If you want to look better than most people, you have to do things differently than most people.

You are going to have to eat a little less and exercise a little more than most people.

Because, what most people are doing simply isn’t getting the job done.

And here is a very startling visual example from recent research:

This graph is telling you three interesting things:

1) Body fat % seems to be pretty normally distributed across the North American population (the woman’s numbers look a little skew right to me, but in general, it’s pretty even).

2) For a man, the average body fat percentage is around 25-ish%, while for a woman it’s around 40-ish%.

3) If you want to be under 12% bodyfat (men) or under 22% bodyfat (women) then you are going to have to be an outlier.

out·li·er – A value that is far from the average or mean.

Now this research was compiled from about 13,000 people between the ages of 20 and 80 using DXA. To me, that’s an OK number of subjects to draw conclusions from.

So here’s the deal – if the prospect of being average doesn’t make you happy, then you have to commit to being different, very different.

Be your own outlier.

Take a look at what everyone is doing and do things just a little differently.

Obviously, obsessing over healthy eating while still eating more than we need to is not giving us the body fat percentage that we want.

Either is watching TV shows about people who are losing weight.

And ‘wanting’ to lose weight is a lot different then taking action to lose weight.

Do things differently.

Be your own outlier.

While everybody else is talking about weight loss, reading about weight loss, watching TV about weight loss you need to actually take action.

This is what will make you different.

No more talking, no more reading, no more thinking…insert Nike Slogan Here.

Eat Less, Move more and be your own outlier.

BP

**Am J Clin Nutr 2009;90:1457–65.

The little treats here or there that can derail months of work.

And the underestimations of calories in a food, well…that’s just UNBELIEVABLY AGGRAVATING!

Over the summer we had a Baskin Robbins move into our neighborhood.

As a treat, my family would go once a week for ice-cream. Sometimes twice a week of the grandparents were around.

I’m a chocolate mint kinda guy, so I normally get the chocolate mint ice-cream in a waffle cone – about 500 calories…but occasionally, I’d order the chocolate milk shake.

I figured, “It’s a treat, besides it’s probably about 750 calories, I can handle that”

You can imagine how mad I was when I saw this:

1300 Calories!

Almost Double what I thought.

Brutal.

Luckily, I wasn’t trying to lose weight this summer, so it wasn’t a giant deal, but this is where the “I didn’t change a thing, but gained weight” stories come from – forgetting or underestimating the calorie content of foods.

Eating responsibly means being aware.

You can still have chocolate milk shakes from Baskin Robbins if you are trying to lose weight, you just need to be aware that the darn thing has 1300 Calories.

Being aware – it’s the key to weight loss.

BP

PS – The secret to losing weight while still occasionally having a large chocolate milkshake? Share it with a friend!

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Just more proof that you can’t trust what you see.

Of course, since this is an ad, the fake abs may themselves be faked via photoshop…so this could be a case of faked fakes.

I found this very fitting considering our recent discussion of Hollywood body idolization, and because I still think much of the muscle and tone we see in movies is a result of a combi

nation of dedication in the gym, a good diet of fruits and vegetables, video editing, makeup, and lighting.

BP

PS – If you really want abs, read this ==> My truth about 6 pack abs

Eat one small meal

Eat one medium meal

Eat one large meal

Have a couple snacks when you feel like it.

It doesn’t matter which meal is which size, so play with it and see what you like best.

My personal routine is typically medium breakfast (600-ish calories), Small lunch (300-400-ish Calories) big dinner (800-1000+ Calories) and a couple snacks

Obviously what is ‘small, medium, and large’ depends on you, your goals and your activity levels…so you need to personalize it a bit, but regardless this is a great tool for preventing every meal from becoming a feast.

Simple and effective.

BP

But, I really wanted to write a post about diet books today, and I had a point that I REALLY wanted to share with you, but I simply did not have  enough time to write a nice wordy post…so I quickly jotted some notes down and realized that they had almost formed some sort of really poor  haiku.

…so smiled and had some fun with it.

I hope you like it.

The thing with Diet Books -

They all have to have a catch

This part is what sells.

Eat less and move more

The truth with no hook, no catch.

No secret science.

Hormones and Enzymes

Make for great diet book titles

but the truth remains -

Eat less and move more.

BP

“I know it means I’m going to be alone forever, but I can’t stop eating.”

To me, this is a strong and rather shocking reminder of how messed up our relationships with food can become.

Many of us use food for much more than just fuel for our bodies.

We use food as something to stress and obsess ABOUT. We use it to define ourselves and our life choices.

We can also use our food to COPE with our life-stress and obsessions, as a defense mechanism and as a security blanket.

Either way, with the wrong relationships food alone can be a damaging obsession in our lives.

