STOP THE LIES: "It is much harder to get into shape than it is to maintain that shape..."

Today, I'm doing something a little different. Following several conversations at the gym and a few in my personal life, I decided to unpack a very specific claim in a very specific program (that, for the most part, isn't actually entirely terrible...except for crap like this.)

Beachbody's "21 Day Fix" program has been all the rage with many people that I know lately. I have done it myself. Heck, I continue to use a (heavily) modified version of the meal plan, and still use the work outs on days when the gym feels too far away.

The idea is relatively simple: There's an exercise every day (roughly 30 minutes) that you complete, and you eat foods off of a specific list that you portion out into containers, based on how many calories the program believes that you should eat (which is extremely problematic, on its own, but not the topic of today's post...I'll keep that one for another day.)

The foods on the list are well chosen. The work outs are well designed. And most people who follow it, myself included, will have some excellent weight loss results.

So if your goal is to lose weight, there is no doubt that this will likely help you get there. But there are some serious flaws with the system- and one of the biggest is its utter and complete disregard for the fact that- at some point- the weight loss actually has to stop.

I mean that literally. There will come a point where you should no longer be trying to lose weight.
But 21DF doesn't actually tell you when that point is. Ever. It mentions maintenance as a casual footnote, and gives virtually no indication of how to properly transition into a maintenance mode that is sustainable.

In fact, this is their FAQ note on maintenance, taken directly from their page:

"What is maintenance work?
It’s much harder to get into shape than it is to maintain that shape once you get there. You can generally maintain a level pretty close to peak fitness with about half the volume of your program. To maintain, you can utilize many different forms of training but the easiest is often 3–4 days per week of the program you just finished. It will decline slowly over time, but you’ll probably start another program or activity to pick up the slack after awhile."

The lies. The lies. They hurt my head. 
Sigh.
Okay, let's unpack this, one phrase at a time.

1- It’s much harder to get into shape than it is to maintain that shape once you get there.
No, it is NOT much harder to get into shape than it is to maintain that shape once you get there. The science on this is CRYSTAL clear. It is infinitely harder to maintain your weight loss than it is to lose the weight in the first place, so much so that 65% of dieters will return to their pre-diet weight within 3 years of their weight loss. Maintaining a weight loss is hard work, and it is a project that most who have had success have had to invest significant time, effort and money into managing. I don't care what BB says. That first line is just a plain out lie, and anyone with any sort of back ground in physiology and obesity studies will confirm that. 

2- You can generally maintain a level pretty close to peak fitness with about half the volume of your program. Alright, so this line barely even makes sense. Half the volume of what? The work outs? (So you should only do 3 or 4 work outs a week to maintain? Even though that little exercise would go against all the health recommendations for minimal activity standards?) Or the diet? (So you should eat whatever you want for half the week? And you won't gain back that way? Because...magic?) 

Here's the deal: The only way to maintain 'peak' fitness is to train at 'peak' levels. Ask any athlete- once you drop your peak training regimen, your body will react accordingly. If you want to maintain your body's composition, you will need to ensure that you are maintaining the elements that got you there: a strong, well planned diet that provides you with the calories you need for your daily activities (which, really, should always include at least some activity- even if it is light.)

3- To maintain, you can utilize many different forms of training but the easiest is often 3–4 days per week of the program you just finished. As I mentioned above, I'm not entirely sure what thy are trying to get at with the '3 to 4 days' per week idea here, but either way this is bs.

To "maintain" your body, you need to create a balance between your exercise levels (which, as we saw above, decline if you decline your activity) and your calorie intake. Weight, while more complex than it appears on the surface, generally comes down to a pretty basic formula: If you eat more calories than you burn, you will gain weight. If you eat less calories than you burn, you will lose weight. So, to maintain weight, you want to aim to eat as many calories as you burn, give or take. Now, of course, there are some deviations from that formula in terms of muscle mass and metabolic rate. But, generally speaking, maintenance is about finding your body's balance between the energy it expends and the energy it intakes. So unless you are making sure that the 3 or 4 days you take off don't exceed the 3 or 4 days you stay on, this advice for maintenance is really, really bad.

4- It will decline slowly over time, but you’ll probably start another program or activity to pick up the slack after awhile. Again, what does this even mean? What will decline? What slack? I thought you just told me that it was easy to maintain my weight loss, and that all I had to do was stay on my program for 3 or 4 days a week and all would be fine? What do you mean I will 'decline' slowly and need to pick up the 'slack'? Doesn't that imply that I'm not actually in a maintenance mode, at all???

Yes. It does. This advice literally will prevent you from going into a proper maintenance mode to begin with. Why? Well, Beachbody is *really* hoping that the 'program or activity' that you will choose to 'pick up the slack' with will be one of theirs. They aren't quite done making their money off of you, and- well...truth be told- proper maintenance mode just doesn't make them any extra cash. So they simply aren't going to tell you the truth about what maintenance is or how you can achieve that, because doing so doesn't contribute to their bottom line.

FACT: Part of the business strategy for any major diet company hinges of the statistical probability that you are going to regain weight...And generally speaking, it's a pretty strong likelihood that you will. But a big part of that is because no one is teaching you how to do proper maintenance work in the first place. 



It's a vicious cycle.

And, in the case of 21DF, it can be a dangerous one because I have personally witnessed several women continue to use the diet until their bodies are actually undernourished and underweight, two factors that are significantly greater health risks that being fat or even obese. 

Maintenance planning is an extremely important part of any weight loss project. Identifying healthy weight goals and working towards them is great- but remember to also take the time to ask yourself how you can sustain this goal.

Note: For those who want to engage in healthy maintenance using 21 Day Fix, it's actually really simple: Based on your weight, the 21 Day Fix plan gives you several variables, including a 'Caloric Baseline+400 (Fix Calorie Burn)". Now, granted, these are all estimates and are hardly personalized calculations...but, if you continue to do your work outs every day (so are getting in roughly 400 calories of energy expenditure) and are not seeking to create a deficit (so no longer trying to lose weight, because you are in maintenance mode), you should be aiming to eat 'roughly' the number of calories estimated in the "Caloric Baseline+400 (Fix Calorie Burn)" section. So calculate that number, and find the calorie bracket (portions) that is equivalent to that number and ensure that you eat at least that much food every day. If you work out more than predicted, eat more to account for it. If you don't work out as predicted, eat the same amount or roughly 400 calories less. 

There you have it- maintenance planning, made simple.

Now why couldn't they just have told you that in the first place?

Well...I think we already answered that one, now...didn't we?

****The following post is part of a series STOP THE LIES! aiming at deconstructing the hundreds (thousands?) of lies being told by the diet industry in an effort to shame people (usually women, but they are broadening their scope to men more and more...how very inclusive <eye roll>) into having unhealthy relationships with their bodies in an effort to sell them products. Enough is enough. It's time to expose these lies for what they are.