The reason why most diets fail is because they attempt to get you to change your diet and reduce your calories. This will result in some weight loss. However, weight loss has as much or more to do with other factors including hormones, stress, and especially your metabolic set point. If you change the way you eat by eating less, for example, your metabolic set point will, over time, prompt you to put the weight back on. That’s because your body is programmed to maintain your body weight over time. If your body is used to weighing 280 lbs., and you lose 30 lbs. your body will try to get back to 280 lbs. through biochemical and hormonal responses. So to lose weight, and keep the weight off, you have to change the programming. That means resetting your metabolism. It’s relatively easy to reset your metabolism. All you have to do is “spike” it or raise it well above its normal level for four minutes every day. Let’s look at an example.
Joe Driver is a full time independent contractor who is 5’10” and weighs 250 lbs. That gives him a BMI of 36 and classifies him as “obese” (which is now a disease according to the American Medical Association). An average day for Joe is as follows: wake up and walk into the truck stop to use the bathroom, get a little breakfast, and then walk back to the truck. Joe starts driving for a few hours then decides to fuel. He stops at another truck stop, fuels, walks in to the truck stop to get receipt, gets some fast food, then walks back to the truck and starts driving. A few hours later, Joe arrives at the receiver. He parks the truck, checks in with security, drives to the dock, opens the trailer doors, backs in to the dock, dollies down the landing gear then sits in his truck while getting unloaded. Once unloaded, Joe walks in to the shipper, gets bills, walks back to the truck, puts the landing gear up, pulls out of the dock, closes the trailer door, then drives to the nearest truck stop, and parks the truck. At some point, Joe will get out of the truck and walk into the truck stop to get dinner, and then return to the truck and eventually go to sleep. Joe does not get out of the truck to exercise. Does this sound like you?
After monitoring the metabolism of one hundred and fifty drivers, I have learned that the average driver, who follows a similar routine as described above and does not exercise, will have a metabolism that fluctuates between 1 and 4 METS. METS is a unit of measurement used to quantify how hard your metabolism is working. 0 to 3 METS is light activity, 3 to 6 METS is moderate activity, and anything over 6 METS is vigorous activity. That means that the average driver who does not exercise only spikes his or her metabolism to about 4 METS which is “moderate” activity. Most of the time the average driver is in the “light activity”, and that’s where the metabolism sets itself. Every day, every week, every month, every year that Joe Driver drives, his metabolism goes from 1 (sleeping/ driving) to 4 (walking, working the landing gear, opening/closing trailer doors) back to 1 back to 4 and back to 1 and so on. To reset his metabolism, Joe Driver will need to spike his metabolism above 4. How can he do that? EXERCISE!
If Joe were to exercise for 15 minutes and exercise to the point of breathing really hard for four minutes, Joe would spike his metabolism above 6 METS which is vigorous activity. The true benefit of exercise is not just the extra calories burned but raising your METS. By exercising every day, Joe “trains” his metabolism to go from 1 MET to 6 METs every day. In that way, Joe increased his metabolic set point. The higher metabolism burns more calories (and fat) every day. This is how you lose weight and keep it off!
The problem with diets is that they don’t target your METS. Changing what you eat doesn’t affect your METS that much. So if you want to lose weight and keep it off, spike your metabolism by exercising for 15 minutes every day and make sure that at least four minutes is vigorous!
Want to learn more? Get the DHF DVD in through the Prime company store. For only $14.95, you get two discs full of information and exercises that you can do right from your truck! Give the company store a call to order the DVD at (417)521-3814.
Want help? Enroll in the DHF 13 Week Program. Go to www.driverhealthandfitness.com and click “Get Started”.
