I'm changing things up again.  By now you must be thinking that I'm the most scatterbrained guy around. That's probably partially true, but I promise I have my reasons for switching things up.  I've come to realize that I made some mistakes with my 12 Week Challenge, and it's time to set things right.

 For the past few months I've been working hard to lose fat, in the healthiest way possible. Being healthy has always been a big part of this for me. Lately I've begun to question my approach though. I have focused on restricting calories and exercising as much as my recovery would allow. Is this really the best way?


Something I read the other day made me rethink this whole concept.  If you are thrown off by all the talk of caveman diets, and paleo nutrition, I apologize, but bear with me while I explain my thought process. If one of our caveman ancestors (I like to picture Bam-Bam) was suffering from a lack of food (during the winter, or other times when food was hard to come by) would he be more active or would he be trying to preserve the energy he did have?  By exercising hard on a calorie deficit, this is exactly what we are doing.  There is no way little Bam-Bam would be out running hill sprints unless absolutely necessary.  This is the modern approach to fat loss though.  Reduce calories and exercise more.  How does our body respond to this situation?  Well, first it takes energy away from what it considers to be non-essential, like the reproductive system, and gives that energy to the brain.  No need to be making babies if you don't have enough brain power to maintain sensible thoughts...memories of Saturday night? The second thing the body does is hang on for dear life to the fat stores you do have left. There is a hormone called leptin that takes messages from our fat cells and controls fat storage accordingly.  When body fat gets low, and there isn't much food coming in, leptin freaks out and goes into fat storage mode.  By pushing yourself too hard while not eating enough, your body is going to start making all kinds of hormonal changes that you will not like.

 The other problem I've noticed about restricting calories and focusing on macro nutrient targets is that I am becoming food-focused.  Eating should not involve math.  That's the bottom line.  We are supposed to eat healthy, natural foods until we feel satisfied, and then we stop eating.  I haven't gotten to the point of dreaming about cakes and cookies, but I think that I'm wasting a lot of mental energy on diet.  Also, a big part of hormonal health is stress control, and constantly thinking about food can result in a lot of underlying stress that I don't want or need.

 You know that I'm always down to try something new and experiment on myself, so that is exactly what is going to happen.  The best part is that I already did a lot of the leg work during the 12 Week Challenge.  I have a pretty good idea about what kinds of food make me feel the best.  When I was doing the high fat/ low carb diet, I was killing it.  I had great energy levels, wasn't a moody jackass, and had the libido of a thirteen year old at the Playboy mansion. So, I'm switching back to that style of eating. No more tracking macros and weighing chicken breasts. I will still pay attention to the carbs that I eat, because they seem to have the biggest impact on fat loss (for me at least), but I am going to eat protein and healthy fats until I feel good and happy.  This may take some fine tuning, but that's part of the process.
Learning about nutrition is silly sometimes, because there are four thousand experts with ten thousand different philosophies.  It gets extra confusing because you can certainly get a great body without being healthy.  There are all kinds of nutritional experts who talk about treating body builders and other physique competitors after their shows.  In a lot of cases these people completely wreck their metabolisms, hormone balances, and develop eating disorders in an attempt to get down to super low bodyfat levels.  I'm not interested in becoming a train wreck with abs.

 My thinking, and I may be completely wrong about all this, is that fat loss and muscle gain will happen naturally as a result of the work I do in the gym. I just need to change my focus to being healthy and start really listening to my body.  I will be sure to share everything I find out with you.  If it doesn't work, and I wind up a big fatty, you may not want to copy me on this one.