Well, I’ll give you the recipe to lose weight and worsen your body fat. Do excessive cardio, and starve. Watch the weight go down, observe your mood shifting from sadness to happiness, to confusion.
This is a common paradox. We will use logical reasoning to arrive at a conclusion.
What is it that you want ?
To lose weight ? Wrong answer Think again
What is it that you really want if you are overweight.
To reduce your visible fat, and to look better right ?
Now does your visible fat have a correlation to what you see on a weight scale ?
Well only a part of it.
Your body fat only forms a part of that number you see on the weight scale.
Now, if you wanted to reduce your overall weight, is that the right answer to arrive at your goal ?
No it’s not !
You forgot to factor in your muscle mass that gives your body the very shape you seek.
How does excessive caloric deficits from walking and strict dieting work against you ?
You burn your muscle mass for energy. You would have looked better if you retained your muscle mass and only lost your body fat, but the strategy you chose didn’t work on retaining your muscle mass, and you thought the weight scale reflecting a decrease in your weight indicates only fat loss.
As a coach in bodybuilding, I don’t use cardio to achieve body composition goals, for good health and longevity yes absolutely, for body composition, no. Not my cup of tea.
In every decision you make, there will be an opportunity cost. The physique you derive from allocating 50% of your time equally to aerobics and resistance training, compared to 80% to resistance training and 20% to aerobics, will be completely different.
The muscle fibers that develop and the capabilities you gain will depend on what you do. My approach will be always biased towards bodybuilding. The short run will not give you significant results, but the long run will do, in a way no one expects. Remember, aerobics will improve your endurance, but in terms of muscle size, it’s the fast twitch fibers that will show a greater increase in size and capacity.
Now, when you exercise, your objective is growth, growth of muscle mass. The gym is the platform you use to introduce stress to your system. Training depletes your energy and causes micro tears in your muscle fibers, which is necessary for your growth. But it isn't during training in which your muscles grow.
Your sleep and nutrition. I have seen many proponents of different dieting styles. At the end of the day, you need to understand, to grow you need the necessary nutrients, and the key macro nutrient in this game will always be protein. If you use logic, and eat right, and sleep right, you will provide the anabolic environment that is necessary for muscle growth.
So next time you choose to exercise, remember that your time is limited, and you should make the best use out of it to achieve your goals.
Think critically, even when lifting, don’t lift for the sake of lifting, you have to focus on complete muscular contraction throughout your entire range of motion. You have to listen to your body. We are all unique, it’s impractical to have a single framework that fits everyone, although there are valid guidelines that everyone can benefit from.
Your Coach
Pasindu Liyanage
Profusion Fitness
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