A recent tweet by Prof Tim Noakes caught my eye:
As well as a qualified MD, Prof Noakes is a runner, a sports science & diet expert, and LCHF (Banting) advocate. So what was Prof Noakes really trying to say here?
You can’t run from a poor diet
His twitter statement was profound and part of a growing realization that “you can’t run from a poor diet”. If you follow the standard, western high-carb diet, advocated by just about all government agencies, you are quite simply on a hiding to nothing as far as weight control is concerned and the reason is quite simple when you think about it.
Unless you are able to maintain consistently high levels of intense exercise, for most people, consuming large amounts of carbohydrates leads to weight gain. They then try to lose this excess weight through exercise and, let’s face it, most fail! They fail because unless you are an ultra marathon or other endurance athlete, it’s virtually impossible to keep up with the constant insulin spikes and weight gain as you consume foods rich in carbohydrates. Further, as you age and your carb tolerance falls, the levels of exercise required to burn off those carbs increases even further, to the point where it becomes a practical impossibility. It’s a downward spiral.
However, if you are fully keto-adapted you are already fat burning, exercise or no exercise! Before LCHF I, like millions of others, tried to lose weight through exercise, blaming myself for being lazy when it didn’t work. When I finally went LCHF, ALL of my weight loss was achieved through DIET ALONE, peaking at a loss rate of 2kg/week! I was simply too unhealthy/over-weight to even consider doing exercise.
As I have always said and will continue to say, on LCHF exercise is an option NOT an absolute requirement. I will go even further and say that I defy anyone to come up with an exercise regime on a high carb diet under which you can lose 2kg/week in fat and that doesn’t half kill you in the process!
I look forward to reading your comments on this one..
Agreed, wholeheartedly!
When I was 240 lbs exercise was not an option. Everything hurt! Eating LCHF brought my weight down alone; then I spent a couple of years learning to exercise and enjoyed it.
Then I got extremely busy and didn’t make time for exercise for a few years…and have maintained my weight with a 3-4 lb fluctuation at times.
As my tag line reads: Change the food and change your health!
I see a personal trainer absolutely beating up his clients in the gym, performing useless exercises. One of the men cries in pain and collapses on the floor every so often. I have not seen any noticeable progress from any of his clients. I’ve asked them about their diet and the one guy travels a lot for business. He still goes to the pizzeria for a couple of slices for lunch instead of packing an ice cooler with hard boiled eggs and other highly nutritious LCHF sources. He said it is easier for him to grab a slice than it is to spend Sundays cooking for the week.
The only one I can think of that MIGHT pull it off is the Body-for-LIFE program. I had an initial loss rate of 4-5 lbs fat/wk while eating 40-60% of calories from carbs (60-80% on the cheat day) and working out 6 days/wk (30 minutes HIIT cardio M/W/F, 45 minutes strength training T-R-Sat). However, the loss rate would tail off to about 2.5 lbs/wk by week 4 or 5, and I could never get past week 9 without injuring myself. Once I couldn’t exercise hard, I’d have 2-3 weeks of plateau before the weight started creeping back up.
I’ve been following LCHF for seven weeks now. My fat loss rate is a bit less than what it was on BfL – about 2.2 lbs/wk – but since I’m not exercising my lean mass is staying constant, so my _weight_ is actually dropping faster on average than it did on BfL (I have weak knees and ankles, so that’s a significant plus).
I do plan to get back into exercising – I want to be fit, not just “not fat” – but not until I’ve got my weight under 210 (16 lbs to go!). At that point my knees and ankles should be able to handle the stress.
excellent points: high carb exercise demands high intensity work outs with inevitable injuries. No pain, no gain??