Question

Answered by Jamie Kerem

Have you ever looked at a picture of someone depicting an amazing physical transformation they underwent and thought: “How come they can do that and I can’t?” What separates those who can make a noticeable physical change from those who can’t, when both parties put in the same effort in the gym, and go through the same bodily torture? The answer is in what those two parties do after sweating it out on the treadmill or under the barbell.

Nutrition is a key aspect to any weight loss, strength and endurance or general health program. Without it, don’t expect to see that fat melt away or the peak in your biceps rise. An hour workout takes up just 4% of your day. Take a step back and think about what you’re doing for the other 96%. If you’re like any other human being, you’re fuelling your body’s never-ending hunger, and then letting it rest overnight. So what you feed it can literally make or break any changes you wish to see.

“Clean eating” is eating foods in absence of processed chemicals, high levels of trans fatty acids and free radicals, and high amounts of sugar. Think back to the caveman era, when men and women had to survive on the meat they hunted, the fruit and vegetables they gathered, and not much else. Nowadays, you can’t drive 400 feet without being greeted by the smell of highly refined, overly processed fast food. Our bodies were not meant to run on food that is high in calories yet low in nutrition. 

If you want to be in one of those pictures, illustrating your astounding transformation, and you already train your body consistently, then it’s time to take a serious look at the food choices you currently make, and discard anything our ancestors back in the caves wouldn’t touch with a ten foot stick.