We have all heard that the “formula” for effectively losing weight is to “Eat less and Exercise more”. Well, on the first part of that equation, the “eating less” is not specific and should be followed by “Eat less CARBS and FRUITS but eat more PROTEIN and VEGTABLES”. Now, the second part of the equation, “exercise more” is a truism. The more the intense the exercise, the more calories are burned.
The amount, duration, type of intensity of exercise is impacted by many issues including age, orthopedic issues, other health problems and time-availability. I see many patients that simply have no time to exercise routinely, especially those working parents of custodial age children. There are a number of other patients I see that have knee, hip, ankle or other orthopedic issues that cannot work out aggressively, outside of swimming.
During a long-term weight control journey, take a step back and see if you “cannot” exercise OR you “will not” add this component to your efforts to shed the weight. Yes, the dietary component is a much more impactful intervention for weight loss but exercise can be a great complement. Do not be lulled into counting steps on an app, believing you burned off a bunch of calories that day and are then entitled to eat a bunch of carbs and/or hit the booze. Below are the calories burned off in one hour during specific exercises for a 185 pounds person:
So, let’s all get as active as our bodies will allow and try to incorporate a healthy and aggressive exercise component to your health and wellness journey.
And as you see that running is the most aggressive of exercises, do the “Forrest Gump” thing and go out and run….until you are running on empty. Enjoy Jackson Browne’s tune, “Running On Empty”
