2679: 6 Reasons You Shouldn’t Use Exercise as Your #1 Weight Loss Tool by Jill Coleman of JillFit on Losing Bodyfat

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Optimal Health Daily. 6 Reasons You Shouldn't Use Exercise as Your Number 1 Weight Loss Tool by Jill Coleman of JillFit.com and I'm Dr. Neal Malik, your host.

[00:00:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome back to Optimal Health Daily or welcome for the first time if you're new here. This is the podcast where I act as your very own personal narrator and read to you from some of the most popular health and fitness blogs online.

[00:00:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, with that, let's get right to today's article as we optimize your life. 6 Reasons You Shouldn't Use Exercise as Your Number 1 Weight Loss Tool by Jill Coleman of JillFit.com

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_00]: You can't out-train a bad diet and this article investigates why. I admit, I usually have to shake my head when I see magazines that print calculation charts to represent just how many minutes of cardio you need to do to burn off a specific food item. Bacon cheeseburger?

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_00]: 561 minutes on the Stairmaster. Kill me now. In my opinion, the most useful part of these articles is the fact that they scare the crap out of you by showing you just how many calories are actually in some of the sweets and treats we eat.

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_00]: But in general, I feel they do us a disservice when they treat the body like a simple furnace, calories in versus calories out. We all know that it is not nearly that simple. We've all experienced it to be more complex than that. I know I have. Do calories matter? Absolutely, but they are not the end of the story.

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_00]: To say that you can eat 1600 calories worth of pizza and then go burn off 1600 calories by doing 2 hours of cardio and you will look the exact same is absurd. It's not only the amount of food, but also the quality of the foods you eat that matters.

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Someone eating 1600 calories worth of lean chicken breasts looks a lot different than someone getting those same calories from donuts, even if both people burn the same number of calories from exercise.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Still not convinced? Here are my six reasons to stop killing yourself with exercise just to have a couple extra bites of dessert.

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_00]: 1. Dietary changes are much more powerful for weight loss than exercise. Exercise cannot be your number one tool for fat loss simply because it does not impact the metabolism as much as diet does.

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_00]: In my early 20s, I tried, optimistically, to exercise off my disgusting weekends worth of Bud lights, frozen pizzas and bagels and though I was burning tons of calories, I never looked any different.

[00:02:35] [SPEAKER_00]: But there is an important point to be made here about weight maintenance. Exercise is a great track record when it comes to helping us maintain our weight loss.

[00:02:45] [SPEAKER_00]: However, in terms of attainment, several studies demonstrate that groups who only made dietary changes lost nearly as much weight as those who dieted and exercised.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_00]: The difference is a few mere pounds.

[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Nutrition is the gross control for weight loss while exercise is the fine control.

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Weight training exercise in particular is useful because it helps shape the physique, adding curves and preserving muscle.

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_00]: It makes it more likely that when we lose weight, we are losing fat and not muscle.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00]: If you have to choose between spending your time at the gym for hours or at home prepping food, choose the latter.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Use your mental energy and willpower in the nutrition realm for best results.

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_00]: 2. Modes of exercise have different impacts on the physique via hormones.

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER_00]: When we assume the body is at calories in versus calories out furnace, we assume that the mode of exercise is irrelevant so long as we are burning calories.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_00]: However, the missing piece to this is that weight training impacts the body differently than cardio and can create a different look to the body.

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Doing cardio alone to burn calories can impact fat loss but it takes some muscle along with it.

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Learn to work smarter, not harder.

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Weight training outperforms cardio for fat loss.

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Intensity eclipses duration for fat loss.

[00:04:09] [SPEAKER_00]: 3. The quality of the physique changes when you eat unhealthy food and try to exercise it off.

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_00]: When you eat lots of fatty, sugary, salty treats and then dependence in the gym burning up the same amount of calories consumed,

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_00]: the effect on the physique is not simply canceled out.

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_00]: It creates a different effect than if you had eaten mostly whole foods but then also skipped cardio.

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_00]: In other words, the eat more cardio more look is different than the eat less do less look.

