Patience my children

What's up gym rats?  It's that time of the week again where I hit you with some knowledge about fitness and supplements!

Today I want to dive into a little paradigm that is present in a lot of people's lives; Losing weight and becoming more muscular.

There is no easy way to put it folks.  If you want to lose weight, but gain muscle at the same time, you have to pick one.  People that think they can just trade off fat for muscle are either on steroids or have god-like genetics.  The problem with this paradigm is that in order to lose weight you have to take in less calories and in order to gain more muscle you have to ingest more calories.  One does not simply build muscle from thin air.

The problem is that people want it all.  We want our cake and damnit to hell if we can't eat it too!  The easiest thing I can suggest to people is to be patient.  Rome wasn't built in a day and neither were any of those body builders in the magazines.  If you are overweight, the first thing that will really help in the transformation of your body is to lose fat first.  In doing so you will be improving  So if you look like this......

DO NOT FEAR!  

It is all a process, much like anything else in life.  The trick is to find the right path that works for you. 

When people get on workout regiments to lose weight, they are in reality uncovering the muscles that they didn't know they had.  The analogy I like to make is like repainting a car.  You wouldn't just paint over the crappy paint job you have over your car if you didn't like it.  First the car would be stripped of all it's old paint (fat) and then primed (cardio and weight lifting), and then the new coat of paint would be applied (new muscle).  Once people get on the proper diets and lose the fat, then they can adjust the diet to put on weight, the right kind of weight.

Fun fact from my brain: Diets that add more muscle are typically higher in protein and low in carbohydrates.  Also, many people believe that in order to gain this muscle one must eat every high protein food in sight to supply the body with enough energy to create muscle tissue.  NOT TRUE!  The body can only absorb so many nutrients in one sitting, and the production of muscle tissue is the same way.  A better strategy for adding muscle is to take in enough calories to support the development of new muscle tissue, not bombard it with excess.

Sure you may not end up looking like the guy above this text, but hell neither will I.  It is all about being at your personal best.  Which by definition is different for everyone.  I consider myself to be in above average shape, but I know that there are things that I will just not be able to do.  This realization is by no means giving up on goals, it actually helps in setting realistic goals that will add to one's life in the long run.

Personal health is a different journey for everyone.  There was a time when I was overweight as a child and took the right steps to turn my body around.  The first thing I did was lose the fat, then put on the muscle.  That is the central point to take away from all this.

STAY MOTIVATED!!  WORK THROUGH THE PAIN NOT TO THE PAIN!
The journey to being physically fit is a culmination of moments.  How many moments did you take advantage of this week? This month?  In two weeks from now, what are you going to wish you had done that you didn't?

SHOW THEM HOW GREAT YOU ARE!