Focusing on weight loss is a massive waste of time and effort and sets up negative associations between exercise, eating and health. Without a concern for improving performance or increasing capability, weight loss is meaningless and certainly not a measure of success and certainly not a measure of fitness.
Everywhere you look there are health, fitness and diet experts saying that losing weight is a must in order to live as long and as healthy as possible. Rarely, if ever, is there a mention of any other kind of improvement besides the weight loss.
As a fitness development coach (formerly known as a personal trainer) if I let clients focus on weight loss as a goal I would be in big trouble. Any fitness professional that let’s their clients use weight loss as the main goal of their program must fight a constant, impossible to win battle against nature and the forces of genetics.
People cannot continue to lose weight and they cannot consistently lose weight over a period of time. When the weight stops coming off, a weight loss oriented program is deemed a failure and clients lose interest.
However, they can continue to improve performance and work to increase their capability level. I have clients who in their sixties are continually working on getting better; performing a pull-up, improving balance, learning how to sprint and how to perform complex Olympic-style lifts.
If these clients had been focused on weight loss they would have never been able to make the massive progress that has allowed them to achieve quite extraordinary things, which has improved their quality of life in ways that losing a few pounds never could.
What better way to start off the New Year than to talk about a way to lose weight quickly!
I’ve never been a believer in crash diets or fad diets that claim to be able to help you lose 5 or 10-pounds in a short period of time, but after what I was exposed to recently I’ve changed my mind. I found out the two words that, in less than a 24-hour period, could make me lose 10-pounds of body-weight. Sound too good to be true? Read on.
The two words are “Stomach Flu.”
Now honestly, how many of you were hoping to find out about an exciting new, 2010-style weight loss product? I know there are regular readers and friends of mine out there who would say, “Wow, I think to lose 10-pounds in a day, it might be worth it.” Trust me, vomiting for almost 5 hours straight and being in total misery ain’t worth it.
It started slowly. Wednesday night one of my sons came down with a case of the projectile barfs right before bed and spent the rest of the night, with my wife, on the couch running to and from the bathroom. New Year’s Eve day and night were relatively uneventful, and as a matter of fact my wife and I took turns going to the gym for a year-end workout. Our plans were scuttled by the condition of our son and the possibility that the others would come down with something, so we made the best of it and went to the gym.
Then all hell broke loose on New Year’s Day. First my other two sons got hit, with the festivities starting at around 10AM. By 3PM they were on the mend and at 4PM it was my turn. It came on quickly and it was ugly. I’ll spare you the gory details, but imagine the worst and you’ll have figured out how bad it was.
Now I certainly am aware that there are more serious things than having the stomach flu, but when I was going through the throes of it, I didn’t think so. In my 47-years, the 5 hour period that ended at 9PM New Year’s Day was the worst that I’ve ever felt and the sickest that I’ve ever been. As amazingly bad as those hours were, I was more shocked that after sleeping for about 90 minutes I woke up feeling not that horrendous.
After a good night’s sleep I felt almost as good as new, especially considering how awful I felt 12 hours earlier. I checked the scale Saturday morning to find that I had lost 10-pounds! Incredible. And not a recommended way to lose weight.