My advice? Avoid viewing food as a cure-all, and see it for what it is ==> A fuel for your body, and a reason to get together with other people.

Food is nourishment and food is celebration.

Eat less while enjoying the foods you eat and don’t let your foods control you. My opinion is that this is the key to having a healthy relationship with food, AND a healthy, lean body.

BP

Addressing wants and needs.

Bottom line: Many of us workout, slave away in the gym, watch (stress over) what we eat, read about nutrition, read about training…because we want to look better.

And we have some pretty visual goals when it comes to what “look better” really means.

It doesn’t matter if you are a man or a woman…at some point you’ve said to yourself “I want a 6 pack”

A 6 pack may not mean your are healthy, or even in shape..but the visual effect is striking!

So here is the no nonsense truth about getting a 6 pack:

You already have one.

No kidding. It’s there..it’s just being blurred out by a layer of body fat.

So the solution should be obvious – remove the fat, reveal the abs (that are already there under the fat).

You DO NOT need a ab exercise routine to make this happen. In fact, largely, they are a waste of your time.

You need to eat less to GET the abs, and you need to learn to enjoy eating less to KEEP the abs.

Abs are all diet, and overall activity level.

So here’s my solution: If you want abs eat less. If you want abs even quicker, eat less move more. If you want to keep you abs, then learn to ENJOY eating less.

(Easy to write, a little more difficult to put into practice, but it CAN be done.)

My experience has been this – Before Eat Stop Eat I dreamed of ‘cutting down for summer’ and ‘getting shredded’. I chased ABS with diets and ‘bumping up the cardio’.

After Eat Stop Eat, well, they’re just …there. Sometimes they are blurrier than other times, but they are always..well…visible.

Don’t make it harder than it needs to be.

BP

I’m about halfway through and had planned on working my way through a big chunk the second half last night.

But, right when I started reading I came across the following quote:

“Before you study Zen, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers; while you are studying zen, mountains are no longer mountains and rivers are no longer rivers; but once you have had enlightenment, mountains are once again mountains and rivers again rivers.”

This quote stopped me dead in my tracks.

It was unbelievably eye opening because it perfectly parallels my experience with nutrition. With a couple small changes I could sum up my entire journey in health and nutrition with one (rather long) sentence.

“Before you study Nutrition, food is food and drink is drink; while you are studying nutrition, food is no longer food and drink is no longer drink; but once you have had enlightenment, food is once again food and drink is again drink.”

Back when I was a kid, food was food and drink was drink.

Then as I started studying Nutrition, food and drink became these complex chemical compositions that had these wondrous effects in the human body. Food and Drink were now macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients and polyphenols and volatile fatty acids, carbs, fats, essential fats, and on and on…

The more I learned the less the words food and drink meant to me, to the point where they were virtually meaning less. There was no such thing as food or drink. It was only protein, fat and carbs.

Now, after years of studying nutrition and learning I’ve realized that most of that ‘stuff’ …that ‘knowledge’…it’s almost completely useless.

It’s health and fitness mind-clutter.

And, it destroyed my relationship with food.

So now, food is food once again and drink is drink.

It does not have magical properties. It is simply there to

A) fuel my body when I need it

and

B) to be enjoyed

This realization has helped me break free of Obsessive Compulsive Eating and has made losing weight and maintaining a body I am proud of to be easier than I ever thought possible.

So this is what I hope you learn when you read Eat Stop Eat. Food is Food and Drink is Drink.

If you want to lose weight then Eat Less. If you want a stress free life then learn to enjoy food again.

It can be this easy if you let it be.

It’s amazing where you can find inspiration (I mean really…a book on Physics?)

I’ll leave you with what I believe to be the best long lasting health advice I can give. It has nothing to do with carbs, protein, fats, calorie cycling, hormones or anything of that nature.

It is simply..

Eat when you are hungry. Sleep when you are tired.

BP

A great read and over 100 very interesting comments.

http://zenhabits.net/2009/06/its-time-for-a-new-relationship-with-food/

Happy reading!

BP

This tip assumes you are fasting twice per week, and it also assumes you have no interest in adopting and new Obsessive Compulsive Eating habits.

So here’s the tip – Try to do both your fasts during the work-week (Sunday night counts), then tackle the two toughest days of the week – Saturday  & Sunday.

Aim to have a ‘good’ Saturday and Sunday – Since this is when a lot of people do some serious calorie damage.

Really, all I want you to do is to come out of the weekend feeling confident you made some responsible decisions and came out ‘neutral’.

Take control of these two days, eat responsibly during the rest of the week and let your fasting do the rest of the fat burning work for you.

It’s not OCE or nutrition-magic. It is a simply change that can make a BIG difference in your weight loss success.

Concentrate on conquering Saturday and Sunday and the rest will fall in to place.
BP