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Fat Loss And Exercise
The Real Secret To Getting (And Staying) In Shape
How many people wake up on January 1st with a mouth tasting like they’ve been French kissing a Komodo dragon and drag their hungover butt to a place they’d rather not be to do some exercise they’d rather not do because it’s time to follow through on that New Year’s resolution?
The night before, they had a booze-to-blood ratio that would tranquilize Charlie Sheen, and now they’re going to suffer through something they hate and starve their bodies with some fad diet because this year is the one they finally get in shape.
That’s a bad plan. Actually, it’s no plan. It’s white-knuckle fitness based on the “I must endure this torture” mentality that has a higher failure rate than Midwestern girls heading to Hollywood to become movie stars.
People want a quick fix. They want to hear they can accomplish more by doing less. And, recently, a study out of Denmark was conducted showing that could actually happen. I mean, it appears that way if you’re not looking at the big picture.
Using 61 sedentary and overweight men, they compared moderate exercise (burn 300 calories via exercise each day) with high exercise (600 calories per day). And guess what? The “moderate” group lost more weight.
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No, when it comes to exercise, I will not say, “less is more.” More is more, damn it! Let’s dissect this.
These men were both sedentary and overweight. Doing the moderate 300 calories worth of exercise a day did not wipe them out; it energized them. They engaged in additional movement during the day as a result of their currently suitable exercise regimen, and they also had the brain energy to make wise food choices.
The other group, however, jumped from overweight and sedentary to a far more punishing 600 calories worth of exercise each day, and this meant they spent a lot of the rest of the day sitting around because they were tired and in pain. What’s more, it wiped out the brain energy required to resist eating junk food.
My friend Barbara Brehm is a sport psychology expert and professor at Smith College in Massachusetts. She’s also the author of Successful Fitness Motivation Strategies. She once explained to me that willpower is a limited resource, but it can be strengthened with time. In the Denmark study, they took overweight couch potatoes and wiped the poor guys out so much they drained their willpower resources not just to move, but also to make wise food choices. Expending an appropriate level of energy on exercise can do wonders for improving control over what you eat. Controlling what you eat is what is going to lead to fat loss.
For these candidates, 300 calories of exercise per day was the right amount of exercise (for now), but 600 was too much, too soon. My main point in this article is: They can get there!