Less is more

Less is More

We have gone over why it is important to always stick to your workout plan. This thought crossed my mind last week after I had a conversation with multiple clients, about this exact topic. 

We understand that weight loss is all about calories in vs calories out. It's also understood that food is calories whether it's from carbohydrates, fats or proteins, and exercise or movement is calories expended. As trainers we consider your caloric expenditure based on the level of activity in all aspects of your life. We then are able to determine how many calories you should have a day, and how much exercise is needed to achieve your goals at a positive rate. 

Now I need to pause for a moment and make sure everyone understands. A "positive rate" may not be the 50 pounds you want to loose in a week but rather the 1-2 pounds weekly loss in order to maintain the weight loss and keep it off healthily.

Ok, so now there is a "diet" plan based on caloric needs, broken down in to macros and our workout plan. These tools used together are roughly what you need to reach weight loss goals.

My main concern currently is that too many people think A. They need more than a food and workout plan or B. They think that they need more exercise than recommended. Both a and b can be detrimental.

Let's start with A. 

If you think that there is some magic pill or supplement that will reach your goals for you, then why did you even come to the gym.  Supplement: n. something that completes or enhances something else when added to it. This by definition should mean to you that supplements will only enhance the hard work you are already putting in with diet and exercise. It by definition also means the is no pressing need to run out and spend tons of money on supplements that you unknowingly will have to continue taking for as long as you want your weight loss dreams to continue. What I am getting at here is not that supplements are bad or that none of them work but rather if you preform your exercise and diet plan and are achieving your goals than there  is no immediate need for weight loss supplements. 

Key words being immediate and weight loss.  There may be supplements that aid you in health alone and not weight loss I.e. Bcaas, fish oil, vitamin d, and others like protein that aid in reaching your diet goals. 

Next up part B, performing more exercise than prescribed in your plan. 

I can not really fault anyone for working harder, but most times working smarter is better than working harder! Our metabolisms adjust to the caloric expenditure of our daily living. Simply put the more calories you start to burn in a day becomes the number of calories you have to continue to burn to maintain your weight. For example let's say you start working out (you are on track toward your goals) and your  weekly workouts burn 500 calories and this takes you an hour total. You then must continue that 500 calorie deficit by working out for an hour each week until you plateau then you would need an increase to increase the deficit. If you had started with 3 hours and a 1500 calorie deficit per week you still have to increase when you get to your plateau, but as you are reaching the same goals you were working 2 hours more a week! I'll let you decide, would you like to be able to reach your goals with only 1 hour of working out or 3?

If you start small when you do have to increase you will be able to maintain your goals without spending your entire life in the gym! Spending excessive hours on cardio does you no better than following your already established plan!

Now these are not at all specific numbers or caloric expenditures, but you can see the point. That less is more. You may be doing your metabolism and schedule a huge injustice by adding too much caloric expenditure at a time. 

For lack of a better term I'm going to call this caloric upkeep. Basically if your body adjust to a specific caloric burn you will be required to keep up that caloric burn also long as you want to maintain or loose weight. So starting with less as long as you are on your way towards or achieving your goals is going to be better because there is less to upkeep and this is always more manageable. 

In conclusion, save yourself money and hassle by strictly following a well laid plan, you can not determine it is not working unless you actually follow it. More work and supplements are not bad, but there comes a time that they may be necessary to beat a plateau keep them in your arsenal, if you use up all of your options it will be much harder to break that plateau! 




Yours in good health,
Lauren A. Ciurzynski