Lean Bodies Consulting

The quote in the title is one that a number of us on the Lean Bodies Fitness forum have gotten used to seeing - namely from one long-term LBC client and personal friend, Ileen Natic. It’s a quote she stands by in the pursuit of her physique goals and it’s powerful in its simplicity - if you’re going to achieve something, you have to want to achieve it. And really want it.

Rather than do Ileen any injustices in my sharing of her journey to where she is now - someone admired by many of her peers for her consistently strong effort and as a result, consistent payoff with results and physique improvements - I’m just going to post it in Ileen’s own words:

To date, I’ve lost close to 60lbs and gosh knows how much body fat. I was at at least 30% when I started tracking and heavier before I did that. Over the years, it’s been a slow and steady work of progress.

It’s been an awesome journey.

Ileen is the definition of determination.

A perfect example of what can be achieved … if you really want it.

A conveniently timed blog post from Lyle McDonald adds more to what I’ve been harping upon for the last few posts about hunger, expecting it when dieting, and fat loss.

One quote in particular:

There are other adaptations, folks often decrease their activity levels (conserving energy), fat burning goes down and fat storage goes up, appetite often goes up so that people eat more when food is made available. In common parlance, this is often referred to as the ’starvation response’ and, yes, there is something to it. Unfortunately, it’s basically the price that has to be paid for losing body fat to any significant level. People talk constantly about avoiding the starvation response and things of that nature but the only way to avoid it completely is to never lose fat.

set-points-settling-points-and-bodyweight-regulation

I’ll put up a bit more on refeeds at a later time, but for the time being I wanted to show what my most recent one looked like to give you an idea.

Starting weight Thursday morning - about 213lbs.

My food for day included (I’m just grouping it all together as opposed to breaking it up into meals)

8 egg whites
9 oz of chicken
1 1/2 scoops whey protein

I think that was it for direct protein.

55g oatmeal + 70g berries (non-refeed meal, as I decided to bump it up a day after I’d already eaten Meal 1)
4 toasted Cinnamon-Raisin bagels with low-sugar raspberry jam
6 toasted English Muffins
8 blueberry Nutrigrain bars
5 Breyer’s Ice Cream Sandwiches
1 large container of Black Cherry yogurt
3 1/2 oz sweet potatoes
12 Raspberry fruit bars
1 big bowl of cereal w/ 1% milk

That put me at around 1100g of carbs.

Now, some people have far more elaborate and exciting looking refeeds - which you can find on the Lean Bodies Fitness forum, (Amy would be one good example of someone who probably can put together a pretty wild refeed - keep watching her blog), but I like to keep it simple with minimal planning and preparation.

Today? 220lbs. Looking full and really vascular today. I am expecting a good leg workout today. Refeeds are like rocket fuel.

Now we’ll see how quickly I can drop back down to 213. I’m guessing by Monday, maybe Sunday.

Ok, let’s finish this off … I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record with some of this stuff …

Hard. Back to that for a minute.

As I said above (more than once now), it’s the same as saying it’s not supposed to be easy. By saying it’s supposed to be hard, I simply mean, don’t be surprised if it does carry a measure of difficulty with it. Again, “hard” is a word of degree; it’s all relative. It’s HARDER to be very lean or exceptional compared to the population norms than it is to be average or overweight. Can anyone deny this?

Let’s also remember that higher bodyfat (here’s our population context again) – is protective to the regulatory hormones. Meaning, you can do a lot more without any deleterious consequences when your bodyfat is higher than when it’s lower. Less hunger, less regulatory hormone adjustments, less metabolic decline, less leptin decline, etc. Anyone who challenges this, I firmly believe has never been very, very lean – from top to bottom.

It’s also known that women’s bodies tend to be more resistant than men’s – that is, to going from lean to very lean. There is a great adaptive component in women. There’s also no arguing this point either.

Why do most diets fail? Hunger. Again, expect to be hungrier when you eat less than you normally do. It’s not rocket science. By saying it’s supposed to be hard, I’m saying being hungry isn’t abnormal – fun? Heck no. Things are not going wrong just because you’re hungry. If you expect to get very lean, and never be hungry (or never have to adopt hunger-fighting strategies), well, you’re going to have a hard time getting ‘there’.

