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The proper way to control glucose and insulin is by using the Exercise Factor and
the Carbohydrate Factor. The proper way to control fat is by using Exercise Factor
and the Essential Oil Factor. (See more on… carbohydrate and more on… essential
oil.)
Maintaining these balances keeps The Beast asleep, and that lets your body burn
stored fat, which is “the name of the game” in weight loss. Plan to eat smallish
amounts of low-G.I. carbohydrate and as little fat as possible while at the same time
making sure you still get your RDIs of EFAs.
And If You’re Really Into Exercising Right…
Exercise can have another seriously useful effect for dieters. This is that it
helps preserve muscle mass. As we’ve been discussing, muscle burns fat, so the more
muscle you have—and keep—the faster the weight goes away.
Practically speaking, what does this mean?
First, you probably don’t know that even when you gain weight by “overeating”
(as opposed to weight lifting), every pound you gain consists of about three-quarters
of a pound of fat and one-quarter of a pound of muscle. The probable reason for this
is the body needs the extra muscle to support and move the extra fat—so it builds
what it needs. (Most of this extra muscle probably forms in your hips and legs, since
those are the parts that do most of the additional heavy lifting.)
When you diet and lose the extra fat, your body re-absorbs this extra muscle that
it no longer needs. (It recycles the proteins and macrominerals from the muscle to
re-use elsewhere in the body.) However, since muscle burns fat even when at rest,
this re-absorption results in less muscle to burn your remaining fat—which means
your rate of weight loss slows down as you lose weight. This is one cause of the
infamous “diet-slowdown” that creates the infamous “last five pounds” which
are so difficult to get rid of and so dreaded in the fashion modeling profession.
What can be done about this?
Obviously, if there were some way to lose the fat but keep the muscle, we could
avoid much of this “diet-slowdown” problem.
The right type of exercise provides the only known way to do this. Now having just
read that, some people (not you, of course) are probably thinking, “Great! I’m
doing a lot of low-intensity walking every day anyway so I’ve got no problem.”
Good logic! Wrong, but logical. (I cheated, I haven’t given you all the facts yet.J)
The problem is this: If you need (say) 40 lbs of muscle to move your 160 lb body
across the room, you don’t need any more muscle to move that same 160 lbs around
the block. You do need more energy (Calories) and more time to do this—but not more
muscle. The reason is that walking around the block is merely continually re-using
the same muscle you used to move across the room. A rough analogy might be to point
out that driving your car to the next state doesn’t require a bigger engine than
driving it to the corner store, just more fuel and more time. In other words, you
will not preserve otherwise unneeded muscle mass with low intensity, repetitive,
endurance-type exercise. To preserve muscle you will need strength exercises like
lifting and supporting weight (which is what you do every time you stand up).
I’m sure you already see where I’m going with this. In order to preserve that
fabulous, firm, fat-fighting fitness and rid yourself of foul, flabby fat, you should
also do some strength exercises—push-ups, sit-ups, knee-bends, or even use
resistance exercise equipment (weights). This tends to “make up” for the
resistance formerly provided by the weight you’re losing.
However, for those who (like me) cringe at the mere thought of push-ups (yuck,
ptooeyL), I’ll point out that, like low-intensity endurance exercise, resistance
exercise actually feels good—when you’ve got the other seven Vital Factors
balanced properly. When you don’t, it doesn’t. (And as you recall, feeling good
is a good way to verify that you’ve got the other vital factors balanced.)
“Hundreds of pushups a day, right?”
No, (shudder). That’s unnecessary. Exercise physiologists point out that when
you can do about 20 repetitions of a strength exercise at any given resistance level,
you have reached the point where further repetitions merely convert the strength
exercise into an endurance exercise. The additional reps will burn Calories and
increase your ability keep going without fatigue—but they won't build or preserve
any more muscle. To build or preserve muscle, you will have to increase the
resistance in some way.
How Does All This Affect Multi-Dieters?
For Multi-Dieters, exercise is a technique, not a goal, so there isn’t any “RDI”
amount. You should do as much exercise (both endurance and strength) as is
comfortable for you. Obviously, if you get into serious bodybuilding or endurance
running, you will really lose weight fast (provided you manage the other Vital
Factors properly). But if you’re not into doing these things, you should do what is
comfortable.
If you try to force yourself beyond what is comfortable, your motivation will
probably start to evaporate—and there is nothing worse than that for weight-loss.
To give you a personal example, I can tell you that I personally am as much of a
couch potato as anyone. I have found that for resistance exercise, I’m comfortable
with 20 pushups and 20 knee bends a day because any higher resistance would probably
require some sort of equipment. I also often do 20 minutes of slow indoor jogging.
This helps control blood glucose and also preserves a portion (but probably not all)
of the muscle I had when I was fat. In theory, I could do more and get better
results. In practice, this is good enough for me.
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