“EAT LESS, EXERCISE MORE” – RIGHT??

If your goal is weight loss, you’ve probably heard the advice: eat less and exercise more.

Makes perfect sense, right?

You can force yourself to eat less, force yourself to workout more, and you’ll probably lose some weight.

But if we are real for a moment, look at our past examples. For most of us, we’re “really good” Monday to Friday and then fall prey to weekenditis, the case of over eating, over consuming, and being sedentary. Portions are a bit bigger, sugar creeps back in. Or maybe you’re the person who did a 30-day diet that was full of restrictions and at completion you couldn’t wait to get back to eating those forbidden foods or even eating normally again.

Willpower becomes drained and slowly old habits start to creep in. Essentially, diligence and effort works at first but in time our brain takes over, demanding what we need and the number on the scale doesn’t change. Restricting your calories and over exercising isn’t effective, and I’m here to tell you it has nothing to do with willpower and more effort. I can also tell you it has nothing to do with being lazy or stupid and it isn’t as easy as ‘just do it’ or ‘just try harder.’ When we consistently take in less energy (in the form of food) than we expend through basal metabolism and activity (as in a diet or famine), our bodies respond by making us hungrier.

So why doesn’t the “eat less and exercise more” mentality work?

Let’s get down to the basics about hormones, our body’s chemical messengers. They help control every process in the body. Leptin is the hormone that tells your brain you’re NOT hungry (full). Low leptin means a slower metabolism and drive to eat more. Ghrenlin tells your body you ARE hungry and to eat.

Both these hormones can get messed up with: dieting (extreme, quick weight loss) as well as weight gain, unbalanced eating, over exercising, elevated levels of chronic stress, poor sleep and so on. Here is an example, if Leptin won’t register properly, this makes your brain believe you’re hungry, slowing down your metabolism to conserve energy. For the most part, we know what this looks and feels like… but instead of listening, we apply more discipline, more rigidity, and more willpower. But really, our body’s trying to regulate itself and get back to balance. Smart hormones!

No one has enough self-discipline or willpower to overrule their brain, especially not in a long term, sustainable way.

Bottom line: our bodies end up being unable to respond to the signals from our hormones and brain that would otherwise enable us to burn more body fat or even stay on plan.

When we under eat and over exercise, our body starts to talk to us; we’re just really good at ignoring what it’s saying. It does this through body aches, soreness, illness, injuries, irritability, mood swings, low energy, uncontrollable cravings, and weight gain, exactly what we’re trying to avoid.

It isn’t that people aren’t trying hard enough. We often have years of experience when it comes trying to regain weight control. But someone who is chronically struggling with weight not only has different hormone disruptions but also different brain chemistry. Eating less and moving more aren’t solving the problem and that advice is making someone feel helpless.

So what’s the solution?

Focus on nutrients not calories. Don’t get me wrong, calories do count, but we don’t need to be counting them our whole lives and we prefer to look at the quality of our calories. Just because a food has low calories doesn’t mean it’s healthy and just because you eat 'healthy' and 'clean' doesn't mean you aren't over consuming. Just because we take in less calories doesn’t guarantee we will burn more fat than if we ate balanced, nutrient dense food(proteins, healthy fats, non-starchy vegetables and wholesome-natural carbohydrate choices like fruit, quinoa, beans and lentils).

Get out of the mindset of working out to burn calories. Exercise because it makes you feel good and accomplished. Moving your body is generally a good idea not only as part of a weight management strategy but as a way to improve your quality of life.

Focussing less on calories and more on nutrient dense food and good eating habits like slowing down your eating patterns, eating without distraction & eating to 80% full will serve you better in the long haul. Stop thinking that every meal is a buffet, trying to get your money’s worth.

Shift away from the eat less and exercise more mentality. Focus on eating more of the right kinds of foods and exercising more efficiently to balance those hormones and shed your unwanted weight and ultimately make you stronger and functioning for longer.

Need help building a sustainable plan? All Out Training has three online programs that are set up to teach you all about food and help you uncover your patterns around food and your relationship with your body. Click here to learn more.