Some bad news today.
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.
