Dear Reader,
I read a piece in New York Magazine that had me shaking my head.
In a nut shell the author, Gary Taubes, claims that exercise doesn’t work. Fat people stay fat, and lean people stay lean. All exercise does is burn a few calories, then boost your appetite and make you want to eat more. But there’s a big problem with his analysis.
It was about how after all these years experts still can’t figure out how you’re supposed to get in shape. Rates of obesity and diabetes have skyrocketed, and people still can’t keep the weight off.
He’s right about that. He cited a number of studies showing that regular exercise does yield some benefit, but doesn’t really help you to lose weight in the long term. But Taubes got the conclusion about exercise wrong because he focused on the wrong kind of exercise.
Taubes focused on endurance exercise like durational running, biking, and jogging.
Endurance training forces your heart and lungs to supply energy at continuous, low output, at relatively slow speed, for a long time. Long duration exercises tells your body to store more fat in order to meet the unnatural caloric demands you’re placing on it by running all those miles. So when your body’s at rest, it’s busy getting fatter, not leaner.
This type of exercise also puts your body in distress mode. It releases the stress hormone cortisol, which actually boosts triglyceride blood levels and cholesterol oxidation – both things that can clog your arteries and cause heart attacks. Cortisol also lowers serum testosterone and growth hormone levels, which can lead to depression, decreased muscle mass, and clouded thinking.
A groundbreaking study of long-distance runners found that after a workout, “bad” cholesterol and triglyceride levels increased and threw blood-clotting factors off-balance, increasing inflammation and clotting incidence. These are both signs of heart distress and precursors to heart attack.1
What you should focus on are high-intensity, short duration exercise routines. These mimic the natural physical demands our pre-historic ancestors confronted every day. Sudden, explosive bursts of speed – to escape danger or capture prey – gave them lean, fit bodies.
I recommend any exercise that uses one of the large muscle groups. Squat thrusts are great and something you can do at home. You can even use a flight of stairs.
One way I recommend changing your metabolism gradually is to start with 20 minutes of exercise every other day. When you can exercise comfortably for 20 minutes at a time, you then divide your workout into two 10-minute intervals with a rest in between. Over time, ramp up the intensity during your intervals by increasing your pace or resistance.
As you get in better shape, cut your exercise time down to two nine-minute intervals with three-minute rest periods. Keep progressing at your own pace. Eventually, you’ll progress to three six-minute intervals with one-minute rests. Then try to go the same distance in five-minute intervals.
Later, change to four intervals of four minutes each, and so on.
After a few weeks, you’ll start shedding pounds, adding lean muscle mass, and increasing heart and lung capacity
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
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1 Liu et al. “A marathon run increases the susceptibility of LDL to oxidation in vitro and modifies plasma antioxidants. American Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology and Metabolism. 1999. 276(6): E1083-E1091.
Work Cited:
Taubes, Gary. “The Scientist and the Stairmaster: Why most of us believe that exercise makes us thinner—and why we’re wrong.” New York Magazine, Sep 24, 2007