Why I am not losing weight
First gym experience
If I workout I’ll be in great shape. For most of my teenage years I was a stranger to sports and the outdoor world at large. Not just so to say the least, I avoided the outdoors at all cost. Fast forward 10 years later the year is 2008 when I enrolled in my dream job. For the first time in my life, I had access to a fully equipped gym within the building I lived in. For my colleagues and myself, spending an hour in the gym on the treadmill and doing a few bicep curls was the trend. Everybody was doing it and so I followed. I was convinced that the mere action of going to the gym would turn me into a men’s health cover model. It was unquestionable, as logic as 2 + 2 = 4, I was certain of my outcome. Why not? If I go to the gym I’ll get in great shape it should be as simple as that. After all this was common knowledge and the promise sold to us by both the main stream media and medical industry. My disillusion and confusion was unmatched when I saw the reverse effects on my body goals. “Why am I not losing the weight?” despite doing everything I was supposed to was a question that deeply troubled me.
Belly fat and the skinny fat body
My current weight at the time was 64kg for a height of 1m64. While technically not over weight, my body and fat distribution was clearly disproportionate. The fat I wanted out was centralized around my face and abdomen area. Let’s be specific; chubby cheeks, large belly, generous love handle, a real care bear or a muffin on legs as I sometimes described it. The look did not agree with me to say the least. A few years later the fitness industry would come to name it the “Skinny fat body” although I was more on the fat side than skinny at the time. In my opinion it is the worst body type or the purgatory of all body types. Because I was not overweight, I was cleared by all medical professionals as a healthy average male. With my clothes on I’d look o.k. But no clothing could protect me from growing insecurities at dreaded pool parties or day at the beach. I went to great length to avoid these. Needless to say, I soon excelled in the art of storytelling and making excuses. The art became not just part of my life but an inherent part of my personality. Newly single on the market at the time, I aspired then more than ever for a better physique.
Most common gym mistake
So I embarked on a gym routine of once a week which consisted of cardio, push ups and bicep curls. I’d pat myself on the back and would wear my gym goer badge of honour high and proud in social conversations. You may figure my astonishment when I saw the weight pile on my midsection. Because of the new weight workouts, I saw some bicep size progress but nowhere close to the increase in my midsection area. While the fat was adding up, my new gym program didn’t add up. In my mind I did everything right. I couldn’t fathom what was going on. I decided to double my weekly sessions to the gym. While barely any noticeable results were observed, I decided to go ahead and triple my weekly sessions. Getting desperate for results, I decided to divide my sessions in two parts this time; one hour of cardio on the treadmill and one hour of isolated weight lifting movement. Like many beginners, biceps remained on the top of my priorities. I also added a 20 minutes sauna to my sessions which I grew to enjoy and also used as a personal motivational reward. With this change, my body saw some toning in my limbs, chest and shoulders but absolutely no change in my Dark Vador midsection. Moreover the trimming of my arms and legs accentuated my belly fat even more.
If I’d take a deep breath and held it in, I would see a physique I would love to have. I describe the skinny fat body as the worst body type because of its persistent unchanging nature. And so I resigned myself to live life and walk the surface of this earth one exhalation away for the rest of life. After all oxygen is so overrated, isn’t it? For many years going forward, I carried on my gym activities and I saw my weight fluctuate like the stock market.
Training vs exercise
Mistake number one, there is “going to the gym” and there is “knowing what you are doing there” Fail to have a specific plan in the gym and plan an Epic failure in the gym. To this day, I am amazed at the time I wasted over the years; most would have given up already.
Mistake number two: do not underestimate intensity and correct form. My intensity was way too low to create any challenge for muscle development and my form was off.
Mistake number three: There was no defined time limit for my amount of socializing or phone checking. I cannot stress this enough, there is such a thing as going to the gym and there is such a thing as doing the gym. Make no mistake about it; and my growing midsection was the price I paid for it.
Post workout meal mistakes
I was right, something definitely didn’t add up. I was so disillusioned. Unfortunately while I kept focusing on what it was I could possibly be doing wrong in the gym, I ignored the real culprit “The Kitchen”
Looking back now I surprise myself that I did not suspect for one minute that my failure was not happening in the gym as much as it was taking place in the kitchen. The long hours I would spend per session would have been enough to burn off all the calories I consumed I thought. If not I was convinced I must have been in a calorie deficit.
During all that time and good resolution, believe it or not, I had not made any alteration to my eating and drinking habits. The truth was I had experienced an increase in ravenous appetite following my long gym workouts. Again main stream media idea. I was under the firm conviction that I required an increase in food intake for recovery and sustain my gym program. Because of my gym sessions, I also allowed myself to indulge more often in unhealthy food choices. The understanding was, I’ll burn it off tomorrow, “I need this!” I use to think to myself. Boy if I had any idea of how difficult it is to burn fat from processed food and alcohol, id save myself 10 years of effort. I was an adept of the modern diet, a child of my generation. At around that time documentaries such as “Super size me” was out and we all had a clear idea that fast food was bad for us and we all felt safe in the choice of low fat and low sugar processed foods as if the consumption of these food would somehow promote weight loss.
I ate a mix of everything made readily available by the food industry. I religiously began my day with the most important meal of the day “breakfast” followed by lunch and dinner. Dinner was more often than not completed with a desert or two.
What was I doing wrong? I never missed on breakfast, I went to the gym three times a week and yet I was nowhere close to my body goals.
I had read “the Secret” then and thought maybe I should ask the universe. I remember placing pictures on my mobile and laptop desktop of fit models I wish I looked like in a way remind myself and get the universe to send me what I wanted.
Is breakfast the most important meal?
Talk about breakfast, it is important to mention that I was a regular to breakfast buffets during my travels around the world. Depending on the hotel, it is accurate to describe my regular plate servings of an average number ranging from five to seven plates per sitting. I definitely took my buffets seriously and made it a commitment not to leave until I had tried a bit of everything. I would feel cheated if I happened to leave while missing out on a few options.
I remember the remark of a senior lady at a breakfast buffet in London when she saw my copious plate serving. “Enjoy your meal!” she said “My father always said eat your breakfast like a king and your dinner like a poor man” I grinned although I recalled feeling annoyed at the “judgmental” comment.
A British Tv series named “Secret Eaters” documents precisely what was going wrong in my life. On average 90% of us either completely underreports our personal calorie consumption or underestimate the volume of calories consumed in one sitting. Also the small snacks we enjoy in between meals, the cookie, the energy bar, the energy drink, the, the condiments we use like ketchup, soy sauce and sweet chilly sauces seem to remain completely out of the radar on our calorie counts.
Calories in vs calories out
I was in total darkness about the real amount of calories I ingested on a daily basis. The sum of energy consumed consistently far outweighed any workout program variation I set for myself. Whenever I would raise my workout level to a new intensity or length, I unconsciously also raised my food consumption therefore creating a forever increasing calorie surplus which my body could not keep up with.
I look back to all these mistakes with compassion for my past self. I see many people guilty of the same underestimation in the kitchen and lack of intensity in the gym.
No later than yesterday did I approach a young man in the gym and inquired about his training program. At 18 years old and a weight closing obesity, he gladly shared with me his plan of 15 minutes on the treadmill, then 10 minutes of squat and another 10 minutes on the pull up machine. He carried out his whole training while glued to his Netflix favourite series on his Ipad and never breaking a single sweat. Before he left, I share with him my thoughts about his intensity level and the inclusion of more resistance workout with the little attention he could spare from his Ipad. As he walked away I couldn’t help but wonder what his recovery meal would look like after this workout session.
