The Most Important Blog You'll Ever Read.

Calories in, calories out.  Right?  That's what we've been told. If you want to lose weight, eat less and move more.   Makes sense mathematically.  However, there's one problem.  It's not entirely true.

Something you need to know.  You can't out run a bad diet.  No matter how much you try.  Let me clarify, can you lose weight with this method of eating less calorie than you burn?  Yes.  I presume you can.  But is it healthy?  Maybe not, depending on your food choices.   The main takeaway, don't think you can have that extra treat because you are going to run the next day.  Or the worst, don't reward yourself with ice cream or pizza because you worked out today.

I want to keep this as simple as possible which will be really hard to do.  People smarter than I have written entire books about his topic.

Real life example.  In the spring/summer of 2015 I ran about 6 marathons, 10 or so half marathons and several other runs totaling over 500 miles.  In other words, I ran a lot.  I didn't lose any weight.  What?  Right.  I did all that running while burning several thousand calories and didn't lose any weight.  And I had fat to burn!

I'm going to go off the basic assumption that most people exercise because they want to lose excess body fat.  If this is true for you, you have to make the distinction between fat loss and weight loss.  You can lose weight and not lose any body fat.  In fact, you can gain weight and lose body fat at the same time.  This is another reason why it's a good idea to ditch the scale!

Insulin is the fat storage hormone.  When you consume a meal full of carbohydrates, insulin is released to take that energy and store it either in your liver or muscles as glycogen.  When your liver and muscles are full, any excess energy is converted and stored as fat.  Remember, this is the simplified version.  Think about how most people exercise.  They start by "carbing up" either the night before or immediately before a run or workout.   I'm going to make another assumption that when most people "carb up" that their liver and muscles are already filled to max capacity with glycogen.  Commence workout or run.  Insulin (the fat storage hormone), provided the exerciser had carbohydrates that morning, is present in the blood stream taking consumed energy where it needs to go.  Then you eat another carbohydrate filled something usually a GU or other energy bar releasing even more insulin into the bloodstream taking that energy where it needs to go.  All is well as far as carb fueled performance goes. But most people rarely activate the counter hormone, glucagon, to use the energy you already have stored on yourself whether from glycogen stores or fat cells.  So while you have have energy and fuel for your run.....

........you never get your stored body fat.

Ok, so how do I do that?  That's another long answer.  But the short answer is.  DIET.  In order to burn stored fat, your body has to know how to use fat as fuel.  Whether that's ingested fat or stored fat.  FAT DOES NOT MAKE YOU FAT.  Ok, well, it does if you over consume it.  Just like if you over consume any type of food.   Fat is an ESSENTIAL macronutrient, there is no need to be afraid of it.  It's never usually high fat that is a problem, more often than not it's a high carb/highly processed food diet that will cause health concerns over the long term.

And the process for becoming a fat burner is for another blog.  And it's exact reason why if you are serious about losing body fat and becoming metabolically flexible that you need a health coach.  Someone that is trained in understanding how the body processes macronutrients.  You shouldn't have to go to the gym multiple times a week for hours to maintain body weight.

80% of your body composition is determined by the foods you eat.

The Comparison Thief

You may have heard it said that comparison is the thief of joy.   So many times we compare other peoples best with our own worst.  Why do we do this to ourselves?

I've done this.  I've seen others post their run times and desperately want to run as fast as them.  I'd do the only thing I knew how to do.  Run more and push myself harder.  But it never worked and I always ended up injured and demotivated.  But why?

The short answer is variables.   There are so many different things involved in increasing your running speeds that I didn't know about.  Heart rate, fueling, recovery, HIIT and many other things you need to pay attention to.  Do you know the differences of the aerobic or anaerobic system?   There was a time I didn't either.  Your nutrition is a HUGE variable in your running.

So what's one way to avoid this?  Having a goal and a plan.  Wanting to run faster is a great goal.  But be more specific.  Do you want to run a 6 minute mile?  8 minute mile?  12 minute mile?  And then work with a running coach (experienced runners do not always make good coaches) to create a plan and make this goal a reality.

Real life experience.  I was ticking off 8:30-9 minute miles and enjoying it.  But to achieve my goals I had to slow my pace down to around 13-15 minutes per mile.  And I'm ok with that.  I'm ok with being the last person at all the group runs.  Why?  I have a goal.  I have a plan.  And I have the confidence in the process.

My Story

They say if you love something you should let it go and if it comes back it loves you too.  I love food, all types of food.  And because of that love, excess weight came with it.  So I said goodbye to certain foods and hello to a lot of exercise.  I was beginning to think that my extra weight and foods really loved me.  Because every time I let them go,  they always seemed to come back to me.

Relationships with food can be incredibly complicated.  Food plays with our emotions.  Not only does it impact our physical selves, it impacts our psychological selves too.  The wrong food makes us feel good at night and leaves us after a one night stand with a note on the pillow saying thanks for the good time and sorry for any negative consequences it left you with.  For many...this happens night after night.

