Week 15 – Exercise Myths

Bonus Episode:

Video 15 Transcript:

Most fitness gurus will tell you there are 2 major components necessary for weight loss success: Move more, eat less. I’m here to shout, “Boloney!” Following that advice is going to help your weight loss efforts as much as eating bologna at every meal will. Watch this video to learn how I ate more and exercised less to lose more than 100 pounds!

Hit the subscribe button and click the bell so you can learn everything I learned about losing more than 100 pounds each Wednesday! I didn’t find my weight loss success story until I stopped over exercising and ate more food…now let’s figure out if this method can help you stop starving yourself, while relaxing more for improved results.

Ever since you began researching how to lose weight, I’m sure you’ve read over and over that you must exercise in order to see results. Guess what – exercise isn’t even necessary in order to lose weight! In fact, there are plenty of ketoers out there who’ve lost a ton of weight, and exercise was never even on their radar!

If you’re one of those people putting off getting started with a keto plan because “you don’t like exercise,” stop it! Most of the results you’re going to find on keto will come from what you eat, not how consistently you exercise.

Today let’s talk about 3 reasons that exercise could actually hurt your weight loss efforts and why you need to quit using the fact that you despise formal exercise as an excuse not to get started on keto.

Too much cardio can lead to inflammation.

Part of the reason keto works so well is it helps most people reduce inflammation, which can help our bodies let go of stored fat. While some exercise can actually help reduce inflammation, over doing exercise, especially performing way too much cardio, can lead to increased inflammation for many people.

Raise your hand if you were taught to use cardio exercise in order to lose weight. Surely we all raised our hands. Many of us take this advice way too far and think, well if some cardio will help me a little, then more cardio will help me even more!

It’s this train of thought that gets many dieters into trouble. They’re all about the disproven calories in vs calories out method. Yes, I just called that a disproven method. Surely you’re in shock right now…so let me give you a moment to pick your jaw up off the floor before I expand more on that point.

If you love cardio, I’m not telling you to stop all together as some cardio can be helpful in your fat loss attempts since it may help bring your stress levels down, which in turn can help with fat loss. But if you’re someone who’s working hard on that elliptical 6-7 days each week for at least an hour each day, STOP IT! I mean really, that sounds absolutely ludicrous! Who would even do such a thing?

I was that person who thought excessive cardio would help me get to my goal weight. I exercised on cardio machines between 5-7 days each week, anywhere from 45 minutes to 90 minutes per session. I even had a gym quality Precor elliptical in my bedroom to help get my cardio in daily. I estimate that I’ve spent actual years of my life on cardio machines in order to get weight loss results.

Guess what I never got while over doing the cardio – weight loss results! Sure, sometimes I’d lose weight, but it was never easy and it was never sustained long term. I’d consistently lose 20-50 lbs year after year following this “burn more than I eat approach” to weight loss. The problem – I also consistently regained the weight I lost year after year following this method. Following this outdated advice led to a vicious dieting yo-yo for me.

It wasn’t until I gave up over exercise and low calorie consumption as a way of life that I finally saw lasting results. In fact, once I moved across-country and traded in my elliptical for a few walks each week, that’s when the fat I wanted to lose finally fell off for good.

This brings me to the next reason exercise is not necessary for weight loss:

Calories in vs. calories out has been disproven.

Did you know that if you eat more calories than you burn, your body will do it’s best to compensate for the extra calories you take in? Perhaps you’ll fidget more or you’ll be inspired to get up to clean your house.

If you take in less calories than you burn, your body will attempt to automatically adjust to this as well. Maybe instead of being inspired to clean the house, you’ll feel lethargic and just sit around and watch reruns of Roseanne. Our bodies like homeostasis and they will do what they can to maintain equililibrium between independent elements like calories in vs. calories out.

This has actually been known for a long time now, but calories in vs calories out is a myth that just won’t die. People still faithfully follow “eating less than they burn” in order to lose fat, but many never seem to get the results they’re seeking. Strange, huh?

