How Body Building Will Hurt You And Help You Part 1: Cutting
I learnt this the hard way.
I spent several years Yo-yo dieting, but played it off with excuses like, “I’m bulking” or “I’m getting my summer cut!”
Deep inside – I was always so angry at myself for having to repeat this cycle again and again.
Why did I keep gaining weight after I worked so hard to lose it?
Short answer is because “cutting” is an activity performed by body builders to prepare for a show.
“Bulking” is the body building activity of gaining muscle size away from the competition or during “off season.”
So, these are still great practices but on a smaller scale, meaning fat loss phases and muscle gain phases are still something I advocate for. But it took me awhile to see the problem of the extreme behavior that exists within cutting and bulking concepts.
It’s still a yo-yo diet.
This is one major example of body building culture that is both harmful and helpful.
This week we will discuss Cutting:
Cutting
If preparing for a body building show, within 2-4 months body builders will get as lean as possible to show only the muscle they have. The competitor is getting abnormally lean. So lean that they cannot sustain it. They shouldn’t try to sustain it because it’s not healthy, as it ruins your metabolism and hormones. It’s been documented in women body builders that they may lose their menstrual cycles for months, and in some cases even years.
The body building diet can consist of minimal amounts of food depending on your approach. It often includes very high meal frequency, lots of protein, and minimal fats and minimal carbs (this can all vary depending on the coach’s style). These diets are usually very strict and don’t allow for little if any “cheat” meals. This requires serious discipline around food planning and preparation.
Body building exercises generally involves high-volume strength training. This is to ensure the competitor keeps the most amount of muscle they can despite being in a severe calorie deficit for so long. This can usually look like 1 hour 5 x/week, give or take a day. Plus add in steady state cardio to burn more calories if the weight loss isn’t going fast enough. This can be 30-45 minutes of a bike ride, walking outside, walking on an incline of a treadmill, or any low impact activity. Sometimes even twice a day.
Why does this hurt you?
- Clearly these serve a purpose for body builders and physique competitors. They have a sport/competition to prepare for. You don’t need to be. Most of them are already lean by normal standards before they cut. So, while an average person may be walking around at 20-30% body fat, body building competitors are walking around at 10% before they get lean. Thus, they need these tools. You don’t.
- These overly strict diets can also lead to a very poor relationship with food. You overly hold back on your diet and if you veer off at all, there is a very large chance of bingeing because of the exhaustion of will power.
- The term “cheat” is a really dangerous attitude towards food. This creates a negative feeling anytime you consume something that’s not perfect. People need to be people and not feel like failures. You should have the right to enjoy food and know the benefits or drawbacks from it, but not be stained with the idea that you’re a cheater like there’s rules to a game.
- After the competition, it’s really challenging to not put weight back on quickly because your metabolic rate slows down so much. This is even more likely to happen to general public, because unless they use the same diet and same training after they lost the weigh they wanted, they will regain the weight.
- Using cardio strategies for body building does burn more calories but also feeds into the reduction of the metabolism. If the general fitness lover just stops doing cardio after they lost the weight they wanted and goes back to normal eating – this will be a huge part of the reason why they might quickly regain weight. Not to mention it will drastically effect your life and energy levels for you job.
- The implementation of all these things gets walked back to their former state – they have no intention of staying there! Why would you use the same tools? You need habits and lifestyle changes that you keep. This is where I missed it for YEARS. If you haven’t read it yet, please check out the older blog “Process is the Result” because this really amplifies this concept.
What helps you?
- These competitors know food well. They learnt that a person should have 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight well before science even proved it. Body builders are always on the forefront of nutritional concepts.
- Body builders basically created meal prepping. What an idea! Pre-cook food and have it ready for next time! Now you don’t have to use this strategy, but what about meal planning in general? Meaning actually considering a plan for the upcoming week. Wouldn’t that be a great idea? Instead of saying “Well, I didn’t have anything, so I had to order in.”
- The body building world showed us how to enjoy the whole foods. The recognition of the body building community to encourage more rice, potatoes, and whole sources of carbs over the processed is huge for everyone. They also come up with great ways to make simple foods more enjoyable with different spices and recipes and keeping away from processed foods.
- Aerobic exercise isn’t a bad thing. Knowing that if you walk more, you burn more! You don’t necessarily need to think about doing 45 minutes of cardio a day (unless you really enjoy it). But through my experience with steady state cardio, I learnt that being active and walking more makes me feel better, but find the reasonable amount that fits your life.
- The overall discipline this takes is super valuable. To say to yourself, “I’m going to fight my instincts and not eat more food.” For anyone who’s tried dieting restrictively they know these is a thought that stays on your mind 24/7, and it takes tremendous will power.
- Being health conscious with your diet in this world is so tough due to the processed foods being easy and embedding into our culture. The body building world started this venture for everyone. They decided to say, “I’m going to be different and be health conscious.” This is a priceless virtue. This thinking is at the foundation of body building. You can learn from that.
So, for this first installment of navigating the world of body building and physique, pay attention to these concepts. You don’t need to understand it all because you need to be realistic with your life. Most people have an intention of losing fat and keeping it off. To be that person, you must stay that person after! Don’t use tools you don’t intend on upkeeping but use the ones that you can have staying power in your routine.