Reclaiming Health and Fitness - Fitness and Philosophy

In the Beginning

I have been working in the Health and Fitness industry for nearly a decade, as a coach, a personal trainer and fitness specialist. I have helped numerous people, to develop and achieve goals, educated clients about the benefits of exercise, and how to do it safely and effectively.

Furthermore, I have worked hard to dispel countless myths that are rampant in the H&F industry: from “you shouldn’t let your knees pass your toes when you squat!” to “Sugar is bad for you!” and one of my personal favourites “I’ll just work it off in the gym”.

I often joke about how my job is 50% training and 50% myth busting. Lately, it seems like I’m having to do a lot of myth busting than training, and at this point I know why.

According to a 2018 report by International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), the fitness industry alone generated an approximate 94 billion dollars in total revenue. Growing at a global rate of 8.7%, and projected to grow by an estimated 2.3-4.9%/year. The IHRSA estimates a 106 billion dollar revenue by 2020.

Which means, according to the numbers, it’s profitable industry, though the current state of affairs with the Covid-19 has definitely put a damper on everything. Unfortunately at this point, no one really knows what future projections would look like, but we already see places adapting.

Many gyms, trainers, and healthcare professionals are taking their business virtually. Zoom, FaceTime, WhatsApp, are the go to platforms for all kinds of face to face interactions. Instagram has seen a crazy surge in fit-pros (myself included) posting exercises and workouts, and engaging more with followers on a whole.

Hijacking Health and Fitness

The profits aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but rather what drives those profits. I’ve heard the same narratives over and over again from clients: “I used to be active, I let myself go, and now I’m 50lbs overweight, and I feel terrible”, or “I’m going on vacation somewhere warm and with beaches in couple of months. So I need to look good” (what they really mean is they want to be skinnier). People are trained to associate “looking good” with feeling good, which can’t be further from the truth

First of all “looking good” is a relative term that is associated with a standard of beauty that is Eurocentric more than anything. Especially where women are concerned, “beautiful” usually means White, fair (whatever you want to call it), light colour eyes, light hair etc. the typical stuff you’ve heard about. And of course fitting into a specific weight category)

The Health and Fitness industry has been hijacked. It has been hijacked by marketers and companies who prey on the insecurities of people. The insecurities are largely about body image, and are social constructs taken to the extreme by marketers, companies, even health and fitness professionals including doctors and personal trainers.

The average person does not want to exercise because it’s fun, or because they learn about how their body can move. Instead, they want to do it so they can lose weight. Specifically, most people want to lose fat. The industry knows this, and it’s at the top of the sales list, ripe and ready to be picked.

The Nuance of Weight Management

There is no shortage of products, supplements, programs, and diets, aimed at people who want to lose fat. My issue is that these supplements are marketed to people as “quick pills”, and a lot of people want results fast.

Reducing excess fat safely and effectively is anything but simple and quick, and there is no guarantee it will make a person attractive. But whatever, people believe that the two are related.

Furthermore, in my experience, some people aren’t satisfied or happy with just losing “excess fat”. Some people (mostly guys) want to get really lean. They want to see “tone” (whatever that means), they want to see veins popping out, six pack revealed, they want to be shredded like cheese!

Greater Expectations

That particular “shredded” look is pushed and promoted as the ideal toward which everyone should aim. And honestly, very little has changed since I was 13 years old. People are portrayed as being so lean that their skin looks like it’s shrink wrapped to their muscles.

The biggest change is that being naturally lean isn’t enough. The power of photoshop has taken everything to the next level. They can make abs pop out more, veins are staring at right at you. Muscles are perfectly shaped, and skin is always perfectly tanned.

Any experienced trainer knows how hard it is for the average person to achieve half of that. First, they have to dial down their nutrition to the millisecond. Second, they have to be incredibly methodical and strict with their training. And third, the average person needs a significant drop in body fat to get “shredded”.

I once read that the average person will always want 20% more of whatever their yearly salary is. I feel it’s similar in health and fitness. It doesn’t matter how lean/muscular a person gets, they always want 20% more.

To give you an idea, below 10% is where you see veins, clear muscle definition, and the fabled 6 pack. I always joke about how that’s actually a sign of malnutrition, and not fitness or health. Furthermore, even when combined with resistance training and cardio, BF levels below 10% are difficult for most people to maintain.

Consider this: sub 10% BF means constantly keeping calories low through diet and exercise, and abstaining from alcohol almost always. Forget about most desserts, and you sure as hell better get used to meal planning and prepping. I’ve had clients whose jobs require them to take clients out regularly for food and drinks. “you can’t take a client drinking and not drink with them” they tell me, “of course you can!” I always answer back.

3 Lifestyle Habits Affecting Fat Loss

Now let’s consider some important factors: 1) age and metabolism (we tend to get less active as we age, and lose muscle, and so metabolism slows down). 2) body composition and metabolism (more muscle = higher caloric budget, less muscle = smaller caloric requirement). 3) quality and quantity of sleep and metabolism (less sleep limits fat loss).

