Can You Stay “Super Fit” with a Less Than Super Diet? By Darren Woods
Can You Stay “Super Fit” with a Less
Than Super Diet?
Darren Woods
Have you ever seen “Super Size Me”? Let me give you
some background on that movie. So basically, an average joe—no offense—by the
name of Morgan Spurlock goes on a 30 day “diet” of only eating the famously
infamous (or infamously famous depending on your perspective) fast food
restaurant McDonald’s for every single meal. Yes, that’s breakfast, lunch and
dinner for those of you wondering if I really meant every single meal. Long
story short, Morgan gained 24 pounds, experienced mood swings, began to have
sexual dysfunction, and fat accumulation in his liver. OUCH, right? This movie
created huge head waves in the fast food industry, especially for McDonald’s.
This movie showed that eating fast food often, like many Americans do, may not
be the best for your health and well-being. What a shocker! But that leads me
into my real topic today: what qualifies as being super fit? What really is
super healthy? And what is truly considered eating healthy? If you are super
fit do you really have to eat super healthy?
Before we can get into the huge topic, first I had to find
out what “super fit” really is. Could I consider myself super fit? Can you
consider yourself super fit? Just to paint a visual picture, I am a Division I
college football player at UNLV, and I am 6’1.5” tall and 210 pounds. Now
growing up I was always a little stocky. Remember those “every once in a while”
doctor check-ups you did as a child? When I would visit, the pediatrician would
always chart my height and weight, and I would be classified as slightly over
weight. It wasn’t until I really started to fill into my body structure that
the pediatrician would see I was more muscle than fat. I can credit most of
that to my genetics. My dad is super huge and “buff,” and my mother is nothing
short of a fit athletic soccer mom. Thanks, parents! However, even now, without
examining my body build and just going off a BMI chart (body mass
index), I would be considered “overweight.” But, if you ask my coaches and
trainers I look like “a million bucks.” In football, I, personally, could
consider myself to be “super fit.” There are thousands of definitions of “super
fit,” and most sources out there don’t tell you what it really is, they just
tell you how you can get “super fit.” Instead of going on a wild goose chase
for some world renown expert on fitness, I decided to talk to my team Nutritionist
and Strength Coach Sean Manuel. I call him Manny.
Manny explained to me that, “there is no real consistent
example of ‘super fit.’” A person can be fit, but everyone’s body is made up
different and outputs different results. “BMI charts are a waste of time,
especially in the sports world because it’s basically judging a book by its
cover.” Manny gave me a BMR (basal
metabolic rate) chart that break downs a person’s weight and details their
appropriate nutrient intake based upon if they want to lose, maintain or gain
weight, and this specific chart was tweaked to fit the specifications of a D1
football athlete. Manny’s intel was great, but I was still searching for what
qualifies to be “super fit.” I dug for articles and stories on what “super fit”
is. I then googled its definition. Collins Dictionary defined super
fit: extremely fit; extremely sexually attractive. I came to my conclusion
that “super fit” is more so coming across of looking fit like the models in the
Bowflex commercials. I’m not taking anything away from actually being
athletically fit, but in today’s society it is all about looking the part.
Sorry to be blunt, but that is the ugly truth in today’s society. So, I guess
the real question becomes: what does “super fit” look like? Super fit is
looking…super fit. Plain and simple.
That leads me to the next question on the table: what really
is super healthy? I learned from my past mistakes, so this time I decided to
define “super healthy” first. Let’s break it down. “Super” as defined by Dictionary.com
is: of the highest degree, power; first-rate; excellent. “Healthy” is possessing
or enjoying good health (soundness
of body or mind; freedom from disease or ailment). Thus, in my own words,
“super healthy” means having great, above average health. Moreover, I can say,
in this day and age, “super healthy” is looking “super fit.” Ironic, right? I
did some research on being healthy. Every forum and chat room I visited seemed
to hang around the same meaning of “having good health.” Good health is a state
of complete physical, mental, and social well-being while being free of harmful
disease. However, in this sense I’m talking more of the physique of a person
and their athleticism.
Next I needed to clarify what “eating healthy” actually was.
Eating healthy has become an everyday, every meal conversation for decades now.
