Is a 'perfect' body worth it?

FearAnLoathing

no its not worth it at all if its only a few more pounds to go.yeah you have a great rock hard body but no fun.

bigdawg025

HELL NO... It's not anywhere near worth it. At that point are you really "living" anymore??? All things in moderation... and then at what point does it end??? That is how anorexia happens in my opinion. I refuse to stop enjoying life to have the "perfect" body. It's not one of my goals nor will it ever be.

CarlitaK

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So, I'll do without the six pack so that I can have the occasional six pack.
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SUCH A GREAT QUOTE!!!

I've thought about that a lot too. I know myself - I'll probably never be 100% satisfied no matter what. That doesn't mean i won't keep trying, watching what I eat, but I need my wine nights with my sister and beer with the superbowl, otherwise, life just seems too boring. I don't want to be afraid of food. That said, i never want to live to eat again, just eat to live.

I think it's all about balance!

abyt42

I'm 40. This is about as perfect as I can expect to get and, while I'm not about to buy a bikini, I'm finally back to my 4 year old self: not embarassed merely for having a body. That's pretty perfect.

michiganderrdh

For me it isn't about having the perfect body. It's about living a lifestyle that is healthy, fitness oriented and being happy. I feel as though the biggest road-blocks for people are that they are looking at things in the wrong way. Why are you saying you're depriving yourself when in fact your treating your body well by choosing things in moderation????? Can you have a drink??? Sure, why not. Should you binge and get plastered? I wouldn't recommend it. We rarely order out. Last night we ordered pizza but I was smart about what to put on it. Thin crust, light cheese and veggies. I seriously didn't feel guilt and I didn't feel deprived.
It's about making good choices and you won't feel guilty.

Since when is eating healthy and exercising not living life?????? I think it's loving life and treating your body as you should.

edorice

At age 40 and above it means more than just how we look. Or at least it should. I don't prevent myself from hanging out with my friends, but I am very selective with my time and what I would order when I go out. This is about my health and longevity.

zbstngrl

I always ate healthy, balanced food and by that I mean I just never had craving for junk food or sweets. I do love deserts but I never was addicted to them. However, eating healthy could still lead you to overeating that is why I made a decision to count my calories and so far it works wonders.
Does perfect body and weight worth sacrificing time with friends and family because you are too worried about the foods you might eat around them ? Not for me. I told myself that I will eat anything I want and will not make limits on foods that I desire but everything has to be in moderation. I decided to be realistic about my life style and the challenges it brings. When I am hanging out with family or out with girls. I enjoy myself and let myself splurge a little but what I noticed is that even if i wanted at this point (and I am far from my goal) I just can't physically eat as much as I used to. Plus for me it will be kind of defeating the purpose of enjoying myself and then feeling guilty about what I ate or drink...I just do better next day :-)

Good topic.

Cheers!

YeaILift

So my two cents on this topic.

You're talking about crossing over from maintaining your health, and improving it, to becoming "elite" in the body category. This isn't a question you can answer for someone else, only for yourself, and IMHO there's no wrong answer to it.

I've toyed with the idea of a perfect body. I'm very healthy right now, I'm athletic, I can do basically anything I want exercise wise, I'm a Personal Trainer, I play baseball all summer, I do all kinds of workouts. I can do Tabata protocol at the professional athlete level and not die after, I can do P90X in my sleep (except for the yoga, ugh, that sucks for me, I'm just not what you'd call flexible), yet I'm 37 years old, and so having a rock hard body and perfect abs is a LOT harder than it would be for say, a 25 year old. So my diet would have to be absolutely perfect every single day, and I'd have to work out a lot longer than the 45 minutes or so I do 6 days a week now.
For me it's probably not worth it long term, but I might consider doing it for a short (100 days or so) stretch, just to see how I look and feel. I don't feel like I'm cheating if I don't eat perfect, I don't feel bad at all if I skip a day at the gym. Because I'm realistic, I know that having that perfect body is great, but I'm not willing to sacrifice the rest of my life for it. I'm not trying to win body building competitions, so I won't be devastated if my body fat % goes up 1 or 2 percent over the next year or two.

