Hello and welcome back! In this section I’m going to be discussing the pro’s and con’s of weight loss simply through diet alone, exercise, or both. From a personal point of view, I’ve done it all 3 ways and achieved the goal I set out to do….lose weight! But, which one is best?
I’ll start by saying this, if weight loss is your goal, then first and foremost, you HAVE to change how you eat. We gain weight by the type of foods we put in our body. If that food(s) is on a steady rotation in your diet, then you can’t expect things to get any better for you, no matter how much you exercise. When we hear the word “diet”, to many, it sounds like such a bad word. Something temporary. A fad. We’ve all heard the word associated with so many things that seem to just come and go as people celebrate their successes and then ultimately crash, so the “diet” goes away. It doesn’t matter what/how you’re eating, in the moment, THAT’S YOUR DIET! You’re not going to say “Oh I hate the word ‘workout’ because it sounds so temporary. So many people start to workout but then quit after a month. I prefer to say it’s a lifestyle change to my physical fitness.” No, nobody does that. So let’s quit making “diet” such a bad word.
Let’s first talk about exercise. When we think of weight loss, we often picture hitting the treadmill, doing a class at the gym, lifting weights, etc… As important as physical activity is, and it will help you achieve your goal of weight loss, it can’t be the only thing you do. As for myself, I lost weight hitting the gym hard, but not really doing anything different with my diet. It works for a while, pounds are being shed, but, as you slow down or take a break for any given reason, or simply plateau, eventually the weight will slowly start to creep back on. One can’t eat pizza or spaghetti everyday and expect to keep the weight off. So, while exercise can help you tone up, have more strength and energy, and a slew of other benefits; for long term sustainability of fat loss, it can’t go it alone.
Now let’s revisit that ‘not so bad word’, diet. It can be a rather difficult thing to change, especially if it’s a complete 180 from how you typically eat. Like learning to ride a bike, you want to take it slow and get used to something new before going full steam ahead. Taking a good look at the foods you’re eating is imperative. Foods high in refined carbs and sugars are typically the type of foods you’ll want to limit, or eliminate all together. What causes weight gain? Insulin. For most of us, this is an automatic hormone our body produces to regulate the glucose in the blood. If our bodies become insulin resistant, than all of that glucose becomes fat. What cause insulin resistance? Too many spikes of insulin in our diet, caused by what we eat, and how often we eat. Snacking causes an insulin spike. For those who have 3 meals a day, which tend to cause large spikes due to the amount of food being eaten, having snacks in between those meals will, once again, raise the amount of insulin in our body. Your body isn’t able to fully recover with the time of “fasting” in between the meals. It instead will become resistant to it, not allowing it to do its job in your body, and will tell your glucose to be stored as fat. When it comes to weight loss, our diets are key. It’s over 90% of what we need to do to lose weight and keep it off.
(For more, in depth information on this subject matter, please refer to “The Obesity Code” by Jason Fung)
Ok, so what we know is this, we can lose weight from our diet, and we can lose weight from physical activity. So why not do both? One must certainly come before the other. Diet, Diet, Diet! What can we do to get started? Here’s what I would suggest. Evaluate the foods you eat on a regular basis. What are they? If you see a lot of carb heavy foods in there, here’s where I would say you can definitely cut back. Make fries an occasional treat with your burger, heck make the bun one too! A lettuce wrapped burger with cooked veggies or salad may not be most satisfying thing to your taste buds (right away), but your sure going to feel better after eating it. Perhaps alternating which you’d rather have should you choose to indulge. Get the bun but not the fries, or vice versa. Or, do neither and splurge on that delicious IPA! The key here is not making these daily staples in our diet. And to be fit, you don’t have to say goodbye to these foods forever! Make these foods that friend you go visit a couple times a month or so.
Next thing is sugar. Any sugar really. They ALL cause insulin spikes, just some much more than others. Raw sugar causes the biggest spike, and is used in so many things! When you’re checking out the nutritional label, pay attention to the ingredients being used along with the serving information. If you can only recognize 2 of the ingredients in that long paragraph of everything in it, chances are it’s not good for you. A lot of times, food manufacturers use different words to try and avoid the word “sugar”, but guess what, it’s still sugar. If you chose to buy pre-made items, try to look for “organic” or “natural” foods. When doing a side by side of these foods to their counterparts, you’ll notice quickly that the ingredients list is much simpler. In turn though, you pay a higher price for these items. Isn’t that something? To live healthier will cost you more money. Something’s wrong with that. This can be rather hard for those of us who stick to a budget. Which is why making and growing our own food is truly the best option, because it’s more cost efficient, and, you know exactly what’s going into your food.
Back to the point of this blog….if I want to lose weight, should I diet, exercise, or both? Both. Keeping physically active helps our bodies to stay in shape. Makes us stronger and gives us energy. It releases endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine which make us happier and less stressed. Our bodies crave this, and we shouldn’t deprive it of such things! And as we discussed, our diets play the most important role in our goal for weight loss and weight management. If our bodies are a vehicle, physical activity is the accelerator that can speed us up and get us going, but our diet is the engine. If the engine fails, you aren’t going anywhere. Throw your car in “Drive” but keep your foot off the gas, it’s still going to move forward. Put your foot down and give a little push, then there’s an accelerated move forward. Same principle applies to our bodies. Give it a little push, if you can, and I’m sure you’ll be happy with your results.
Cheers!