BP
PS- Happy Halloween!
PPS- Here’s another quick tip. Enjoy your candy tonight, but then get rid of it. It’s better to overeat for one day then to overeat for 7!!
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It’s funny how sometimes slight exaggerations can create stories that justify extreme measures.
Take for instance the idea that:
Your weight is something that is closely regulated by your body and that in cases of obesity this regulation maintains weight at a high than normal level.
On the surface this tends to make sense. And, the truth is, while fundamentally flawed, if someone were to say this to me at a party, I would probably just let it slide.
And if I did ‘let it slide’ then the next statement could very easily be:
The process of weight loss activates mechanisms in our bodies that are designed to return a person to their pre-weight loss weight.
And after this giant leap of faith we could quickly end up moving to the conclusion that:
And because of this, life-long drug therapy is justified for those with significant weight problems.
I hope you see the trend here.
If left unchecked there are people who will tell you that weight loss is impossible and that it involves EXTREMELY complex mechanisms that you or I couldn’t POSSIBLY comprehend.
They will do their best to make you feel hopeless, then, they will offer you a multi-billion dollar solution in the form of “life-long” therapy with weight loss drugs.
Now, here is the real kicker…
Right now pharmaceutical companies are working very hard to create drugs that can mimic..you guessed it..the metabolism that occurs when a person is fasting.
That’s right – they are looking for a pill that can reduce insulin, increase growth hormone, grehlin and FGF-21, and increase the sensitivity of the enzymes responsible for releasing fat from your body fat stores.
We are led to believe that we couldn’t possibly lose weight without their help.
But the truth is, we really don’t need any help at all.
As I have said before…Since the day we were born, our bodies have known EXACTLY how to burn body fat.
It’s true. Unless you have some ultra-rare metabolic disease, your body is already AMAZING at burning body fat…you just have to give it the opportunity.
If you give your body the opportunity, it will do exactly what it is built to do.
So do yourself a favor, find the easiest possible way to eat a little less than you need to (I recommend Eat Stop Eat), then step back and watch your body do its job.
You have better things to do with your time than to listen to people who try to sell you Life Long drug therapy as a way to ‘cure’ weight loss.
Fat loss can be incredibly simple, if you let it be.
BP
Your body knows how to burn fat easily
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Curious, I opened it, worried that I had somehow contradicted myself in a recent email or a blog post.
Luckily, it wasn’t me, but rather a fitness celebrity who had written a newsletter that the writer thought contradicted the Eat Stop Eat philosophy.
Apparently, this particular newsletter was using data from a new research trial to suggest some things that go against the Eat Stop Eat philosophy.
Specifically, it was stating that dieting for weight loss was “bad” and that exercising for weight loss is “good”. (I love definitive statements like these – talk about over-dramatization!)
And since I love nothing more than sharing my thoughts on research with you, I figured it would be fun to take a look at this study.
The paper was titled “Weight regain is related to decreases in physical activity during weight loss”.
In this study a group of women who were obese and in their late fifties were asked to lose weight by reducing their calories by 400 per day for 20 weeks. Then, 6 months and 1 year after the trial the women were reassessed to see how much of the weight they had gained back.
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Here is the first claim that the fitness celeb made:
CLAIM 1: When you diet your level of non-exercise physical activity (NEAT) drops spontaneously, even if you don’t realize it’s happening.
In this study this was defined as the energy you expend above your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) but does not include the energy you expend during your exercise periods. So this could be anything from bouncing your leg, to walking the dog or emptying the dishwasher. Basically, it was ANYTHING that caused you to expend energy other than your assigned workouts periods.
To give you an idea it was calculated as:
Total Energy Expenditure – RMR – the calories expended during exercise (as calculated by the read out on the treadmill.
The average reduction was about 160 calories worth of activity per day, about the amount of calories expended in a 20 minute brisk walk for these woman).
More importantly, the study found that there was NO DIFFERENCE between the group who was dieting and the groups that were exercising in ANY MEASURE.
This includes:
and
So when it comes to weight loss, it is the CALORIE DEFICIT that matters, not the way the deficit was created. However it is true that a being in a calorie deficit for 20 weeks seemed to cause these woman to reduce their non-exercise activity levels (But again, there was no evidence to suggest that this was caused by dieting)
CLAIM 2: The drop in physical activity during the diet was DIRECTLY RELATED to the weight regain 1 year after the diet.
FACT: In this study people lost an average of 27 pounds during the 20-week weight loss period. 1 year later the average weight regain was 11.5 pounds. Not bad, but not great either.
It is very important to remember that the purpose of this trial was to investigate whether or not things that occurred DURING a weight loss protocol could be ASSOCIATED with results 1 year later.
So they weren’t looking for the absolute, definitive, you-bet-your-house-on-it cause for weight regain, they were just searching to see if they could find any associations.
In other words, they did not measure things like diet or exercise during that one-year time between the weight loss and the last weigh in one year later.
So while there was a slight relationship between the reduction in non exercise physical activity during the study period and weight regain one year later, this does not indicate a direct relationship.