Side note, that "perfect" body, isn't actually the most healthy place for the body long term. The amount of mental stress and physical stress you put on your body with the worries over calories and the long hours working out actually take their toll on the body over the long haul. Being 85 to 90% of "the way there" is probably better for you for longevity. Stress can be a huge deal to the body, long term release of stress hormones do a number on many vital systems, there's something to be said for taking a day off here and there and letting your body and mind just "veg".

I don't agree that your diet would have to be perfect. You couldn't reward yourself every other day, but you don't have to be flawless. As far as working out, if you mean doing more than 45 min of cardio, I think that is too excessive in the first place. I do no more than 20 min a day, but it is high intensity throughout.

PJilly

Great topic. I love all the different perspectives. My idea of the perfect body is finding the right balance of what I want to achieve and what I'm willing to do to achieve it. At 50, it's not realistic for me to have a "perfect" body, but what's cool is that I can have a healthy, fit, strong body, and it's definitely been worth it to me to do the work it took to get here, and it continues to be worth it to stay here. It's also been valuable for me to accept my body's imperfections and not let them keeping me from working hard and being happy with myself. I may never be perfect, but I feel pretty darned good.

SHBoss1673

So my two cents on this topic.

You're talking about crossing over from maintaining your health, and improving it, to becoming "elite" in the body category. This isn't a question you can answer for someone else, only for yourself, and IMHO there's no wrong answer to it.

I've toyed with the idea of a perfect body. I'm very healthy right now, I'm athletic, I can do basically anything I want exercise wise, I'm a Personal Trainer, I play baseball all summer, I do all kinds of workouts. I can do Tabata protocol at the professional athlete level and not die after, I can do P90X in my sleep (except for the yoga, ugh, that sucks for me, I'm just not what you'd call flexible), yet I'm 37 years old, and so having a rock hard body and perfect abs is a LOT harder than it would be for say, a 25 year old. So my diet would have to be absolutely perfect every single day, and I'd have to work out a lot longer than the 45 minutes or so I do 6 days a week now.
For me it's probably not worth it long term, but I might consider doing it for a short (100 days or so) stretch, just to see how I look and feel. I don't feel like I'm cheating if I don't eat perfect, I don't feel bad at all if I skip a day at the gym. Because I'm realistic, I know that having that perfect body is great, but I'm not willing to sacrifice the rest of my life for it. I'm not trying to win body building competitions, so I won't be devastated if my body fat % goes up 1 or 2 percent over the next year or two.

Side note, that "perfect" body, isn't actually the most healthy place for the body long term. The amount of mental stress and physical stress you put on your body with the worries over calories and the long hours working out actually take their toll on the body over the long haul. Being 85 to 90% of "the way there" is probably better for you for longevity. Stress can be a huge deal to the body, long term release of stress hormones do a number on many vital systems, there's something to be said for taking a day off here and there and letting your body and mind just "veg".

I don't agree that your diet would have to be perfect. You couldn't reward yourself every other day, but you don't have to be flawless. As far as working out, if you mean doing more than 45 min of cardio, I think that is too excessive in the first place. I do no more than 20 min a day, but it is high intensity throughout.

Dude, you're 21, I had a perfect body at 21 too, it's a lot easier at that age, trust me. When you hit your 30's and the Growth hormone levels are down by 30 %, your metabolism is reduced by 10 to 15%, and you have a sit down job, it's a LOT harder to keep up with it. I'm not talking about just cardio (and 45 minutes of cardio isn't excessive, that doesn't even deplete glycogen stores), I do Tabata protocol twice a week, then tack on 30 minutes of hard cardio after, do 2 days of straight 7.5 minute mile running for 5 miles, and a boot camp that last about 50 minutes every week. I also do 2 days of failure training with weights every week. In order to get down to the levels that I would consider elite in your 30's, you need to be perfect. I've spoken with a lot of professionals about this, multiple professional body builders, some endo's, I have a couple of RD's that I have a good email relationship with, all say the same thing, you can't cheat and expect to keep a perfect body, it'll catch up with you.

backinthenines

Great topic. I love all the different perspectives. My idea of the perfect body is finding the right balance of what I want to achieve and what I'm willing to do to achieve it. At 50, it's not realistic for me to have a "perfect" body, but what's cool is that I can have a healthy, fit, strong body, and it's definitely been worth it to me to do the work it took to get here, and it continues to be worth it to stay here. It's also been valuable for me to accept my body's imperfections and not let them keeping me from working hard and being happy with myself. I may never be perfect, but I feel pretty darned good.

