In my opinion, three of the most abused terms in the fitness space these days are the following:
“health” or “healthy”
“fitness” or “fit”
looking “good” or looking “hot”
That being said, I’m pretty sure I know why these words get confused so much and it comes down to social behaviors.
What do I mean by that?
I mean some people are too afraid to admit that they really just want to look “hot” so they say things on January 1 like, “I just really want to get healthy this year.”
Don’t get me wrong - I love a good and honest goal of improving your health, but is that really what you want?
Or do you just want to feel a little more confident when you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror each morning?
What about that “fitness” word though?
What’s up with fitness? What does that even mean?
Just a few days a go, I was chatting with my good friend Justin Miller about how confused most people are when it comes to training for fitness versus training for aesthetics.
And we decided the core of the issue is essentially that people don’t realize that fitness and aesthetics don’t always go hand in hand.
In other words, you can have great physical fitness abilities without looking like an Instagram fitness model.
And on the other side of that very same coin, you can look like an Instagram without being able to do 20 burpees in a minute with clean technique.
Really, it’s the classic difference between a bodybuilder or a bikini competitor and a CrossFitter.
So without beating the point to death, these are the three main things I want you to know as we consider the bigger theme of this write-up, which is to tease out the differences between being healthy and “looking hot” as our current culture seems to have defined it:
Health, Fitnesss, and Aesthetics
The way we use the word health should speak primarily to non-fitness markers. Having some level of physical fitness is certainly an element of optimal overall health, but that doesn’t mean you need to be a CrossFitter to be considered healthy in a general sense.
Fitness isn’t actually a term that speaks to body composition at all. Fitness speaks to work capacity, which means that being fit is an indication that you can “do a lot.” You have a large capacity for physical achievement, but what does that even mean? Admittedly, the waters are murky. Are we talking about running a marathon? Are we swimming? Are we lifting heavy weights? Or are we trekking through the jungle with a 60-pound backpack? Fitness is gray, but what I want you to know most is that being fit doesn’t mean you look like an Instagram god or goddess.
If you want to train for statue-like aesthetics, there’s a really specific way of training to achieve that. Burpees don’t make you look like a statue. Ab circuits in your living room don’t make you look like a statue. Air squats don’t make you look like a statue. And although all of those movements might make you a fitter person, they aren’t (in and of themselves) going to make you jacked and lean like you think of when you pass by a fitness tabloid while you’re checking out at Walmart.
Alright, so having gotten all of that out of the way, let’s chip away at the bigger idea.
"Are being healthy and “looking hot” the same thing?"
No way! And I think people need to hear that and be reminded of the differences.
You can absolutely be healthy as a horse with a very unimpressive physique just like you can be shredded to the bone and hormonally suppressed.
Health and aesthetics are not the same thing.
That being said, I think there is definitely a sweet spot (and we'll get to that), but let me chat through what I think the biggest differences are.
What It Means to Be Healthy
All "healthy" really means in my opinion is that your doctor is giving you the thumbs up each year at your physical.
Your blood markers are good, you don't have any major vitamin deficiencies, your blood pressure is within an appropriate range, you're not significantly overweight, you're not smoking or drinking to excess, your lipid panels look good, etc.
In addition to that, there are also some general exercise parameters you might be meeting like 30 or so minutes of moderate exercise several times a week. That probably means getting your heart rate slightly elevated through jogging or some kind of recreational sport like pick-up basketball, soccer, or even pickleball.
But not much of that has anything to do with having an impressive physique or a body shape you're proud of.
You wouldn’t pick a healthy person out of a busy crowd in the name of looking amazing, but you just might notice if Mike Thurston happened to be walking down the street.
I think you get the point. Health and hotness aren’t always linked.
So, what does it mean to “look hot?”
What It Means to “Look Hot” According to American Pop Culture in the 2020’s
If you're a dude, you're probably pretty jacked.
The softer, So-Cal, "Brody Jenner-esque" bodies of the early 2000's used to be the standard for "fit boys," but the game has changed now.
Nowadays, the "fit look" for men is to be carrying quite a bit of muscle mass. Big chest, big arms, sweeping quads, and a plump enough backside to rival the ladies.
Think Chris Hemsworth from Thor or Chris Evans from Captain America. These dudes have size!
If you're a woman, it's no longer about just being thin, which was the thing for a long time.
Nowadays, it's all about the booty. And when I say all about the booty, I mean it. We've traded thin for thiccck with 3-4 C's depending on which Instagram accounts you follow.
“Fit chicks” are apparently the new breed of "hot girls," so we've seemingly ditched the Paris Hilton look for the girl who squats and hip thrusts 3x per week but still looks feminine enough to slay a classy yet fitted dress at a wedding.
For better or worse, this is my perception of the way the tides have turned in what America and most of Western culture thinks is sexy on a larger scale.
I'm not celebrating it or demonizing it nor am I saying it's "good" or "bad" for people to be categorized like this and exposed to these cultural expectations.
I’m also not saying I agree on a moral level with how we tend to view people and their bodies.
I'm just setting the scene and speaking to a current social reality.
Also, if you read that and thought, “That is not at all what I personally find attractive,” then cheers!
I’m speaking to the greater theme of what I see in fitness pop culture everyday, and you are totally entitled to your own thoughts of attractiveness and sex appeal.
I am by no means saying that this is how you (or anyone) should think of the human body.
"So what does this have to do with the correlation between health and aesthetics?"
Honestly, this is kind of a cool time in culture to try to get the best of both worlds - both feeling culturally “relevant” while eating and training in a way that is probably optimally healthy at the same time (or at least a step in the right direction).
