Here's my take on a few reasons why you need to lift and lose weight, other than just your clothes feeling better, more confidence, etc. Yes, it's great that your clothes feel better and you walk around with more confidence, but there's a hell of a lot more to it than that.

There's many people reading this, and other posts, who are going to say "Yeah, lifting, I know I know, I'll get to it eventually". Here's the thing: the best time to start lifting was 10 years ago. The 2nd best time is today. You aren't required by TRP Law to go get a gym membership - you can find ways just around the house/neighborhood/local park to do pullups/chin-up, elevated/clapping pushups, sit-ups, weighted-backpack stairs, sprints, hand-stand pushups, power yoga, etc. etc. If you can get in the gym, that's great, but there's other ways.

The key is to do things that are actually going to build muscle. If you just do 100 regular push-ups daily, you're going to put on just a little bit of muscle and then stop adding muscle. Why? Because your body is already "big" enough to do, say, 20 push-ups - the other 50/100/200 you're doing are just cardio. Your body doesn't need to be physically bigger to do a set of 50 push-ups, so it won't respond to 50 push-ups by getting bigger.

Now, if you strap 50lbs of books in a back-pack, then do 10 pull-ups, yes, you'll add more muscle. If you have your little bro sit on your back while you do push-ups, you'll add muscle. If you do 10 one-armed push-ups, you'll build more muscle. And so on. The same kind of logic applies to Bench/Squat/Deadlift/etc in a gym: you need to be doing a weight that you're exhausted doing any more than about 10 reps.

I won't get into hypertrophy vs strength training, but suffice to say, if you can do more than 15 reps of the weight, bump the weight up. But anyhow, that's enough of a Forward, onto the other reasons. Just wanted to speak a little bit to the procrastinators out there.

You Don't Know What You're Missing

If you're fat/skinny-fat, not as many women are going to be attracted to you. And I don't just mean as a person/personality – I mean visually. Nobody immediately sees you from every angle; not every woman is going to observe you from afar for 3 or 12 or 35 minutes, and then get in your range and see if you approach her. If a woman is walking by you (say in a gym or mall), and notices you're freaking jacked, they're a lot more likely to suddenly feel the need to do a set of dumbbell curls, or “oh, let me check my phone real quick”, etc, just waiting for you to spot her and approach—or at least wait for you to change angles so she can check you out some more, and go from there.

If you're just some fat dude? You may never get the chance to approach her because she already walked her ass right by you. “Her loss”, right”? Heh. If you're skinny, it's not as bad – but you definitely don't stick out either, unless you're peacocking. There's regular-weight people everywhere. Your clothes might catch a girls' eye, or your shoes, or whatever. But, again, you literally have no idea what you're missing just by virtue of being skinny—or more specifically, by being not-jacked.

Leave the Always-On/Beta Mentality behind

I'm sure most of us reformed/reforming Betas have had this thought process before regarding someone we were hating on: “So and so is an idiot, he's not even smart, I could lift if I wanted to, why does she even like him, he's not even funny” etc - I think you'll find, as I have, that after years and years of being thought of as “that one smart/funny guy”, it's awesome to have people “Like” a picture of you just flexing in front of the mirror and popping shit. It's not just strictly validation for you as a person – but validation that your lifting is actually paying off.

It's so much less pressure when you have people around you that don't “know” you as the smart guy from Biology class, or the AR guy from Accounting, or whatever. You don't have to constantly crack jokes. You don't have to pretend to know everything and every player when you go to a baseball/football game...because nobody gives a shit. You can be for a certain they want you there because you're YOU, not because you're some kind of Teacher-Comedian doing color commentary of the evening. YOU are the attraction, THEY are your audience. You don't even have to speak and you can just feel people basking in your presence. You really think they'd do that if you had a blubber ass but were quick with the one-liners? Nope.

You Get to be an Aloof, Charming Goon

Being a fat/skinny guy who breaks things is annoying, and people will yell at you; being a beast who accidentally rips his coat in half putting it on is hilarious, and people will clap and cheer. If you're fat/skinny and eating dessert, nobody cares; if you're jacked and get coerced into eating dessert, it's entertainment for everyone around you. “Haha! We finally got you to eat something shitty!”, that sort of thing. Nobody wants to hear the fat cow complain about how they'll need to work off their sundae at the gym; but a swole guy saying “Ugh, I might have to do cardio tomorrow”...again...hilarious.

