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FAQ: Does Smarter Exercise Help With Sport Specific Goals?
Get EccentricSmarter exercise is primarily designed to unclog our fat metabolism system as safely and effectively as possible. If someone has different goals such as running a 5k, improving their golf swing, etc., there are ways of training primarily designed to help with those goals. While smarter exercise will improve our health and fitness globally, activity specific exercise/training is still beneficial. Think of learning to exercise smarter like learning to read. It is foundational to our long-term goals and can be augmented with additional goal-specific training if we desire.
NY Times – “For Weight Loss, Less Exercise May Be More”
Get EccentricGood article except when the author concludes: “the relationship between working out and losing weight remains complicated and tangled.” My $0.02: It’s quite simple once we’re able to let go of the myths and marketing of the past 40 years. Here’s a quick stab at simplifying:
– It’s easier to eat calories than it is to burn calories and the calories most people eat do hormonal damage that no quantity of traditional exercise will undo
– It’s only when we exercise less—but smarter, that we work to fix the hormonal problem at the root of weight gain while also not stimulating an inSANE appetite
Exercise less—smarter…and remember that slim is simple when we stick with science.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/is-30-minutes-of-daily-exercise-a-sweet-spot-for-weight-loss/
Commenter
I understand you’re in the *business* of weight loss, and I generally find all that you post interesting and educational,, but I have to draw the line at your self-serving disparagement of a journalist’s caution saying ‘the relationship between working out and losing weight remains complicated and tangled” –
your *approach* notwithstanding, fact is: *it is.*. Complicated. Tangled. Frustrating. Not as simple as applying a ‘recipe. All because the human body is enormously complex, human chemistry astoundingly individual and the body exquisitely adaptable. Even SANE approaches will lose a degree of efficacy over time because the body *responds* to change and desires to be static. Which is *part* of the reason plateaus happen.
The relationship between hormones and weight is ENORMOUSLY complex and not easily understood by the majority of the populations because of lagging information and education. As a person who’s struggled with weight her entire life, courtesy oF PCOS, I can speak first hand to that. And to the amount of reading and continual life modifications I had to make to lose my current 70lbs.
Don’t take a cheap shot at a well written article to score points for your business by proclaiming how ‘simole’ it is.
Jonathan
Thank you for the insightful feedback. My apologies for seemingly trivializing this issue. My intention was more to steer people away from thinking that health is a hopelessly complex mess when it seems that barring unique medical conditions, it can’t be. Humans avoided obesity and diabetes for hundreds of thousands of years without “trying”…and much less intelligent mammals continue to do so simply by eating the foods they evolved to eat.
I think that the “complexity” comes from trying to accomplish this potentially simple task while using approaches that have been proven ineffective. Imagine trying to accomplish the potentially simple task of avoiding lung cancer in a world where we are told that smoking is good for us. Now this otherwise simple task would quickly become quite complex. I fear that we are experiencing a similar fate with food and exercise.
Often I find that those who advocate failed traditional methods respond to studies like this one with sentiments like “this is really complex,” and then turn around and tell people to “simply” eat less and exercise more, all while failing to acknowledge before anyone counted calories or went to gyms we were healthier than we are today.
In short: It seems that not dying (aka maintaining health) is the most basic ability any organism can ever have. The complexity comes from trying to achieve the goal of health using unhealthy approaches.
Thank you for your support and feedback, and I hope this helps to tame what may seem like an overly cavalier sentiment in my original post.
PS There’s also an important distinction to be made between something being “simple” and something being “easy.” One could certainly argue that maintaining health in the modern world is simple but not at all easy.
Science Sound Bite: NYTimes’ “Fat Trap,” Tara Parker-Pope, and Unclogging Sinks
SANE ScienceParker-Pope is exactly right that studies show eating less of the typical diet and doing more of traditional exercise does not work for the vast majority of people. However, that does not mean we need to be “trapped” by body fat. Myriad studies show that by changing the quality of one’s diet and the quality of one’s exercise (vs. quantity of eating and exercise) long-term fat loss is not only possible, but practical.
