MYST 84 Trevitorial: Diet or Exercise?




Make Your Someday Today Podcast : Reach Your Goal Weight and Become the Person You Deserve show

Summary: or <a href="https://i2.wp.com/makeyoursomedaytoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/photo-1422207175003-e5b7d45ceb7b.jpg"></a>  or <br>  <br> Which is it? Diet or Exercise? <br> When people hear that I once weighed 305 pounds (138kg) and was able to lose—and keep off—125 pounds (57Kg) I still get asked the same question:<br> “So? What’s your secret?”  As if there is a secret to successful weight loss!<br> I almost always get the same response to my reply: “Diet and exercise.” It is a little half-frown, a micro-step backwards, and then, “Ohhhhh.” As if that secret wasn’t good enough.<br> But that is it! Diet: in other words, eating the correct amount of calories and Exercise: moving more to burn more calories. Nothing else. But…there is more to it than that!<br> This show will focus on the three phases of weight loss, and how “diet and exercise” remains the foundation of successful weight loss even as how “D &amp; E” habits become modified through each phase.<br> Nothing can stay the same and remain successful. Things always change, even how you lose weight.<br> And first, I want to thank one of my <a href="http://www.loseit.com">LoseIt</a> friends, Mike Pfirrman. He posed a question in <a href="https://forums.loseit.com/posts/list/40002.page">the LoseIt forum</a> about this topic, and in crafting a response, I realized that I don’t think I’ve ever really addressed this specific topic. So, thank you, Mike! I hope that your question will eventually help many people, even beyond the world of LoseIt!<br> His question was “If weight loss happens in the kitchen, why am I reading than nine out of ten people who are formerly obese, regain all their weight over a 5 year period if they don’t exercise?”<br> His question actually addresses not “weight loss” but “weight maintenance”, which requires a different mindset. But I will get into that shortly.<br> The genesis of his question is that many people come to LoseIt as ask what exercises they need to perform in order to lose weight, and the stock answer is a variation on this: “Weight loss happens in the kitchen. Fitness happens in the gym. Focus on eating correctly, because you can’t out-exercise bad eating habits.”<br> And I stand by that answer. It is true. Mostly. In this show, I will dissect it more accurately, addressing each weight loss phase.<br> The first phase is “Early Loss.” Especially when a person has a lot of weight to lose (50 or more pounds) it is not uncommon that not only is the person overweight, but they are also under-active. And their lack of activity is partly due to low/no stamina, painful joints, shortness of breath or other weight-exacerbated conditions that already exist.<br> Could an overweight person focus on exercise only and lose weight? Certainly. Will they? Unlikely. If a person has been sedentary long enough combined with bad eating habits, becoming consistently active enough to promote significant weight loss is probably not a realistic goal. I will take myself as an example. When was 305 pounds, I struggled to slowly walk a quarter mile (400m) with my dog Ozzy. By the time I reached that point, I was short of breath to the point of being lightheaded. I had no stamina. Physically, I was all I could do to walk that short distance. If someone had told me, “Trevor, the only way to lose weight is to start a P90X routine” my response would have been, “Sure. Right after I eat this container of ice cream.”<br> No. In that “early loss” phase, we need to focus on something that is equally hard but within the realm of physical possibility. We need to focus on finding a correct diet. And by “diet”, I mean calorie budget. Personally, I do not subscribe to the idea that any one food, food group, or macronutrient is the source of all weight problems. I know that many people have strong beliefs about this. Some promote eating paleo, some promote low fat, some promote gluten free, some suggest no artificial sweeteners,