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_00]: The former tends to look puffier, may retain more water and may have a hard time getting cuts and definition to come out or not look as dry or hard.

[00:04:49] [SPEAKER_00]: These differences are subtle and most easily seen on stage with competitors who simply tried to cardio their weight at the stage

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_00]: versus those competitors who simply kept their diets clean as a whistle.

[00:05:01] [SPEAKER_00]: 4. Adding more and more volume to your exercise is unsustainable and damages your metabolism further.

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_00]: This goes back to exercise resistance and that cardio cycle.

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_00]: When you use exercise as your primary tool for fat loss,

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_00]: the more exercise you do, the more you have to continue to do to stay the same size.

[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_00]: A study was published a couple of years ago that showed that for distance runners,

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_00]: they had to increase their mileage by a certain percent each successive year just to maintain their weight.

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_00]: In short, that kind of volume is simply unsustainable but at that point,

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_00]: you are caught up in a cycle where your body expects a certain amount.

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_00]: It's operating at a certain volume or else you gain.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_00]: That's not fun. Breaking the cycle takes time and strategy.

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Not to mention your metabolism becomes less and less responsive, the more up and down your weight fluctuates.

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_00]: 5. More exercise increases hunger and cravings, putting you in a cycle of eating more than having to exercise more.

[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Long duration cardio exercises increase the hunger hormone ghrelin.

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_00]: You've heard this before. When you bump up your exercise, you want to eat more.

[00:06:10] [SPEAKER_00]: You are actually physically more hungry. Plus, exercise increases neurotransmitter release like dopamine and serotonin,

[00:06:18] [SPEAKER_00]: which over the long term, if they are depleted, can have a severe impact on cravings.

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Exercise is an appetite stimulator, especially the long duration variety.

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Choose short duration, high intensity cardio when possible, 30 minutes or less, 2 to 4 times per week.

[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_00]: And 6, the whole concept of doing penance because of bad food choices puts us in a negative frame of mind

[00:06:43] [SPEAKER_00]: where we use guilt and remorse as motivation.

[00:06:46] [SPEAKER_00]: The idea that we owe a certain number of minutes to the Stairmaster because we've been bad

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_00]: simply perpetuates the black and white, on or off dieting mindset.

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_00]: This does not serve us in the long run in terms of sustainable fat loss.

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Don't allow food to have that kind of control over you.

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, learn to understand your metabolism and tune into your hunger and craving signals

[00:07:07] [SPEAKER_00]: so you can be more prepared in the future.

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Guilt as motivation to clean up our acts ultimately leaves us less motivated and more frustrated.

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_00]: You just listened to the post titled, 6 Reasons You Shouldn't Use Exercise as Your Number 1 Weight Loss Tool

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_00]: by Jill Coleman of jillfit.com and I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Neal here for my commentary.

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_00]: To add to today's author Jill's point about how cutting calories is such a powerful weight loss tool

[00:07:40] [SPEAKER_00]: if we were to try and burn 100 calories it would take about 30 minutes of walking at a pretty decent pace to do that.

[00:07:49] [SPEAKER_00]: If we wanted to cut 100 calories from our diet it would mean replacing one can of regular soda

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_00]: with say sparkling water or having half a candy bar instead of the whole thing.

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And of course we need to do these things consistently.

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's see how quickly this consistency would add up.

[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_00]: 100 calories saved per day by say skipping a regular soda and replacing it with sparkling water

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_00]: means 700 calories saved per week.

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_00]: That could translate to about 2-4 pounds of weight loss per month.

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_00]: So, does this mean you can never have these foods again?

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_00]: You could never have a regular soda or a whole candy bar ever?

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely not.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_00]: It just means some simple swaps over time done consistently can make a difference when it comes to our body weight.

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_00]: And again as Jill said it can be a lot easier to just skip that soda

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_00]: and replace it with something that's lower calorie than it is to walk at a decent pace for 30 minutes.

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, that'll do it for another edition of Optimal Health Daily.

[00:08:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for listening.

[00:08:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for sharing this show with someone.

[00:08:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I hope you're having a great weekend and I'll see you back here tomorrow as usual where your optimal life awaits.