Now, it gets a little tricky here because we start looking for correlations in data that isn’t non-normally distributed. What was found was that while a significant finding, the strength of the correlation may not actually be that meaningful (for my fellow stats geeks we are only talking about a p of -0.4 for the pooled groups.)
So this tells us that what found was simply an association, suggesting that the people who tended to move around the least while they were dieting also were the ones who tended to put the most weight back on a year later.
CLAIM 3: There is a difference between losing weight from dieting, versus losing fat with dieting and exercise.
FACT: Not according to this study. The three groups saw almost IDENTICAL weight loss results. And, they saw almost identical weight REGAIN results.
CLAIM 4: if you want to maximize your fat loss and keep fat off permanently it is best to follow a reduced calorie diet and make a conscious effort to make sure your activity level does not drop as you lose weight.
FACT: I could not agree more. Exercise and staying active is still an important part of ANY weight loss program. However when it comes to weight loss, I think the benefits of resistance training FAR OUTWEIGH the benefits of cardio or endurance style training (as I’m sure the author of the newsletter in question would agree).
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So, there really wasn’t that much of a contradiction. Our interpretations of the research are drastically different but our conclusions are the same.
The bottom line is (and always will be) that the best way to lose weight is to find a the easiest and simplest way to reduce the amount of calories you consume, and to follow a weight training routine.
While most people think of Eat Stop Eat as only flexible intermittent fasting, the truth is that the Eat Stop Eat lifestyle is the COMBINATION of flexible intermittent fasting and weight training. And, the weight training is very important!
Now, lets take a closer look at this trial, as there were some ‘gems’ hidden in all of its data:
GEM #1- the people in this study were women in their late 50’s and who were obese (almost 200 pounds) at the start of the study. By the end of the study they lost 27 pounds in 20 weeks, proving that no matter your age…weight loss IS possible!
GEM #2- Even one year later, with no diet counseling, they were able to keep more than half of their weight loss. Like I said earlier – not great, but not bad either.
GEM #3, There was no difference in weight loss between the woman who only dieted and those who dieted and exercised. Another example of classic “cardio” style exercise not being any better than simply dieting.
GEM #4, all groups lost Lean Body Mass, pointing to the importance of resistance training in a proper weight loss program (which they didn’t do in this study).
GEM #5, RESTING METABOLIC RATE RELATIVE TO LEAN MASS REMAINED UNCHANGED! Again, so much for starvation mode!
So in my opinion this was a great study showing that creating a CALORIE DEFECIT will help you lose weight, and that it really does not matter whether or not you get that deficit from a combination of diet and exercise, or from diet alone.
BP
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You really can’t go wrong by adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet.
They are full of nutrients, and provide very little calories relative to their bulk.
But are they essential to a healthy diet?
Right now, the North American obsession with the idea that there is only one true ‘perfect’ way to eat is pretty consistent in stating that a healthy diet MUST consist of a combination of lean meats with ample fruits and green leafy vegetables.
Even my own guidelines run pretty close to this statement:
Eat less while enjoying the food you eat. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables and herbs and spices…
But the question remains, for OPTIMAL human health and performance…is there really one diet, and are fruits and green leafy vegetables truly essential?
To answer this question we can look at examples of extreme human performance on what we would classically consider to be ‘poor nutrition”
Luckily I happen to know a fantastic researcher who does exactly this type of research.
The team at ICEARS (International Centre for East African Running Science) led by Dr. Yannis Pitsiladis (oddly enough, located in Scotland) has found that the diets of world champion long distance runners from Kenya consist largely of starchy vegetables (potatoes), porridge, ugali (a gruel made from corn) and considerable amounts of tea.
The analysis of these runners also showed that more than 75% of their calories came from carbohydrate sources, and they ate roughly 3,000 calories per day.
My guess is that if you were to take this exact diet to a Dietitian in North America he or she would tell you that this is a diet that would more than likely lead to obesity, diabetes and a host of other nutrition related diseases.
Dr. Pitsiladis also shared with me that many of these runners are in a slight caloric deficit for the months leading up to a major event.
So while fruits and green leafy vegetables are an important part of any one’s diet, and play an important role in helping us eat great tasting foods that are low in calories, it should be pointed out that the human body is capable of performing at very high levels despite considerable variation in the way we choose to fuel it.
This research combined with a host of other studies just like it, leads even more evidence to that idea that there probably is no one single way to eat that is ‘best’ for human health, and that the human body is remarkably consistent in its ability to adapt to a whole host of different nutritional intakes.
Please don’t take this as me being anti-fruits and vegetables (fruits and vegetables are your friend) but I do want you to consider that nutrition may not be as ‘cut and dry’ as many experts would lead you to believe.
BP
PS – to learn more about the exciting research being conducted by ICEARS, visit http://www.icears.org/
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My appearance on the Morning Show with Mike and Juliet has helped rid me of my camera shyness…and as result I am going to start answering the most popular Eat Stop Eat questions with Videos.