At 50 you also have a body that most obese 20-somethings would give an arm and a leg for!!! :bigsmile:

I'm 40 now and if there is something that actually gives me great joy it's to be fitter than a lot of people half my age that I see at the gym. Perfect body??? It's all relative and like you say unrealistic at a certain age, but mine still looks and works alright for my age... :laugh:

backinthenines

I don't agree that your diet would have to be perfect. You couldn't reward yourself every other day, but you don't have to be flawless. As far as working out, if you mean doing more than 45 min of cardio, I think that is too excessive in the first place. I do no more than 20 min a day, but it is high intensity throughout.

Like the previous poster before me pointed out...

You're 21... let's see how you do in 20 years time, shall we?

And 45 minutes of cardio is excessive?? My partner is an ultra-marathon runner. If I told him that "opinion" he'd laugh his head off.

As your profile says... you train for vanity. Some people train for actual fitness and endurance and not just to look good while doing little twirls and flexes in front of the mirror.

DianaPowerUp

Wow, great topic! I go back and forth about that too. Why shouldn't I just eat that slice of pizza, bowl of ice cream, or whatever treat it is that my kids are enjoying? It's not fair, that if I do, I will pay for it for days (in trying to work it off). Then I think, why should I care? Most other women my age (almost 50) look like the next Pillsbury Doughboy, and don't seem to worry about it. Maybe that's the way we're supposed to be at this age.

But I don't give in, and I can't, b/c not only do I realize that that lifestyle is not healthy, I also want to be the best "me" I can be. And beyond the vanity and health issues, I see the bigger picture - that I have 3 little boys who see me as their role model, exercising, eating right, keeping fit....lifelong skills/attitudes they need for themselves.

So I push on, exercising almost daily, being careful about what I eat, making good choices.....I feel better, look better, and my kids think I'm Supermom. And sure, I'll have a slice (or 2) of pizza every once in a while. As long as pizza, wings, beer, whatever, is an occassional treat and not a daily ritual, it'll all work itself out in the end. I can't make myself crazy by denying everything out there.

a1schwei

bump

305muscle

Yes it is worth it I don't go out to bars or drinks with friends to be honest I don't have friends I tried to surround my self with people in the fitness industry that can't do what regular joes do

halobender

Yes it is worth it I don't go out to bars or drinks with friends to be honest I don't have friends I tried to surround my self with people in the fitness industry that can't do what regular joes do

No offense to you in what I say after this. You're totally ripped and I'd love to have arms like yours—I honestly don't think that I have the genes to be quite so ripped, though. (I say that with the knowledge that no man in my family is any bigger than I am unless it involves fat.)

But this isn't the life that I want. I don't want to ever say "I don't have friends". Maybe it's a little different because, where I live, people are pretty health-conscious. There is a lot of "skinny-fat" up here, because it's a massive drinking town (we have more/better breweries than anyone in the US). As such, I'm not friends with anyone who's fat—although my roommate is—and I don't hang out with anyone who's not at least close to as active as I am.

Typically we have pretty healthy meals ... but I like to have a few drinks with my friend(s), come back to my place to watch a movie, throw a frozen pizza in the oven and pass out on the couch.

I would be miserable without my friends, and even more miserable if I didn't allow myself a slice of pizza or an alcoholic beverage from time to time.

305muscle

Yes it is worth it I don't go out to bars or drinks with friends to be honest I don't have friends I tried to surround my self with people in the fitness industry that can't do what regular joes do

No offense to you in what I say after this. You're totally ripped and I'd love to have arms like yours—I honestly don't think that I have the genes to be quite so ripped, though. (I say that with the knowledge that no man in my family is any bigger than I am unless it involves fat.)

