To lose weight you need to eat less and exercise more
Did you ever wonder where that idiotic advice came from? You hear it everywhere. From your own doctor, from your next door neighbor, from the health writers in all the major papers, from just about anyone you ask. How’s the best way to lose weight? Eat less and exercise more.
Would it surprise you to learn that there is no scientific evidence that people can lose weight by eating less and exercising more? Sure, there are studies showing that it works for the short term, but who wants to put the effort into losing weight for the short term. We all want long-term, i.e., permanent, weight loss. There are no studies showing that eating less brings about permanent weight loss and no group of studies demonstrating that increasing exercise promotes weight loss. So, how does one achieve permanent weight loss? It’s easy. Ask anyone. Eat less and exercise more.
Since there is no evidence that the eat-less-exercise-more strategy works other than for the very short term, how did it become so entrenched in the minds of so many? It did it by the same means that the idea that a low-fat diet is optimal for health (another unproven hypothesis, that if anything has been shown to be just the opposite) got traction. It is a meme.
The dictionary definition of a meme is that it is an element of culture or a system of behavior that passes from one person to the next non-genetically, but more like a virus. Some ideas become memes; some don’t. The ones that do can become extremely powerful. In fact they can become so powerful that, like a deadly virus, they can kill their host.
Below is an excellent video from a TED presentation on memes by the philosopher Daniel Dennett. From it you will learn how powerful memes can be. And from it you can extrapolate why all these diverse people think the only way to lose weight is to eat less and exercise more. Sadly, you’ll realize how difficult it’s ever going to be to change this false idea. Gary Taubes’ book is going to make a strong run at it, so let’s all keep our fingers crossed.
A bit about TED. TED stands for technology, entertainment and design and is a get together of supposedly smart people who give talks to one another much like the Renaissance Weekends, with the difference being that the Renaissance Weekends are all off the record whereas the TED talks are filmed and made available to the public. (I’ve never been to a TED meeting but MD and I have attended a Renaissance Weekend. See my post about our experience .) Whereas the Renaissance Weekends are liberal leaning but with an opposing conservative and libertarian group to make the discussions lively, TED strikes me as a way liberal-leaning get together. I doubt that you’re going to see any Karl Roves or Thomas Sowells there. But, that’s just my opinion from watching the videos over the years.
The presentation by Dennett on memes is outstanding. Enjoy.
Click here for the video
If you’re still in the mood after watching the Dennett video, take a look at this one. The speaker, Hans Rosling, from Sweden, gives a talk that wows the TED crowd. He has some truly dazzling graphics and a stupendous stunt at the end (which impressed the heck out of me. In fact, I’m considering learning it for my own talks), but, in my opinion, his talk is extremely disingenuous. Watch as the crowd leaps to its feet in raucous applause at the close. If they’re applauding the stunt, I’m right there with them. But, if as I expect, they are applauding because they swallowed Dr. Rosling’s ideas hook, line and sinker, it tells me that critical thinking isn’t a skill much in evidence at the TED meetings.
And finally, if you’re feeling depressed and down on yourself, take a look at this last video. To increase your self esteem and make you really feel upbeat and positive about your own skills, abilities and achievements, compare yourself to this 11-year old girl selected at random from all the 11-year olds out there. You’ll feel a lot better. Really.
Am looking forward to future meme destroying post on this subject. Am in the PP(LP) camp hard core. I lift weights (not slow burn, but I do a lot of different things for a lot of fitness goals). Sometimes, I’ve been known to do some HIIT. It’s even been rumored that I’m going to start running miles soon.
In Atkins for Life (don’t steam too much), Dr. A said calories do count. In PP or PPLP, I seem to recall something about calories counting. Now, it’s been 7 years, so maybe there’s new info. But, and I’m not saying they’re the only thing that counts, but aren’t they a factor on the margin? Lemme explain.
So, I get myself burning fat with my glucagon metabolism firing hard core and my insulin in control. I am eating my five-six meals a day to keep my metabolic flux in the range where I want it. I’m factoring the metabolic effect of digesting food. At the margin, maybe I don’t want my protein pudding for meal six, and I just skip it. We are on the margin here, and maybe I might see an effect if I go without that 20g protein, 3g fat, 2g carb treat at the end of my eating day. I dunno, I’m asking.
Other stuff I’d like to see you talk to:
1- The “Fat Virus” that seems to be the talk.
2- Muscle Fatigue and LC. Colpo shared his thoughts over at Jimmy Moore’s site.
http://livinlavidalocarb.blogspot.com/2007/08/is-muscle-fatigue-inevitable-when-you.html
Am curious for another take on the issue. Have started taking about 20-30g of carb post workout and haven’t had cravings or been knocked off, and have jumped my weightloss. So, am curious to have an opinion I respect.