1-Age and Metabolism

Within this one relationship lies a host of sub factors: diet, level of activity, genetics etc. The one factor I will mention, which affects everyone the same way, is the level of activity. Every human has a Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR).

Your BMR is the amount of calories you require every day to exist, to keep the lights on. Basically, any activity above laying around adds to that caloric requirement.

We tend to be less active as we age, that’s the short end of it. People whose work requires them to sit for long periods of time, who are less active, have a lower BMR. Meeting the daily caloric requirement of your BMR basically means no gains and no loss. Likewise, keeping calories below BMR usually results in weight loss, and calories above BMR results in weight gain.

So as we get older, and are less active, our daily caloric requirement to keep the lights on goes down. But if we keep eating above that daily requirement, we put on weight. As such, people who want to lose weight will either try to be more active, or eat less, or both.

2-Body Comp and Metabolism

Bodily organs and functions require energy/calories. Muscle tissue in particular requires a lot of energy since it is such an active organ. That demand for energy increases with the level of activity. Hence, the more active you are the more energy you need.

Furthermore, muscles are a metabolically expensive tissue: they require more calories to sustain them. And this is why you typically hear things like “more muscles burns more calories at rest”. However, this doesn’t mean you can eat more of whatever you want. The extra cost of adding on a couple of lbs. of muscles is about 50-100 kcal/day. that’s all

This is one reason why I don’t trust calorie calculators on machines (treadmills, bikes, etc.). Simply put, two people can weigh 160lbs, but both have very different body composition. As such, based on what I mentioned above, their caloric requirements will be different.

For example person A has 100lbs of lean body mass, while person B has 80lbs of lean body mass. Even though both weigh the same, person A has a higher caloric requirement because they have more active tissue.

This means that the treadmill’s calculator registers 200 kcals “burnt” after 60 minute walk at 3mph for both people. But the calculator fails to take into account the difference in body composition, and energy requirement/expenditure.

Person A will expend more calories because they have more active tissue doing the work. There is definitely more to it than this, but you get the idea.

3-Sleep and Metabolism

Sleep is not only an essential part of human life. It plays a very important role in recovery. Specifically, sleep is when the body rebuilds itself from the damage cause to it by working out.

When you workout you are actually breaking down tissue, causing micro tears in the muscles. The body will replace that dead tissue with stronger cells during the day, and specially during sleep.

With regards to fat loss, it seems that the body also utilizes more fat during sleep. A 2010 study at the University of Chicago Medical Center found that sleep deprived participants burnt less fat, and felt more hungry during the day.

The increase in hunger seems related to a higher production of a hormone called Ghrelin. Ghrelin is responsible for triggering hunger and reducing energy expenditure.

Final Thought: A Healthier Outlook

I’m not going to say that losing excess fat is a good or bad thing (topic for a different post). And I’m not here to shame anyone into being thinner. Instead, I want to encourage people to reframe how they think about exercise, fitness, and health.

The sole purpose of exercise is NOT to lose weight and shed pounds, but rather to know yourself. When understood and performed properly, exercise becomes a meditative practice in which movement is the language of your body.

The more you refine and strengthen those movements, the more you refine and strengthen that language. You can listen to the whispers of your muscles, as you mindfully will them to contract and relax. You can fill time and space with intentional and creative movement instead of being on autopilot the whole time.

Socrates discusses the importance of exercise and physical fitness in the military and for the purpose of war. And he also states the importance of including exercise as a fundamental activity to enhance human life’s a whole

“It is also shameful due to neglect to grow old before seeing oneself in the most beautiful and strongest bodily state one might attain.”

I think his message goes beyond that of aesthetics and even athletics. Maybe Socrates tries to shame us all into striving to be our best. Or maybe he is lamenting a self that isn’t also cultivated through physical activity and exercise. Simply, he is saying that, exercise allows us to attain a healthy mind, healthy body, and stave off illness. Science can now back up all of Socrates’ claims

Plato, his student, followed closely in his footsteps when he said

“In order for a person to succeed in life, god provided them with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, not for the two together. with these two means, man can attain perfection.”

According to Plato, it is our duty as human beings to develop both our intellectual and physical potentials. Additionally, together, they allow us to get closer to living the good life. As such, if we are neglecting the cultivation of either, we are not succeeding in life.

More research is beginning to show the benefits of physical activity and exercise. Not only are people happier and healthier, but also more productive contributors to society. Unfortunately that energy is directed towards the growth of an oppressive capitalist system of profit. But that’s a discussion for a different day.

We should have a wholesome understanding of health and fitness in order to increase our ability to enjoy life. In essence, to get to know ourselves better, and not to fulfill unrealistic and trivial ideals of beauty.