Hi guys, Kris from Custom Fitness here, your personal trainer in Amarillo. Today we’ll be talking about losing weight and what that means to you. If you have any questions please give us a call at (806) 322-3188
So, losing weight… may I have the definition please?
Everyone that wants to lose weight has a different definition of what that means to them. What it really comes down to is your “Why?”. We’ve talked about this a little before: in order to have your motivation, you have to have your “Why?” for doing it.
I have people come in and say that they want to lose weight, and I ask them “Okay, why do you want to lose weight?”, and as we dig a little deeper it can go beyond just wanting to lose weight. Some want to be able to do things with their families, some want to perform better at work, and some just want to feel good. Losing weight has many different definitions, but that scale still owns us. We still step on that scale everyday and do so just to get mad. You know that it’s going to change and fluctuate (for women especially because we typically fluctuate between five to ten pounds everyday), but you still step on the scale hoping that it’s going to say what you want it to say. Some people look for their college weight, or wedding weight, or high school weight, and the fact of the matter is that your scale may never read that number that you’re looking for. That may sound depressing, but never reaching that number, that’s okay! Why? Because you can look better than where you were then even if that scale reads a different number than you expected. The reason for that is because you probably aren’t looking for the right way of losing weight.
We created this idea as a society that everyone needs to lose weight, and in order for you to be healthy you have to lose weight. Well, the fact of the matter is that you don’t have to lose weight (you could cut off an arm and lose weight), but you have to lose the excess fat, and if you don’t lose that excess fat, then that’s what’s going to cause risk to your health. It can be an increase your risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, strokes, and other health issues. And so it’s not about the weight per se, as much as it is about the body composition. How much of the body is muscle, how much is fat, how much is healthy fat, and how much is water? So depending on things like the last time you drank a glass of water, that can affect the number on the scale. So if you haven’t had anything to eat or drink since the night before, then yes, you’re going to weigh less in the morning! Your body would be like a dried up sponge. The cells would be all shriveled up and dried out because you haven’t fed them food or water in that time. As you start to feed yourself, they start to expand, then you use up that water and they start to shrink again if you haven’t been providing the right nutrition or hydration to them.
You have to realize that your cells are living beings. I got to see this illustrated through a really fun experiment that I did with my kids the other day, and it was so neat to get to watch their eyes as we got to see what was happening. We did this with water kefir grains, and they look like tiny little flaxseeds. They were tiny, dehydrated, fit right in the palm of my hand. We put them in the water and mixed in some sugar which was eaten by the grains and essentially made probiotics. So we left them in the water for two days, and it went from being able to fit in my hand to taking up most of the jar! It grew because it was being fed and hydrated (sounds familiar right?). So, if you’re eating and hydrating, things expand. That’s an okay thing!
Going back to the original question about weight. I want to let you know today that you have fat and that’s okay because everyone does. We have essential fat in a lot of places that keeps us healthy, but we don’t need the excess that most people have these days. And if that’s you, then that’s not a problem. I’m going to tell you the same thing that I tell my kids and that I’ve been saying as a personal trainer in Amarillo for the past seventeen years: you have fat but you are not fat. You are not your fingernails, but you have fingernails right? You are not these things, but sometimes you might name yourself as these things, and then you get more obsessed and frustrated with the weight. All this does is lead to a bad mental state where you really can’t escape this constant circle that you’re running around. If you instead start to consider that weight doesn’t matter as much as we believe it does and that body composition matters more, then you can start to make a plan of attack.
So if your body composition is what matters, then what do you do to get rid of the excess fat that’s raising your disease risk? Well, you start to exercise and build muscle mass, which is going to make you possibly weigh more or the same because muscle is more dense than fat. Fat doesn’t turn into muscle, and muscle doesn’t turn into fat, a pound of muscle and a pound of fat weigh the same. Muscle is just denser.
So if you can lose that excess fat through exercise and balancing nutritional habits (rather than trying and quiting half a dozen fad diets), then you will find a lifestyle change that works for you to create a pattern of consistency that will help your body to reinvent its best self. That’s really what it comes down to. It sounds complicated right? It’s actually not, but that doesn’t mean that you have to do it yourself either.
It feels like half of the people make it so incredibly complicated that you can’t do anything on your own and they use that to their benefit to sell you a bunch of stuff that you don’t need. And the other half makes it so simple with apps and emails, which can be helpful but isn’t the full solution. I hear everyday from clients about apps that people never use and gym memberships that are never used, so I work with them to see where they are wasting their time and money to see where they can improve their lifestyle modifications. This way they can center their action plan around changing their lifestyle in a way that fits them to make what needs to happen happen. That not only gets them to their results, but beyond their results so that they can maintain them for a lifetime.
I’m very serious about making sure that our clients are set up for success. Most of our clients are with us around three to five years, some for seventeen and some that just walked in the door. So we have clients all down the path, but as they come through our programs they find that they find the knowledge to be able to continue and make great choices. Does that always mean that they have the accountability that they need? If not on their own then that’s what we’re here for.
So if you want more help with creating an action plan to see results with quicker, then that’s what we’re here for. We have an entire team dedicated to this as professionals to help you. To get your consultation set up, give us a call at 806-322-3188 or email us at info@customfitness.biz At Custom Fitness, we are YOUR personal trainers in Amarillo, Texas. Have a great day.