What’s Your Why?

Why do you exercise?

  • Is it because you want to have enough energy to get through the day?
  • Is it to prevent disease and slow down the aging process?
  • Is it to burn calories so you lose weight?

When I ask most people why they exercise they say it’s to burn calories so they can lose weight.  The problem with this is that exercise for weight loss soon backfires for most people.

Exercise for Weight Loss

You can’t out train a bad diet

This is a popular saying amongst the gym crowd and it’s true.  However after a tough workout many people decide it’s time to reward themselves for a job well done by indulging in some sort of high calorie food.  After a half marathon one of the funniest conversations to listen in on is: Where are we going to eat???  The worst I ever heard was HOMETOWN BUFFET!

More isn’t Better.  Better is Better

The second issue with Exercise for Weight Loss is that people think more is better.  They think that if they engage in long, exhausting, and tortuous exercise sessions that this is effective for weight loss.

NOPE

Long, Exhausting, and Tortuous exercise sessions lead to injury and burnout both physically and mentally.

People think the more advanced and tortuous an exercise is:  The better it is for results. I want to scream when I see “trainers” having heavier de conditioned clients perform high impact exercises because this is just the gateway to Injury City.

More exercise is NOT better.  BETTER exercise is better.  What do I mean by that?  We need to quit this exercising for the mirror nonsense and embrace the athletic model by focusing on Mobility, Conditioning, Flexibility, and Strength.  This is the way to ensure results in a safe and effective manner.

Also most people do not have hours and hours a day to do long exercise sessions.  You don’t need that anyway. Doing  30 – 60 minutes of formal exercise  along with more daily movement CONSISTENTLY is the way to success.

CONSISTENTLY is the key word. Most people do these exhaustive exercise programs and then are either beat up or so burnt out that they give up.  You would be a lot better off by starting off where you are and building consistency with your program rather than trying to jump into the game when you’ve been sitting in the stands for the last 6 months.

Therefore I’m ready to get radical and change the conversation:  Let’s stop exercising for Calorie Burn and Exercising for Metabolic Efficiency and Functioning for Life

STOP Exercising for Calorie Burn and Exercise for Metabolic Efficiency and Functioning for Life

One of the best seminars I’ve taken was from Nardia Norman (Australian PT of the Year)  who spoke about Cracking your Female Client’s Fat Code.  She and other presenters emphasized that women are not small men and hormones need to be taken into account when designing training programs. When it comes to all of our clients we need to be emphasizing metabolic health.

We know that the traditional fat loss paradigms of Eat Less/Move More don’t work long term. It’s unsustainable and that’s the business model.  The diet industry didn’t grow to be a billion dollar empire by accident.  They do their program and lose weight and then of course because it is unsustainable they regain the weight plus more only to become repeat customers.

Sadly women suffer the most with this chronic dieting/excessive exercise belief system which leads to metabolic slowdown and subsequent weight gain.

One of my favorite quotes from Nardia was:

Exercise is not about burning calories.  It should be about metabolic efficiency.

If I were to add my own two cents, then it would be that exercise should be about metabolic efficiency and also training for life.

The problem with the exercise is for burning calories mindset

Most people do not burn as many calories as they think they do from exercise.  Also many of the readouts you’re getting from the cardio machine are estimates at best.  The machine has no way of knowing your specific metabolism, hormonal environment, or conditioning level.  All it knows is your age and weight.  This is not enough information to give you an accurate calorie burn estimate.

People who tend to look at exercise for simply burning calories focus too much on cardio exercise which is not the most efficient for fat loss.  It’s why we see the people who stick to the cardio machines not change too much over time.
I  think it also sets up an unhealthy relationship with food that says if I eat this, then I have to burn it off or it gives people the idea that if I exercise, then I deserve a treat.  A person with a turned down metabolism (such as a chronic dieter) will burn less during exercise anyway.

Strong For Life

Most people I run into aren’t interested in being powerlifters or stepping on a bodybuilding stage.  The majority of people need to exercise and get stronger so they can continue to perform at a high level: whether it’s  at work or at home.  Working out energizes you and staves off many of the diseases that occur as we age.

I love to travel and sightsee so when I was in Seattle I laced up my Nikes, hit the light rail, and went off exploring.  I went to the original Starbucks.  I mainly went to thank them for Peets, Coffee Bean, and Philz.  I think Starbucks has the WORST coffee but as a coffee drinker I felt I needed to make that pilgrimage

Move for a healthy metabolism and healthy lifestyle

For our Spring Training Challenge my movement challenge was:  At least 250 minutes of Movement per week (This includes lifestyle activity such as walking from public transportation)

Strength Train at least 2x a week if you aren’t doing so already. Crucial for metabolism and for life.

Let’s reframe this conversation about exercise.  It needs to stop being about burning calories and start being about metabolic health, getting stronger, and training for life.

P.S. It’s also more fun that way.  Exercising to burn calories is drudgery and takes all the fun out of it.  Nope.  Train with a purpose whether it’s to get stronger so that you can do more, perform at a higher level at work/home, or just to feel better.