I should be dead… Also going to the gym to lose fat is stupid, I’ll explain.
When I moved to Australia about 8 years ago, like all backpackers you have to do 3 months of farming to receive your second years’ visa, so of course, that is what I did.
We ended up on a cotton farm on the border of NSW and QLD, I’ll be honest, I may have watched too many movies. I thought we would have baskets on our backs, picking cotton by hand for 12 hours a day. How wrong I was.
When we arrived at the farm, there were machines as big as houses that did all the work, we just had to press it in a massive 10-tonne container. It was bloody long hours, but easy work in fairness (Well compared to what I thought it was anyway).
After we had finished picking all of the cotton on the farm, we would back up all the machinery and move onto the next one.
Well, one of these days ended quite badly but it could have been a whole lot worse. Well, in all honesty, I should be dead. But it’s also a funny story.
So this one day we were driving the equipment and I got put in charge of moving this 20 meters long, 10-tonne piece of equipment to the next site.
While doing this I forgot to fold the arm that presses it down, this was probably about 10 Metres high from the ground to the top.
As I was driving around this corner, my tractor lit up like I had been hit by the power of Zeus himself. Bright white light covered me for a split second. I was a little shocked but just carried on driving.
I then saw Michael the boss on the farm hanging out of his tractor waving his arms like a flappy flamming inflatable arm flailing tube man. I pressed the breaks and jumped out.
I had only knocked a bloody powerline down! But of course, this is me, this wasn’t just any powerline. It was the powerline that was connected to the box that connected the county’s power to all the homes!
Side note, the incident made all local papers and TV news, I had put the power out for a hell of a lot of people + we had to get the power company out to speak about all the problems and go through safety talks, etc very boring. BUT
During that talk, he told me that if I hadn’t jumped out of the tractor and I would have stepped out like most normal people being in contact with the floor and the tractor. I would 100% be dead. so that’s pretty cool I guess.
Anyway I digress, my boss is waving his arms. He is pointing like crazy, at something in the next field, where the powerline had eventually fallen. Anyway, I look up and the f**king field is on fire! like the blaze is much taller than me and about 100m Long so far.
I look over in panic thinking about how big this fire was, so I sprinted over there and guess what I did to this pretty big fire? I tried to kick it out with my feet and blow it out using my shirt as a fan.
You might be thinking now ‘what an idiot, that would never work’. You’d be right too, it’s pretty funny looking back.
But that is like going to the gym to lose fat, you think it’s the right thing to do at the time but it couldn’t be further from the truth.
Yes, I might have possibly slowed the fire down in one little area for a second, but overall it didn’t play a big role in putting out the fire. The water did (who would have thought?)
Let’s call you going to the gym to lose fat, me kicking the fire. And
Let’s call the water that solved the problem, you’re diet i.e a calorie deficit.
You see I could have stood there all-day using different things that I had at my disposal to put the fire out, but it never would have worked unless I had the water working with me at the same time.
You can not out-train a bad diet, it sounds cliche but it is true. People use to say its 80/20 I call bullshit, I would say it’s 95/5 on average in the gym, why? Because you burn around 5% of the energy expenditure per day through planned activity.
BUT it is 100% a calorie deficit that allows you to lose fat. You can train all you want, but if you’re eating too much you will not lose fat.
We train for many different reasons, fat loss shouldn’t be one of them. Sure it may help but it is not very empowering. We should want to go to the gym, to be stronger, more badass, move better, feel better, build muscle, improve body composition, improve mental health, connect, communicate, change your habits, hey you might even eat better once you have trained, but.
If you are going to the gym to lose fat you’re doing it wrong. let’s run through the likely possibility of what will happen if you’re going to the gym to lose fat?
You go to the gym… You don’t lose weight…You quit.
I have seen it time and time again over many many years.
The gym/exercise is freaking amazing for many many things, but if you want to lose weight, control your food, change your habits, and move more outside the gym.
Listen I was coming to the gym was the be-all and end-all for weight loss, I am a gym owner.
The gym though is much more special than just weight loss, it’s an empowering place! A place where long term change can be made.
Summary – Going to the gym to lose fat is like trying to kick out a fire – James Batey 2019
