Shape Up by Shedding Fat
Chapter 12:
Useless versus Wrong Knowledge
"Information is power!
Information is power!
Knowledge is power!
Knowledge is power!”
Go ahead and repeat this falsehood as often as you like. It will not make it true. Knowledge is not power.
Knowledge is knowledge and power is power. Knowledge is the state of being aware of something. Power is the capacity to get work done.
In physics, power is the rate of dissipation of energy and it is measured in watts. When people say knowledge is power, they are referring to the former definition. They are referring to the capacity to get work done.
The president of a country has got power. He can get the representatives of a people to declare war on another country. The CEO of a company has got power.
He can decide; what product rolls off the assembly lines, and at what price. Any disciplined person has power. He can overcome procrastination and exercise regularly. Power is the capacity to get work done.
What do you think? Is it true that knowledge is power? How much power do university professors have? University professors have a large stock of knowledge.
If knowledge were power; then university professors would form the most powerful group in any country. The finance professor probably knows more about the economy and money than any given banker.
Yet, the average banker makes more money than the professor of banking and finance. Who has more knowledge of boxing, Mike Tyson or Mike Tyson’s coach? Constantine D’Amato was Mike Tyson’s coach.
Evidently, he knew more about boxing than Mike Tyson. Yet, was Mike Tyson not more powerful than Constantine D’Amato? If the stakes were not so high, it would have been amusing to watch people, parroting obvious falsities like “knowledge is power.”
I began this program by warning you about useless information and I end part 1 with the same warning. The problem; people face today, is information overload.
With abundant knowledge at our finger tips, comes the additional problem of distinguishing between right knowledge and wrong knowledge. Implementation is a surefire method to distinguish between right and wrong knowledge.
Wrong knowledge; when implemented, will not produce the desired results. Right knowledge; when implemented, will produce the desired results.
Implement the knowledge, and you’ll find out, whether it is right or wrong. If the knowledge is right, you will get the results. If the knowledge is wrong, you won’t get the results.
Power only comes from the implementation of right knowledge.
Ignorance is a state of lack of knowledge. The ignorant do not have power. Nonetheless, the ignorant are better off, than those, who are full of wrong knowledge.
The worst state is having your brain filled with wrong information. Ignorance will not get you hurt, but the implementation of wrong information might. Ignorance is better than wrong information. It is better, not to know, than to know a ton of falsehoods.
To get results, you must do. Knowing is not enough, you must do. If you know, yet, fail to do, you will end up just like the ignorant _ powerless and without results.
Beware of wrong knowledge, for it can actually harm you.
Avoid useless information.
Doing so will save you time and mental resources.
The time spent accumulating useless information could be productively spent on something else.
The mental resources devoted to accumulate useless information could be spent producing a beneficial value.
Useless information is information, which does not lead to any action.
I have gone through dozens of coaching programs. Most of them are filled with useless and sometimes harmful advice. Here is an example of useless information and another example of wrong information.
Leptin
Leptin is a hormone that inhibits hunger and thus affects how much you eat. This piece of information is valid; yet, it is a prime example of useless knowledge.
It is all nice and wonderful to know about the functions of the hormone leptin, but, ask yourself “how can I use this information to get a flat stomach?”
Keep this question in the back of your mind as you get more information about leptin. Leptin is made up of adipose cells.
Your body uses leptin to regulate energy homeostasis. Leptin receptors are located in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus.
The fatter you get, the less sensitive the receptors in your arcuate nucleus become. This explains why, overweight people often feel hungry more often than people in normal weight; even though, they have large reserves of energy.
Leptin is mainly produced in the adipocytes of white adipose tissue. Leptin often circulates in blood by attaching itself to proteins.
It can also circulate in free form. The quantity of leptin in your bloodstream varies throughout the day. The quantity of leptin in your bloodstream is higher during the night and the early morning.
Scientists theorize that, this is possibly an evolutionary trait as our ancestors didn’t need to eat during the night.
Truly useless information! Unless you were preparing for a medical degree, what do you really care about the form, in which, leptin circulates in the bloodstream?
Under exceptional conditions, leptin does not correlate with body fat levels:
-Fasting decreases leptin levels, initially.
-Starvation causes unusual variation in leptin levels.
-Sleep deprivation causes the leptin levels of serum to decrease.
-Perceived emotional stress will trigger an increase in leptin levels.
-Increases in testosterone cause leptin levels to fall.
-Increases in estrogen cause leptin levels to rise.
-Regular training will cause leptin levels to fall.
-Dexamethasone will cause an increase in leptin levels.
-Insulin produces an increase in leptin levels.
-Overweight causes leptin levels to rise.
How does any of this information help you? Your objective is to develop a lean body, not pass a test in advanced physiology.
Knowing, what you know about leptin, is there any action, you can take to transform this information into a benefit? No, there’s none. You want results.
Results are produced by actions. Useful knowledge is knowledge that shows you the right actions to take to get the desired results.
Does all the information about leptin, show you any action to take? If you want to know, whether information is useless or not; just ask yourself the question, “does this information show me any actions to take?”
Results are produced by actions. If the information does not show you any actions to take, it will not produce any results.
