Strive to *Lose* Weight, Not *Gain* Weight

Weight reduction (for sports cars), and also fitness (better to lose body fat than to add muscle mass).

What do guys want?

It seems the bias for men is this:

Gain weight (a shortcut for body size and mass) above all.

A lot of guys go through ‘bulking’ phases, then strive to ‘cut’ later, to obtain their best physique.

However the problem:

If you make the purpose of your life and fitness to just keep gaining weight … there are a lot of downsides.

For example, force-feeding yourself food (not fun). Or seeing your ego as dependent on the number on the scale (not good, as you can be gaining body fat not muscle mass yet not know the difference).

Don’t focus on weight, focus on strength.

I say–

Better to just focus on powerlifting (to ultimately increase your ‘one rep max’ for any given lift) than to track your muscular mass growth, weight growth, etc.

Why? The secrets of augmenting muscle mass still seem like a bit like witchcraft (too many competing theories), but increasing your one rep max in powerlifting is far simpler (just add 2.5 pounds to each side of the barbell, once a week).

Gaining weight towards what ends?

Why do we care for our physique and gaining ‘weight’? It seems in order to gain a *more beautiful* physique.

And this is a genuine deep philosophy:

Having less fat (superfluous elements) is more beautiful than having more mass (at the expense of being fatter).

For example, it just comes as a design philosophy and ethos as well.

I find cars which are smaller, more compact, and lighter as more aesthetically beautiful than cars which are bigger, more powerful, etc.

Weight saving benefits

Then it seems our life goal should be to *LOSE* weight, rather than add weight.

For example, with travel — strive to LOSE WEIGHT (lose weight in your backpack, tools, equipment, shoes, clothes, etc) than to have ‘better’ things. And what is the benefit of traveling uber-light? Simple — you can do more, explore more, photograph more, with less fatigue.

Optimize for lightness?

The only brand I know which does this is probably montbell, and to a degree Uniqlo.

For example montbell’s website is the only website I’ve seen in which there is a filter for lightness. And as my backpacking mom (umma) knows, hardcore backpackers are willing to spend thousands of dollars just to reduce the weight of their bag by a few ounces. Montbell’s design philosophy of ‘light and fast’ is a good one, because the lighter your stuff, the faster you can go (the ultimate goal).

Conclusion

With products, optimize for lightness not ‘power’ (air over pro)
When packing for travel, think that it is better to be ‘under-equipped’ (but lighter), than to have all the stuff and be heavy.
With clothes, optimize for lightness. For example, UNIQLO ultralight down jackets, merino wool t-shirts, and lightweight merino wool leggings.
Perhaps mentally, also optimize your mind for lightness?

ERIC

PHILOSOPHY by KIM

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Strive to Lose Weight, Not Gain Weight

What do guys want?

Don’t focus on weight, focus on strength.

Gaining weight towards what ends?

Weight saving benefits

Optimize for lightness?

Conclusion

PHILOSOPHY by KIM

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