This is my upfront clarification that this "article" and I will once again use that term lightly is a nonscience-based OPINION. Although opinion based, its contents have been collected through my hands on experience with dieting and training. If you disagree with anything, please save us all some time and refrain from citing excerpts from some study done at Cambridge or some other overpriced fancy school. This won't be a how to eat or how to train read, rather it's a call out to the people who've packed on a little too much over the years, to change and take back their lives.

Why would I want to lose weight?
Well, four short months ago (at the time of writing this) I weighed in for a meet at 417lbs. The simplest of tasks had now become a chore, breathing heavily, snoring, waking up gasping for air, these happened daily and had become routine. It became so regular in the fact that I begin to tell myself "ahh just normal power lifter problems."

But wait, it wasn't all bad. I mean the gain train was making mad stops in town; I was hitting PRs left and right. Of course, it helped that I had an abundance of fuel saved up. I mean let's be honest outside of smashing triple bacon ranch BBQ cheeseburgers and onion rings we aren't doing shit but napping in our oversized recliners, dosing off to reruns of world strongest man, and day dreaming about having some muscle separation. PR's are great; we live for them, but at what cost, diabetes by 30, a heart attack at 40?

I feel we use our passion and our drive to be stronger as an excuse for our addiction. Yes, I took it there. I'll admit it, I've been there, consumed by the "have to get bigger, have to get stronger, have to eat big to be big" mentality. We see these elite level guys post "a day worth of food" or an example of a "diet" and we go hey so and so is drinking a gallon of chocolate milk I need to do that. We see everyone deadlifting and eating donuts, and your thought process is "shit, let's pound the donuts because the guy next to me is jacked and strong as shit." Donuts must have something magical in them.

The reality is quite the opposite, most people we see smashing big meals filled with high caloric foods and sweets have a genetic predisposition to be smaller and leaner, these individuals will eat anything to get bigger. Now I could go into the rambling of insulin sensitivity and all that, but then I'd have to admit I think about more than tits and midget strippers (sorry had to break the monotony of seriousness). Plus as I stated earlier I'm not getting into all that fancy shit. There are other guys and girls out there that have amazing articles on nutrition. I recommend you spend a day researching some of them and lay off YouTube awhile.

See the way it works for us "Team Robust" members is we already are big… some of us even sloppy big. There is no reason to be eating to "get bigger" when you have an excess amount of body fat. If your 300lbs + and over 20% BF, donuts are the last thing your body needs, it's having a hard enough time to work the way it should. The focus for people like us should not be "get bigger" but rather "get better," we need to concentrate on balancing our body chemistry. I swear to you changing your focus will be worth it. We need to attack our diet like we do the s/b/d; we need a plan, a program. We need to log, track, count, and weigh. I know your first rebuttal will be what mine was "what if I lose strength?" Are you fucking kidding me what if you're wasting your life or have a stroke how fucking strong will you be then???

I get it a guy weighing 360lbs writing about weight loss. I'm not an egotistical jerk off when mentioning I have a decent amount of lean mass and carry weight well, with that said I'm still working on shedding body fat and getting my health in order. Trust me I get that it's strange, but please believe me when I say the change from 417lbs to 360lbs has shown me the importance of nutritional balance in my training. I recover faster, I sleep better, I digest food better, and the list of positives goes on and on while the list of cons is minuscule at best. I highly recommend finding someone to help you write out a diet plan or dig around the black hole we call the web and use it for something meaningful, something with purpose. Lean proteins, complex carbs, and healthy fats WILL change your life.

I feel if your goal is to be strong you must have some sense of self-pride, but to the outside world, your physical body says "I'm a slob," they don't see your strength. I honestly believe that a lot of bigger powerlifters go through this. "Get bigger get bigger" just to stop, look in the mirror and say "what the fuck did I do to myself." People will point out that you said: "I don't care that I'm fat I'm strong." Sure maybe you did say that, but people change life changes, attitudes change, and change does not make you a hypocrite. Rather it makes you enlightened; you're learning what is best for you. Don't worry about reneging on things you've said previously. It's impossible to move forward while looking backward. Take charge of your life, kick ass give it you're all, and I promise you will surprise not only yourself but everyone around you.

Down the road when you're taking stairs two at a time, hitting extra sets and reps because of you not being so fucking lethargic you'll start seeing muscle separation, vascularity. Hell, when you start seeing your dick in the morning; you'll start buying into it more and more, and it will become easier and easier. Now you're prepping meals; you're getting stronger; you're looking good, giving the girlfriend a few extra pokes, so she's in a good mood. Hell, maybe she'll start helping you prep meals, perhaps she gets out to the gym drops some pounds, buys some new clothes, and she's hopping on you like you guys just met. Instead of a car ride to McD's you go for a walk meet some neighbors and make a few new friends, get invited to the block party where your wife's chicken caesar salad is a hit. Now you're both glowing, loving each other, loving life, buying into the fitness lifestyle and the next thing you know the shy chubby kid at the gym, whose seen your progress, is asking you for help and you complete the cycle. So my question to you is why wouldn't you want to lose weight?

Moral of the story get your shit together you will enjoy life and training much more and much longer.