Leanness Everlasting - Reality or Fantasy? Q&A#10

oday’s Q&A is one of those spur-of-the-moment-ones that, like many articles I’ve written, end up good...or abandoned halfway through and never published. We’ll see how this one goes. It was prompted by the following question, here paraphrased by a client who sent it earlier today:

Hey Martin. Just wondering, was there a point when you stopped counting calories and didn’t balloon back up? I’m really pleased with my results and want to maintain my leanness for the summer and then do a clean bulk in September. But going by past experiences, sooner or later, I always end up back where I started... Am I doomed to a life of calorie counting? Any parting advice for how to handle maintenance beyond the guidelines you’ve provided me with?

There's more than one question in writing here, but only one answer that will suffice. Because I know what you’re feeling and I know what you're asking. Having traveled through each step on this journey, here's what I've arrived at. 

Fantasy

Spent nearly a decade counting calories. From 18 to 28. That’s eight years of counting obsessively whenever I could. The last two years of that era, from 26 to 28, was when I discovered intermittent fasting. That turned things around for me in more ways than one, but I was still counting and logging everything that wasn't on the half a handful Excel sheets where I kept my meal plans. 

As some might recall, I was very lean and claimed to maintain 6% body fat all year around. That part was correct, even if the number itself was just an educated guess. What wasn't entirely accurate was the ease by which I claimed to do so. I might have said, at one point, that "anyone could do it." Well, maybe anyone willing to keep that dull routine up for a few years, yes.

But that's not anyone, that's someone with a strong incentive. And for me, the motivation was proving everyone it could be done and turning myself into a walking billboard for intermittent fasting. If you allow me to deviate from the topic at hand for a second, I made very little progress in the gym during that period - and compared to let's say 10%, which I maintain very comfortably at a body weight 15 kg higher, hunger was a real nuisance at times. 

But back to the topic at hand. I remember a time around age 23-25. Right after I quit modelling, had spent a year in limbo at home, and started my studies at the University. And wherever I went, my diet fixation came with me. I'm sure some of you can relate to the self-imposed isolation and loneliness that comes with the territory. Well, I invited it in, embraced it like a long lost friend, and made sure no trifling wench or foolish student would come between our love. 

Here's a memory I can't shake. Used to take these long walks, “cardio” if you will, on a field right outside campus. Listening to Ludacris and Nelly on a Grundig mp3-player. And just thinking about all sorts of things. But there’s only one thought, and the many moments attached to that thought, I can recall with perfect clarity. 

To call it thought wouldn’t be justified because the concern I was so preoccupied with was - 'will I do this shit forever? And how the fuck am I going to function like this when I get a job? Get married? Have any long-term relationship? What will happen to my physique, my training, my diet?' 

There were many times like these, moments when conviction slipped, morale plummeted, and desperation overtook me. Usually when I fucked up my diet, because that and my lifts were the two variables by which I measured my worth. Then I climbed back up on the horse, the Diet Horse that is, and after a few days, I was back to normal - justifying it all and feeling morally superior. Rinse and repeat.

It’s cringeworthy to think back at those moments, but I was genuinely worried about a life without calorie counting, strict meal times and everything else that came with the loony 6-meal-a-day-diet everyone including me was doing back then. And I was hardcore, dead set on being optimal at any cost, even if it meant skipping social events, student shenanigans and all the fun stuff that comes with dorm life.

I’m sure it was the social isolation that prompted these thoughts. Seeing all the fun, I was missing out on really gave me the blues at times. But I was a stubborn son of a bitch. Once I set my sights on something, I won’t let go. Knowing that sooner or later, I’ll succeed. Always have, always will. For better and worse, and back then, I apparently had no sense of priority and could not critically assess my objectives. I kept it up, but at what price? 

Needless to say, I’ve got a lot of regrets. 90%, I blame myself for. The other 10%…well, chalk it up to the bullshit machine we agree to call 'the fitness industry,' I guess. 

Where am I going with this? Half the time, I don't know myself. Not today. Not this time. 

So ask instead, how does someone so deluded and knee deep in this bullshit get out of it? How do you go from pathetic dietcel to carefree, balanced, and looking like this without micromanaging every aspect of your diet?

What happened between those long lonely walks on the field, and the way I am today - still crazy, sure, but completely free from any preoccupation with food or diet?  

It’s something I’ve pondered many times myself. Something I think of whenever I ask myself how I can turn this into something actionable, a process-oriented method to be applied to clients, for example. It's tough when you're dealing with concepts for which you are your own frame of reference. It's not like I can pull together a roundtable of people who have done this before - they don't exist. And if they do exist, they can't express it adequately. I'm not sure I will be able to either. But you can't fault me for trying. 

Reality

At this stage, the formula cannot be broken down to numbers, macros, and specific actions. Nor will it do you any good to ask if it should be run for 6,8 or 12 weeks, or whether it can be done in conjunction with a bulk or a diet. I wish it could because I hate hippie shit and would hate even more to come off as one. But this is what you signed up for, articles for grown-ups, not children. 

Everyone is looking for diet nirvana; the end of calorie counting, a transcendent state of being where leanness is easy and nutrition unproblematic. To find this in a world that does everything to encourage overeating, sloth, and conformity, one must be willing to pay the price. I have - the answer is 

1. Everything starts with internalizing facts. Once you know what matters and what doesn’t, you have freedom. Keyword. What's freedom? Free internet, freedom from tyranny, what? The freedom of choice. If you walk around with nonsense in your head - gotta keep insulin low, gotta eat every third hour, can’t eat too many carbs, etc. - forget it. You’ll be stuck in a rut 'till you get your facts straight. 

But you won't. Don't shoot the messenger; I studied Statistics, graduated summa cum laude. I'm just reading what the data says. And speaking of data, knowing your macros is one thing, knowing them another.  Right? 

2. Once you know your facts, you have the optimal diet. Not your definition of optimal - my definition. Because an optimal diet is only optimal once it’s optimized according to a) science and b) you. When choice and preference are perfectly synced, unhampered by misguided beliefs and counterproductive thought patterns, then you're getting somewhere.

3. Put one and two together, and it’s only a matter of time before things click as they did for me. Once it happens, there’s going to come a day where you look back at the past and say “If I only knew then what I know now.” 

And then you’re going to reflect on how the endless leisure time you had in your twenties went wasted on inane ponderings about meal timing, and internet forums where like-minded idiots debated the virtues of hydrolyzed whey protein, instead of doing something useful. Like Tinder, keg parties and FortNite.

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Alright guys, there you have it. This one’s not easy to grasp, so be nice on me if I lost you. Do try though. This shit is pointless if you don’t. 

And let me know your thoughts.  (If the survey template looks weird, I'll fix it tomorrow). 

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P.S. Can everyone see my Lens? It's sort of like IG stories, but for Patreon. Let me know if you don't see it.

P.S.S. Patreon updated the app today and apparently, this fixes the disappearing comments and such. I hope so, but we'll see.