What Does a Healthy Body Look Like?

You probably know many people who have tried to lose weight, are currently dieting, or at least say that they would like to drop a few pounds…one of these statements might even describe you right now.

If someone wants to lose weight, we don’t normally ask them why, we usually ask ‘how much’. But the question that most people don’t consider is why. Why do you want to lose weight? What do you think will happen when you get to your goal size?

For some people it might be a recommendation by their doctor and a matter of serious health problems. Any body image and aesthetic improvement would be secondary to the immediate health improvements.

But for most of the rest of us the health issues are not what drives us to want to lose weight. It is in fact the look of our body that we’re interested in changing and the health benefits are secondary to the look.

At first glance this seems a bit superficial and even vain. But if you dig a little deeper you’ll see that the look of your body is probably your best indicator of your health as well. After all we really only have two ways of telling if something is wrong with our bodies:

a)      It feels wrong – something hurts or we feel ‘sick’

b)      It looks wrong – a rash, bump, scratch, swelling, a joint or bone out of place, or too much fat!

The point is that we only have these two pieces of information to go on to tell if there is something wrong with our bodies. Once we’ve seen or felt that there is a problem we can go to a doctor and get even more information that is not possible to see or feel.

For example a doctor can tell you that you’re at a high risk for a heart attack even though this is not readily apparent in a mirror (although being overweight is a good indicator) and you cannot feel how close you are to having a heart attack…you only feel it once you finally have the heart attack…at which point it is too late to do anything about it.

The reason we have BMI charts and recommendations of a ‘healthy’ weight is so medical care providers can give you a visual cue that matches what their internal measurements like blood cholesterol and blood pressure are telling them about your relative risk of disease.

In other words, there is a specific body shape and look that also predicts healthiness.

Someone who is 100 pounds overweight almost assuredly has poor blood lipid profiles, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and many other problems associated with the extra weight and the high calorie intake required to get to that size.

Conversely someone who is at or close to their ideal bodyweight for their height most likely has much more favorable blood measurements and risk profile of many lifestyle related disorders.

In other words, they look healthy, and all measurements indicate that they are healthy. But there is a second level of health that cannot be measured, and that is emotional health and self image. For many of us this is linked to the look of our body.

It makes sense that wanting to ‘look’ good or look like you’re in shape is actually no different than saying that you want to look healthy.

I may be in the minority here, but I do not agree with the new found rhetoric of ‘being happy with your natural size’ (it’s ironic that this is only ever trumpeted by people who are overweight). This is a load of baloney and is just a sympathetic appeal to overweight people who cannot find the drive to eat less.

No matter how much you try to tell yourself you’re happy with your current size, you will always know you are lying to yourself and this is not good for both your physiological health or your emotional health.

Living in denial isn’t any more healthy than living overweight. Doing both just compounds the problems caused by each.

I think the most healthy way to approach weight loss is to admit to yourself that you want to lose weight for the purpose of improving the look of your body. And that this new thinner look will not only improve your physical health but also your emotional and psychological health. It is in fact a wholistic view of taking care of yourself. There isn’t much disputing the fact that a healthy looking body, is almost always a healthy body.

John Barban is the Author of the Adonis Index Workout, a specific method for building a guy’s body into its most attractive shape: the shape women find attractive and that creates social dominance with men. Go to Adonis Index Workout  and get started on your road to a perfectly proportioned body so start building the body women want.

Most Biggest Mistake That 99% of Guys at the Gym Make and How to Fix It

You, I and everyone else you know go to the gym because it makes us feel good. Even more importantly, we go because it makes us look good. You wouldn’t go to the gym if somehow it made you look worse. So what is the specific look that you’re trying to achieve? Most guys have an idea of what they want to look like, but can’t pin it down to an exact size or shape. They just know there is some room for improvement.

Without a specific goal, how will you ever know if your workout is getting you closer to the shape you want? This is the mistake everyone is making. Going to the gym and working out with no specific goal. Most workouts are a mix of bodybuilding, powerlifting and some form of cardio. Each of these workout styles have their own specific goals that don’t necessarily add up to making you look better.

The bodybuilding mantra of ‘bigger is better’ isn’t right. Most women don’t find overly muscled guys attractive and most huge guys are just insecure. They feel the need to be big because they think it will give get them “respect”. It’s blatantly obvious when guys are working out to compensate for a lack of social status.

Powerlifting will make you strong, but it’ll end up turning you into a barrel shape. I’m sure this isn’t quite the look you’re going for.

Excessive cardio will just make you look skinny and weak, and can actually eat away at your muscle mass.

Just any combination of these styles will never give you the results you want. Most guys don’t know how much of each to use and when to back off and when to go for more. To get what you want you need a careful and calculated balance of these workout methods. A specific goal and specific workout tailored to your individual strengths and weaknesses is the only way to be sure that you’re getting the results you want fast.

I’ve designed the Adonis Index Workout to combine the kinds of exercise you are already familiar with in specific, calculated proportions to make you look your best without falling into the traps of any particular style. With a specific goal, you can get to your best body shape. Without a specific goal you may never get there.

John Barban is the Author of the Adonis Index Workout, a specific method for building a guy’s body into its most attractive shape: the shape women find attractive and that creates social dominance with men. Go to Adonis Index Workout  and get started on your road to a perfectly proportioned body so start building the body women want.