In fact, those who try to outsmart their bodies with too much exercise could be doing more harm than good by eating too little and exercising too much to lose fat. This could result in your body thinking a famine is on the way. Your body will actually hold onto stored fat as best as it can since you’re not eating enough to survive that famine that’s right around the corner. Surely there must be a famine since you’re not even taking in enough calories for basic human functions, right?

Our bodies haven’t evolved to our current world where there’s a fast food chain on every corner. The evolution of our bodies are back in the caveman days where food was hard to come by. Back in these days, if they were limiting their calories, it wasn’t on purpose in order to lose a few pounds. This signaled to their bodies that food was scarce, so they needed to hold onto that stored fat until food was more readily available.

If your focus is still on eating less calories than you can burn, you could be spinning your wheels on more than just the stationary bike you’re riding in your fat loss attempts.

Let me know in the comments if you still believe in the calories in vs. calories out method of weight loss for sustainable results.

While you consider if that really is a viable method, let me get to reason #3 that exercise isn’t necessary for weight loss and how it can even stall your results.

If you’re new to exercise and you try to do too much right from the start, this can result in an injury.

As a former over exerciser, I’m actually surprised to learn just how many dieters lead a sedentary lifestyle. I thought everyone got the message that we NEED exercise in order to lose weight, yet I’ve seen Keto Decoded member after Keto Decoded member let me know they actually lead a sedentary lifestyle, and still hope for their weight loss dreams to come true.

I had to back down my very general advice to exercise less, because for those who lead a sedentary lifestyle, the opposite advice is true.

OK…I understand I probably just confused you. No, I don’t believe exercise is absolutely necessary for weight loss. Plenty of people can change the way the eat and see the success they want. However I do believe that exercise is necessary for overall health. In fact, some easier forms of exercise, like a simple fasted walking routine, can lead to increased feel good ketones. This could help make following a keto lifestyle easier for you.

So while I’m saying too much exercise can stall your results, at the same time I’m not saying exercise isn’t great for overall health purposes, because it is. As a species, we are meant to move.

With that being said, if you’re currently leading a sedentary lifestyle and you attempt exercise routines you’re not ready for because Jilliam Michaels told you that’s what you need to do in order to lose weight, quit listening to Jillian Michaels. Many of the contestants she worked with on the Biggest Loser gained all of their weight back because she trained them to eat far too little and exercise waaaay too much.

Following that lifestyle will very rarely lead to permanent results. If you are one of the few people this method works for long term, does counting every calorie for the rest of your life, while spending your entire day in the gym every day sound like any kind of life worth living?

Keto has thrown a huge wrench into the multi-billion diet & fitness industry because people now see in order to get big results, they need to focus on eating real foods that their bodies can digest. There’s no more counting every calorie they eat and there’s no more spending their entire lives in the gym. This means less profit for those who banked on these unsustainable weight loss methods.

If you currently lead a sedentary lifestyle, I do recommend you get up and move more for better health…just don’t attempt advanced exercises that you body isn’t ready for because you could get injured, which could stall your results on keto. If your body has an injury from attempting too much all at once, then your body’s primary focus will be to heal that injury, not burn stored fat.

Wow – this video was really chock full of valuable exercise truths that took me decades to learn! Quit spinning your fat loss wheels on an exercise bike to nowhere. To help you out, on this week’s Chat the Fat, we dive even deeper into 12 other exercise myths that could be stalling your results. There are some huge myths when it comes to exercise, so be sure to check out this week’s episode so you’re not falling for this bad exercise advice.

If you thought fat loss was at least 50% dependent on exercise, now you know the truth. Don’t let your friends keep up with the ruse…be sure to share this video so they get out of the gym and maybe you’ll get to hang out more. Go eat some keto friendly food somewhere nice and catch up instead.

Find the ways we can connect below, and let’s connect!

I’ll see you next Wednesday to talk about some of the biggest exercise mistakes I made over my 20 year yo-yo diet history. I followed a whole lotta bad advice that made fat loss more difficult…so be sure to come back so you don’t fall into the same trap.

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