It’s that time of year again. We’ve survived another winter. We march onward into spring. Unfortunately, our bodies are no longer the same shape they were in the summer. You want your summer body back.

Or maybe for you, this is the first time. You’re ready to eat healthier and become more active, maybe because you genuinely want to be healthy or because you want to not hate what you see in the mirror. Either way, here’s some artists that will motivate you to your dream body.

1. Avery Watts

Tired of whiny, alternative, white boys (looking at you, Green Day)? Here’s a heavy alternative white boy who’s far from whiny. This is a warning to all of you who want to remain mopey and unmotivated; turn away now.

Now, motivated people, if you like to remain motivated, this is the artist for you. If you don’t believe me, I dare you to try his most recent album, The Takeover. Here’s his most popular single, A Cut Above, from said album.

If you use pre workout with Avery Watts, you may never leave the gym.

2. Serenity

Perhaps you’re of a more intellectual persuasion. Do you like history? Do you like metal? You need no go farther than Serenity. My personal favorite album of theirs is Death and Legacy, in which they tell the story of the Spanish conquistadors coming to South and Central America.

Singing about historical events and time periods is nothing new, after all, Alestorm has made their following singing about nothing but pirate-y things. Pirate metal is a lot of fun, but that’s all the artist sing about.

Serenity branches out across different time periods and events. So if you’re a history buff who happens to like being healthy or want a nice body, Serenity is the way to go.

3. Amaranthe

What’s better than mathcore? How about mathcore with three different vocalists? Yes, it exists and it is Amaranthe. Although a little lighter than your run-of-the-mill mathcore, I have listened to Amaranthe almost every time I go on a run.

I don’t know of another artist that blends three distinctly different vocals as well as Amaranthe. If Amaranthe is too light for you, but you like their sound, then I’d recommend Blood Stain Child.

... Uh-oh. I hear them coming. The social justice calvary. They’re screaming “body positivity!” at the top of their lungs as they charge in to save the victims of my intolerable, patriarchal health standards.

So let’s address the topic of Metabolically Healthy Obesity, or MHO. In recent years, there has been evidence put forward to suggest that there are people who can have a body mass index, or BMI, of 35 or higher and still be just as healthy as someone with a BMI between 25 and 29, which is commonly regarded as healthy.

Let's assume at face value, this is true. This phenomenon is neither common nor necessarily permanent. With age comes slowing metabolism, which means that even if someone is metabolically healthy and obese, they may not stay that way as they get older.

How uncommon is it? Between 20-30% of obese individuals could be considered MHO. How many people is that? There are currently around 325,740,000 people in the USA. According to the US Department of Health and Human Resources, in 2010, about 68.8%of people over the age of 20 were overweight or obese. 35.7% were obese.

State of Obesity states that 36.4% of adults were obese from a 2013 to 2014 study. Since I like round numbers, let’s use 36% as our standard. If 36% of adults are obese in America today, that means that 117,266,400 people are obese. Of those people, 53,179,920 could be MHO.

That is a lot of people, but those are people who are MHO today. Tomorrow, their metabolism could slow and they’re unhealthy. Something they wouldn’t have to worry about if they maintained a healthy body weight.

They could also worry a lot less about contracting type 2 diabetes, suffering a stroke, having various heart diseases, or suffering from other complications. Again, these risks increase with age.

Remember the article I cited for the evidence for MHO? The scientific paper it cites condemns obesity as objectively unhealthy; “A recent population-based study has found that overweight and obesity have a strong and deleterious impact on important components of health status…”

Medical New Today, although recognizing MHO, condemns obesity as unhealthy. Inactivity is still horrible for you.

Finally, there are those who question the existence of MHO altogether.

So, generally speaking, does high body fat have a negative effect on your health? Yes. Turning exceptions into rules only serves to hurt and put people in medical risk.

Now, enjoy some awesome music and get out there! Those abs won’t get themselves!