Think about trying to burn body fat after years of the traditional American diet like trying to drain water from a clogged sink. Eating less of the same quality of food is like turning down the faucet. Doing more of the same quality of exercise is like scooping out the overflowing water with a teaspoon. Both are temporary ways to deal with the symptoms of the problem (too much water in, not enough water out). Neither does anything about the root cause (a clog blocking the sink’s natural ability to automatically balance “water in” with “water out”). That is why studies show eating less and exercising more failing long term 95% of the time.
The problem is the clog. The solution is clearing the clog. And clearing the clog requires thinking in terms of food and exercise quality, not quantity.
Reducing the quantity of food which lead to the clog and increasing the quantity of exercise which ignores the clog doesn’t really help us. That simply reduces the symptoms associated with the underlying clog. We remove clogs–and “drain” body fat long term–by putting the right quality in, and keeping the wrong quality out.
It’s not about less in and more out. It’s about higher quality in and higher quality out.
The only “fat trap” is being unable or unwilling to escape quantity-based fat loss theories which have been proven wrong.
Why Do I Feel So “Blah” During Winter and What Can I Do About It?
SANE ScienceThe alarm clock rings. It’s pitch black outside. It’s so cold out there; so warm under the covers. You roll over and hit the “snooze” button. After the third “snooze” you reluctantly slip out of bed and into the shower, get dressed, eat a quick breakfast and rush out the door for work, driving in the dark. As midmorning rolls around, you can think of nothing but that gooey apple fritter you saw at the coffee stand in the lobby. Noon brings a trip across the street for lunch. Oooh…they have big soft hot pretzels and cream of tomato soup…you resist that, but decide on the whole grain grilled cheese sandwich. So warm and soft and delicious. By 2PM your eyes are droopy and you can barely concentrate on your work. A co-worker tells you he’s getting a Cinnamon Dolce Crème Frappuccino from downstairs and asks if you want one. That sounds like the only way you’re going to get through this day. Finally work is over, you drive home in the dark, and eschew your regular workout…you’re just too tired. Your planned dinner of steamed veggies and that salmon fillet in the freezer doesn’t seem very appetizing, so you order in a pizza, watch a little TV, and turn in early.
If some or all of these things sound all too familiar to you, you’re not alone or abnormal. You’re experiencing your body’s reaction to the winter, and specifically lack of light. Over the millennia of human existence, these behaviors probably evolved as a mechanism for our bodies to conserve energy, increase fat and prevent wintertime starvation. (1) As the days have less and less light, your brain makes less of an important neurotransmitter called serotonin. Serotonin indirectly or directly controls most brain functions, including mood and sleep cycles. Serotonin levels are highest in the brain when you are awake and active, and almost completely absent when you enter the deepest stage of sleep. During sleep, another neurotransmitter, called melatonin, rises sharply. Melatonin is made in the pineal gland, and is regulated by serotonin. Light increases the production of serotonin, while darkness increases the synthesis of melatonin. Thus, these two neurotransmitters maintain balance in the sleep cycle, determining how sleepy or how alert we feel.
As the days get shorter and darker and serotonin levels fall, most people crave carbohydrate-rich foods. Eating sugary or starchy foods boosts serotonin in the following way. First, the sugar or starch causes insulin to be secreted. The insulin, in turn, increases tryptophan in the brain. This is a major building block for serotonin. Unfortunately, the secretion of insulin drives down our blood sugar, making us even more hungry for sugary and starchy foods. In addition, the increased insulin causes more of the food we eat to be turned into fat. And the elevation in serotonin doesn’t last very long; so the cravings are almost constant.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a condition where the decrease in serotonin in response to low light is exaggerated. For people who suffer from SAD, symptoms appear during late fall or early winter and go away during the sunnier days of spring and summer. The symptoms of SAD include:
If these things are happening to you, it’s important to see your doctor and get some specific treatment recommendations. Interestingly, people who have Seasonal Affective Disorder also have decreased leptin response, and therefore do not regulate their appetite normally in response to body fat. (2)
But even without SAD, a tendency to gain weight when the weather turns cold and dark is a well-known phenomenon. (3) In winter, a person’s weight creeps up on average by about 0.5kg. Also, in many individuals lipids in the blood change, with increasing triglycerides and LDL, and decreasing HDL. Hemoglobin A1c also increases. (4,5) And everything just seems to s-l-o-w d–o–w–n.