It will neither produce the desired nor undesired results. The information will simply lead to no results at all.
Wrong Information
You have an endless number of ways to get it wrong. More often than not, there’s only one right method. Sometimes, there is more than one right method to get the results.
The important thing to note; is that, the number of right methods is always limited. On the other hand, the number of wrong methods is unlimited.
It is impossible to cover all the categories of wrong information for there are just too many. Nonetheless, there are two distinct characteristics of wrong information:
i) It can be implemented.
ii) It never produces the desired results.
Sometimes, wrong information can be implemented. Sometimes, it only appears implementable, but it is not.
How can you determine, if information is wrong? The implementation of wrong knowledge does not produce the desired results.
So, how can you be sure that you have wrong knowledge?
Step 1) Implement it!
Step 2) Be meticulous in your implementation! Make sure that your implementation is exact! Follow with utmost precision, all the procedures described.
Step 3) If you still don’t have the results, then, you obviously have wrong knowledge.
It is very simple. This ongoing repetition is obviously tautological, yet, necessary. I tell you this because I see too many frustrated people. They remain stuck in the same rut for years.
It really doesn’t have to be this way. If you try a program and don’t get the promised results, retry it. While retrying it, make sure you implement all the instructions to the letter.
If you still don’t get the promised results, dump that program. The program contains wrong knowledge.
Let’s examine an example of wrong information. Information that appears implementable, but actually isn’t.
Calorie Counting
Any idea what a calorie is? A calorie is the amount of energy required to warm one gram of air-free water from 3.5degrees Celsius to 4.5degrees Celsius.
The whole idea of calorie-counting is based on the fact, that weight lose only occurs by spending more calories than you consume. Duplicitous marketers have capitalized on this fact to sell a variety of bogus diet systems.
What is the Reverse Taper Protocol (RTP)? Basically, RTP is a calories counting fad. The whole idea is to initially starve yourself intensely; then gradually start eating more as your body demands more fat. What does a typical RTP program entail?
1) Match the size of your calorie deficit to the size of your body fat store.
2) RTP claims to reduce the risk of binging.
3) The RTP diet claims that all the weight lost is fat, not muscles.
4) The RTP diet also claims to reduce the potential for huge weight regain.
On the surface, it appears implementable. But is it? Let’s examine the first claim. How can you determine the size of your calorific deficit?
Will the RTP diet pack come with a gadget that measures your calorific deficit? The truth is you simply have no way of measuring your calorific deficit.
Secondly, RTP claims to reduce the risk of binging. Notice how the marketers hedge their claim with indefinite wording, “reduce.”
They do not claim to eliminate the risk of binging, only to reduce it. But to what degree is the risk of binging reduced; by 50%, by 20%, by 10%?
The truth is diets have absolutely no effect on your decision to binge or not to binge. It does not matter, what type of diet, you are on.
The third claim made by RTP diets can never be verified.
Resistance training is the only way to guarantee the simultaneous lose of fat and gain of muscle mass.
If you are exclusively using diets to lose weight, you are going to lose both fat and muscle mass.
As we explained in-depth in the chapter on nutrition, diets only set you up for future weight regain. The type of diet does not matter. If you go on a diet, you will quickly regain the weight, once you stop dieting.
In conclusion, the claims made by RTP diets are either totally wrong or partially wrong. Furthermore, it is IMPOSSIBLE to implement any calorie-counting diet program. If you think it is possible; then, give it your best shot.
And that brings us to the end of part 1. In part 2 of this program, I’ll show you how to unlock your abs. You have already acquired the discipline and mental conditioning to consistently do the work.
Hence, we shall focus exclusively on the mechanics of the abdominal exercises. For this reason, you are going to need explicit videos.
There is no separate audio program for part 2; since, I’ll be giving you audio-visual demonstrations. Without further ado, see you in part 2.
Back In 1966, as the fast-food craze hit America; the Japanese were busy doing the exact opposite.
Instead of indulging their fast-food industry, they encourage their citizens to eat sushi.
To make their “wellness from within” Flavor-Pairing Rituals and Shoku-Iku, the country’s mandatory Nutritional Platform.
At the very same period that we were quickly becoming the fattest and most unhealthy country on the planet,
The Japanese just kept losing weight and getting leaner and toner.
This happened because of a metabolically explosive set of Flavor-Pairing rituals they adopted over 50 years ago.
And that’s what really gave me peace of mind that flavor-pairing was the key to unlocking the female fat-loss code.
Be re-assured, this wasn’t one of those scams, constantly being peddled by doctors with questionable credentials on late night TV.
Shoku-Iku is a proven methodology and the lean bodies of Japanese women provide all the proof, anyone can ever ask for.
This was 50 years of proof combined with 2 billion people living leaner and sleeker lives.
And did I mention that Japanese women consume more carbohydrates than any other country as well?
In fact, they eat almost double the carbs, we eat here!
From there we began to examine other nations that topped the list for “Healthiest Countries” like Spain, Switzerland and Australia.
My research team was working overtime. We dug deep to uncover the secret of the lean and ultra-healthy.
Focusing specifically on weight loss and how they actually maintain such lean and slender figures.