Why don’t you look like you work out?

Changing how you look isn’t the only reason to work out, but it is part of the motivation for most people. I usually try to help people find other motivations and goals that aren’t heavily influenced by societal pressures. Even when we can make our primary goals about overall health, performance, or longevity, it’s still nice to like the way you look. So it gets incredibly frustrating when you’ve been working out for months or even years and don’t see the changes you want in your body's appearance. What gives?

The Workouts are Working

I’ve seen it time and time again where people aren’t seeing the aesthetic changes they want, and they blame the workouts. They question our programming and maybe even begin to look for answers outside of our gym in the form of fitness influencers or trendy fitness advice. This falls into the category of looking for the easy button. You begin to think there must be something you’re not doing and that you need to add this new thing into your training, and it will make all the difference. You’re not wrong, but the answer isn’t what most people do.

If you work hard during your training sessions, your body changes. You’re becoming a more capable and resilient human being. Your life expectancy is going up, and you should be seeing a higher quality of life right now.

But you’re frustrated that you can’t see those changes in the mirror.

The Most Important Thing

In our theoretical hierarchy of an athlete, the foundation is nutrition. This is the most important part of any fitness-related goal. Whether it be longevity, health, performance, or esthetics. You don’t need to add more to your training. You need to treat your nutrition like it matters because it does.

If you don’t look like you work out the reason is a combination of several factors, all of which are nutrition. They are also not easy buttons, and they work together to create the best-case scenario. This makes it a little more challenging because you probably can’t just change one thing. You need to view it as a wholistic approach.

Micronutrients

We recommend at least two servings of fruits or vegetables for every meal. These provide your body with enough micronutrients that you stay healthy and the basic systems of your body run properly. Things like your

• organs
• immune system
• central nervous system (brain and spinal cord)

The healthier you are, the more resources your body can use to build muscle and increase performance. With higher performance comes the potential for more changes in how your body looks. These micronutrients won’t affect how you look directly, but they are the foundation for your body's transformation.

Macronutrients

The three major categories our food falls into are protein, carbohydrates, and fat. These macronutrients are the resources our body uses for daily energy, muscle growth, and other vital processes. Each of these macronutrients is important for body change but there isn’t a precise perfect number. So don’t get too down in the weeds about it.

This is where the work comes in. We have to spend time and effort seeing how our body responds to different amounts of these. You need to eat enough protein to allow your muscles to grow in response to your workouts. You need to eat enough carbohydrates to fuel your workouts so you can push hard enough to drive your body to make changes. Your body needs fat to function properly and helps ensure you’re getting enough calories every day.

That’s generally the path I recommend for people after their micronutrients are nailed down. Find the right amount of protein for you, and find out how much carbohydrate you need to fuel your day and your workouts. Then, fill in the remainder of your calories with fat. Just because I leave fat for last doesn’t mean it’s not important or it’s bad for you.

Calories

Excess calories are the culprit for excess body fat, and body fat covers up our hard-earned muscles and keeps us from looking the way we want, but that doesn’t mean you go on a starvation diet. Everything I said above still applies. You need all those resources to look how you want. It’s a balancing act that allows you to eat enough protein, carbohydrates, and fat to get all the results from your workouts but also not eat so many calories that you hold on to excess body fat.

This is why crash and starvation diets don’t work. They don’t provide enough resources for the body to recover, grow, and thrive, and ultimately, they aren’t sustainable. Figuring all this out can take some time, a lot of consistency, and some form of tracking. Even if it’s a simple tracking system, if we aren’t tracking and consistent, we have no idea what variable we’re modifying to see change.

After reading this, you’re probably thinking, no wonder most people who work don’t look like they do. That’s a lot to figure out. It is, and depending on the degree to which you care about how you look, it would need to be more or less precise. Either way, the principles are the same. Working with a coach for a few months can be a huge help in getting you moving in the right direction but if you’re patient and committed, you can figure it out for yourself. It just might take longer.

As I mentioned earlier, there is something you need to add to your training that will improve your appearance, but it’s not more training. It’s putting more effort into your nutritional plan and being consistent with it. It truly is the foundation of all our fitness endeavors. The rabbit hole goes pretty deep here, but what my years of experience have seen is that most people don’t need more information and details. They need to start by considering their nutrition period.