Why I Don’t Count Calories Anymore

After years of counting calories in order to lose weight, I finally realized that not all the weight I was losing was actually fat. Look at any photo of me from the ages of 13-16 and you will not see one ounce of muscle on my frame! All you will see is skin and bones. And even after a year’s worth of training with weights in the gym, following an extremely calorie restricted diet, I looked pretty much the exact same. I couldn’t figure out as to why I was not progressing with my physique. I trained hard in the gym for 12 months straight. I rarely cheated on my diet and didn’t ever really consume junk food. The problem was though that I wasn’t really consuming any food at all!

After a few more years of trial and error with my diet and training, I eventually realized that part of the equation to building muscle, is feeding muscle! Muscle can’t grow without food! It seemed so simple. But it also seemed extremely difficult for someone who was afraid of calories and who feared food.

Learning About Nutrition

I’m extremely grateful to have started my training in a gym that was surrounded by hardcore bodybuilders and avid lifters. The older guys in the gym took me under their wings and taught me everything I needed to know about carbs, fats and most importantly protein. I learned how to utilize certain macronutrients to my advantage for both my Pre and Post-Workout Nutrition. I was taught the difference between simple carbs and complex carbs. I understood that not all fats were bad and how to incorporate the healthy fats into my diet for optimal health. At the time I was coming up, protein was emphasized to be the most important macronutrient of them all. For this was the macronutrient that would allow me to build optimal amounts of muscle. Looking back now though, with a much better understanding of Dietary Nutrition, I no longer think that protein is the most important macronutrient. In fact, I consider all 3 macronutrients to be equally important when it comes to following a balanced nutritional plan.

Trusting The Process

I knew that in order to change the way I thought about food, I would have to change the way I went about eating. Therefore I started to think of food as gas for a car. I used that analogy and applied it to myself. I was the car and food was the gas I would need to get from point A to point B. At the time, I thought of food as only a tool to help me achieve my goal of becoming more big and muscular.

As I started to add on size, I would worry as the scale was starting to go back up again. Talk to anyone who has ever had an eating disorder and they will tell you that a number going up on a scale IS NOT what you want to see. With that said, I knew I had to trust the process, as I felt that all the weight I was adding on was quality weight. I was getting stronger in the gym and was getting more compliments on my physique by people around me. But the number on the scale still lingered in the back of my mind and each day I would weigh myself to make sure I wasn’t getting too heavy too quickly. Although not the healthiest habit, this strategy did prove to work well for me, as it allowed me to have a better understanding of how easily a number on the scale could be manipulated just by things like sodium, water and carbohydrates. In turn this improved my relationship with both food and my weight as I slowly began to realize that the number on the scale did not reflect entirely upon my results.

Building That Muscle Maturity

By the time I was 18, I was sitting at a healthy looking 180lbs of mostly muscle. My body fat was low. My energy levels were high. And my eating disorder had seemed to vanish. I no longer feared food but I didn’t eat for enjoyment either. I ate purely for reason. And my reason was to be big and muscular. At the time, I didn’t realize that perhaps this may have been another eating disorder that was slowly developing, but at least I was now eating. And I was eating alot!

I’ve been eating, sleeping and living the bodybuilding lifestyle for close to twenty years now. I’ve never considered becoming a professional bodybuilder, however I do enjoy competing in local amateur bodybuilding shows every few months. I find that following a regiment plan with my diet and my training allows for me to excel in other areas of my life as well. My business has never been busier and I owe a great deal of that to bodybuilding.

Sometimes I look back at my teenage years and realize that if it wasn’t for the gym, I probably would have gone down a very dangerous path, both health-wise and lifestyle. My eating disorder perhaps would have become worse. And my social circle at the time was not the greatest influence either. In fact, when I think about it today, most of my friends that I grew up with are now either in jail or have passed away.

But that’s a story for another day……..

Yours in Good Health,

Nick Cosgrove
Forever Fit Performance