smarter scientific solution

 

The primary finding of the current study is that [the smarter science of slim]…results in greater improvement in body composition, cardiovascular risk factors, and muscular strength than a program comprised of a traditional diet and…exercise regimen… – researcher Arciero, Skidmore College

The Smarter Science of Slim is all about eating more and exercising less—smarter. It’s about eating so much high quality food that we’re effortlessly able to avoid the low quality food causing fat gain. It’s about exercising with such high quality that it’s unnecessary to exercise more than twenty minutes per week (check-out the book and the blog for the science around what make a food high or low quality).

And yes, eating more and exercising less—smarter—to burn fat seems backward. But after we step back from the mass of fat-loss marketing and myths we’re attacked by daily we’ll see eating less and exercising more—harder—is the backwards bit.

“…[eating less] continues to be the basis of…weight reduction programs…[the results] are known to be poor and not long-lasting.”- researcher Bray, Pennington Biomedical Research Center

“We thought the findings [regarding exercising less, smarter] were startling because it suggests the overall [quantity] of exercise people need to do is lower than what’s recommended…” – researcher Gibala, McMaster University

Even the American Heart Association has gone on record that there is little if any proof that eating less and exercising more is an effective way to burn fat when they said: “It is reasonable to assume that persons with relatively high daily energy expenditures would be less likely to gain weight over time compared with those who have low energy expenditures. So far, data to support this hypothesis are not particularly compelling…”

Then why do we keep on getting told to starve ourselves and spend hours in the gym? Enough of that. Especially when there is a mass of data supporting the smarter scientific solution to fat loss.

Eating less and exercising more is the backwards bit

In 1977 the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs told us the cause of fat gain was eating too much and exercising too little, and the solution was eating less and exercising more: “To avoid overweight, consume only as much energy as is expended; if overweight, decrease energy intake and increase energy expenditure.”

Since politicians started playing physicians in seventies, obesity and related diseases have increased at record rates. Maybe we missed something, but it sure seems like we’ve got a few decades and few hundred million people demonstrating that “eat less, exercise more” is wrong. It’s either impractical, scientifically invalid, or both. Either way, judging by results, eating less and exercising more isn’t an effective way to burn fat long term.

“[We] reviewed studies of the long-term outcomes of calorie-restricting diets to assess whether dieting is an effective treatment for obesity…In sum, there is little support for the notion that diets lead to lasting weight loss or health benefits.” – researcher Mann, University of California

“…after 18 months of exercise training and achieving 2,000 [calories] per week of exercise, college-aged women had no weight loss.” – researcher Church, Pennington Biomedical Research Center

And none of this: “Eating less and exercising more works just fine…the problem is people are lazy and don’t do it.” That’s silly. If a program is too hard to use, then the program is ineffective. If we try to buy something online and the checkout process is so difficult and time consuming that we skip the purchase, we’re not the lazy ones, the folks who designed the checkout process are the lazy ones. We didn’t fail the system. The system failed us. Bottom line, an impractical approach to fat loss is as useless as a scientifically invalid approach to fat loss. Sadly, eating less and exercising more is both impractical and scientifically invalid.

After all, studies show nearly 50% of women and 33% of men dieting, and that we’re getting way more exercise than any time in history.  Exercise didn’t even become a mainstream concept until the 1968 publication of the book Aerobics. Take Dr. Entin from the department of Biological Sciences at Northern Arizona University on the recent history of exercise: “In the 1930’s and 40’s it was believed that weight training would slow an athlete and most athletic coaches banned weight training…high volume endurance training was thought to be bad for the heart. Through the 50’s and even 60’s, exercise was not thought to be useful in older people and endurance exercise was thought to be harmful to women.”

And no more: “Then it’s because heavy people are inactive throughout the day.” From researcher Nestle at the New York University: “…the activity levels of Americans appear to have changed little, if at all, from the 1970s to the 1990s [when the obesity rates rose the fastest].”

There’s also the point-blank studies showing eating less and exercising more failing 95% of the time. Clearly a 95% failure rate is bad. But just how bad is it? Studies show more folks are able to quit smoking cold turkey than are able to keep fat off by eating less and exercising more. Let that sink in for a second. More people are able to successfully give up one of the most addictive substances on earth than are able to lose fat effectively eating less and exercising more.

