The Cost of Shortcuts In Fitness

What are your goals? Do you want to lose weight? Build muscle? Get stronger? Faster?

Whatever your goal may be, would you rather have it right now? Or would you prefer to reach that goal in ten years?

All of us would say that we’d rather reach our goals immediately. That’s human nature. Our time on this planet is limited, so the sooner we get what we want, the better.

I’d argue that we should be wary of always trying to reach our goals as quickly as possible.

There is a difference between efficiency and cutting corners.

Assume we want to change our body composition- lose weight, or build muscle. We have many options. We can control our caloric intake, and slowly but surely change our body fat and muscle mass ratio.

We can often speed this process up by either severely cutting calories, or dirty bulking- eating a ton of calorie dense foods.

These can be valid options at times, but more often than not, these are just different forms of cutting corners. Dirty bulking can easily lead to fat gain, damage to our cardiovascular health, and loose skin once we decide to cut back down.

Cutting calories too heavily- Crash dieting can cause trouble as well. It can lead to muscle loss, loose skin developing, hormone imbalances, and so on.

Drugs are another tool that lean towards corner cutting. I do believe everyone should be allowed to do what they want with their bodies. However, I think it’s important that people really look into what these drugs are doing to them in the long term, and seriously examine their goals.

Steroids take years from your life. They can damage your heart, age your skin, cause hairloss, and lead to infertility. In some cases they can be the fastest way to build muscle, but are they really efficient if they cost you in other areas? I personally don’t think so. And what happens when you have to stop the drug use? In the end, were you just paying a subscription fee to have that level of strength and muscle?  Can, and should these tools be used forever?

GLP-1 Drugs, and things like Clenbuterol can be used to lose fat. GLP-1 drugs specifically can drastically improve the quality of a person’s life, and help them reach their goals. For some, these drugs are just efficient ways to reach their goals. For others, these drugs could be used to cut corners.

We need to ask ourselves, have we considered the costs of using these tools? Will we lose our goals, will we regress when we stop using these tools? Can, and should these tools be used forever?

How can we tell the difference between efficiency, and cutting corners?

A good rule of thumb is to see if the method feels “easy”. If it feels like cheating, or “hacking the system” then we’re likely just cutting corners. Consider this; if something could efficiently lead us to our goals and felt “easy” or like a “hack” we’d probably have reached our goal by now. Another litmus test to decide if we’re being efficient, or just cutting corners, is if we can articulate an actionable plan for after we use the tool?

“After I gain 20lbs from dirty bulking, I’ll lower my calories by 700, and recomp from there.”

 “After I lose 50lbs, I’ll figure out my caloric maintenance and remain there for 6 months, then slowly lean bulk.”

This thought process can be the difference between using a tool efficiently, or just cutting corners, for the same person in the same situation.

Mindfully achieving our goals is vital. It can protect us from tools that may harm us in ways that we aren’t ready to tackle. I.E, Hopping on steroids to build an aesthetic  physique, only to lose your hair. Or taking medication to help lower your hunger, to lose weight and be healthier, only to end up with high blood pressure as a side effect.

Being mindful of how we achieve our goals also makes us harder to manipulate. Companies are striving to separate us from our money, and they aren’t above selling you a subscription service to your goals.