Educate Yourself!
I have heard wise elders say, “When you know better, you do better”. Well, that’s kinda true. Knowing better enables you to do better, but that’s only true when you APPLY what you know.
A long time ago, people thought the sun revolved around the earth. That was scientific fact. Then came some dudes who challenged the “scientific fact”. One of those guys, we are told, was named Galileo, and he said, “No, you have it backwards. The earth revolves around the sun.” Well, a lot of people didn’t believe him or listen to him, and some thought he was just crazy. But today, everyone knows that the earth revolves around the sun, right?
Well, a similar thing is happening in the nutrition and weight loss world. Up until recently, the scientific fact was that you gain weight because you eat and drink too many calories. Therefore, if you want to lose weight, you have to reduce your calories. “It’s all about calories,” we were told. Calories in, calories out.
Not so fast. According to the unpublished study by Lauren Whaley, RD, LD and Siphiwe Baleka entitled, “Effect of diet and lifestyle changes among long-term over the road truck drivers”, the average weight loss of 33 participants over thirteen weeks in the DHF program was 19.3 lbs. – a 7.3% body weight reduction. The participants were asked not to change their diet the first week of the program so that a nutritional baseline could be established. By the end of the program, the study found that calorie consumption decreased from 1539 calories to 1464 calories. That means that after thirteen weeks of the program, participants had reduced their calories by only 75 calories per day. Excluding the first week and assuming this reduction was consistent for every day of the remaining twelve weeks – 84 days – that’s a total calorie reduction of 6,300 calories per driver for the entire program. Since one pound is equal to 3,500 calories, then calorie reduction accounted for just 1.8 lbs. of the 19.3 lbs. of weight loss. That’s just 9.3% of their weight loss! So, there has to be more to it than just calories!
Well, it’s about calories burned, then, right? Well, in the same study, it was found that, via metabolic output tracking using digital health technology, “the overall total daily average expenditure decreased from 3,576 calories to 3,373 calories.” Participants actually burned 203 calories per day less throughout the program than when they started. This was born out by the fact that the participants physical activity actually decreased from 103 minutes in the first week of the program to just an average of 89 minutes throughout the remaining twelve weeks of the program. Again, if it were about calories in and calories out, then the extra 17,052 calories they didn’t burn would account for about 4.9 lbs. of weight gain! Something must be terribly wrong. Science told us it was all about calories – if you want to lose weight you have to eat less and move more, right?
Well, the old science is just that –old. Counting calories to lose weight is doomed to failure. It’s like trying to fight a guerilla war with conventional warfare tactics. You won’t win. This is why most diets, which are based on calorie restriction, fail. This is also why exercise programs that are based on burning extra calories through walking won’t work – those extra calories burned don’t matter. According to the study, “the average number of steps during the twelve weeks was 6,484 per day, decreasing from the first week average of 7,316 steps.” So these drivers lost an average of 19.3 lbs. by moving less and walking less. Hmmmm…….
If you want to lose weight you have got to change tactics. This is what I have been saying all the time. It’s no longer about move more and eat less. The study found that the two factors that contributed the most to the drivers’ weight loss were a decrease in carbohydrates from an average of 166g to 147g and an average of 5 minutes of vigorous activity. Now it’s move with vigorous intensity for short periods of time and reduce your carbs!
Check out what the other “Galileos” of this nutrition, fitness and weight loss revolution are saying:
Cathy Byrd, who completed DHF Class 12 with her husband Jerry Byrd, sent this amazing TEDTalk by Peter Attia entitled, Is the obesity crisis hiding a bigger problem?
(by the way, Cathy lost 28.4 lbs. in thirteen weeks using my methods and her husband lost 46.2 lbs. See their story here.
Also, Watch “Metabolism and Nutrition: The Inside Story of Obesity” on YouTube at here.
