Eat More Exercise Less

Yes, you did read that right. Eat MORE and Exercise LESS - this is my advice for people who are struggling to lose that last bit of weight.

Here is my logic regarding eating
1. Eating less [reducing calories] will result in weight loss (yes doing that now)
2. Eating too little will force your body into starvation mode and you will stop losing weight and may hoard fat (used to do that on other silly diets)
3. Eating nothing [or just protein, or just fruit etc] may result in rapid weight loss but it will return once normal eating resumes (used to do that too ...)

There is a point where doing more of a good thing [eating less] stops working. I think it is called the law of diminishing returns.

So now I think we should apply this logic to exercise
1. Exercising [burning calories] will result in weight loss (yes doing that now)
2. Exercising too much will stress your body and you will stop losing weight and may hoard fat (tried that - no good)
3. Punishing your body may result in rapid weight loss but it will return once normal exercising resumes (tried that too - couldn't keep it up)

This is my new theory
"Eat as much as you can and exercise as little as possible as long as you are losing weight"

In other words - eat all your points for the week and do intentional exercise for 20mins nearly everyday and watch what your weight does. Play with the exercise until you find what works for you and what you are willing to take as a good weight loss. Running everyday might give you a 1 kg loss per week, but a short walk instead might deliver 0.5kg loss which might be perfectly fine for you. [There is a chance that you will still lose that 1kg with walking - give it a try...]

I think there is wisdom in the fact that you can't use more than 12 exercise points a week. If that's all I can use, why would I need to earn more than 12?? No point - no fun - no time. 2 points a day 6 days a week - easy, fun, sustainable.

Last week I ate cheesecake, pad thai, hot chips, chocolate, icecream but I never went over my 18 points. No guilt.

Last week I did 15 minutes of weights per day and NO cardio except for the City2Surf which I walked and hardly raised a sweat. No guilt.

Last week I lost weight. Well done - feeling great.

I am not feeling deprived and I am not physically exhausted. In fact I feel like I have had a huge revelation - that this is the secret I have been looking for my whole life. Play the game, beat the system, push the limits, love your body.

Don't push and punish your body. Don't believe if you don't sweat/puff/collapse from exhaustion after exercise it is not worth it. Something is better than nothing, and definitely better than too much.

After all - you wouldn't starve yourself would you - and you don't feel guilty about not starving yourself.

So - don't push your body everytime you exercise - and most importantly don't feel guilty about not pushing so hard.

Eat more and exercise less - if it works you can do this forever ... how good would that be??