As a sufferer of the dreaded skinny-fat curse, I’ve spent my life being envious of people who are genetically gifted with an effortlessly good physique. It was at its worst in adolescence – but it wasn’t just the athletic manchildren who put on muscle easily that I envied. I was jealous of the skinny kids too. At least they were lean. Whereas I existed in a weird limbo of moobs, love handles and a total lack of musculature.
It was never just the physiques that I envied, it was the freedom that came with it. They were enjoying what I saw as a teenage boy rite of passage – the common perception that teenage boys and young men can eat whatever they want and stay lean by virtue of their raging hormones and youthful metabolisms. I felt I was owed that. I was living the same sort of lifestyle – sporty, active, objectively healthy, growing a lot, but unfortunately my body didn’t get the memo about body composition.
So I set out to do something about it. In fact, I’ve been trying to transform my body for well over a decade now.
And I’ve failed. Repeatedly.
Not because I’ve never made progress. I’ve had periods where I’ve lost weight, gained strength, built some muscle and looked considerably better than I did before. In fact I’m pretty big at the moment so I’ve certainly proven that my skinny-fat body can build substantial muscle mass – it’s just unfortunate that I’m also a fat fuck too.
It’s taken me an embarrassingly long time to realise the recurring major flaw in every single failed attempt to get lean: Focusing on getting lean by restricting calories when getting lean was only ever half the dream. I’ve never just wanted to look like the genetically gifted people I envied – I wanted to live like them. – To not obsess about what I eat. To definitely not have to count calories (the bane of my existence). To have a few drinks guilt-free. To showcase a body that I was proud of without having to organise my entire existence around maintaining it.
Even if I’d finally managed to stick to one of my diets long enough to achieve my dream physique, what then? – I’d still have to keep restricting myself to maintain it. I’d have escaped the body I hated, only to remain trapped in the food prison I’d constructed trying to escape it. And after more than a decade of trying, I’ve finally accepted something. That approach is never going to work for me. I enjoy a lifestyle of freedom too much.
The approach that will work for me is based on a very simple principle.
Form follows function.
Instead of training and dieting primarily to make my body look a certain way, I’m going to train my body to perform a certain way. And trust that its appearance will change accordingly. So my training routine will be performance based and I’m going to do it every
single
day.
Currently I’m 105kg (@ 6″2) – the heaviest I’ve ever been. And I’m running and working out (bodyweight exercises) every day until I can:
- Run a 50 minute 10K
- Do 3 x 20 strict diamond pushups
- Do 3 x 10 strict ring pull-ups
*** And some other complementary exercises
Getting simultaneously fit and adept at bodyweight exercises sends a very clear signal to the body – you need to be lean and metabolically efficient. To be clear – I understand that weight loss is a numbers game and ultimately it’s about calories in vs out. But I don’t think it’s as simple as I will be moving more so I will burn more. My rationale is that by mimicking the athletic capabilities of those more genetically gifted than I, my metabolism will improve. And because I can run a sub 50 minute 10k and do advanced calisthenics, I expect to be able to maintain 10-12% bodyfat without obsessing about my diet. I’m not just picking arbitrary fitness milestones and hoping that achieving them will make me look better. I’m deliberately choosing physical challenges that reward the kind of body I want to build.
So I’m going to eat like a normal person. Not indiscriminately. Not stuffing my face with everything in sight. Just eating what I want, when I’m hungry, and enjoying it without the constant background guilt.
Dietary restriction is no longer the centrepiece of my transformation. Athletic performance is. Perhaps instead of trying to starve my body into looking like an athlete, I should have spent all those years trying to become one. And the added benefit of making training the centrepiece of my life is the discipline it will build. Because I’m not just trying to get lean, I’m trying to improve my life out of sight. Of course training every day is not going to be easy – that’s kind of the point. But it will actually be easier for me than counting calories and living on a meagre amount. – I hate that shit.
Like most things on TooManyMind, this is an experiment. We’ll see how it goes.
Thanks.
