One of the most inspiring stories to come out of the Commonwealth games was the amazing comeback of Australian swimmer Geoff Huegill.  For those non-Australians who don’t know the story, Geoff’ retired from competitive swimming in 2004 after the Athens Olympics.   Like many competitive athletes who retire, he stopped training and became a party animal.
Needless to say, his fitness plummeted and he put on weight.  45 kilograms of fat to be precise.
Geoff’s life and health spiralled out of control as his weight ballooned to 138 kilograms.
Fortunately in 2007 he realised he was on a path to self-destruction and decided to do something about it.  He obviously changed his diet but importantly he got active again.
In fact, not only did he start exercising again, he decided to get fit.
And that’s the lesson in Geoff’s amazing story for all of us.
If Geoff had set himself the goal to lose weight he would probably have cut his calories drastically low in an attempt to lose weight fast.  This is what most diets and fast weight loss programs suggest. And it would have worked initially.
He would have lost weight but he wouldn’t have got any fitter and his metabolism would have slowed down.  Not what a fit athlete or a person trying to maintain their weight loss needs.
(I read about a diet in the paper this morning that promised I’d lose 5kg in 7 days or I’d get my money back!)
Most weight loss programs and diets tell people to exercise at a low intensity as this burns more fat.  The reality is, the fitter you are, the more effective and efficient your body is at burning fat.  Not only that, the other metabolic changes that come with being fit help protect you from many of the conditions that accompany obesity.  Just losing some fat doesn’t necessarily make you healthier; it’s the changes that happen in the cells and tissues that improve your health.
By focusing on getting fit, Geoff lost weight and turned his body into an efficient fat-burning engine.  He could do more, felt better and felt better about himself.
I doubt he would have achieved all that if he had just tried to lose weight.  But because he set out to get fit, he not only lost weight, he got the added benefits I mentioned above.
What’s the lesson again?
If you want to lose weight, don’t exercise to lose the weight.
Do an exercise program to get you fitter.  Monitor if your fitness is improving rather than what the scales are saying.  It may take a bit longer to see any changes in your weight (you’ll probably put on some muscle) but in the long term you will be healthier, happier and better able to burn fat.

Note – Numerous studies have shown that it is better to be fit and carry a few extra kilos than unfit and normal weight.

Focus on fitness, not fatness.

I’ve just read an article on a website for women and girls with the above title and it worries me – a lot.

The idea that body fat is THE measure of fitness is some of the reason why there is an obesity epidemic in the Western world.

The article discusses how the American Army has set certain percentage body fat levels as the measure of fitness that everyone must comply with or get kicked out of the Army.  In some ways this is not a bad thing.  Especially if it helps prevent the gradual increase in body fat that happens to most people as the years go by.

But… the thought that body fat is used as the measure of fitness is just wrong. There are a lot of people in the world who have low body fat levels and aren’t fit.  Take a lot of the stick-thin models on the catwalks who starve themselves to stay ‘skinny’ and never do any strength training for fear they will get “too” big.  They might be thin and look good in certain clothes but they aren’t fit and many aren’t healthy.

On the other extreme there are a lot of people who exercise regularly and are quite fit but carry extra body fat.  Under the US Army system, these people would get kicked out while the thin person who never does any exercise would  not.

Ideally the slightly overweight fit person would drop some body fat  and as a result be even fitter, but all the research tells us that it healthier to be fit and fat than unfit and thin.

The idea that we use body fat as a measure of fitness just perpetuates the diet mentality, and does nothing to help correct the underlying health issues that accompany having too much body fat.  The way to fix those is to get fit, just losing a few kilos of fat isn’t going to help in the long term.

I think the US Army should focus on how fit people are.  That might include body fat levels but to use just body fat as a measure of fitness is flawed and sends the wrong message.

For the rest of us, we should focus on fitness not fatness.  If you get fit, body fat will take care of itself.