Diet vs Exercise, Part 2 of 3

To me diet is literally and figuratively a four-letter word. You hear that 95% percent of diets fail. This is somewhat misleading as most any diet, including low-carb diets (which really translate to high-fat diets) will actually produce weight loss due to a combination of caloric deficit, muscle loss and water loss. What “fails” is the sustainability of any such eating program. Even if a person is on a modest 1500 (down from 2000) calorie a day diet, their basal metabolic rate will be lowered, and even a modest increase in daily calories later on will result in weight gain. Ultimately, most diets result in long-term weight gain. Why – because we cannot decide to control our actions a month or two months from now, we can only control what we do today. This is why I believe all diet books should come with a disclaimer, and I’m not talking about the advisement to consult one’s physician first. In order to achieve lasting weight loss, (if one needs it – don’t get me started on how sick I am of people telling me they want to be skinny) I firmly believe that the most important components are a support system, access to healthy foods, adequate sleep, a means of managing stress and yes, exercise.
This conflicts just a bit with what I’ve learned as a burgeoning nutritionist. Dietary modification is essential to weight loss. Exercise is simply advisable. But something else I’ve learned in while in school is that the number one goal of a dietitian seeing an overweight or obese patient is to prevent further weight gain. When it comes to long-term prevention of weight gain, exercise beats dieting, no contest.
Here’s how:
• Exercise activates the same reward centers in the brain as food, and often will help to decrease overall food consumption
• Exercise, especially resistance training will increase muscle mass, thereby increasing resting metabolic rate
• Exercise counteracts the anabolic effects of insulin, making it harder to store fat and easier to release it
• Exercise increases mood-enhancing neurotransmitters and people who exercise are less likely to be depressed. This may result in less “emotional eating” - a somewhat flawed term that I believe makes its point nonetheless – eating to feel better, whether it be in response to very real physiological cravings or a conditioned behavior
• And of course, exercise increases overall daily energy expenditure, allowing one to eat more without a gain in adiposity
Despite these factors working in its favor, the calorie deficit resulting from an hour of exercise could easily be erased by two glasses of wine and a handful of nuts with dinner. Which brings us back to diet… It would seem that without a deliberate focus on eating, any attempts at weight loss could be in vain. So what happened with those clients of mine? I’ll be sure to tell you soon :)

Diet vs Exercise, Part 1 of 3

I apologize for the rather lengthy lapse since my last post. I sat down to write this one post a few days ago and ended up with what could well have been a book chapter. So I’ve decided to break it down to a mini-series of sorts. Diet versus exercise is something I think about a lot. Perhaps I’ve gone “all in” favoring the food-related end of this matchup by entering a nutrition masters program, but the notion of exercise remains close to my heart. If someone were to ask me the best way to shed extra pounds, what would I suggest? You might be surprised by my answer.

I’m a certified personal trainer, so you may guess that I’m a huge proponent of exercise. But as a tool for weight loss, I will be the first to acknowledge that results may be modest at best. Most studies I’ve read that put diet-focused and exercise-focused weight loss programs head-to-head found that dieting produced two to three times more weight loss than exercise alone. Even those incredible six minute ab videos come with a pocket-sized diet program that is absolutely essential to achieve those jaw-dropping before and afters with results not typical below in tiny print. I’ve witnessed the shortcomings of an exercise-only program firsthand. Several of my clients came for sessions three times per week and did an additional hour of cardio on two other days when they started training with me. This should add up to major weight loss, right? Not necessarily. A month later, many of those clients showed no significant difference on the scale or even in circumference measurements. This is when I had to bring their attention to what they were putting in their mouths. What did I recommend? Stay tuned to find out.

Good things to come

I love food. Nutrition simply fascinates me. I could talk about it all day long. At least 75 percent of the books I read are nutrition-related, and that’s without counting my textbooks. I think most people share my love of food to some extent and also have an innate desire to be healthy. Yet we’re bombarded with messages from the so-called experts, gurus, the media, and of course the food industry trying to sell their books, products and advertising space. So what is true, what should you focus on? I am right there with you. I ask myself these kinds of questions all the time. So in short, the purpose of this blog is to share some of the tidbits I’ve learned along the way from some very wise people, as well as my own experiences. I don’t think there is a lot of black and white when it comes to what is nutritious or healthy. I simply hope to give you, my dear future readers, a glimpse into the way I approach the quandaries of the nutrition world. Don’t get too excited, I’m saving all the good stuff for my book a few years down the road (kidding!)
I’m not going to confine myself to any particular niche here, because I want to keep to what is salient to both me and the rest of the world, as new studies and books are published and Oprah episodes are aired. I’m so excited for the possibilities and hope only to not be discouraged at the difficulty of living up to the perfect, romanticized blog in my head.