Hi Max–
Your comment demands much more time than I’m willing to give right now in comment form. All the issues you ask about are worthy of posts themselves. And, in fact, I’ll try to post on them in due course. The short answers are as follows: Yes, calories count, sort of. But not in the way most people think. Atkins said they count in his last book, MD and I said they did in the PP and PPLP (but with some stipulations, as I recall). Atkins and I have had an interesting dance over the years. He came out with his first book advocating a pretty strict low-carb diet, we came out with ours about 15 or so years later saying that you didn’t have to be so diligent with the carbs. We invented the concept of net carbs, which we called ‘effective carbs.’ Atkins jumped all over it and called them Atkins Net Carbs or some such thing. Then he began to back off his strict carb regimen and before you knew it he had come out with basically a revised version of Protein Power that he called Atkins for Life. At the same time, we began to see better results with more carb restriction, so we drifted more towards a lower carb diet, and even in many cases a full-meat diet. We just haven’t written a new book in a while. So in one of those bizarre twists of fate, Atkins became us and we became Atkins. Weird.
The fat virus has been around for years. It’s just that now the press has jumped on it so it seems to be a new and exciting thing. I think I even posted about it last year sometime.
I agree with Anthony Colpo on the glycogen depletion issue. Back in the 1990s I read a paper by a doctor at the Naval Hospital in San Diego that intrigued me. I called the guy and we had a nice chat. He told me he had done a lot of work with naval recruits on low-carb diets and various exercise regimens. He sent me a large envelope of all these studies that hadn’t been published. In going through them I noticed that the subjects once adapted to low-diets did great on endurance-type activities whereas their performance deteriorated on high-intensity activities. When provided with a glucose solution, these subjects were able to maintain their performance during the high-intensity workouts.
I thought a lot about this in view of our Paleolithic predecessors. Why would nature endow them (and ultimately us) with a metabolism that wouldn’t rise to the occasion using the diets they had at hand, which were primarily low-carb, high-fat diets. It finally dawned on me that these folks more than likely didn’t perform high-intensity activities for very long at a time – maybe a few seconds max. They would sprint after something that they either caught or it got away. Something sprinted after them, and they either got caught or got away. Quickly. There was no need for a system to supply large amounts of glucose quickly for long periods of time, so we didn’t evolve one. That’s why we need supplemental glucose during or immediately after a high-intensity workout. I’ve read papers showing both sides of the growth hormone argument, and I haven’t made a detailed study of any of them, so although simply from a knowledge of metabolism basis, I would say that the glucose probably inhibits the release of growth hormone, I don’t really have a lot of firm evidence to base that idea on. I guess I need to really do a read on all that literature so that I can come up with a more authoritative answer on the growth hormone issue.
Cheers–
MRE
“We just haven’t written a new book in a while.”
Which brings up the question: are we going to see a new book? If so, what would be the potential topic?
I don’t have a clue. Got any ideas? I’m all ears.
MRE
Perhaps you could write a new book addressing some of the points you made in relation to the above post made by Jill, (21. August 2007, 20:44) and Max (23. August 2007, 12:25) on physical performance and low-carb dieting, especially the notion regarding post-workout nutrition, since alot of people nowadays seem to be confused about whether or not it is beneficial to consume carbs following an intense workout. That is to say, those with whom i’ve spoken have mixed feelings on the subject; those who follow all meat diets seem to think that carbs will take them out of ketosis and result in body fat gain, while others think that carbs ingested post-workout will blunt growth hormone, and so forth.
I’m sure many people would vary much enjoy reading about what you have learned since PPLP hit the book stands, especially the idea that you and Atkins have almost adopted one another’s original low-carb philosophies. Also, alot of readers , myself included, are enthralled with the subject of intermittent fasting, and therefore, perhaps this is an area also ripe for investigation.
Hi Andrew–
Maybe I will write a post on the subject of post-workout nutrition. I’m asked that question probably as much as any other, so I ought to just write a long post and be done with it. I don’t think it would hold up for a whole book.
Cheers–
MRE
Dr. Eades,
Sorry, i didn’t mean to imply post-workout nutrition would hold up for an entire book. A long post on the topic, however, should help much towards lighting a candle in the darkness for many. With so many opposing views on the role of carbs post-workout it would be great to read your, as always, highly informed view. I think that far too many people project their views on the topic not taking into consideration that carbs may play different roles post-workout for someone who is fat-adapted, as opposed to someone who eats many carbs daily. Dr. Gregorgy Ellis who is well versed in the subject area suggests that the fat-apated individual should avoid eating carbs post-workout and, for the most part, any other time of the day. He feels that it is ketones, not carbs, that are of importance when it comes to muscle growth, and furthermore, that it is fat that fuels activity, ideas which you have discussed in previous posts.
Hi Andrew–
I really will get around to posting on this issue soon. I’ve got too many people hounding me about it.
Cheers–
MRE
Hello Dr Mike,
I got your hard cover book last week. Thank you. I was able to then lend my soft cover out to my sister. I hope to help her get her health back on track. Protein power has worked very well for me. I lost 24 lbs in 2 months and have never been this low since 11th grade ……. a very long time ago.
Again, thank you for the book and for your blogs….. I consider your book the holy grail of healthy info.
Bill B
Hi Bill–
I’m glad you enjoyed the book. I hope your sister benefits from it as well.
Cheers–
MRE