You can check out my first two videos here:
Can you drink Juice while following Eat Stop Eat: Juice Fasting
What can you drink while following Eat Stop Eat: Water Fasting
How to schedule your fasts: How to Stop Eating
What I think of the BMI: BMI (body mass index)
More QnA’s to come.
BP
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There is a very large difference between Eat Stop Eat and some other forms of strict fasting – Namely with Eat Stop Eat you are allowed (and encouraged) to drink fluids during the fasting periods.
This makes Eat Stop Eat a form of water fasting, but you are allowed to drink more than just water. I list of a bunch of different options in the video below.
BP
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Here is a fantastic post that really exemplifies what I believe to be the best philosophy for working out while following Eat Stop Eat.
Actually, it is a great philosophy for working out regardless of whether or not you are following Eat Stop Eat.
Of course, the actual article has NOTHING to do with working out, so you will need to replace the word “WORK” with “WORKING OUT” to apply it to exercise.
Even though it wasn’t written as a guide for working out, this quick substitution works beautifully.
You can check out the article here:
PS – Remember replace “work” with “working out”
PPS – Take point 3 with a grain of salt. Remember, this isn’t actually an article on working out or nutrition, nor was it written by an expert in these areas.
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Occasionally I get the question “how much should I eat on the days I’m not fasting”
Since I don’t believe in complex mathematical equations that involve counting calories (within reason), I have a simple approach to this problem.
Take 2 weeks off of from fasting.
On day three weigh yourself. On day four weigh yourself again. Take the average of these two number as your starting point. Then on days 13 and 14 weigh yourself again and average these two numbers.
If your weight has gone up more than three or four pounds between your starting average and you final average then you are eating slightly more than you need too.
If your weight has stayed within three or four pounds during these two weeks you are eating the right amount.
If your weight has gone down by three or four pounds then you have some room to add some more food into your life.
(Remember to weigh yourself in the morning before eating.)
This technique works very well for men, but woman will have to keep in mind that their monthly changes in hormones may affect their body water levels. So for men I would use the 3 pound limit, for woman I would allow myself up to 4 pounds.
This technique works very well for people who have lost considerable weight with fasting and need to figure out how much food would be eating responsibly for their new weight.
BP
PS – Please keep in mind, the reason I use 3 or 4 pounds is to account for the daily fluctuations in weight. Due to the weight of water and food, most of us will see our weight change by one or two pounds over the course of the day, so the 3 or 4 pounds includes this fluctuation.
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I think I have finally figured out why I love lifting weights.
Obviously, there’s the health benefits and the way it makes me look, but I actually like the act of lifting weights, and this has nothing to do with any of the long term benefits.
I was in the gym yesterday and decided to do a “back in the day” workout. I pulled out one of my favorites from my university days, 20 rep squats and 20 rep standing barbell shoulder press.
In was in between my second and third set of squats when it hit me:
When I’m really pushing it in the gym, my mind is quiet.
No inner dialogue, no thinking about things I need to get done, no thinking about things I have read or things I want to write. Nope, when I’m really into a workout, my mind is a whole lot of empty.
I’m doing without doing, as they say.
For a person who thinks waaay to much, this could be the best part of working out – The amazing feeling you get when you realize you are accomplishing things without really thinking about it, or thinking at all.
This was more of a ramble then a blog post, but hopefully the next time you are working out, you experience the same thing.
BP
PS- Here’s a great post that Suzanne left on my blog:
Hi there,I thought I post my results so far too.I am ~ 5 weeks in to fasting 24 hours 2 times a week. So far I have lost 12 pounds, 1.5 inches off my waist and 1 inch off my hips. I really look forward to my fasts and enjoy my results so far!
I love the positive Eat Stop Eat feedback!
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Dietitian Kerri Gans made a very good point about Eat Stop Eat while we were chatting backstage after filming our segment on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet.
Apparently, nowhere on the Eat Stop Eat website do I mention how you are supposed to eat during the times you aren’t fasting.
So to make sure this information is available to everyone, here is my super complex list of things you must and must no do in order to lose weight and to ensure you are eating ‘healthy’:
1. Eat less while enjoying the foods you Eat. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables and herbs and spices. And, maybe most importantly – stop stressing about the foods you eat.
That it. If you can follow this one guideline then in my opinion you are eating perfectly.
Sure, we could talk about the importance of eating real food over food-like-substances, but if you are eating lots of fruits and vegetables then you are probably already doing this.
We could also talk about avoiding flavoring your food with salt and sugar, but if you are eating lots of herbs and spices you are already doing this too.
And lastly we could talk about the very important (and VERY underrated) role of having a good healthy relationship with the foods you eat. I know this sounds very ‘new age’ but I assure you that a lot of today’s overeating and obsessive compulsive eating comes from unhealthy relationships with food, where people feel stressed and guilty every single time they eat.
If you are enjoying the foods you eat, and not stressing about your food choices, than you are doing an amazing job avoiding this problem too.
So with the Eat Stop Eat lifestyle, (where rational simplicity is always the goal), this one simple guideline is all you need to guide your eating habits.
BP
PS- If you are curious if Eat Stop Eat is right for you, you can CLICK HERE to find out more.
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