So, how do you keep your body from succumbing to the “winter doldrums”? Enter (TA-DAAA!) SANEity! (6) SANE eating and smarter eccentric exercise is the very best way to keep your body in “summer mode”, stave off carbohydrate cravings, keep your energy level high, and keep your body burning fat and building muscle. Here are some specific recommendations:
So, turn up the lights, turn on the music, eat SANEly, exercise ECCENTRICally, and create a little bit of SUMMER in your metabolism!
Science Sound Bite: A Scientific Look at “Young, Obese and in Surgery” by Anemona Hartocollis
SANE ScienceIn the majority of cases, trying to “cure” obesity with surgery to shrink the stomach is like trying to “cure” allergies with surgery to shrink the lungs.
Why?
Researchers have proven that overeating isn’t the cause of obesity. Overeating is a symptom of a deeper hormonal issue, which is caused by low food and exercise quality. Obesity is no more of a quantity problem than allergies are. The cause is quality of what’s going into the body…not the quantity.
Regardless of the size of a person’s stomach, if it’s filled with low-quality food, that person’s health will suffer and their body fat percentage will rise in the long term.
We don’t solve problems by treating symptoms (overeating). We solve problems by fixing causes (repairing hormones). Fortunately, researchers have proven that we solve the hormonal problem causing obesity by eating more—but higher-quality food—and doing less—but higher-quality—exercise.
Eat Flaxseed Oil, Gain 100 Pounds?
SANE ScienceFlaxseeds are one of the highest-quality and most SANE foods around. Their high fiber content makes them Satisfying…they fill us up quickly and keep us full for a long time. They’re completely unAgressive, and are therefore unlikely to be stored as body fat. They’re also Nutritious thanks to all the clog-clearing and fat-burning omega-3 fatty acids in them. Finally, their high fiber content makes them inEfficient…we burn a bunch of calories digesting them.
Milled flaxseeds are the best way to get flaxseed oil (thanks to all the fiber, lignans, and nutrients found in the seeds themselves), but for the point of this post let’s focus on flaxseed oil.
Some people with very strong opinions about nutrition assume Calories In – Calories Out is all that matters because they assume all calories are the same and that calories are all that matter. Thousands of pages of academic research prove that opinion incorrect. Consider this flaxseed oil example.
Ask someone who has strong opinions in favor of eating less of our existing diet and doing more of traditional exercise if it is healthy to supplement your diet with a tablespoon of flaxseed oil per day. They will say yes.
Wait one week and ask them what they think causes us to gain body fat. They will say something like “An imbalance of Calories In – Calories Out…which is easily remedied if one exercises some discipline and eats less and spends more time on a treadmill.”
Wait one more week and ask them what they think about the 100 pounds of fat you’ll gain if you follow their advice about flaxseed oil for eight years. They will look stunned. They shouldn’t though. According to the traditional calorie quantity theory they have such strong opinions about, here’s what adding a tablespoon of flaxseed oil per day to your diet will cause: 119 calories in a tbsp. of flaxseed oil X 365 days per year X 8 years = 347,480 / 3,500 calories in a pound of fat = 99.28 lbs. of fat gained
That is how math works, but that’s not how biology works. We’ll step through myriad studies proving the difference between math and biology (and deal with the “Law of Thermodynamics” argument) in the coming weeks.
[i] Harper AE. Dietary goals-a skeptical view. Am J Clin Nutr. 1978 Feb;31(2):310-21. Review. PubMed PMID: 341685.