“In order to lose weight, you simply need to eat less and exercise more.”
Sound familiar? That’s because 99% of all weight loss and maintenance advice boils down to the quote above.
But while it is necessary to incur a caloric deficit if you are looking to lose that beer gut once and for all, restricting your calories while forcing yourself to exercise as much as possible is not the best way to go about it.
Huh-what? Let me explain…
The Study That Changed Everything
One of the most authoritative studies on the effects of human starvation was conducted in the 1940s at my own alma mater, the University of Minnesota, by Dr. Ancel Keys.
Keys studied 36 men who were first fed an adequate amount of food for three months, then placed on semi-starvation diets for six months, followed by a three-month period of rehabilitative re-feeding.
During the period of semi-starvation, they were also instructed to walk and exercise enough that they burned more calories than they consumed each day.
Drum Roll, Please…
The good news for those looking to “eat less and exercise more” their way to a leaner body is that these men lost a whopping 25% or more of their total body weight during the starvation period!
The bad news is that it took an immense toll on the participants. They uniformly exhibited decreases in basal metabolism, body temperature, heart rate, and sexual function.
They also displayed signs of emotional distress, including depression and anxiety. One of the participants even went so far as to cut several of his own fingers off. (There’s no way in hell you could get away with doing an experiment like this nowadays.)
Oh yeah, and once the experiment was over, the men gained back all the weight they loss, and then more, with fat gain proportionally larger than muscle gain. Yikes!
Of particular note to us, and the basis of the rest of this series, is that they all experienced a lack of control, concentration, and focus. These characteristics, which I will group together as “will power,” are the reason that “eat less and exercise more” by itself is a terrible way to lose weight and keep it off.
Eat Less, Exercise More?
Here’s the “dirty little secret” you need to know about The Minnesota Starvation Experiment: during the starvation period, the participants were put on a tightly-controlled diet and exercise regimen consisting of about 1800 kcal consumed and 3009 kcal burned each and every day.
Far from eating only two apples every day then running a marathon, these men followed a very similar diet and exercise protocol that many, if not most, popular weight-loss experts would support.
So why did these men succeed in losing weight following a plan that doesn’t seem to work for others? And why do so many guys fail to lose their extra belly fat by simply eating less and exercising more?
Like P. Diddy says, it’s all about the willpower, baby. (Wait, am I remembering that right?)
Hold on to your hats, gentlemen, ‘cuz I have a big series coming at you on what I believe to be the most overlooked aspect of health, fitness, and wellness: how your willpower is screwing it all up.
In the next installment, I’ll take a closer look at the “energy in – energy out” paradigm and show you how oversimplification has led to the most dangerous weight-management advice of all time.
I'm a science geek, food lover, and wannabe surfer.
{ 13 comments }
Darrin,
I think that we sometimes try and simplify it too much. You obviously need a caloric deficit to lose weight, which would mean eat less and exercise more. The truth though is that there is so much more to it than that. If you have a lot of weight to lose, you can rely on “eat less and exercise more” with great success.
I have found that once you are very lean, but still have a little fat around your waist to lose, the game changes on you. You really need to be more aware of what you eat versus just how much you eat.
I think using intermittent fasting to cut your calories, while eating mainly a Paleo influenced diet works great. At least it has worked great for me. I look forward to your next one, you always have a way of writing such informative posts!
-Kelly
First of all “CUT OF SEVERAL OF HIS OWN FINGERS”!!! Perhaps he though if he lost weight faster he could be finished with the experiment faster? Seriously though, you’re right this kind of experiment would not be allowed today. Six months is a looong time to be on such an intense diet and exercise plan. Severe calorie restriction definitely effects your mental health.
It makes perfect sense that the subjects gained back all the weight, plus some, and more of it was fat than muscle. The body was clearly trying to protect itself from another possible “famine” scenario.
I agree with Kelly that the “eat less, exercise more” plan works better when you have a lot of weight to lose, but gets much trickier when you are already lean and trying to shift the last few pounds.
Can’t wait for the next part…
I’ve found intermittent fasting combined with a cyclic approach has melted away fat for me. (I wasn’t exactly in the high body fat range to begin with either.)
As has been said, it’s all about what kinds of foods you are ingesting as opposed to how much you eat when you start getting down to single digit BF levels.
Darrin,
Thought provoking stuff as always. I must admit, I tend to stress the simplicity of creating and maintaining a calorie deficit for my readers. You (and Kelly and David) bring up a great point, though. In order to get ultra sharp without sacrificing overall health and sanity, you do need to pay attention to what you eat and how you carry out your routine.
Alykhan
Hope this will not be another eat 6 paleo meals a day bs…
Willpower is right, man. It takes an almost inhuman amount of willpower to not overeat on cookies or something when you’re hungry, wanting a snack, and they’re right in front of you.
