I joke about this little concept with my clients all the time. They know exactly what I mean and sometimes they are even noticing it for themselves when they are in the gym. I talk about this not to be mean, but to point out something to my clients that they want to avoid at ALL COSTS.
A skinny fat person. You have all seen them. Lots of cardio, no weights, horrible nutrition = high percentage of body fat, even if they do not weigh a lot. Now it’s not like you can tell their body fat by looking at them but you can disect the fact that they have little muscle tone and definition.
So many people work out every day, plugging away on the elliptical and avoiding the weight room like the plague. This is a dangerous combination because as you start to lose any excess weight, you are not supporting your weight loss with lean muscle tissue development. This does nothing to increase your metabolism. Increasing your metabolism leads to a higher amount of calories (and eventually body fat) being burned at rest. This is the ultimate goal because obviously we are not going to be working out and training more than 1 to 1.5 hours per day.
The other problem is that many of these people do not support their bodies with proper nutrition. Many times when weight loss is the goal, food restriction becomes the solution. Well this is fine when you are cutting out soda and ice cream, cutting out breakfast and a healthy mid-afternoon snack is NOT a good option. Restricting important calories (the healthy ones) will only aid in the slowing of your metabolism.
Combine an extreme deficit in calories, a lot of aerobic training that burns calories but does not develop lean muscle tissue, and an avoidance of anything that does develop lean muscle tissue and you have a recipe for the creation of what we can the SKINNY FAT PERSON.
This person has a super slow metabolism, and probably gets frustrated because they believe they are working out so hard, and why is their body shape not changing? Well…if you have a slow metabolism and you do not build lean muscle, you will not lose body fat. If you do not lose body fat and gain muscle, your body will look soft and you will not fit in your clothes the way you would like to.
In order to get rid of this epidemic of skinny fat people, we need to do three major things:
1. Lift Weights
2. Eat 5-6 times per day, small meals and snacks with high amounts of protein, fiber, fruits and dark leafy vegetables
3. Perform high intensity interval training for your conditioning to avoid steady state “cardio”
There is a huge difference between a 150 pound person who has 18% body fat and a 150 pound person who has 35% body fat. The 18% person has 27 pounds of fat on their body. The 35% person has 52 pounds of fat. I can guarantee 100% that the 18% individual looks very sleek, tight, and muscular. Even though they weigh the same, their composition is TOTALLY different.
All of this information goes against what most people read in magazines and see on TV but think about it…is our culture doing so well with our fitness habits? It’s time for a change…
Ramp up your intensity, lift some heavy weights, and eat!
to help reduce body fat, all you need to do is exercise regularly:`-
body fat is always not good to the body, it leads to other diseases.’-