3035: When You're Doing Everything Right by Rachel Trotta on Sustainable Strategies to Unlock Fitness Results

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[00:00:30] Das ist Optimal Health Daily. Wenn Ihr Doing Everything Right. Bei Rachel Trotta, von RachelTrotta.com Und ich bin Dr. Neal Malik, reading you some of the most popular health and fitness blogs out there. With permission from the websites, of course. Und mit a bit of my commentary at the end. Let's keep this intro nice and short and get right to today's post as we optimize your life. Wenn Ihr Doing Everything Right.

[00:00:59] Bei Rachel Trotta, von RachelTrotta.com As a personal trainer, I hear this question frequently. Why can my friend eat fill-in-the-blank with an item of junk food or poor diet of choice and still stay skinny, but I eat fill-in-the-blank with a healthy food item or diet of choice and I don't make any progress? This is an extremely defeating feeling. Watching others apparently eat normally and enjoying a high level of fitness

[00:01:28] while you make heroic efforts to address your weight or fitness level but are not seeing results. The good news is that it's not all in your head. The dangers of comparison. First, you can check out an older blog post of mine about comparing yourself to others. Here's an excerpt from that blog post. Quote, Comparison is a dangerous game because we do not know why other people look the way they do, even people we know rather well.

[00:01:56] When you see someone overweight, you can't overgeneralize and assume that they're lazy, sedentary, and binge eating every night. Similarly, when you see someone that looks trim and fit, you can't assume that they're hitting the gym every day, eating a healthy and balanced diet, and practicing positive habits. End quote. Also keep in mind that just because someone is thin doesn't mean that they are healthy. A slender woman who eats poorly is not necessarily a healthy person.

[00:02:26] While waistline is often correlated with health, we make far too many snap judgments based on people's appearances, and we have internalized those messages to an unhelpful degree. Bottom line, we just don't know every detail of someone else's life. So before you compare and despair about not seeing results, remember that you are a unique individual with unique goals, and that you can't make someone else's body your blueprint for success.

[00:02:53] That being said, some people do have it harder than others. I'm going to be real with you. You might be listening to this because you're frustrated with your fitness and feel that you have somehow been dealt the genetic losing hand. I want to level with you. You are not making this up. This is not in your imagination. It's not popular for fitness professionals to admit, but there are some people who do have a harder time seeing progress than others. The same behaviors don't necessarily create the same changes

[00:03:23] at the same pace for you as they do for your friend. In the bodybuilding world, where the goal is to be big and muscular, guys have a term, hard gainer. It refers to a man who puts in the same time at the gym and in the kitchen as the biggest guy, but just can't get that same level of bulk. I'm pretty sure we all knew this wiry guy in high school who spent his days eating entire rotisserie chickens, pounding protein shakes, and pumping iron without any change in appearance.

[00:03:51] There is a similar phenomenon with toning and weight loss. There is a confusing term, non-responder, that has floated around and is widely misunderstood. And I'm going to do my best in this blog post to explain it and show you how you can improve your approach to fitness. I hope you feel validated. Listen on. Are you a non-responder? You may be a non-responder if you put in a decent amount of time at the gym with little or no results.

[00:04:20] You eat reasonably healthy, but don't lose weight. You only lose weight when you take dramatic measures that are not sustainable. So, do you fit the bill? I have good news. You can get leaner and fitter, but your approach may need to be a little different for a few important reasons. Many of my newest clients come to me feeling this way. I'm going to tell you a story about a client of mine whom we'll call Sarah. Sarah was a classic non-responder when she first contacted me.

[00:04:49] She felt frustrated with her lack of progress over time with previous fitness programs and felt that the only way she could lose weight was to dip her calorie level extremely low. But she knew this wasn't sustainable or smart. So, she sought me out after reading one of my blog posts. She actually lives in a different country. So, all of our training was done remotely via email, phone, Skype, and Google Drive. I could hear the discouragement in Sarah's voice the very first time we talked on the phone. And I explained to her then

[00:05:18] what I'm going to lay out for you now. There is no such thing as a true non-responder. There is no person who is impervious to the effects of exercise and a smart nutrition strategy. It feels like it, but there's a simple solution. If you feel that you are a non-responder, the main key to improving your fitness is to step up the number of times you exercise per week. In other words, you need to increase the overall weekly minutes you log. It's deceptively simple,

[00:05:47] but most non-responders are only non-responders if they exercise just a few times a week. Here's the problem that I explained to Sarah. Most recommendations for exercise suggest two to three times per week for a workout. If you get a personal trainer, there's probably not a five times per week option. Many people choose to work with a trainer once per week, in fact. Just look at the typical Sculpt Your Booty Now workout in common women's magazines, and you'll see they recommend doing the workout two to three times per week.

