CRAZY Personal Trainer shares entirely sensible method to produce amazing results exactly as you'd expect.

Studying up on marketing techniques over the weekend, and I UNEXPECTEDLY learned this one WEIRD TRICK that produces UNEXPLAINABLE results... I'm AMAZED that everyone isn't doing it this way.

Uh... that's the trick. Talk about how it's something "weird", "unexpected", "unexplainable", and "amazing" and so on. So for my online coaching system it might be "CRAZY PT SHARES ONE WEIRD TRICK FOR UNEXPLAINABLE AMAZING RESULTS IN WEIGHT LOSS" or something like that.

Except there's one problem applying this to what I do. There's nothing weird about it, it is entirely explainable either by the laws of science or just common sense, and the results are exactly what you'd expect. Amazing I can still use because people usually are amazed at how easy they find it, when they are actually armed with the right strategy. Also crazy cos I'm somewhat eccentric.

When you eat the right amount to maintain a goal weight, you end up at that weight. When you train constructively rather than just to burn calorie, you build your goal body type. In due time you arrive at your goal weight, in your goal condition. Very simple!

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A little music to training analogy

Some of you might or might know I was quite an accomplished musician earlier in life. If you watch my training videos there's usually some of my music over the top of the sound of weights clanging and grunts being grunted.

Now, some musicians play by ear. This means they don't really know the theory but they do know to play. Sometimes this might mean their repertoire is somewhat limited, but on the other hand some of the worlds most acclaimed musicians fit this category.

When I played, I had a reasonable knowledge of theory but got to the point where I could kind of ignore the theory and just play what I wanted to hear. My good friend and now online PT client Dean Gaudoin who's talent and knowledge of theory greatly surpasses my own would be able to hear what I was playing and tell me "oh you're playing the minor seven with the added fourth, so I'll play this to accompany it"... and I'd have to look at my fingers for a bit and then think "wow he's right, that IS what I'm playing".

Now then. For some reason  I can remember many years ago reading an interview with guitarist Joe Satriani, and the interviewer raised something about a particular player "not using scales". In other words, playing by ear. And Joe explained "whether he realises it or not, what he is actually playing is the pentatonic blues scale".

So... just because you're not aware of the theory, it doesn't mean that what you're doing is not explained by theory.

Training... or more specifically, dieting for weight loss and body composition goals is very similar. If you are successful it is because you have hit suitable total calories, fibre and macro ratios. You might not be tracking your intake or setting targets, you may not agree with or believe in the "If It Fits Your Macros" concept, but that is still what you are doing.  The only difference is in actually determining those nutritional targets and having a plan to ensure you hit them, rather than just happening to get it right by eating random amounts or random foods.

I see a lot of industry types and assorted know-it-alls scoffing at the concept of Flexible Dieting or IIFYM, interpreting it as "you're saying you can just eat as much as you want of whatever you like?" Clearly that's the opposite of what it really is. What it really means is having targets corresponding to your requirements for energy, protein, dietary fats, fibre and so on, and then choosing appropriate amounts of different foods to meet those requirements. 

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Cognitive dissonance in estimating calorific intake.

This is rather a great video and there is a possibly epiphany inducing part just a few minutes in. He's talking about how the brain kind of just takes in little pieces of information, and fills in the gaps with what it EXPECTS to come up with the big picture. Often enough, what it comes up with isn't accurate or correct.

Relative to us people trying to manage our weight and see great results from training... very often people are certain that they're hitting a particular calorie target, but they're not actually logging / otherwise keeping track of their intake. Just like in the example in the video, it's a lot like flying blind. If you don't use the instruments available and trust in them even if your intuition is telling you other wise... you could soon find you're spiraling out of control.

Relative to calorie targets I had an interesting conversation a week or two back with some industry people.... and I won't drop names but there would few you may have heard of who are rightly quite well respected and influential. We were discussing the idea of INCREASING calorie targets for weight loss, rather than just slashing them lower and lower. It was one of those sort of "we agree that it is the right approach, but we disagree on WHY it works out like it does" conversations. I talk a lot about how if your calorie targets are too low, you don't have the resources available to get results from training, and your body just wants to store energy. The point the other (more experienced and better educated, if i am honest with you) guys made was that in their experience and also according to research, in such cases the problem is with dramatic under estimating / under reporting of calorie intake. So, we have a calorie target which is too low anyway, and we think we're hitting it but in actual fact we're still way over our required intake.

I'm humble enough to accept the possibility that from time to time I might give the wrong target to someone, but I was told there's really not much variance from one human being to the next... assuming their physical statistics (height, age, activity level and so on) are the same. Aka the mathematical formulas don't lie, and if you really test it under clinical standards you'll find without exception people's actual intake corresponds quite precisely with what you'd expect to maintain their body weight. Well... that's the expert opinion but in my observation and experience, I still think you can throw that off by restricting to dangerously low calorie intake, forcing your body to compensate.

Either way, I like to think that my approach of setting targets as MINIMUMS will address both of these possible issues. By being focussed on exceeding a minimum target, I feel we're more likely to report our intake accurately... "hmm I'm still below target, oh wait i just remembered that snack", that sort of thing.

Still, I want people planning ahead to ensure success rather than just tracking retrospectively to explain why they're not seeing progress. And if you're STILL not seeing progress... consider the possibility that your perception of how much you're really taking in might be a little skewed.

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