Real Weight Loss Is Simple but Not Easy

When it comes to weight loss the answer is simple and that is: less calories in than out. BUT that doesn’t mean this answer is easy.

Many people seem to get “simple” and “easy” confused. Just because something is simple that doesn’t necessarily make it easy. And weight loss is a perfect example of something that is simple but not easy.

I think people choose to make many things including cutting weight more complicated than it really is. On the surface this doesn’t make any sense, why in the world would anyone want to make something more difficult that it is? 

I think the answer is as follows:

If something is simple (like eating less) and you can’t do it, then you might feel embarrassed, or ashamed of yourself for not being able to get to your bodyweight goal. It’s a serious shot to your confidence and your ego if you cannot do something that seems so simple.

It’s hard to admit to yourself that something so simple can be so difficult (simple things aren’t always easy things). Therefore to not feel like a total failure people latch on to a belief that dropping weight must be very complicated to justify why it is difficult.

I’ll be the first to admit that weight loss isn’t “easy” but it’s totally simple. Eating less is the goal, but finding a way to eat less is the hard part, and in many cases discouraging. 

Here are a few more examples of things that are SIMPLE but not EASY:

• Running 15 kilometers – almost anyone with two functioning legs can run at least some short distance (without becoming fatigued), but running for 15 kilometers non-stop isn’t easy.

• Doing 100 push-ups – for most people the push up motion is pretty easy to do, but doing 100 of them is exhausting. The concept of a push up is simple, but doing 100 of them isn’t necessarily easy.

• Holding your arm straight out in front of you for 5 minutes without putting it back down is simple, but not easy. I hope you can now see the difference between simple and easy and how you might confuse one with the other.

To protect your feelings you might try to make something that is simple and (but not easy) into something that both complicated AND not easy. 

Fitness and nutrition marketers know that people get discouraged when they attempt to lose weight and find out how hard it is. They also know that you don’t want to believe that something so simple is so hard so they sell you complicated and expensive solutions that seem to justify why it is so hard.

It’s much easier for you to believe that something so hard is also very complicated (kind of like doing a complicated calculus problem or trying to learn how to read and write in a new language).

This is how the fitness industry comes up with a never ending stream of complicated weight loss solutions for you to waste your money on year in and year out. 

Just think of all the complicated ‘solutions’ that marketers have tried to sell in the past 10 years like: low carb, blood type diets, paleo diets, raw foods, high protein, carb cycling, special meal timing etc.

Each of these diets will show you success stories of people who have used their program and I’m sure they’re all true. So if each one of these diets can produce similar results for all kinds of different people then there must be something they all have in common, and that is LESS CALORIES.

As long as you choose not to accept the simple answer of calories in vs calories out, you will always be susceptible to fitness marketing claims that promise a more complex and much more expensive solution.

John Barban is the Author of the Adonis Index Workout, a specific method for building a guy’s body into its most attractive shape: the shape women find attractive and that creates social dominance with men. Go to Adonis Index Workout  and get started on your road to a perfectly proportioned body so start building the body women want.

How to Match Your Social Goals with Your Weight Loss Goals

If you had your favorite meal prepared and sitting right in front of you I’ll bet anything less than the house burning down wouldn’t stop you from eating it. Even then you might steal at least a few bites as you dashed out the door.

The challenge we all face with food is simply abundance. There is too much of it around and it’s too damn tasty to avoid eating.  Dividing food up into categories like fats and carbs, and timing meals and all of that stuff is all just a way to get us to eat less of it.

But none of those diet tricks ever address the biggest and most influential factor that affects the way we eat, and that factor is: other people.

You and I both have people in our lives that tend to eat less than us and others that tend to eat more than us. Depending on which one you happen to hang around with you may end up eating more or less.

There is a very strong social link to eating. In fact I cannot think of any social gathering that doesn’t involve food or drink. We truly do celebrate company with food. So how do you continue living a fun social life without being the person who always has to say ‘no I’m only having a salad’ when all the food comes out?

As far I can tell it seems easier to go with the flow than try to push against it. In other words, if you already know that social situations are when you will be tempted the most to eat then go with it. Schedule your eating time around social events. But when you’re not at these events keeps your calories low. This way you can afford to eat guilt free wherever you are without worrying about gaining weight.

For example: Try eating very low calories the day before or the morning and afternoon of the day you know you’ll be going out for dinner with some friends. At least this way you can partake in all the food and drink in the evening without feeling guilty and without gaining weight. As long as you create enough of a calorie deficit to offset the calorie surplus at dinner you should be fine.

The one key to making this all work is to create the deficit BEFORE you go out for dinner, never after. If you try to tell yourself that you’ll work off the calories AFTER eating a big meal you’re fighting a losing battle. This is the same as saving up your money to buy something or buying it on credit and telling yourself the lie that you’ll pay your credit card off before your bill comes in. But you and I both know we’ll never pay the credit card off, and instead we end up just making the minimum payment. This is no different than overeating today while telling yourself you’ll eat less tomorrow and go to the gym. It usually never happens.

If you want to stay ahead in the weight loss game then start thinking of your calories like a bank account that has no credit card. Calories must go out before you put them back in. This is your best bet for lasting weight loss success.

John Barban is the Author of the Adonis Index Workout, a specific method for building a guy’s body into its most attractive shape: the shape women find attractive and that creates social dominance with men. Go to Adonis Index Workout  and get started on your road to a perfectly proportioned body.