It’s pounded into our everyday experiences whether we are hearing it, seeing it
or even trying to attempt it. Eating healthy has taken media by storm. For my
generation, I can recall Subway really taking the reins first on eating
healthier. They came out with the huge advertisement campaign “Five Dollar
Footlong.” Americans, and even myself, fell victim to this catchy slogan. It
was pretty genius though. Eat fresh sandwiches for five bucks. Then the
flatbread craze hit. C’mon, could you find a better steal back in the day? You
were, at the time, to be considered eating healthier… right? After all, it’s
just a sandwich, they just made it more appealing. Kudos to Subway. Was it too
good to be true? Turns out… pretty much. A study
showed that a foot long from Subway measured up pretty close to McDonald's’
Big Mac in calories, and surpassed it in sodium. DAMN. Then, the Chipotle
epidemic plagued the states. (I’m not a fan of Chipotle, sorry. I had a bad
first experience.) Burritos and bowls! Again, it was just burritos and bowls. But
to me it seemed Chipotle was the only place people ate for two years straight.
Now, the tide is starting to turn towards picking healthier food products, cook
it yourself, and get fit yourself. Restaurants have even started creating
healthier menu section options. As Americans, we like presentation, and that
sometimes can be our downfall with nutrition. If it says healthier, it is,
right? But eating healthier is harder than just picking out a certain meal or
eating a salad. There is so much food out there to keep up with, and even more
difficult to keep track of which exact foods do what. The key: portions,
portions, portions. If you can learn to be disciplined enough to control
your portions and maintain the right calorie intake, you can become that
healthier eater you always pledge to be every New Years.
Now that I have pieced together the components of “super
fit”, “super healthy”, and “eating healthy”, the big-ticket question: if you
are “super fit” do you really have to eat “super healthy”? My opinion… no!
Remember that movie I mentioned “Supersize Me”? Recall how Morgan Spurlock, your
everyday man, ate McDonald's for 30 days straight and gained 24 pounds? Now
replace Morgan with a “super fit” athlete. How about Chad Johnson? Former
All-Pro receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals. While Chad was in the league he
claimed loving to indulge at McDonald's everyday all the while maintaining peak
performance on the field and keeping his “super fit” physique. Myth? Highly
unlikely! I visited a chat room that debated this topic. The argument was
split, but a point came across that I couldn’t resist in backing up. Chad is a high-performance
athlete who burns calories at an optimal level, so he needs to intake a high
level of calories in turn. Chad said, “you can eat whatever you want if you
work out right.” Need a more reliable example? My teammate Gabe McCoy is 6’2”
225 pounds, and is ripped. He’s is in great shape. Gabe eats McDonald's every
single day, but gains no weight. “Mickey Dee’s is my favorite spot, and I know it’s
bad for you… but I work hard enough to eat it a lot,“ Gabe said. He comes into
practice with endless energy and kills the weight room. Someone like Gabe or
Chad, who works out at a high intensity rate everyday can eat like that. I eat
McDonald's more often than I should too, but I see no difference in my energy,
performance and weight fluctuation much like Chad and Gabe. Remember when I
mentioned portion control and calorie intake? If I could take a wild guess as
to how many calories Gabe and I burn during two-a-day practices in the hot Las
Vegas desert sun it would be more than someone who sits behind a desk from nine
to five for 2 days in a row.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that if you are a
high-intensity athlete you can just start saving money and eating off the fast
food dollar menu all the time. I, personally, still feel the need to maintain a
balanced diet getting key nutrients from a wide variety of foods. The question
still resides: if you are super fit do you really have to eat super healthy?
From my findings, not entirely. If your level of activity is parallel to that
of a Chad Johnson or a D1 football player like Gabe McCoy and myself, you’re
burning unnecessary calories and fats like a wild fire. So that 540 calorie
Big-Mac is nothing compared to what someone considered to be “super fit” needs
to intake in their daily calorie chase.
You don’t have to eat super healthy like a salad day after
day if your body is putting in the work to burn off a supersized fast food
meal. This fast food diet isn’t meant for everybody, and I’m not sure it’s
really meant for anybody. But one thing is for sure, if you’ve got that ripped
Venice Beach bod and you work to maintain it day in and day out, several
hundred calories of junk food won’t ruin you.
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