Are you Ugly?

You could have acne all over, moles, whatever.....if you get your weight down and your muscle up, it matters less and less. Assuming your primary goal is to fuck women, chances are y'all ain't gonna be fucking with the lights on and the cameras rolling. If you're ugly and fat, or an ugly twig, why would an on-the-fence woman bother with you at all? Two strikes is enough to be out with plenty of them. If you're in killer shape, and aren't holding out for the HB9 if your dreams, you'll still take plenty of women home (or at least seal the deal), especially if the woman is just looking for a quick fuck and doesn't plan on keeping you around long or even medium term. Sloots gonna sloot. Help them help you. The ultimate test of this: pulling a woman who sucks at English. If you can't pull ESL, you aren't in good enough shape.

Throwing Shit Around

Yes, muscle looks good, but its also useful for just throwing things around. Say you buy a 150lb propane grill at Lowes. Are you going to be able to load it into your truck alone? (Without fucking injuring yourself, you sissy?) When you get home, can you carry it all the way to your deck without getting a goddamn hernia? And nevermind objects – think women. Could you throw your woman over your shoulder and jog with her? Walk her up a flight of stairs? Women love to be man-handled. Your muscles may be mainly “for show”, but when you use them to toss a woman around like a sack of potatoes, there's something primal that will kick in – for both of you – the kind of primal urge you don't get from that super-witty joke you made earlier, or because you groped her arm while handing her her drink.

If you want to “be the man” for your Wife/LTR/Children, that works as well. Be the guy who can carry two 5-gallon jugs of water up a flight of stairs, like they were two 12-packs of soda. Be the guy who, when people bump into you, you don't budge an inch—but they're completely knocked off balance.

Stupid Party Tricks

“Nobody likes a show-off”? It's more that nobody likes an intellectual show-off. Nobody gives a shit that you can name all 52 states, or talk about Anthony Scalia, blah blah. Any asshole can Google a bunch of crap in the day and puke it out later that night. But if you can walk on your hands, that's some “Oh shit!!” kind of shit. If you can do a handstand back-flip without paralyzing yourself, that's liable to be much more impressive than rattling off a bunch of Japanese you memorized a few years ago. Ditto with one-armed push-ups/sit-ups, having one girl sit on each shoulder (without your back snapping) to pose for a picture, dunking a basketball (dem hops), breakdancing, etc. etc.

People Will Touch You More (Trigger warning: Swolestation)

We've talked about it a little bit on here, how more and more, men are touching other people less and less. But the more jacked you are, the more it's generally accepted that people will touch you more. They won't just figuratively pat you on the back – they'll literally do it. Dudes will go in for a handshake and squeeze your bicep (dafuq?). Women will suddenly insist on a hug when first meeting them. Your bosses/supervisors will come up by your side, throw an arm up on your shoulder and then address you. Maybe blow a little bit in your ear. Graze your hip a little bit. Breathe on your neck, real slow like.

You know, stuff like that.

It's one thing when people you expect to touch you do it (LTR, family, friends, women you've already opened, etc). It's another when complete strangers are finding ways to flexually harass you. It's an awesome feeling knowing so many people want to swolest you at any given opportunity. Your confidence will ratchet up a few notches, I guarantee it.

Your Frenemies will make themselves clearer

We all know that adopting TRP principles will make a lot of people around you jealous – the crabs in a bucket mentality. They won't like that you're asserting yourself more, that you're making more money, that you're making all kinds of progress, that you're not taking any bullshit. But nothing will drive your frenemies more bat-shit insane than just being awesome while just standing there not even doing anything. Seriously.

Make sure to be ready with your responses when they inevitably snap. “Oh, you think I'm so jacked that I must be on steroids? That's awesome!” “I'm a strong, independent lifter who don't need no cardio” “I read Nietzsche in-between sets, what do you read?” “Too bulky? I can still wipe my own ass, so how bulky can I be?”

Other reasons

Uhh...well.......what other reasons can you guys think up?