It seems one of the most common New Year’s Resolution’s made by folks is to get more exercise and lose weight. While exercise is important, diet is by far the most important component of a weight loss regimen. Dieting alone, without any physical activity at all, can yield tremendous weight loss results. Yet weight loss is not the same as fat loss. Weight loss is indiscriminate, meaning the loss comes from fat, muscle, bone, organs, and nervous tissues. We become smaller fat people.
It is also widely thought that exercise can facilitate the weight loss process. In the short term, this is true. Extra activity can be effective in the early stages of a diet. Yet most don’t realize that the traditional “cardio”-type activities may actually be counterproductive for over the long term.
Ideally, what we would like to do is find the proper balance between diet and exercise. We would like to find the right exercise that will optimize fat loss while stimulating muscle growth. By stimulating muscle growth, the body discriminately sheds fat only, preserving bones, organs, and nervous tissues in the process.
We can look at the difference between indiscriminate and discriminate as a business model. Picture the human body as a corporation that is run by a Board of Directors. Let’s assume that the body running on a calorie deficit (diet) is like a corporation operating on a budget deficit. Each of the body tissues represents a different department within that corporation. Let’s examine two possible scenarios:
Scenario 1:
There is a budget (calorie) deficit and no department has any unusual demands. Therefore layoffs can happen in all departments. So your body lays off some fat, some muscle, some bone and connective tissue, along with some nervous tissue. Your corporation (or body) becomes a smaller version of its former self.
Scenario 2:
We still have the same budget, or calorie deficit, but now we have a large demand placed on the muscle department. Thus no layoffs can occur in the muscle department. In fact, we may have to hire on more muscle to keep up with the demand. Because of this greater demand in the muscle department, we cannot produce cutbacks in the bone and connective tissue department because we need the support. Muscle tissue is not effective unless connected to strong bone and strong connective tissue. Also, we can’t layoff any nervous tissue, because the new muscle tissue is useless unless it is innervated by new nervous tissue. To make up the difference between the budget deficit and the demand, the only place we can cut back is in the fat department. Lay offs can only occur in the fat department. Then once the necessary layoffs are complete, resources previously deposited to the fat department must be used to make up the budget deficits in the other departments. This results in a lean, efficient business (body).
The bottom line in weight loss is a nutritionally balanced, calorically-controlled diet. The bottom line in exercise is efficient, mechanical loading of muscle. All direct physical benefits of exercise follow from this fundamental principal. Permanent, healthy fat loss is the result of the proper balance between the two.