Eat Less Exercise More: Does It Work?

Eat less and exercise more to lose weight.

How is this working for you? The fact is that when you restrict calories (eat less) you get hungry! Have you tried it? What happens? If you’re like most people you can probably manage your hunger for a couple of weeks even months but it then becomes a test of endurance and we can tell you who will win out in the end…..Hunger will make sticking to your new regime almost impossible and not only that, hormonal imbalance will drive “overeating and weight gain” once the restriction has gone. Why?


Our bodies have built in something we call a 'set point weight'.  This is a survival instinct brought about during periods of limited resource, stress or starvation.  during these times the body does all it can to maintain what it had set as your 'set weight point' . If you force the body beyond this point it remembers where it was before you put it under stress, when your dieting stops the body stores as much fat as it can to return the known set point. However the bodies set point weight only works in one direction, this is up, it has no limit on gaining weight and is quite happy to to store more and more fat for future periods of lack.


Both calorie restriction along with willpower and exercise cause stress which should be avoided. You are far more likely to succeed and achieve the weight loss you desire when you are not stressed. When stressed the Adrenal glands produce cortisol. Elevated levels of cortisol result in the body going into preserve mode and weight loss stalls. In addition stress hormones are produced which in turn increases glucose levels, which leads to increased insulin production, weight gain and a whole host of other potential health related issues, including diabetes, syndrome x, heart disease Etcetera. The evidence against using exercise as a weight loss tool is huge, one should not be used to enable or enhance the other, always address excess weight issues before fitness. Remember diet is the key to your weight loss goals and exercise is a fitness tool.


"Reduced fat and calorie intake and frequent use of low calorie food products have been associated with a paradoxial increase in the prevalence of obesity" - Drs Heini & Weinsier


Let’s take another look at the Minnesota Experiment.  This study was conducted 60 years ago and was an effort to assess the effects of starvation on the human body as well as how best to re-nourish it.  Sound familiar?  It should do because this is what you are doing to your body every time you embark on anther fad diet or weight loss programme…In the final phase of this 56 week long experiment, the 36 male volunteers were given an unrestricted rehabilitation period lasting 8 weeks for re-nourishment following a programme of restricted eating.  What happened?  Left to their own devices they ate huge quantities of food!  Eating more than 4000 calories a day for several weeks driven by a strong desire to overeat…The experiment noted that the “extreme” eating was directly related to the extent of weight lost: the more weight an individual lost, the more the drive to over eat and to such an extent that by the time eating returned to normal, fat levels were 75% higher than at the start of the study.


So why do we keep doing it?  If your aim is to lose weight and to keep it off in the long-term you must embrace a way of eating that keeps you satisfied and that can keep your hunger at bay. Think diet not dieting and what Paleo will do for you! You must place your emphasis on eating nutrient dense truly satisfying food and become familiar with those foods that will do this for you….and here’s a clue, it’s not carbohydrates!


As for eat less and exercise more?



As the evidence suggests, you're probably flogging a dead horse!



Related Articles:
Obese: A Year To Save My Life
Why Am I Still Fat
The Truth About Exercise
Primal Vices
How To Escape The Diet Trap