Hi my dear readers, This year, in Paris, winter was very short, and in the middle of February, it was not uncommon, to see people walking down the street with only a T-shirt on their back. Sun's rays and the relative warmth made us dropped big sweaters and sweatshirts very early in the year. Unlike previous winters, this one, I was on track with my diet. While others are ending the Raclette season with baby belly fat, I will welcome spring with a little more serenity...
We all learn from our mistakes... I mean... I hope you do! Me, I will never go through bulking again. Voluntarily gaining weight for a few months and hoping to create muscle, then once fat as fuck, slowly lowering calories intake to lose weight while minimizing muscle loss for even longer... And during the all process, I could not stand to look myself in the mirror, hating my own reflection. That is harsh. Returning to France after five years spent in China was difficult. You all know this feeling, flying back home after the holidays; the very first days are tremendously brutal, it is the post-vacation blues. Even though, I was happy to see my family and friends, deep down it had affected me more than I could ever imagine. And similar to my younger me when I was sad, without noticing it, I started to binge eating. Four months after my flight landed in Paris, my weight scale showed a surplus of sixteen kilos.
But I did not really care at first; I thought that my body needed to adapt to the western diet and a small weight gain was inevitable. Moreover, that time I found myself a little skinny and I read everywhere that a calorie surplus is necessary in order to build muscle. So be it. I gained weight and I was then, confident in the good course of my physical objectives of bulking. Sixteen kilograms in four months... God damn!
After a year of nutritional rebalancing, during which my fast-food, kebab and pizza consumption were almost equal to zero, I dropped a big amount of weight, and my body is now closer to my ideal body shape. I'm not talking about a restrictive diet or something like that, because honestly, I have not deprived myself at all, I have just paid attention to my food choice. As for my physical activity, little has changed. My training sessions have always been and still are pretty intense. My body recomposition is clearly due to my nutrition changes.
What intrigues the most around me is not my recent transition toward a vegetarian diet, but my food supplementation and especially my protein powder intake. On one side, me getting leaner and leaner and thus more aesthetic and in the other side, I am drinking protein shakes... A shortcut can easily be made. In fact, while I was exchanging with my friends, I realized that there was a lot of misconception and myths around these dietary supplements and negative prejudices for those who consumed them.
The most common thing I heard about food supplements refers to the darkest side of bodybuilding practice and actually the darkest side of any sports in general, doping and death. Note that I only take protein supplements, but that's enough for some people to categorize me as bodybuilding junky at the same level as those that have taken chemicals and anabolic steroids to enhance their performance. For them, my relative athletic physique is just a question of protein intake, not my four to five years lifting experience during which I have acquired and expanded my nutrition knowledge. Nope, for them, you just have to take protein supplement to get big and strong.
To some extent, they are not wrong. Protein is essential for building or maintaining muscle mass. However, this does not mean that by increasing your protein intake, your body will automatically build muscle. A stimulus is essential for growth, and I'm not talking about these electrodes sold in Teleshopping, but I am talking about mechanical stress. The body is a fabulous machine, with a good nutrition and rest time, it will get bigger and stronger to adapt to the stress you have put your body under.
But if you are supplementing yourself with protein powder, just to do as everybody else in the gym, Instagram or Youtube without doing any kind of resistance training, you will gain weight, mostly fat and you will just lose money and time. Nothing more. Indeed, food supplements are well named; they are ideally supplementing a healthy diet, but imperatively well-structured diet.
Taking a protein supplement without analyzing your needs and your actual intake... It's a bit like going to a gas station and decides to add 30 euros of fuel without even check the tank gauge first. Nobody does that! It's taking the unnecessary risk of spoiling money and seeing the fuel overflowing and spilling to the ground. If in your diet your protein intake is sufficient to support your fitness goals, taking supplements will not be beneficial. On the contrary, excessive consumption of protein will cause kidney failure... Yes, that is true, here; we talk about big muscles and cars because I am a fucking meathead!
Some people also tell me that protein powder is not a natural and not healthy. I can partly understand their opinions. Powder is not appealing as a food and it actually looks chemically and because of that it appears unhealthy. Some supplements are even sold in capsules, or in ampoules... Myself, I find it very intimidating. I only take whey protein; the other stuff does not interest me.
- What's the whey? - Whey is the liquid material created in the cheese production process. - Ohhh, so you consume dairy products? You know it's not good for the planet. Have you ever thought about all of those cows who have certainly never seen the light of the day and are raised in battery cages and stuffed for their livers to get all fatty? Wait... Didn’t you say you were vegetarian? You are such a liar... - Would you shut the fuck up? You get everything wrong and you get nothing right. You are exasperating me...
So... I was saying that the powdered appearance of whey can scare some people. But when you think about it, there are many foods and condiments in this form in the modern diet like milk powder, most spices, chocolate powder... All kinds of flours appearances are not so far from protein powder. For most people it is inconceivable to replace a traditional diet with powder, because we lose the most important, the "pleasure of eating". Naplock!!!
So do not confuse everything! Food supplements are meant to complement and not to replace. I have been eating four to five meals daily for years to provide my body with regular protein intake. After a while, you do not take much pleasure in eating that often. It's tiring to cook and chew and above all, it is really time consuming. Whey protein powders mixed with a little water, bring convenience and it saves a lot of time.
The end of the story is that before demonizing protein powder, take the time to read the list of ingredients of the products you consume the most, you will find a lot more chemicals than in the whey that I consume. Inform yourself and before buying a food product, read its nutrition facts table. Learn the basics of nutrition, you will see, it is not complicated at all! You also must define your needs and your actual protein intake before buying dietary supplements. Maybe you do not even need to buy some. Finally, the most important point, it will be more beneficial for your body to clean up your diet by eating whole, fresh and unprocessed products than to supplement a diet based on the consumption of fast food, industrial products and sweet beverages. Your health will thank you for that, and maybe, you will not need to consume as many pharmaceutical drugs in your life... But that's another story.
Well, that'll be all for this week.
Kitofoto
Ps: I hope you stick to your resolutions. If it is not the case, do not be too hard to yourself. Raise your head! You need to pull your finger out! Smell them... Let's say it smells like defeat huh?! Nobody likes that smell; put your fingers away where you found them please... But even with one hand, stick to your goals: D