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 :)