Getting off the Roller Coaster Ride

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patzsmith

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I finally settled on a solid low-carb diet which works well. I walk/hike daily for an hour. I do regular weight lifting and isometrics to build muscle, but that is slow going and at times I wonder why all the guys around me in the gym seem to so easily put on muscle. I workout with a few of them and we do the same general routines, spotting for each other, but my progress is so much slower, even they are baffled as they are watching me do the reps day in and day out.

I have been able to keep the weight off and I am at 160 and 5'11, well within my BMI weight range.

What i do not understand is, according to mainstream science, all I have to do to look like a human body that you see in any scientific anatomy book, with all the muscle built and right structure, is be within my BMI weight range. I am well within BMI but, as skinny as I am, I still have fat everywhere. Inside thighs, buttocks, stomach, inside and back of arms. My healthcare provider has no answer at this point, and before when I was obese the only answer they gave was I must be cheating and that as soon as I stop cheating I will lose the weight and look just like the human body in any scientific anatomy book. But i do not. And now they have no explanation other than I need to lift more weights.

Well, ok, i do not mind the weightlifting, what I mind is the contradictory statements and the lack of acceptance of the evidence at hand. I put in the work, i lost the weight and am keeping it off with a good diet and exercise, but my body still has fat and cellulite in so many places, even though I am skinny. I look terrible with my shirt off, no form or structure of any kind.

What gives? If mainstream science is right and all I have to do to look like a Christopher Hemsworth or Chris Pratt is lose the weight to get to my safe BMI range, then why does my body look so terrible even though I am well within BMI and skinny? Why should I have to do any extra work to lift weights if all human bodies are structurally the same in terms of muscle and posture? Does anyone else experience this?
 
Few people are going to look like the Chrisses just by reaching the right bmi. They didn´t. It takes hard training over a long time, balanced nutrition, possibly PEDs, and... a lot of luck with your genetics. Everyone can improve themselves but most of us will never look like famous actors or models. That said: congratulations on losing the weight and keeping it off! What kind of training do you do? Why isometrics?
 
No, that is not what mainstream science says. Go look at any human anatomy book and the typical muscles and development of every human body, unless medically diagnosed with deformity or the like. I have not been diagnosed with a deformity, my doctor says I am normal (whatever that really means), yet when i ask my doctor about why there is fat and cellulite where there should be muscle, they have no explanation. It was the same when I was a kid, so it is not about the aging of the body. It is about the fact that my body never has had muscle in so many areas. Why?

Why not isometrics?
 
Mainstream science does not say you can gain 20 lb of muscle while also losing significant body fat in 6 months (naturally, at least). Hollywood is fake: actors & actresses routinely resort to performance enhancing drugs, cosmetic surgery, body doubles, CGI, etc to make them look better than they are. And even then, when they are going to be showing skin for the camera they only do so when fasted & dehydrated to make their muscles pop the most.

And these people were already genetic outliers - even without their unnatural enhancements they looked better than 99.99% of the population, which is why they aren't waiting tables in LA like thousands of small town prom kings & queens with merely "good" genetics. So it simply isn't realistic to think you can look like Brad Pitt or Penelope Cruz if you just try harder.
 
That said, you can compete against yourself and strive to be better. Where specifically are you trying to build muscle? What exercises are you doing (weights & reps)? When are you doing them? What is your diet like? How much sleep and recovery time are you getting?

Also how heavy were you initially (do you have loose skin making you look less lean than you are)?
 
Hollywood aside (that was an example to convey meaning, not an end-all. If I say Joe Blow down at the local swimming pool or Jane Smith at the beach, no one has any idea who I am talking about and the reference is lost).

Just painting a little bit of the picture to give an insight.

The fact is, the average person looks like any human anatomy book body type, with full muscle/mass development and posture, and that is mainstream sciences stance. So, once I reduce calorie intake and even increase calorie burn, if I am diligent, accurate, and honest on my journey I will be well on my way to looking just like any human anatomy book body type, as per mainstream science.

According to mainstream science, if you do not look like any human anatomy book body type, meaning having/being more fat, then you must be eating too many calories and not doing enough exercise. But genetics do matter. Genetics control the development and structure of the human body. And if those genetic instructions are unbalanced, they can encode incorrectly and lead to underdevelopment anywhere in the body. Including muscle, no less.

And, the fact is, there are indeed average people in the world who do look just like a human anatomy book body type.

The question is, why do so few humans look like a standard human anatomy book body type?

Who else on this forum has put in the work like me, and yet still does not look like the standard human anatomy book body type?
 
At this point I think it would be interesting to a) see pictures of your (lack of) muscle, just to get an idea of what we´re talking about (mostly to rule out body dysmorphia) and b) know more about your training. Is it just looks that aren´t getting where you want them to be or do your struggle to progress strength as well? How´s your body fat percentage? For what it´s worth: I´m a physical therapist and fully immersed in mainstream medical thinking and I don´t expect most people to be able to look like fitness models. Mostly you´d need to be at ~15% body fat (or even less!) to do so, regardless of your muscle mass and bmi, and a lot of people just can´t do that without being very uncomfortable.
even they are baffled as they are watching me do the reps day in and day out.
You know that most people would react like that if their buddy wasn´t progressing, right? Even if they knew damn well why you weren´t progressing. I´m not saying that is the case: just that what normal friends say isn´t always reliable, especially when brutal honesty would lead to a fruitless discussion.

Edited to add: I enjoy working out, have done so for years, and I´m at a healthy weight. I have a very decent amount of muscle and am strong for a woman. I still definitely don´t look like a fitness model because I´m not in the borderline unhealthy low bodyfat range needed for that.
 
Firstly, well done with the loss so far.

I will second everything LaMaria has said

The Hemsworths do not look anywhere near as impressive when sitting at the coffee shop next to the beach as they do on camera (they hang out at my local beach). Having prepped athletes for both on stage and for photo sessions, there is a lot of tricks to make somebody who may have a dad bod look good in a photo shoot.

As Err2 said, a lot of Hollywood do take steroids or growth hormone (Stallone takes large amounts of growth hormone as an example)

Anatomy books do not show the fat so that those of us that need to read those medical anatomy books don't have the images of the muscles obscured by the fat that we know is there. If you had no fat then yes you would look like an anatomy book.

If you're simply just doing reps day in and day out it tells me your program is probably a long way from being correct for your goals and as has already been said you make no mention of your body fat %. however without that and just looking at BMI and your description of yourself, your BMI is in the middle of the normal range, and if you do not have much muscle as you say then you have a lot more fat to lose before that muscle will be defined enough to have the "fit look". We do not know how fast your weight loss was, but if you were in a large deficit you would have lost muscle as well as fat with a greater chance of leaving loose skin.
There is nothing fast about the process of body re composition.

You say you have a good diet, that fine, but is that diet focussed or losing fat or building muscle, what are your macro's like? what sort of meal timing do you have?

Like LaMa those anatomy books and science are a big part of what I do as a strength and conditioning coach working toward my degree in sport and exercise science (on top of everything else) I am a former national powerlifting champion among other sports achievements, but I will never resemble an anatomy chart, I have the genetics for strong muscle development, But I will never look athletic, my limb proportions are different to the "Average" making me look like a brick on stumpy little legs, that is also genetics. Training and diet will only take you as far as your genetic will allow.

Err2 has done a lot of research by choice and achieve amazing results so far and is worth listening to.
 
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