So before anyone frets about eating more and exercising less—smarter—it’s worth asking: What do we have to worry about? It is not as if “eat less, exercise more” is working.

 

The scientific approach is about quality, not quantity

Everything we’ve ever been told about fat loss is rooted in the theory that fat gain is a quantity problem. Too many calories in, too few calories out, or both. Quantity is king.

The quantity theory of fat loss has been proven wrong in academic circles for decades.

“This study examined the relationships among body fat…energy intake, and exercise…There was no relationship between energy intake and [body fat]” – Miller, Indiana University

“…the best data available suggest that the obese…eat no more than the lean…” – Wooley, University of Cincinnati

Studies show fat gain isn’t a quantity problem. It’s a quality problem. The cause of fat gain is low quality food destroying our body’s need and ability to burn fat while low quality exercise does nothing to restore our bodies’ inability to burn fat.

The easiest way to free ourselves from the quantity myth and to internalize the smarter science of quality is to stop thinking about fat loss like a balance of calories in and calories out and to start thinking about fat loss like a clogged sink. Excess fat building up in our bodies is like excess water building up in a sink. And what causes water to build-up and overflow in a sink?

It’s not too much water flowing into the sink. We don’t wash our hands quickly because we know too much water will make our sink overflow. The best cutting quantity can do is slow the overflow. It’s not about quantity. Similarly, the overflow isn’t fixed by us bailing a bunch water out of the sink. Increasing quantity out is a temporary treatment. As soon as we stop, the overflow starts.

Sinks and bodies overflow because they are clogged. And they get clogged when we put the wrong quality of stuff in them. The problem is the clog (aka “metabolic dysregulation” in academic circles). The solution is removing the clog. And neither have anything to do with too much in or too little out.

  • The Clog: An abstraction of the body’s inability to respond to hormonal signals which otherwise automatically prevent us from storing excess fat. As Harvard Medical School researchers put it, “The circulating [hormone] level…directs the central nervous system in regulating energy [balance]…and metabolism… [However] The vast majority of obese humans…[are] resistant…to [these] weight-reducing effects.”

When we take a step back and think about it, saying the cure for chronic weight gain is eating less and exercising more, is like saying the cure for allergies by inhaling less and exhaling more.

Allergies don’t cause chaos with our respiratory system because we’ve got too much air coming in and too little air going out. It’s not about quantity. The issue is the quality of air we’re breathing. Similarly, the clog destroying our need and ability to burn fat isn’t caused by the quantity of food we’re eating. The issue is the quality of food we’re eating and exercise we’re getting.

Eating less and exercising more fails 95% of the time because it’s a quantity based approach to a quality based problem. It’s like trying to get someone who doesn’t speak our language to understand us by speaking louder and louder and repeating ourselves over and over. It’s like pushing on a door labeled “pull” more and more.

On the bright side, eating more and exercising less—smarter—provides the quality of food and the quality of exercise we need to clear the clog and restore our body’s ability to keep us from overflowing.

“Even short-term [high quality eating] improves blood pressure and glucose tolerance, decreases insulin secretion, increases insulin sensitivity and improves lipid profiles…[i.e. clears the clog]” – researcher Frassetto, University of California San Francisco

“…[the type of muscle tissue developed by high quality exercise] led to improved insulin sensitivity and reductions in blood glucose, insulin, and leptin levels [i.e. cleared the clog]. These effects occurred despite a reduction in physical activity…” – Izumiya, Boston University

 

In sum, in 1977 the government told us to turn right—i.e. eat less and exercise more—and we ended up further away from where we wanted to go.

It’s time to back up, look at the map laid out for us by thousands of researchers over the past few decades, and turn left. It’s time to focus on quality instead of quantity. It’s time for a smarter scientific solution.

Of course the questions of the day are:

  • “How do I eat more, smarter?”
  • “What are high quality calories and how do I eat more of them?”
  • “How do I exercise less, smarter?”
  • “What is high quality exercise and how do I do it?”

While we’ll see that the real cause of fat gain is a little more complex than we’ve been lead to believe, we’ll also see we’re a lot smarter than we’re given credit for.

Get the Book

 

Sampling of sources

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