Sunday 22nd June 2008 - Fitness is NOT the Answer

A: Fitness is NOT the Answer - Now what was the question ?

Q: How can I lose this excess fat?

Now this may very well get me disbarred from the fitness industry Hall Of Fame but who am I kidding I was never in the running (I hate running). With over 20 years experience of being a professional "trainer / educator" in the fitness and health industry I have long held the belief that we need to get more people active which was my indoctrination over the many years.

I no longer believe that to be correct for the majority of the population that has health issues.

You see a common goal in the fitness world and promoted belief is that we need to get you active for three hours per week, and this isn't often achieved by most of the people that need it and in fact the latest recommended Heart Foundation advice is an hour of activity each day. This has no chance of succeeding.

Part of the problem exists that we use either the three (3) hours per week or seven (7) hours per week as our "penance" for our social lifestyles. With one hundred and sixty five (165) hours each week we use these small amounts to combat the excessive intake of calories which more often than not are less nutritious.

I want to qualify this blog by saying that I would rather give people practical solutions then remain another person who preaches "balanced lifestyle" because it is this mantra that I believe has been a fundamental problem and NOT a solution. No one really knows what that statement means and don't even care until they are looking for a reason to allow them to waiver off their "supposed" healthy food path or have that third or fourth glass of wine.

You see how flawed this approach is !!

So how can we find a way that will start to have an impact?
When I was making my animated movie health project for children, we worked with some very talented and highly educated experts in learning methods for young children and it was incredible to see the patterns that are employed that I had been unaware of.
Now this is "stealth training at it's best".

The first one I found out about was repetition. I knew about repetition but hadn't realized the iomportance behind it. It is like learning to tie your shoelaces (long before velcro was invented), you practiced and practiced until you had the skill learned. Or think back to your Multiplication Tables as this is another easy common denominator for everyone to remember. You didn't just say them once, it was a repeating pattern and this was then reinforced on a regular basis. Working with these experts I learned the "rule of three". They explained that it works best with important points being repeated three times over.

Another way that we teach children to learn most things in life is through boundaries or rules, which allows them to know what is right and what is wrong. If they do things right they are rewarded and if they do things wrong there is consequence. Sadly as we get older those rules set out in black and white seem to fade to grey and beige.

So why is it that I believe that fitness is not the answer. It comes from trying to find a solution to the two competing fields of fitness and nutrition. Now in the sports world they can co-exist and do so well. But in the real world of most people's lives it is a recipe for disaster.

If most people aren't even completing the minimum of three (3) hours per week of activity on a consistent basis (think of the rule of 3 for repetition to achieve a benefit or gain a result), then we need to look at the other element for health protection. Those that read my blog regularly know that I don't talk about prevention, as I want to make this personal, so we need to learn about protection of YOU and your Human ECO System elements.

So now it comes down to calories. Let's first dispense with the calories in vs calories out equation as most people have no accurate ability to recognize or even understand that concept. I have been in conversations with nutritionists and dietician friends and even they fail to grasp how best to convey to people practical solutions, other than word for word that which they have been taught, again perpetuating the current problems through a lack of understanding.

Great, now I have been booted out of the running for Nutritionist Hall Of Fame too. This is a tough and lonely journey out here in the fat loss tundra trying to forge a new path.
Oh well, onwards husky dogs - mush mush !!

Walk into any bookstore or look at any online dieting site and they will have their own variation of eating plans based around some form of "healthy eating". They can each vary from the amount of total calories you consume, to the type of macro-nutrient you avoid or eat most, like the low carb, or Atkins or any of the others.

My favorite has always been the 80/20 rule (or 80% healthy and 20% lifestyle) that seems very popular. Now for those that ARE actually exercising on a regular basis more than four (4) days per week this will probably work, it's not a definite, but it will improve both your physical appearance and also your health status.

So what about Joe and Jill Average whose lifestyle is different. They try to be consistent but it's not easy, they work out some weeks and not others, who on the weeks they do workout can't always get in their three (3) times as it's expensive to workout with a trainer so they just have a gym membership. The token gym membership is like a "get out of jail card" that they play when someone says "how is the training going?" to which they reply "yeah, haven't got there too often due to work and family but at least I have it here with me, just in case. Would you like another glass of wine ?"

I'm smiling because if I had a dollar for every time I have been told that story I would be a rich man but to be fair, most people nowadays work quite hard with long hours and less spare time, which means they have to organize to catch up with family and friends making for a hectic social life that they see as their "weekend" and so becomes their 20% allowable downtime of lifestyle.

So I did some maths calculations based on the 165 hours in the week.
- 80% of healthy lifestyle (eating properly and being active) = 134.4 hours or 5 and half days
- 20% of lifestyle (not sure what YOU deem that to be) = 34.6 hours or 1 and half days
In theory this seems to be the explanation of a lifestyle weekend. Sounds good so far in theory.

Now here is the problem with the "lifestyle element".
With so many years of experience training clients, what I found is that the weekend normally starts on Friday after work, and completes on Sunday evening. This is approximately 30% of lifestyle and with today's social activities occurring during the week we are moving the range closer to 50/50.

This is then further eroding our chances of health success with the majority of people not being able to (or wanting to) meet their activity requirements, compounded by breakfast meetings, coffee catch-ups and it ends up looking like the 80/20 rule has become 80% lifestyle and 20% healthy which explains our obesity problem.

Does this sound familiar?
Can YOU really look at yourself in the mirror and say "why am I getting fatter?"

If YOU know the answer to these questions then the solution lies in PROTECTION through personal responsibility so let's stop playing the "blame game" and start acting on real ways to take better care of YOUR Human ECO System.

It's YOUR Body - It's YOUR Life !!