How do I avoid looking “skinny fat”?

Q: All my friends who have purportedly lost weight just appear to be “skinny fat.” What’s going on, and how can I avoid the same fate?

 A: Your friends likely followed all of the bad advice that is rife in the fitness world: long, slow, distance endurance training, calorie restriction, fat and animal protein avoidance and no heavy lifting. Basically, they’re doing everything wrong. Yoga does not get you strong, although it may make you flexible if you do it right. Neither do Zumba, Shake Weights and other assorted infomercial fitness devices, virtually all gym machines and almost any group exercise class that’s offered at your gym. If you wish to argue that yoga is making you strong, it merely reflects how pathetically weak and atrophied you are!

Moving on. Calorie restriction doesn’t work for losing bodyfat, period. Instead, you need to manipulate macronutrient percentages and sources. Meat isn’t bad for you; fat isn’t bad for you. Spot reduction doesn’t exist, and long, slow distance training is unhealthful and boring. Lifting very heavy weights fixes nearly all these so called “skinny fat” problems.

So here’s the take-home message: Eat meat and fat, don’t restrict calories, don’t believe all the juicing bullshit or magical food-bar nonsense. Focus your gym time on lifting heavy weights frequently, and then cut out the massive volume of endurance training, and you’ll be fine.

 

Editor’s note: Ben White won his first IFBB professional bodybuilding contest, the Tampa Pro, in 2010. He is also a champion powerlifter and frequently competes in the World’s Strongest Bodybuilder contest at the Olympia. His best competition bench press is 711 pounds. He is an MPH athlete, www.MHPStong.com.  IM