Over the course of my life I've gained and lost over 100 pounds.  I'll never forget my first affair with weight loss.  I was 25.  Just married earlier that year to my amazing wife.  We were planning a trip with friends to the beach at the end of the summer.  Myself and some friends decided on a weight loss challenge for the 2 and a half months prior to the trip.  Game on.  I weighed in at 211.  I'm 6 feet tall so I wasn't that overweight.  Although I'm pretty sure I had visible six pack abs 2 years prior.  Commence severe calorie restriction, massive will power and two hours or more a day at the gym or other exercising.  Easy to do when you have a flexible work schedule, don't have kids,  and there is money and bragging rights on the table.  It worked, I lost 36 pounds.  Weighed in at 175.   Though, I didn't win the competition.  Which was unfortunate because this was hard!  But hey, I didn't lose entirely.  I was still in great shape and lost a bunch of weight.

I can't say I remember for certain what my diet looked like.  I know I didn't give up drinking Miller Lite.  Pretty sure I stuck with mostly vegetables and chicken.  Lots of salads, yogurt and granola.  No fast food but an emphasis on low fat and low calorie.  One thing I'll never forget is that first stop on our trip the Outer Banks.  We all went to IHOP.  I felt lost.  I felt like I was betraying all that I had worked for.  I don't know what I ate, but I remember the feelings.  And after that meal....It was game over.  No more dieting.  I let loose that week on all things food and drink.  In a way, it was good to not stress about food.  But over the next year, my weight crept back up.  I couldn't sustain the work I had done to lose all that weight.   Nor did I want to continue restricting the amount and kinds of food to be had.  This only confirmed what I thought about losing weight was correct,  that I needed to eat food that I didn't really like, be hungry,  and work out a lot to lose weight.

The next affair with weight loss came when a friend told me about this "paleo" thing.  Basically a caveman diet.  So I tried that.  I set a goal that if I got down to 180 I could buy a pair of Vibram Five Finger shoes.  My rules were simple.  If a caveman could eat so could I.  Well, apparently I thought cavemen could eat popcorn, salad dressing, cheese and beer.  Regardless, I got to my goal weight over the course of a few months with a similar exercise load as the first go around.  After I got my shoes, all progress was halted and all weight crept back.

I'm sensing a pattern.  Eat whatever I want, gain weight, get frustrated at weight gain, put a reward out there for me to get, cut calories, exercise a lot, lose weight, get reward.   I had several of these weight loss affairs usually lasting a few weeks and 10-15 pounds at a time.  I never found anything that stuck.  Why could I not maintain?   Why could I not continue?  I assumed it was because I lacked will power.

My next fling I decided to run a 77 mile ultra marathon.  If I just ran a lot I could eat whatever I wanted, right?  I was about 30 pounds overweight at the start of 2015 when I started running.  And did I ever run!  Up through August  of that year I had completed about 6 marathon distance trail runs with nearly 15 half marathon distances tossed into the mix.  Let alone all the single digit mileage runs.   I ran right through pain and into an injury.   I didn't listen to my body at all.   But even after having run all those miles...I still had quite a gut on me.  You could call me fit fat.

I had gotten to a point in my life where I had given up.  My wife and I had children now.  We both had careers we were busy with.  We both had life stress.  Food and exercise were the last of my worries.   I wrote off ever being fit again and tried to settle into this new life.   At this point food was my drug.  I loved craft beer and whiskey.  I kept Jelly Belly jelly beans with me all the time.

In January of 2016 I got wind of this thing called the ketogenic diet.  It is a high fat, low carb diet.  First, I had to figure out was a carbohydrate was and once I found out that carbs were in all my favorite foods I decided it wasn't for me.  I didn't want to give my beer and candy and I thought fat made you fat! But in the Spring of 2016,  I knew something had to change.  I was going downhill fast.  I was overweight, I had no control over my eating habits, and my mental health was in decline.

On May 9 2016 at lunch time I ate a salad and had a beer and decided the keto diet was what I was doing.   I was committed from day one knowing and believing it would work.  And it did, I lost about 35 pounds in 3 months with most of that coming off in the first month.  I've been maintaining happily every since.  No more yo-yo's.

It wasn't long after beginning the diet I co-created a Facebook group for others also interested in the keto diet and as of the day I'm writing this we've collectively lost well over a ton of weight.   And the more I listened and learned about the ketogenic way of eating, I also learned the right way to eat in a primal aligned way.   I knew it was time to take my journey to another level and get some proper education on the subject.  Enter the Primal Health Coach program based on the Primal Blueprint philosophy.

Whatever your goals are we will work together and I will help you achieve them.  It would be an absolute joy to share what I know and eliminate any guess work you have about what it takes to have the health and wellness you desire.   Losing weight and getting healthy take time, and time is valuable.  No one wants to commit to months of effort only to be going about this journey on the wrong path.  Let me help you find the one that fits you, whether that's a ketogenic diet,  a Primal Lifestyle,  or just learning what food choices benefit you instead of hurt you.  Let me help you find the pattern of health that you can commit to for a lifetime.  It's time to get married to the new you.  No more affairs with bogus health advice.

Let's sit down and have a conversation about what having a health coach looks like for you.  Be a part of the Bee Fit Family.  Check out Bee Fit on Facebook at www.facebook.com/beefitfamily and our website launching this winter www.beefitfamily.com.