When I started RevFit, back in 2009, I needed to do a photo shoot for some marketing materials.
I didn’t know anywhere near as much about nutrition and fat loss as I do now but, like a lot of coaches, I felt like I needed to show off more of my body than I normally do, so the goal was the drop some body fat so I could show off more definition for those pictures.
Around that time, there was an actor on a popular television show, who had to do something similar for a series of episodes: diet down to a certain level of leanness so that his midsection would be more visible on camera.
He was interviewed in a magazine and spoke briefly about the diet he needed to follow for those results.
I looked at him, saw that we had a similarly lean physique, and figured since it wouldn’t have been comparable to me eating a diet like Chris Hemsworth or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, that perhaps I’d get similar results on the same diet.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
No doubt, I did get leaner for the very short amount of time I tried that awful diet, but I felt like absolute garbage and I never felt great about the outcome of those pictures.
And it reminded me of conversations I’ve had throughout the years about comparisons with other people’s bodies.
I’ve been coaching long enough at this point that I remember women asking for Michelle Obama’s arms and Carrie Underwood’s legs.
And of course, men asking for Chris Evans’ chest or Hugh Jackman’s arms.
And the most painful question to ask when it comes to all of this is the one we have the least amount of control over.
Do you have the same parents as the person you’re comparing yourself to?
If the answer is no, then everything that comes after is a roll of the dice.
(To be fair, even if the answer was yes, it would only matter so much).
But there are other questions to ask as well:
What drugs/supplements does that person take that I don’t?
How many hours a day must that person train to be able to have that body (or body part) or how much of their current physique simply comes from genetics?
Can that person afford a nanny for childcare, a personal trainer, a chef, a dietitian, etc. to be able to eat, train, and focus on their body in a way that I cannot?
Does that person have an eating disorder? Or, more importantly, do I?
Is the information I’ve read or heard about how that person eats and trains valid, accurate and comprehensive?
Fact is, you could know every detail down to the last rep and morsel of food as that person you’re comparing against, follow it all to the “t” and your outcomes will be different.
And once I realized that bitter truth for myself, I knew that the only thing I could do, was focus on building the best body I could for me.
Which means, it wouldn’t have mattered if there wasn’t enough context or detail for that TV celebrity I was taking inspiration from. What worked for him likely would never have worked for me because: we don’t share the same DNA and we’re just different people.
Not all comparisons are bad, of course.
If you were a physique competitor or bodybuilder, I can imagine making a vision board of admirable bodies or body parts could be inspirational.
But like a lot of things in life, competition aside, it’s mostly a game of you vs. you.
Let the better version of you win.