Or how about this? Don’t expect to be full, always satisfied, etc.

AND there is a difference between true physical hunger and a simply desire to eat – whether simply a want, or out of boredom on a Friday night, etc. Tell me every time you cheated on your diet it was because your body was truly famished. Tell me that it’s never simply because you just want more, want something, are bored, whatever. With all the emotional issues people face with food these days, I think it’s pretty obvious that it’s not just about physical hunger. Remember that comment? The psychology of fat loss is not easy.

Saying you didn’t work nearly as hard as you used to – isn’t saying it’s no longer hard. And no one said it’s supposed to be so hard it’s impossible. It’s simply NOT easy. Find all the satiety you want – good strategy – but if you expect to never be hungry, unless you want to progress at a snail’s pace, well, not likely.

You have to restrict your food intake – that’s not exactly easy is it? Semantics on ‘easy’ aside, it’s harder (again degrees) than not restricting food. That’s the price you pay to get in shape. Period. I’ve read Lyle McDonald put it this way – “either suck it up, or stay fat. Those are your choices”. And that’s a direct quote.

Welcoming it.

My point in saying to welcome it – is to say, expect it. It isn’t to say hey, celebrate hunger because hunger is awesome. Being hungry isn’t fun. We all know that. But again, welcome it means get ready to deal with it, because if you’re not hungry now, you will be at some point if you’re attempting to get your bodyfat really low. If you’re not, then hey, you can probably avoid most of the issues, again, since bodyfat is protective.

So, whether that means welcoming it, finding ways to minimize it (you won’t be able to do this 100%), or something else, the end point is the same. It’s simple, but it’s not easy.

Not welcoming hunger also certainly doesn’t mean you’ll never meet your goals. There is no ‘if-then’ statement there. It’s a bit easier if you learn to accept that some degree of hunger, sacrifice, etc. is necessary. Again, to think you’re never going to be hungry when getting lean is foolish. And if by chance, you can actually never experience any hunger while getting lean, then you’re in the gross minority, or you’re lying. If you’re not lying, then don’t assume that n=1 gives your experience any validity beyond that. If you’re adopting strategies to alleviate it, you’re already accepting it’s a part of the process and you’re trying to ward it off. What’s the difference?

And I’ll close by saying that I’m undoubtedly one of the non-retarded in my approach. Contrast any of my competitors with those of the standard, old-school contest prep circles and you’ll see a vastly different philosophy – I don’t overdo cardio, I don’t drastically cut calories, I don’t restrict food groups, etc. Talk to anyone who’s competed under someone else and then under me and you’ll see that they do NOT suffer nearly as much. Why? Because I look for ways to minimize the difficulty as much as I can.

Ok, so this is a Part 1 of a follow up blog post to my post from the other day titled, It’s Simple, But It’s Not Easy. Turns out that as much as it was liked by many, it wasn’t by some others. Such is the nature of not being able to please everyone. I think some points needed a bit more fleshing out and clarification as I assumed that most would ‘get’ what I was saying.

First off, let me clarify the audience. While much of what I say can be applied to anyone trying to drop bodyfat, the term ‘enviable physique’ for me represents a very lean physique. Not just average by normative standards (ie. not overweight/fat). Additionally, the main point was in the title – simple, but not easy. And as I clarified, the physiology of fat loss is simple, the psychology often is not. (although one is not entirely separate from the other).

Let’s address the issue of my saying “it’s supposed to be hard”. The word, “hard” is a word of degree. Hard relative to what? Harder than what? Quite simply, this is just another way of saying, don’t be surprised if it’s not easy. Why? Because it’s not easy. If it were so easy then there wouldn’t be so many overweight people, there wouldn’t be so many fad diets created with quick, unrealistic promises, there wouldn’t be so many fat-loss supplements marketed by supplement companies who basically are selling you hope in a bottle.

Hunger.

It’s a part of dieting. I say to accept it. Sure, you don’t have to accept it, but it’s going to come anyway, whether you accept it or not. Is hunger synonymous with starving? Of course not. Again, it’s simply another way of saying, don’t be surprised if you get hungry. Does that mean that you shouldn’t look for methods to minimize the hunger? Of course not. Is eating in a caloric deficit the only time anyone gets hungry? Of course not. Who said that? There are phases even in a deficit where you’re not hungry, but on the average, the leaner you get, and the longer you diet, the more your body is going to get pissed off at you and the more hunger is going to pop up. It’s normal. Or rather, it’s not abnormal. That’s my point. Accept that it’s going to happen – again, that is to say don’t be surprised when you get hungry when you start eating less than you habitually were for a prolonged period of time. Should be pretty much common sense.

