Here in the Locker Room, we talk a lot about fat loss. Losing weight in the form of body fat is at or near the top of almost everyone’s list of fitness priorities. Sometimes it’s because of the doctor’s orders, sometimes it’s a matter of self-confidence, sometimes it’s a requirement for your job or hobby.
In any case, whether you are trying to lose 100 pounds, keep off the 100 pounds you already lost, or somewhere in between, there’s a good chance that your training and nutrition are aimed to support a leaner, lighter lifestyle that you’d like to achieve.
This mindset begs a question – and a seemingly silly one at that:
Is fat loss the most important possible goal?
In other words, is life anything more than losing body fat and trying to stave off it’s return?
As a Coach, one of the greatest pleasures I get to have on a frequent basis is listening to new clients talk about their goals. Most of them are fitness (and fat loss!) related, but oftentimes they trail off, talking about their career aspirations, family goals, and dreams of fulfilling their God-given mission work.
As a Coach, too, one of the greatest responsibilities I get to demonstrate on a frequent basis is truly listening to my clients, and not imposing my own goals for them.
I’ve had many conversations with clients who could lose over 100 pounds and still be considered overweight, yet their goals reflect nothing in the way of fat loss. Some have been more interested in learning how to exercise with great form; others have wanted to work on mobility training or cardiovascular endurance.
At this point in the client consultation, it is not my job to bring up the many health and practical benefits of reaching a healthy weight. It is not my job to create a low-calorie diet plan that would yield a few pounds of fat loss each week. Rather, it is my job to reach clients where they are at, and to lead them toward the goals and metrics that are actually important to them.
(Of course, body weight typically comes up in these conversations, and I do ask if they’d like to hear about how a lower scale weight might be beneficial in helping reach their goals faster and with greater ease. It would be negligent to ignore this metric altogether, but each client’s goal-set is the driving factor behind how I coach them and what we focus on. Fat loss may come as a result of focusing on these other things, which no one has ever complained about!)
It is conversations like these that bring me back to the root of all this fitness stuff. As we talked about last month, fitness is a ministry, and there are many ways to quantify “success” or “results” besides scale weight.
I suppose this peaks into my own answer to the question earlier.
Is fat loss the most important possible goal?
No.
Let’s dive a little deeper into 3 things that I believe you may agree are ultimately more important than fat loss.
(One last thing – it’s certainly ok to prioritize losing body fat. That’s not the issue by itself. The obsessive pursuit of fat loss, though, often leads to one or two grievous destinations: idolatry of self-image, and/or weariness from doubt-filled failures. This post may encourage you to flee from these traps, and to instead run toward things that are ultimately more important than fat loss.)
1. Physical Strength
Being able to approach everyday activities and wild out-of-the-blue scenarios with ease and strength is one of the simple pleasures of life. We usually don’t recognize our own strength until there comes a day when we are unable to use it, such as being injured or going under the weather. Focusing on building strength through progressively heavier, more challenging workouts is great fun and the reward extends far outside of the gym.
Working on physical strength can pair well with fat loss, but it’s not usually the most optimal way to achieve either goal. To put it simply, building strength works best when you have excessive energy (from eating calories) to use during your strenuous workouts and in the recovery afterward. Losing body fat only works when you have an energy deficit (from eating fewer calories than you burn), which results in lower energy levels and higher/faster levels of fatigue. These two competing systems lend themselves to two separate approaches. If your goals include both losing body fat and building strength, it’s best to focus primarily on one at a time, while placing the other “on hold” via your training and nutrition. For many people, this means maintaining strength while dieting down to a healthy body fat level, then maintaining this new, lower body fat level while increasing workout intensity to build strength.
2. Mental Strength
Finding a sustainable groove in your life as a whole does wonders for your mental and emotional health. The goal is not specifically to “get comfortable” or to “settle down” – these are very passive concepts that usually fly in the face of the mission God has given each of us (more on that in a moment). Finding a sustainable groove is more about taking inventory of your time, energy, finances, and any other assets you have and intentionally spending them in ways consistent with your goals. Further, it’s about filling the gaps and plugging the leaks that sneakily suck up your time, energy, finances, and any other assets you have.
Here’s a hot-button example: your TV. At any given moment while you’re watching your satellite or streaming service, is it actively helping you to reach your goals? Is it actively helping to build your mental strength?
More than likely, the majority of the time we spend in front of our screens is mindless, joyless, and unfruitful. There are times when vegging out feels like much-needed rest, but we tend to default to this sort of behavior too quickly, then complain that we don’t have enough time, energy, or money to do the things we actually want to do.
(Can you tell I’m a bit passionate about this stuff? Can you tell I often have this conversation with many clients? Ha!)
All this is to say that building your life around the things that are actually important to you is a great way to increase your mental strength/resilience, which tends to be much more helpful than decreasing the number on a scale.
3. Spiritual Strength
Here is the crux of the matter – the ultimate why behind any fitness goal, any physical discipline or diet.
In order of their appearance in the Bible, here are the words of Jesus, Paul, and Timothy, respectively.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?”
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”
“For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”
Bigger than physical strength, better than mental strength – and certainly more important than fat loss – spiritual strength is the top byproduct of anything that we do, fitness or otherwise.
This type of strength is different for many reasons, not the least of them being that spiritual strength is really not strength at all.
Becoming stronger and built up in your faith is actually an increasing awareness that we can do very little by our own power and might. It’s an increasing awareness that God is working on our behalf and doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes. God knows everything, He’s in control, and He love you and me. Wouldn’t you prefer to hand Him your stresses and your dreams rather than trying to control your own little world by yourself?
Spiritual strength is wonderfully practical and immensely sustainable. It’s eternal, and it’s bigger and wider and deeper than anything you could accomplish by your own strength.
As a relevant tie-in to the Locker Room itself, spiritual strength has a way of bringing about physical and mental strength. These are all twisted and tied together and it’s simply our job to pay attention and to act accordingly. Look for ways to serve others and to love your neighbor – think about how building up your body and brain can aid in these missions, and think about what strategies will help lead you in that direction. You will need to put in some hard work, but God will take care of the rest!