I.M.120 Helping you to BE YOUR BEST SELF

I have nothing against exercise. I exercise several times a week and I encourage my patients to do the same. The problem with exercise is that it promises more than I can deliver, especially when it comes to weight reduction. Simply put, you cannot exercise your way into a more healthy weight. Exercise can help maintain muscle mass, can maintain cardiovascular fitness, it can even give you mental energy, but without significant nutritional change your weight simply will not alter.

There are several reasons for this. One is that exercise stimulates your appetite. After a vigorous bout of exercising, hormones are released that will prompt you to eat a bit more than you otherwise might. This can be subtle but enough to neutralize the effect of the exercise itself. In some cases, we can use our planned exercise to give us subconscious permission to eat that which we shouldn't. "I'll just exercise a bit more tomorrow" will go the silent rationalization as we reach for second servings of food. The math you're doing just doesn't work. Thirty minutes of vigorous exercise on a treadmill can equates to little more than a bite or two of calorically dense food. We always consume more energy faster than we burn it.

Athletes and bodybuilders are knowledgeable about the association between exercise and diet. In general 70% of conditioning is nutritionally driven, only 30% is a factor of your exercise.  If you don't couple your exercise with proper nutrition, not only will you fail to lose weight, but you will fail to build muscle and gain the cardiovascular benefits that you hoped for in the first place.

Here are some myths to avoid as you exercise to reduce weight;

1. You must take in an energy enhancing carb load or nutritional supplement before going to the gym - This might be true if you are an 18-year-old trying to gain weight for the football team, but if you're not so metabolically advantaged, my advice would be to make sure you load up with plenty of water before hitting the gym, and only take a low-carb, high-protein snack if going to the gym corresponds to your usual feeding time.
    
2. You must eat frequent small meals to game benefit from exercise - I do recommend a post exercise protein dense meal, anywhere from 15 to 45 g of protein depending on your gender and bodyweight within 1 hour of training, however the frequency of your sustenance eating will be driven by your personal needs. For most people, three sustenance meals per day will be adequate. Some of you will do well with frequent grazing and small sustenance eating. You can find your best pattern by listening to your body and tracking your weight.
    
3. You must exercise for extended periods to burn fat - Unless you love pounding on the treadmill for extended periods of time, long durations of aerobic exercise do not have any particular value with losing fat. Whatever fat you burn in the course of your exercise will be rapidly replenished at your next meal. I recommend interval training (alternating jogging with running for instance) for no greater than 30 minutes per session. This will maximize your cardiovascular and fitness benefit while avoiding unnecessary strain on the system that can create rebound hunger  and increase fat storage.

So exercise for fun and fitness and a more joyful life, then follow your I.M.120 Method nutritional change for a lean body.

Always pursuing truth in health,
Dr. Steve Petteruti