[00:06:17] If you're in the non-responder category, this is simply not enough exercise for you to get fitter, inside or out. An important note is that fitness is not simply relegated to weight loss. It also implies cardiovascular fitness and the ability of the heart rate to efficiently lower itself after a spurt of activity. In other words, most people who feel that they are non-responders simply are not exercising enough to trigger weight loss and fitness results.

[00:06:47] Researchers don't completely understand why this phenomenon occurs, as it does not seem to follow along race or gender lines, but they do know that it seems to be genetic, running in families. This is why it is so important not to compare yourself to others and to be confident on your own unique fitness journey. Yes, your friend may be able to eat burgers and exercise a handful of times a week and look like a Victoria's Secret model, but I guarantee you that she has, or will have,

[00:07:16] her own battles to fight. You probably just don't know about them. Back to Sarah now. Sarah went from feeling the sense of discouragement to following the plan of fitness and nutrition that I created for her, and now she has abs. Not straining sideways in good lighting abs, but real abs. She looks lean, defined, and toned, and has gone from feeling disorganized and helpless to feeling empowered and strong. She has a reliable gym routine,

[00:07:46] does exercises that she loves, and doesn't starve herself. She's not a non-responder anymore, right? I have found frequency of exercise to be essential in my own personal exercise practice as well. For most of my clients, it is important to do something every single day, which is why all of my clients have homework between sessions. If you feel this same sense of frustration that you simply can't see progress, please know that you are not making it up, and you're not alone.

[00:08:15] In fact, I write programs for people like you all the time. You just listened to the post titled When You're Doing Everything Right by Rachel Trotta of racheltrotta.com, and I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:09:50] There are plenty of flavors and sizes, perfect for enjoying with family and friends or taking them with you on the go, whether you're running between meetings or dropping off the kids. Get snackin' today. Visit wonderfulpistachios.com to learn more. Dr. Neil here for my commentary. The idea of non-responders hits home with me too. I have had patients and clients come to me with these same frustrations. In fact, I responded to these questions on this show many times before.

[00:10:20] People will sometimes be so frustrated, they will tell me to my face, you don't understand, it's easier for you, you're younger than me, or they'll say, you have more time than I do, or will you actually like working out? Now, some of this may be true, but I can say with all honesty that it's not any easier for me. Remember, I had to learn to like eating nutritious foods and staying active. It wasn't always this way, not at all. I had to get diagnosed with a chronic disease

[00:10:50] before I finally woke up and realized that my lifestyle was terrible. But that diagnosis was a blessing because it woke me up. Otherwise, I would likely still be sleeping until two in the afternoon, skipping breakfasts and eating del taco for dinner and not working out. And when I did start changing my lifestyle, I can tell you the results were definitely not immediate. My heart was getting stronger, yay, but there didn't seem to be any changes to my physical appearance. I once told the story of a family member

[00:11:18] that saw an old photo of me in my sleep till two in the afternoon del taco days and said that I still look the same today, even after all of the time I had spent lifting weights. So you might've initially considered me a non-responder. As Rachel mentioned, I was only working out two to three times per week and thought there was no way I could do more than that. I thought somehow my heart would explode if I upped it to four to five times per week. But eventually, I mixed up my routine,

[00:11:48] started increasing my workout frequency and training volume, and finally, the results started to become more obvious. So if you feel you're a non-responder, let that belief go. Instead, mix things up a bit. But increase something in your routine, the intensity, the frequency, the training volume, meaning more sets or more reps or both, and good things will continue to happen. They just might be more noticeable this time around. All right, that'll do it for me for today.

[00:12:17] I'll be back here tomorrow for our usual Friday Q&A. So stay tuned for that, where your optimal life awaits.