Things that make you go hmmm?

Two new studies about exercise and eating were published this week and both make me go hmm?

The first, Exercise is Not the Key to Weight Control. No kidding. But, for anyone who has been on a treadmill for 30 minutes only to see that you burned 300 calories (or less), about the same as a tall, no whip, 2% Caffe Mocha. This is stating the obvious.

People may be confused about exercise and weight loss, but not surprised that exercise isn’t a great weight loss method. Exercise benefits your health and helps you maintain your weight, but it is not so good for weight loss. You would have to do it for hours to lose any weight, and who has that much time? You would have to be active for hours, daily, to see a change in your weight. You know when go on vacation and spend all day wandering around galleries and museums and eating every delicious thing, but you still don’t gain weight, until you go back to work? That is the theory in action. Being consistently active, increases your metabolic rate and you burn more calories. So you eat a little more, but you are 100x more active than when you are sitting at your desk all day. You don’t lose weight, but you don’t gain it either.

I have witnessed the dreaded marathon weight gain. This is not when someone runs a marathon, stops training so hard and then gains weight. No, this is when someone gains weight WHILE training for a marathon. How is that possible? By eating more than you need and overestimating how hard you are exercising gaining weight is likely and fairly typical. Most people are very bad at judging how hard they can actually train and equally bad at estimating how much they are eating.

As human beings, it is not one of our best things.

It is correct that exercise is not the key to weight loss because it is so hard to burn calories versus how easy it is to consume them, but why is this news. Maybe I am wrong – and please let me know – but didn’t we know that already? I am guessing these researchers don’t actually do any exercise. The “Knowing” versus “Doing” gap exemplified.

The second, Diet Quality Improves Fitness Among the Fittest found that diet quality, not quantity, makes all the difference.

Quality is more important than quantity. That is, well I don’t know what that is, except stating the obvious.

The research was done on fit adults that performed sprints, resistance training, stretching and endurance training It was suggested that after training 4 days a week, for 12 weeks, the participants that ate more regularly, ate higher quality foods, had higher anti-oxidant and protein intake (versus the control group) had better results. Which leads me to think. Of course they did, because if you want to get the best results you better eat well or nothing much will change.

This isn’t about one superfood – sorry there isn’t one – this isn’t about a diet or an exercise gimmick. It certainly is not about eating more protein, please stop that. There are lots of ways to improve your diet and your fitness with simple changes. Marathon runners don’t overeat because they want to gain weight. They typically overeat because they eat the wrong type of food, at the wrong time and miss the opportunity to refuel for the next run. People who exercise daily aren’t usually fatigued due to training, it is more likely it is because a bad diet and lack of recovery.

This isn’t news. This is information that most people don’t understand about their own bodies and why would they? No one has bothered to tell them the how and the why to getting lean and fit.

When it comes to your diet, there is no either/or. It is both. There is no quick fix. It is about a lifestyle, but you knew that already. There are great ways to lose (and maintain) weight. There are proven, predictable methods to eat for performance. Ones that work and work well.

The confusion factor is what sells protein shakes and miracle cures. It never ends well.

If you want to lose weight and keep it off, start with small changes. Track what you are eating now and how much.

If you want to improve your performance with your diet eat whole foods, unprocessed, mostly vegetables and whole grains. After a workout eat a combination of protein and carbohydrates. This could be peanut butter and banana, hummus, vegetables on whole wheat bread, even a latte would be a great choice. All of these simple choices (and real food) would refuel you for the next workout, keep you from overeating later and help you improve your fitness.

The rest are just things that make me go hmmm? If you read this on my website you can relive the 90s with the song too.

This isn’t news. This is information that most people don’t understand about their own bodies and why would they? No one has bothered to tell them the how and the why to getting lean and fit.

When it comes to your diet, there is no either/or. It is both. There is no quick fix. It is about a lifestyle, but you knew that already.

Remember the 90s? Things that make you go hmm.