressively overload my muscles and over a long period of time, this is paying off in increasing my muscle mass and improving my overall body composition.

So more important than losing weight quickly is showing up every day over a long period of time. Another benefit to doing this is that you can more easily maintain good health. Because for those of us who have struggled with excess fat for a long time, keeping it off is the problem and where we fail time after time.

So the amazement that I should be looking for comes when I look back over a course of years and see my progress to good health. That’s my goal for myself, and what I hope for you as well.

Recorded May 11, 2019

Weight 7-day Avg. (change since Jan 2018): 215 (-61)
Workout time: 20 Minutes
Total Distance (total since Nov 2017): Miles (473.71)
Steps: 4969
Muscle Mass 7-day Avg. (change since Aug 2018): 152.45 (+9)
Body Fat 7-day Avg.: 29%
Daily Sleep Duration 7-day Avg: 7 hours
2019 Goal: 15% Body Fat