Removing the temptation is the only strategy that really works for me, because exercise just makes me HUNGRY!
Looking forward to the next installment!
-Drew
Darrin,
I’ve certainly been guilty of over preaching calories in vs. calories out (although coincidentally I just posted something on calorie cycling). Great topic and I’m looking forward to reading more of this series.
Dave
i am definitely looking forward to this series.
as someone who genetically ‘has’ the willpower to starve and coming out of anorexia alive i think there is A LOT more than eat less move more to weight maintenance as well as weight gain.
personally, i think a lot of it is acceptance, and how you allow yourself to think/feel about food & stress
something else, in the starvation experiment, food at 1560/average per day consisted of potatoes, rutabagas, turnips, bread and macaroni — which probably -played a more important role in the weight gained back, as well as the spiral downward in mental health
haha we all know the equation back to front but the secret is in the execution … I look forward to your secret stratgies I’m sure as always they will be worth trying out!
BTW I think most moethods will work but depending on your actual phyiscal state to what will work the most effectively. ( eg an obese person tactics would be different to a very lean person.
Raymond
Hi Darrin
Absolutely with you on this one. After training many clients over the years and seeing some people get amazing results and others who couldn’t quite make it the difference I concluded was willpower.
Willpower to eat the right foods, exercise when they needed ,moderate their lifestyle when required and just keep doing it consistently. I think mindset is the crucial factor when it comes to fat loss and the first thing we should tackle before even mentioning calories and exercise. Look forward the rest of your articles on this topic.
Cheers
H
I’m big on the eat less and exercise more so I’m looking forward to see what insights you have. Its only lately that I realized that after eating less for a while the body becomes accustomed to that and you stop losing weight.
Phew, sorry for the lack of responses, y’all! I’m just finishing up a long and grueling move that has zapped all my time and energy these past two months. Things should be back to normal ’round here within the next week or so.
@Kelly:
It’s definitely going to be one of my biggest points here that our current calories paradigm isn’t necessarily wrong, it’s just oversimplified to the point that most people think that using up their willpower to eat less and exercise more is the only way, when in fact it is quite ineffective. As you mentioned, eating Paleo and doing IF are two other awesome ways to get in great shape without driving yourself crazy.
@David:
Yeah, I’m all for experimenting to see what works best for ya, but cutting off your fingers is too big a sacrifice! Starvation certainly does some damage to your body that people don’t realize when they are solely focused on “calories in – calories out.”
@Clint:
I’m a big fan of IF as well. Having tried both eating less at every meal and cycling periods of massive eating and fasting, I’ve found the latter to be much easier. Types of food are key as well. As I wrote in a previous post, not all foods fill you up the same on a calorie-by-calorie basis, and simply eating these foods to satiation is much easier than trying to “cut yourself off.”
@Alykhan:
It definitely is simple in theory. Unfortunately, in practice most people find it to be very difficult. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you can just stuff your face as much as possible! 🙂
@Wood:
Haha. As big a fan of the Paleo diet as I am, I have a few issues with it, and I think there are more great “hacks” for getting in great shape than many in the Paleosphere are advocating. Plus, six meals a day? Damn, you’ll be lucky if you can squeeze in a shower if you are that busy working! I’m sure you’ll find this series will have much more insight than “six Paleo meals a day BS.”
@Drew:
Sounds like you and I are on the same page! We had a big bowl of candy out on Halloween and I just couldn’t resist grabbing one of those fun size bars every time I walked by. After several days and several headaches, I knew I just couldn’t be around the stuff.
@Dave:
Thanks dude. I certainly think it’s more important to balance out fasting and feasting as it’s much easier to pull off than a constant energy deficit.
@Mallory:
Good points. Although I don’t have first-hand experience with eating disorders, our culture in particular has a certain way of causing people to have negative attitudes about food and their self-images.
The study is really fascinating when you get into it. Keys was attempting to study the effects of starvation and refeeding on war-ravaged societies during WWII, not weight loss for health or cosmetic reasons. He chose foods based on what these societies were eating at the time, definitely not my ideal choices either, although I am a huge fan of roasted roots and tubers!
@Raymond:
Absolutely. Everyone needs to do some self-experimentation to determine what works best for them. I don’t believe there is any one magic bullet, but the more we can understand what works in a general sense, the more we can intelligently apply it to ourselves specifically.
Howard:
Awesome! As a person who’s been self-experimenting over 10 years with nutrition and exercise, I’m primarily using my own experiences, studies I’ve read, and anecdotal evidence from others. It’s cool to see you have the ability to observe this in many people firsthand! Powering through it is the long, hard way, but I think there are many “hacks” which make this much easier, and don’t require you to use up all your willpower on it.
@Alejandro:
Yup. There’s much more to it than the energy in the food you eat – the energy you burn during exercise. I think you’ll enjoy the post I’m cooking up on the deception of the energy equation!
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