But this isn't the life that I want. I don't want to ever say "I don't have friends". Maybe it's a little different because, where I live, people are pretty health-conscious. There is a lot of "skinny-fat" up here, because it's a massive drinking town (we have more/better breweries than anyone in the US). As such, I'm not friends with anyone who's fat—although my roommate is—and I don't hang out with anyone who's not at least close to as active as I am.

Typically we have pretty healthy meals ... but I like to have a few drinks with my friend(s), come back to my place to watch a movie, throw a frozen pizza in the oven and pass out on the couch.

I would be miserable without my friends, and even more miserable if I didn't allow myself a slice of pizza or an alcoholic beverage from time to time.

I understand but you see we are 2 different people. With 2 different ideas of what "fun" is. My fun its being home on my time off from work or gym with my wife and 17 month old son so my life its work,home,gym that's all. We all have different views on "fun"

halobender

That's another thing, though. I don't have kids. When I do, I'm sure my lifestyle will change more toward that, certainly. It's not as though I don't enjoy working out, or kicking it at the pad, but I don't want either to define me. I don't want anything specific I do to define me; I want my definition to be an amalgamation of such things.

iRun4wine

Remember, looks (even the "perfect body") do not EQUAL healthy or the best fitness level.

Also, if you aren't going to be able to do something long term (like years and years) it's not going to work long term. In other words, you can bust your *kitten* never eating a piece of pizza or a beer again, and working out obsessively, but the day you stop, so does the "perfect body".

PJilly

The thing I like about this thread is that there is no one right answer for everyone. Each of us has to decide what we want and if it's worth the work. I think that's pretty much what it's all about — and what it should be all about. I think more people would have success if they'd figure out what it is they really want, not what they *think* they should want, and then work toward that. Do I work hard to get what I want? Sure. Is it worth it? To me, it is. Could I work harder and have even more? You bet. Would it be worth it to me? Not really. If it was, I'd likely be doing it.

Alisha28

Not worth it. How sad to not have some ice cream in your life or have alittle fun with food. I am at a great weight and have 4 kids, I feel like yes I want to lose 5 to 10 more but I am not going to starve or feel deptived to do it and I am where your at I would have to get rid of all carbs and everything no way will I be able to teach aerobic classes and keep up with 4 kids without carbs.


Alisha

sixpackgoal

Great Topic. I am far from this goal but perhaps planned cheating may work calorie wise. Can you bank a few calories and splurge on a forbidden snack when the urge strikes? Or if your a runner and have a long run of ten miles.....can you eat an extra 1000 calories of something non healthy cause you have the calorie spread covered? You can do both and tsay within your calorie cap.

shreddingit

My perfect body is seeing nothing jiggle where its not suppose too, I want everything very toned. Its so worth it even if its for a couple of years. I dont want to be average I want to stand out. You can have tons of fun without having to grub on crap. I want to live for a long time not cut my time, so eating right is not just about having a perfect body is to be healthy, no sick days, no diseases..etc....

backinthenines

Great Topic. I am far from this goal but perhaps planned cheating may work calorie wise. Can you bank a few calories and splurge on a forbidden snack when the urge strikes? Or if your a runner and have a long run of ten miles.....can you eat an extra 1000 calories of something non healthy cause you have the calorie spread covered? You can do both and tsay within your calorie cap.

In some ways weight loss is as simple as calories in - versus calories out. So if you want to look at it in that really simple way, you could do what some people do, and deprive yourself during the week so you can "treat" your body to some nice junk on your "cheat" day.

Your example of long distance runners is interesting as I know quite a few of them. Those that are very dedicated to their training are actually very particular about what they eat, because good food is exactly what enables them to train and race well. People don't run marathons so they can go to MacDonalds afterwards. My boyfriend is an ultra marathon runner (distances beyond 26.2 miles - his longest race so far was 50 miles). Do you honestly think you could fuel that level of effort on junk?