RIPPEL EFFECT FITNESS

I have helped people work on their nutrition since I started as a trainer in 1995. I don't know who needs to hear this, but if you are trying to lose fat and are following a structured nutrition plan, what matters overall is your consistency & ability to stay on course long-term.

IMAGE: I asked Grok:
"please make me a picture of myself dressed in workout attire sitting on an Airdyne bike eating a humongous hamburger"...and this is what he generated. I'm flattered he gave me pretty poppin' abs, but IDK why he thinks I have short brown hair! :D Anyhow...

I am not a fan of strict diets. In fact, I think most people who are on Keto or whatever other diet is trendy would be better off following something a lot more realistic. Why? Because any diet that requires a person to completely eliminate food groups, etc is ultimately going to backfire. It is not sustainable.

I believe most of us do better with a plan that takes into account common "life stuff" like birthday cake, okay? People should be allowed to have their wine, enjoy rational amounts of good-quality chocolate, and not stress about food all of the time.

For most people, it comes down to calories in vs calories out. There has to be a deficit in order to lose weight. If done in a sane manner along with a structured routine of strength training and cardio, this isn't that hard to obtain.

We burn energy to move around as well as perform the basic human functions. That said, the body is not designed to start each day at zero with regard to energy stores. What you have taken in prior to that day matters!

Very simply put, anything we don't need gets stored. Depending on what type of intake we are talking about (carbs vs protein vs fat vs processed foods vs whole foods, etc), this could mean stored as glycogen in our muscles & liver, or stored as fat.

Again, things do not just "reset" for the next day. You're not automatically starting out at ground zero every time you wake up.

What am I getting at? Let's say you completely blow things out of the water one day. It happens, right? You get back on the wagon the next day & continue staying on track. You do not get to "reset" and start over. Your body will be in an energy surplus.

Where people mess up is they veer off their plan, get back on track for a few days, & then veer off again. They do so to the degree that it prevents them from losing body fat.

If you keep having day after day of taking in more than your body needs, even if it's an amount you assume is no big deal, this surplus just continues to grow.

Often times a person may say something like "but I did good all week!"

..and then you look at their food log from the weekend & it basically negates what they've done Mon-Fri.

Again, I do not advocate rigid diet bu****it. I am not wanting anyone to become eating disordered or live their life being obsessed with food.

That said, there does have to be some structure and "healthy restraint," which brings me to a second common phenomenon.

In addition to this "I've been good all week, but I go crazy on the weekend" problem, another thing people repeatedly do is overestimate how many calories they burn and underestimate how many calories they take in.

Bites of this or that? They matter.
Stuff like a piece of candy or regular gum? They matter.
Alcohol, coffee, & juice contain calories. They matter.

It all adds up.

In addition...
and please do not come after me for this because it's tough love...

your Apple watch is overestimating how many calories you burn during your workouts.

and

I believe apps like MyFitnessPal are doing people a disservice by giving them what comes across as "freebie exercise calories" and not factoring carbs that come from fiber into the overall calorie/macro count.

Again, don't come after me for this.

Wearable tech and apps are not exact. They should be treated as guidelines!

Back in the mid-late '90's, I would recommend that clients set their weight as 10 # less when using cardio machines, because the calorie count would be more accurate. The same can be done today! I would say set your weight 10 # lighter in your health apps, but if you are tracking your weight then that could get a little messy.

Another thing I have never done is factor in "exercise calories" into a person's overall daily calorie goal if their main goal is fat loss. Unless that person is exercising for several hours a day, most days of the week (which would be problematic from a fat loss standpoint because their overall caloric need would increase and so would their hunger, but that's another ramble altogether)...anyhow...

Unless a person is exercising for several hours a day, "exercise calories" can be written off as lagniappe, as we say here in Louisiana.

"A little something extra."

They are not justification for eating more that day just to do so. They are also not justification for eating something j***y.

So to restate my initial point - what matters overall is your consistency & ability to stay on course long-term. This requires an understanding that you do not get a "get out of jail free" card each and every time you exceed your daily caloric goal.

Some days, just getting to the gym is half the battle!
Thank you to all of my hard-working clients for yet another week of staying the course!

Client chose to mess with me this morning. 😂

Yoda Bobo says “train, you must.”