Fat But Fit: Liberating Lifestyle Motto Or Risky Resignation?

How to look behind the smokescreen for discoverable health issues.

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Image designed by Dr. Lutz E. Kraushaar, integrating elements of AI tool Designer

Here is the podcast version of this post.

What is new?

Futile weight loss efforts shouldn’t be brushed off as a lack of discipline. In this exemplary case study, a not-often-applied test revealed some unexpected and remediable health conditions that would otherwise have had undesirable future consequences.

Why it matters

Looking closely at where routine clinical practice doesn’t look can help you to dramatically increase your health currency in terms of life years lived to the fullest.

Your Takeaways

A blow-by-blow of an actual case study — a poster boy of the fat-but-fit paradigm. You’ll learn :

• How to replicate the investigation for yourself

• How to understand and interpret its results

• How to optimize your health expectancy through targeted lifestyle measures

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A Nagging Suspicion

Three weeks ago, my friend Maurice emailed me to ask why his cycling mate, Markus, wouldn’t lose any of his substantial overweight despite an insane training load, phenomenal fitness, and a constrained diet.

I admit, I was tempted to brush it off. It seemed like the standard physics-defying claim about gaining fat (or not losing it) on a calorie deficit, typically uttered by people with a selective memory of food intake and euphoric misconception about energy spent (if that sounds jaded to you, wait until you have analyzed as many research participants as I have).

Not so, said Maurice. As a top-performing recreational triathlete, he had been training together with Markus for years and could attest to his fitness and exercise routine.

Cranking out 300 watts, not just for the last minute of a maximum exercise test, but for full ten minutes, is as painful as it is impressive. And it puts most 20-years younger guys to shame.

So, I agreed to have a closer look.

Maurice was right, I was wrong.

What Markus’s case illustrates may resonate with you and also possibly help you in several aspects.