Without getting into all the “whys” of it, I want you to consider that as human animals, many of us don’t know how to best feed ourselves.
I have been on what started as a “weight loss” journey for nearly 20 years. This journey has seen me eat for my blood type, get in The Zone, follow Nutrisystem, go Paleo, try Paleo blocks, find Isagenix, count calories, track macros, discover Weston A Price and do the Keto thing. What I’ve discovered is whenever you focus on and change your eating habits, you initially get results. This makes every plan and diet seem to be the answer, but usually only in the beginning. Demonizing food and restricting caloric intake are not healthy physically or mentally, nor are they sustainable for a lifetime.
In my quest for what I would now call “improved body composition,” I have amassed a wide range of knowledge regarding nutrition and how what we eat affects us. That knowledge is useless unless it is applied with patience over time toward a clear goal. “Lose 20 pounds” is not a clear goal once you realize that you are made up of lean tissue (aka muscle) as well as stored energy (aka fat). Do you want to lose the stuff that lets you get up out of a chair, pick up your child and take the groceries out of your trunk? Or do you want to lose the stuff that bulges and jiggles and makes your waistband feel a little too tight? It should be the latter. Unfortunately, just reducing calories – the famous “Cut 500 calories a day to lose one pound a week” advice – doesn’t discriminate between muscle and fat. Over an extended period, it can lead to a ratio that favors fat retention and muscle loss as your body tries to prevent starvation. You’ll likely weigh less, but be a less functional human. Plus, the weight loss will probably stall before you hit your abstract goal and in your frustration and hunger, you’ll go back to your old habits.
My current clearly defined goal is to get my body fat percentage below 19%. There are two factors involved in achieving that goal – using my stored fat and increasing my lean muscle mass. Science dictates that it’s very difficult to do both at once. The body builds muscle only in a caloric surplus (under the appropriate physical stimulus) and it only burns fat in a caloric deficit. Pair that with how quickly the body adapts to change because it wants regain equilibrium and we really have a conundrum.
If you visit the “Growth” page of this blog, you’ll see that I’m also on a personal growth journey. “Interconnectedness” is something I have not recognized and valued as important in my life. While that’s a topic for another post, its relevance to this discussion is considerable. For 20 years I have been going it alone, trying to figure out how all the pieces fit together so I can look, feel and perform the way I want. I saw a Facebook post from Eat To Perform that triggered me to sign up for nutritional coaching.
I was already familiar with ETP from several years ago. At that time, I gave this way of eating a try on my own, but abandoned it in favor of something else. July 30, 2019 I was motivated and open to accepting help. (If you are interested to learn more, click the link on my “Resources” page.)
The program involves multiple phases of eating to specific daily macro targets which vary by day. Along with the nutrition aspect comes an equally important mental aspect. I’m learning to think differently about food, calories, activity and the scale. The first few weeks were time-consuming because it takes a lot of work to make good food choices that fit within the fluctuating daily macro targets. I’ve come to think of it as “Macro Tetris.” Like with any skill, I’m improving with practice.
As of Sep 3, 2019 I’ve lost 7 pounds on the scale. On September 30 I have my next DEXA scan which will reveal how my body composition of fat versus muscle has changed. Be sure to check back and see!