The Appetite Solution by Joe Colella M.D

Author:Joe Colella, M.D.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-02-26T16:00:00+00:00

The Problem with Too Little Exercise

Chelsea was facing a different challenge. We have already seen why a restrictive diet makes it almost impossible to lose weight, so Chelsea’s first step was to switch from her lifetime of restrictive diets to the more effective approach of the Appetite Solution. After years of avoiding carbs like the plague, it took Chelsea a little while to get used to the idea that I actually wanted her to eat whole-wheat toast and brown rice, but once she understood the biology, she was ready to get on board.

What was harder for Chelsea was accepting that exercise had to be part of the solution.

“Why can’t I just eat less?” she kept asking me. “Then I wouldn’t have to exercise.”

Now let me be clear about this: If your only goal is to lose a few pounds, you don’t have to exercise. If you follow the Appetite Solution, you can lose weight through diet alone, first loading up on protein, then cutting the simple sugars, all without a severe drop in calories.

However, to keep weight off easily—let alone to achieve the metabolism of a teenager—exercise is crucial. Not the extreme exercise that Martina favored, but moderate exercise, at least four times a week, for about thirty minutes each session. That will be your best weight-prevention tool going forward.

Why?

Exercise builds lean muscle mass. As we have seen, lean muscle burns more calories. The lower your proportion of body fat and the higher your proportion of muscle, the more calories you burn—even while you are sleeping or watching TV.

Exercise reduces inflammation. Inflammation cues your body to store fat. Reducing inflammation cues your body to burn fat. Anything you can do to reduce inflammation is enormously helpful for weight loss. And exercise—in moderation—is one of the best, most reliable ways to reduce inflammation that we know. (Ironically, Martina’s extreme exercise was actually producing inflammation.32)

Exercise reduces stress. Stress also cues your body to store fat. And exercise—again in moderation—is one of the best known ways to reduce stress. (Again, Martina’s extreme exercise actually created stress.33)

So, I told Chelsea, if she wanted to relax into her new healthy weight instead of having to remain super-vigilant with her diet, exercise was key. The danger she faced if she did not exercise was that some other source of stress or inflammation—a massive deadline at work, a fight with her boyfriend, a bout with the flu, or even a momentary slip in her dietary discipline—would set her up for weight gain once again.

The real challenge for Chelsea was how much she hated even the thought of exercise. I asked her to hang in there and give it time. For the first two weeks of the Appetite Solution, I told her, she would focus on the food and ignore exercise altogether. I didn’t want to trigger adaptive thermogenesis or the stress response by having her do too much, too soon.

Two weeks in, I shared a moderate exercise program with Chelsea, one that was appropriate for someone who was not used to exercising and who felt daunted by the very idea.

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