Muscle, muscle, muscle. And stop eating too much junk.
I know, tell me something I don’t know, right?
You’ve got to burn more calories than you eat. Again, simple, nothing new… but it’s something we lose sight of with all the fad diets and grueling exercise programs asaulting us at every turn.
Put things into perspective. From a caloric standpoint, your body doesn’t really care if the calories come in the form of protein or twinkies. Sure, there are plenty of reasons to eat a good, balanced diet, but calories are calories from your body’s point of view. And, if you’re too fat, you’re probably eating too many of them.
Exercise – it’s all about burning as many calories in the shortest amount of time. Why a short time? Because not too many of us want to spend our lives in the gym, not too many of us HAVE the time these days to workout for hours on end. And… we don’t really want to either!
We want to be smart about all of this. Wasting money on fad diets that we can’t seem to stick with or expensive health club memberships that never get used is not smart. Should we worry more about eating right or exercising more?
Worry more about eating right.
Part 1: Eating
I tell my training clients that they can’t outrun a bad diet. It’s way too easy too consume far more calories – sometimes at a single meal! – than we can burn in a day.
With all the unusual diets available these days, worrying about a particular diet is NOT efficient. The macro-nutrients (carbs proteins and fats) should be eaten in balance… but from a dieting perspective worrying about low carb or high carb is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Yes, there can be some effect from some of these odd diets, but ultimately the effects are way too small if you’re still eating too much!
Personally, I always love products that are sold because whatever your problem is “isn’t YOUR fault”. It’s not my fault that food manufacturers make these incredible concoctions of fat and sugar that I eat by the truckload. It’s not my fault that I don’t know how to stop. It’s not my fault that it all tastes so good!
Uh. Wait a minute. Yes it is.
Nobody else buys it for you, nobody else puts it in your mouth, nobody chews for you!
We live in a time and place where food is so readily available (and so delicious!) that close to 35% of us Americans are now considered obese.
Our bodies are incredible. They work so hard to extract each and every calorie from our environment. Humans can eat nearly anything -we’re pretty poison-proof compared to most mammals – and pretty much try to eat everything that comes our way.
Bodies are very efficient, too, protecting us from future famine by storing nearly every calorie that isn’t used right away. We’re great at saving all those calories for that rainy day.
We’re fat because, for most of us, that rainy day doesn’t ever show up. We live in good times – with bodies that were developed over millions of years of not so good times, with famines and droughts. We learned to eat meat when we could, berries and fruit in season… and just about anything else we could find the rest of the year. Ask me about the bugs and grubs diet sometime!
In fact, if we reduce our caloric input too suddenly, we can cause our bodies to become even more efficient. The threat of famine can trigger “starvation mode” and every calorie is stored away. Actually fasting for a day or two can cause weight gain when we’re back to our normal diet.
The bottom line? Eat less. But don’t starve yourself. Eat lots and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables – without sauces or toppings – and drink lots and lots of water. Keep it simple!
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