Follow up

Further to yesterday's post Dietary Habits, check out the new T-Nation article. Specifically the part about trying to out-train bad diets. Also after taking a look at the exercise program that is suggested to be able to out-train your diet, I think I'd rather just eat properly.

Dietary Habits

It's often said that you can't out-train a bad diet. Now there may be some people with the right genetics that don't need to worry about their diet but in general I agree. I would ask why you would even want too though? If your best results come from a mix of great training and diet, why settle for less than the best?

People always look for short cuts and the easiest option but in this instance I don't think that trying to out-train a bad diet is the easiest option. Sure there are instances where it is easier to pick bad food options but the training ramifications don't make it a short cut at all. Justification for poor food habits can only lead down one path, further poor food habits. Break your poor food habits one at a time. It takes about three weeks to break a habit. Pick one thing that you do poorly and eliminate that habit for three weeks and you'll find that you won't even want to get back too the bad habit.

Once your poor diet habits have been broken and hopefully good, new habits formed you might even find that the small amount of time you have available for exercise does allow good progress to occur. As long as your exercise intensity stays high, your improved dietary habits will give you better results than any additional exercise will.

Food vs Supplements

I bet you could construct a diet completely out of products that are considered dietary supplements. In fact I’ve seen it done. The V-Diet is quite popular and seemingly effective for a short time frame. My issue is not with the use of dietary supplements but the overuse and over reliance on these products.

There is a supplement for everything, from fast loss to sleep enhancement you can readily get a pill or powder to help. Despite this I don’t see people making great gains or huge progress. Why is this? Could it possibly be due to the fact that supplements aren’t the answer to looking great and feeling healthy. You would have to think so. In fact your real food diet and training program are much more likely to determine your success than your supplement program.

There is no point in spending time and money on inefficient supplements without first having your real food diet in place. Real food is the backbone of your progress. It should be able to provide you with the energy to not only get through the day but your training sessions also. By taking the time to establish healthy eating strategies you are giving yourself skills that can be used effectively forever and provide more benefit than the latest fad supplement.

It is only once you have your real food diet and training program in place and working effectively that you should consider adding in supplements. The best supplements are those that are found in real foods but are not easily eaten in the quantities that you’d like. Protein powders, fish oils and creatine are well studied and effective examples. Take your time in adding supplements to your diet, only add one at a time and measure it’s effectiveness before continuing to use it. Don’t become over reliant on supplement products and make nutritious whole foods the staples of your diet.

Abandoning Gimmicks

Watching late night or morning TV you are certain to see a string of commercials extolling the virtues of some new piece of exercise equipment or diet. These ads always seem so appealing with their use of fitness models showing just how easy it is to look great. Fabulous customer testimonials are also a feature of these ads invariably with before and after shots showing just how much smaller they are compared to their previously oversized pants.

I think it’s great that these real people have been able to transform themselves. The question has to be asked though, was it the diets or equipment that caused the results or the people that caused the results? I mean there are so many different products and all of them seem to work, so why is one better than another?

Some are obviously better. Long term results will weed out the true gimmicks but even then it depends on the person following the system. Tried and tested weight management techniques have worked for years and will continue to work. The similarities between these techniques though are much greater than the differences. Details change but the basics don’t.

In order for change to occur it is you who must change. It is your attitude, will power and decision making that will bring about change, not a new diet or exercise equipment gimmick.

Combating Rising Obesity Rates

This question “Doesn't it seem a total waste of time for us to be debating about the best fat loss methods (and I admit - I'm also guilty of this), when we're pretty much failing as a profession to actually make much of a difference?” from Alwyn Cosgrove is telling. Browsing through fitness related websites illustrates how many different approaches and options there are when it comes to training and nutrition. For the person just starting out on their pursuit of a healthy lifestyle the huge amount of different approaches can be daunting. Good training advice and readily available exercise equipment isn’t the problem, so what is?

The issue to me is the perceived time and commitment to benefit ratio. If exercise is seen as too hard or complicated then it’s unlikely that sedentary people will take it up. How then do we help them up off the couch and down the healthy lifestyle path? So much of out time and effort is spent preaching to the converted and nitpicking over the various details. Wouldn’t we be better off just trying to convince everyone to just do something, anything?

Getting sedentary people to realize that exercise doesn’t have to be complicated and that eating a healthy diet is just as easy as eating an unhealthy diet is a big challenge. Until we meet this challenge obesity rates will unfortunately continue to rise.