Let me explain.
I think you can be really healthy and look really good at the same time by doing a few simple things consistently.
How to Tick the Boxes for Health before you tackle aesthetics
Unless you’re hardcore into physique sport, I think most of us would agree that prioritizing our overall health and wellness should come before our physique endeavors.
If that’s you, I came up with these five points to help you make sure you’re putting your health first:
Make sure you're eating a balanced diet of plenty of vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, whole grains, healthy fats, etc. You probably already know this. Diet is a huge part of health. Get your diet in check first according to the recommendations of a trusted registered dietician.
Drink plenty of water. If you need a number, half your body weight in pounds and drink that in ounces. I aim for 100 ounces per day.
Sleep like a champion. I like no less than 7 hours per night, but 9 is my preference.
Walk plenty. For people looking to lose fat, I really think 10,000 steps per day is an amazing place to start.
Be carrying a healthy amount of body fat. Wait, what? You read that right. One thing a lot of people don't realize is that some Instagram models (both men and women) are actually hormonally suppressed given their extremely low levels of body fat. That's not healthy. So make sure if you want to hit the sweet spot of health and aesthetics that you're not too lean to the point that you're putting your health at risk. For men, that 8-15% body fat range is probably golden. For women, I’ve heard people smarter than I am recommend adding 7-10% to the low and high end of those recommendations as a general rule.
Now, what's cool is that none of those suggestions regarding health have to interfere with an aesthetics goal.
How to sculpt your body aesthetically once your health checklists have been met
If you’re consistently nailing the aforementioned points, there’s a good chance you’re in good health standing, so now it’s time to get into the aesthetics piece:
Get your calories in check with your goal within the parameters mentioned above.
If you're looking to lose fat, get into a caloric deficit. If you're looking to build muscle, either eat at maintenance or get into a caloric surplus.
Eat around 1g of protein per pound of body weight within the parameters mentioned above. I wrote an article on this to help you out.
Consider training with a higher-carb, lower-fat approach if you want to maximize aesthetics.
I know plenty of people have success doing ketogenic diets, but I'm personally biased toward high-carb, low-fat approaches for a handful of evidence-based and anecdotal reasons. Plus, bananas are carbs and everyone loves bananas.
Train with weights 3-5x per week in a primarily hypertrophic fashion.
I am consistently blown away by the things people do in the gym when I know for a fact that all they want to do is look better naked and feel more confident in their own skin. Notice that I didn't say do cardio to burn fat. I said lift weights to get strong and build muscle.
Prioritize the muscle groups that you know will help you achieve the aesthetics you want.
For men, this likely means growing your chest and shoulders since most women find broad shoulders attractive and indicative of protector-like qualities. If that's you, you probably want to train your chest 2-3x per week with some specific side delt work 2-3x per week. If you're like me, you want big glutes and legs, so you'll train them 3x per week (which I do).
For women, this probably means big glutes and quads with a flattering midsection. Given that having a slimmer midsection is all about fat loss, I would recommend training your glutes and legs 3-4x per week with great muscle-building movements like squats varieties, lunge varieties, deadlift varieties, thrust varieties, etc.
Be sure as heck you are progressively overloading these movements over time.
That's way too much nuance to toss into this write-up, but make no mistake that progressive overload under proper technique is extremely important for growth.
Some Parting Words about Fitness Pop Culture
Here’s a hot take for you.
I'm actually a big fan of this change in "the new hot look" for one huge reason that has nothing to do with vanity or sex appeal.
Are you ready for it?
Having big, strong glutes and legs is a very healthy and functional body shape.
I know plenty of conservative people who think the butt craze is pure vanity (and it certainly can be), but at the very least it's somewhat cool that we're now encouraging people to lift and eat rather than smoke and starve.
To segue that, having a non-butt is not an overtly healthy or functional body shape.
In fact, I call it the inverted butt. Everyone knows an older guy in their life whose jeans somehow seem to bubble inward instead of outward like a traditional butt would generally behave. I hate to say it, but that’s not good.
Having weak glutes and hamstrings can lead to all kinds of problems like posture issues, low back pain, and increased injury risk just from being a weak sack of potatoes.
Plus, the implications of being thin (or even skinny fat) with little to no muscle mass are that your calories are inevitably going to be very low.
And frankly, that's just no way to live a fun life. Food is so good!
So when you think about it, that means 20 years ago people were being forced to make a choice: "Do I prioritize my health and fitness or do I try to look the part of what society tells me is attractive by keeping my calories super low to look as thin as possible?"
In my opinion, that's a pretty slimy question to have to navigate in the first place, but the silver lining is that our current culture is now celebrating both at the same time (health and a strong body composition) - and that is pretty cool.
What’s the takeaway then?
Be jacked and be celebrated for it!
Eat and put on some strength or muscle mass depending on your goal. And fuel your body with the foods that create strong bodies instead of obese bodies.
There has never been a better time.
Summary
Health and aesthetics are not exclusively the same, but they can overlap in a way that allows you to get “the best” of both worlds.
You can be fit and not look like a social media Adonis. You can also look like a fitness icon without be very fit at all.
For a rare moment in human history, pop culture is celebrating big, strong glutes (and jacked people in general). So, take advantage of this and get to lifting!
Thanks for reading, everyone! I sincerely hope you enjoyed the content and learned something.
If you feel like this blog brought you any value at all, consider sending it to a friend or family member!
And, if you're interested in working with me one-on-one, visit The Vegan Gym and apply for coaching. I’ve had nothing but success in guiding people toward their fat loss goals.
Cheers, everyone!
-Andrew
