A few years ago I was reading this book called Ultimate Diet Secrets from Dr. Gregory Ellis, a nutritional expert. The book itself is a very detailed explanation of the process of losing fat.
On a side note, smart and cute girls hate it when guys get fat and bulky LOL. No seriously, they hate it. Back to Dr. Ellis: He details energy metabolism at a cellular level and offers a practical way to lose weight with a low carbohydrate diet (under 100g of carbohydrates per day), as well as some energy shortage from eating less and exercising a bit more.
The author had interwoven his personal fitness story in between the dry biochemical background. So anyway, what reminded me of this book was the author’s physical culture journey. There are two types of people who develop a keen interest in the workings of the human body.
The First Kind Are Folks Who Are Natural Athletes
They have been always active and have always enjoyed sports. Their interest in the workings of the human physique is just a natural development from their love of all things athletic. Now, there is also another kind of people who become obsessed and fascinated by the way the human machine operates.
VIDEO: The Secret to Washboard Abs
These are the ones that didn’t start out as naturals. For example, Bruce Lee used to have a big belly. The embarrassment for a young guy to look so bad pushed him to train hard and chisel probably the most famous six pack abs in history. Dr. Ellis was from the second group of fitness enthusiasts. I can say the asme holds true for me too.
Overweight as a Kid
Dr. Ellis put on a lot of weight after the situation at his home became extremely stressful. That led to his fascination with physical culture. He wanted to lose the weight that he had gained. Eating was probably for him a defense mechanism the way it is for so many vulnerable children or young women.
Above – Dr. Ellis as an overweight kid. Emotional eating wrecked his body. He lost the weight and started lifting regularly to become better built.
In his early 20s Gregory Ellis was following the popular method of eating like a pig in order to gain some muscle mass along with the tons of fat that come with massive increases in weight. He acknowledges this as a big mistake.
New Fat Cells Are Permanent
When you gain weight, your fat cells grow in size. When you lose weight – they shrink. Now, past a certain level, you cannot gain more weight without getting some new fat cells.
Here is the catch. When you lose the fat once again, your newly formed fat cells will remain in your body. The truth is, unless you get a liposuction, you can’t get rid of those suckers – the new fat cells.
But here is more. The more fat cells you’ve got. The easier it is to get fat and the harder it is to lose that fat. So once you spawn yourself some new fat cells, you’re going to have them for life.
Fat Is Ugly
When you are fatter, you will always look worse. I mean, who would willingly spend large chunks of his life looking worse in order to supposedly maybe look better in the future. Crazy, I know. But that is what the practice of bulking up for muscle gain is.
Bulky dudes look corny. To the left – Dr. Ellis in all his bulky “glory.” When guys add muscle by eating tons of food, they get bigger, no doubt. But mostly they get fatter. Layers of goo cover their upper body and they look big as a wardrobe when in clothes.
But at the beach or in bed with their girl, they have rolls of fat around their waist. It’s hypocrisy really, because other see them and consider them fit and strong when in reality they are fat and strong.
The Fatter And Heavier You Are…
…the more you suck at sports! Not that the huge fat guys care, really, but the bulked up build is a disaster when it comes to playing sports. It’s like trying to sprint with a backpack full of rocks. Except you can’t take the backpack off. Life’s too short not to cherish beautiful things like the joy of playing pickup basketball, beach volleyball or surfing, etc.
More Fat = More Estrogen
Because the female hormone estrogen feels excellent when there is lots of fat, the chubbier you get, the more estrogen for you. Bad news, because this means less muscle.
Recent findings show that fat comes back quickly after liposuction. The study was first published in the journal Obesity and concluded that weight is regained after a year with the patient accumulating fat in places where the procedure was not done. Sites that have undergone the plastic surgery procedure remained fat free.
Hopefully I’ve discouraged you from gaining muscle by eating like a pig or losing the fat you gain with such risky procedures.
Image: macinate
I see more and more blogs stating that the ‘big and bulky’ look is really going out of style (or already did in the 90’s) and I agree. It seems that more and more the look to go for these days is the lean and ripped look.