To offer some scientific support, remember that human bodyweight is regulated – completely undebatable – and the Captain of the Regulatory team is the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus responds to change in bodyweight and bodyfat . What happens when bodyweight and bodyfat decrease? The hormones downstream are affected in such a way that … yep, hunger and appetite increase. Why? In an effort to stabilize your bodyweight. Anyone who denies they’re not more hungry eating less the longer they diet and the leaner they get is lying to you. Note – I didn’t say people are only hungry when they’re dieting.. I said dieting is generally associated with increases in hunger and appetite. Another way of saying once again, don’t be surprised when you get hungry.

And another key point, and here is where that lovely word context comes in – we’re talking about achieving an ‘enviable physique’. Not just not being overweight. Not just having a part of you in shape. Enviable. Now the phrase ‘enviable physique’ is admittedly subject to interpretation, so I’ll offer up some additional context – I’m referring to being very lean, low bodyfat; let’s just call it the bodyfat levels of a physique competitor.

So the degree to which the above happens is largely determined by how lean you are. Obviously the leaner you are, the more your body can end up royally pissed off at you and the more the regulatory hormones respond in a negative fashion. End result? MORE HUNGRY. Again, we’re not talking about being ‘not fat’. We’re talking about low bodyfat.

If you say you’re never hungry and you’ve been dieting for a while, you’re either not anywhere near contest lean, or you’re lying. If you’ve adopted hunger-fighting strategies, you were still hungry, otherwise you wouldn’t have had to adopt any strategies to fight it off. And note, nowhere did I say that we shouldn’t look for strategies to alleviate hunger. That should be obvious as well. If you can find ways to alleviate the degree of hunger you’re experiencing, by all means, provided it’s not a bag of cookies, put it in practice.

It’s a physiological fact that increased hunger and appetite is associated with falling bodyfat, lowered calories, etc.

Hard. Back to that for a minute.

Actually, more next time.

This is from a thread on the Lean Bodies Fitness forum.

Q: Does anyone else have an issue with this? Here’s what I mean: I can know that I have a cheat meal coming and be fine with that, but as soon as I start thinking that it is a reward for doing good on training and diet, I’ve run into problems. If I feel like I ‘deserve’ it, I usually pass on it because I’ve tended to go overboard in the past. However, if I simply think of it as being a treat or ‘break’, I do fine. Does that make sense? Anyone else deal with this?

A: I’m not sure how this is going to come across (I am holding to the fact that you know me well enough to know I’m not being … insensitive or rude) and I’m not sure it’ll be popular either, and I know this isn’t a one-size-fits-all-this-applies-to-everyone answer, but …

I think this represents a very immature mindset. I mean, admittedly the only issue is the way you think about things - you’re in control of that. Whether you want to admit it or not, you are.

A changed mind is more important than a changed diet.

This whole thing starts in the mind - and the only way for it to change is for the thinking behind it to change. Admittedly not as easy as it sounds.

Your beliefs cause your behaviour. The question is, where did these beliefs come from? Find the self sabotaging beliefs and thoughts – replace them with self supporting thoughts.

There are four big Success Factors to consider:

1. Core Beliefs - about what you personally believe you can and cannot do in life, especially in regards to weight loss.

2. Physical Visual Self Image/Self Concept

3. Self Esteem – Sense of Deservability – what you believe deep down you do and do not deserve in life. Do you deserve to succeed at this?

4. Sense of Self Responsibility – whether you believe your ability to succeed is due to some external cause of whether it’s something within you.

Much of it is in the thinking.

This didn’t turn out to be what I was going to write, but …

I was going to just say - it’s time to grow up already! (but that isn’t very helpful is it?)

Choose to enjoy the process. You’re doing this because you WANT to. If you think deprivation, you’re going to feel deprived.

Most answers to this question will come back as something to do with thinking and the need to take control and responsibility for it. How each individual does that, is what needs to be discovered.