I read an interview that Tom Venuto did with Hugo Rivera and Hugo talked about always staying at a lean bodyfat. He said basically that ‘getting fat in the off season and then slimming down is not bodybuilding.’ Who wants to put their body through those kind of weight swings anyway? Get lean, then build muscle while staying lean!
Great points buddy! Actually if you stay relatively lean, you will never look bulky. I couldn’t put it better myself: “Get lean, then build muscle while staying lean!”
Stay cool,
Yavor
Don’t get me wrong, I prefer the thinner, leaner look as well. But I actually think he looks pretty good in that picture. He looks naturally muscular, not freakishly muscular like a bodybuilder, and he’s far from fat. I’m fat! I would prefer thinner, but that would be a huge improvement from where I’m at now.
Just thought I’d throw that out there. 🙂
Jordan, the good news is that getting from overweight to normal weight is easier than getting from normal weight to ripped/super lean.
You can do it buddy!
Yavor
Thanks, Yavor, I appreciate it. I’m doing Intermittent Fasting right now. I just finished my seventh fast, so hopefully this will help a lot.
Jordan,
intermittent fasting works. Feel free to ask questions etc. I will right a post soon with tips that I have come up with to do the fasting easier.
Yavor
do you guys have a recommendation section, i’d like to suggest some stuff
Rafe,
You can email me from the contact page.
I just found your site from my buddy Andy. Absolutely great stuff. I just subscribed. Keep up the great posts.
I tried this accidentally for a couple of weeks. I was eating a ton. I got bigger, but mostly fatter, gaining around 5 pounds. Gain 4# of fat for every 1# of muscle? I don’t thinks so.
Jeff
I am glad you came to your senses. Don’t ruin your proportions. The way to look good is to NOT get a bigger waist but only bigger shoulders. The way to achieve this is to get your basic strength up, then follow up with bodybuilding stuff (if necessary)
But don’t get fat, that will ruin your proportions (shoulder to waist ration) and your face and neck will look like crap.
Yavor
im a beginner… but is it true that after gaining new fat cells n i can never get rid of it?? x.x im so scared…. cus i’ve basically been skinny/lean most of my life until i start hearing about that “bulking up” thing n i start gaining weight(fat) 2years ago… i hvnt grow an inch since then but iv gained 15kg…. n my belly is BIG >.< can any1 help me plz
Jack,
well hopefully you haven’t gained too many new fat cells. Just start decreasing the food you eat. If you were naturally lean, it will be easy for you to start eating the way you ate when you were slim.
To gain muscle – you need to get stronger on a progressive overload program.
Cheers,
Yavor
What do you make of approaches like “GOMAD with squats” basically, large consumption of milk with squats as a total body comound exercise?
Is it possible to get the best of both worlds, moderate consumption of calories and protein with heavy weight work to add more lean muscle tissue but less fat?
I do not want to get huge, but I would like to bulk up slightly but in a healthy way, and I never liked the pig at a trough approach.. The gallon of milk idea sounded extreme, but I see so many people on the Internet swearing by it.
Thanks 🙂
K.J.,
GOMAD is for super skinny guys. Those are guys that are naturally with VERY LOW appetite. So this approach would give them enough calroies to have energy for their workouts and recovery. So in a sense this apporach would bring them to normal levels of calories (super skinny guys chronically undereat).
But again, fat is fat. The goal should be not to gain weight or fat, but to gain muscle by getting stronger.
It is a mistake to think that you can gain MUSCULAR weight quickly. For muscle you need strength and to get this trength you need to pass through all the weight increments between your current working weights and the ones needed so that you areas big as you desire. And this takes time, Because (this is just an example) you need to go from 100 pounds, through 105, 110, 115… and so on until 200lbs
To answer your question – focus on getting stronger and don’t expect food to grow you muscles. Effort will.
You are talking about fat cells that last forever after loosing waight.Is thi teh same like the stubborn fat?I am not fat,but i have fat in front of my six pack,and i think it is unremovable because once i was 108 kg and now i am 80 kg.
Alex, no fat cells = different from “stubborn fat.”
There’s no stubborn fat. It is simply the last fat you will lose but it’s not more “stubborn” than the rest.
Lose 5 more kg’s and you will remove this “stubborn fat.”
The problem is that 75 kg is too low for me,i am 182 sm and i am going to look like sick with no muscles on me.