Driving a Nail with a Screwdriver

A colleague of mine based in MA, Tony Gentilcore, made a pretty good analogy the other day on his blog: trying to lose weight and fat through an "exercise only" approach (no diet modification) is like trying to drive a nail with a screwdriver...it may eventually get the job done, but wouldn't it be more efficient to just use a hammer?

The "hammer", of course, is diet. It's a heck of a lot more time efficient to create a caloric deficit through your diet. Example: Let's say you are 180 lbs. and want to drop some weight and fat. If we assume your maintenance calorie levels are right about 2000 (current bodyweight of 180x11), we need to create a caloric deficit (let's call it 500 calories per day) to begin seeing some fat loss. In other words, you need to eliminate 500 calories each day. You have 3 choices in this regard:

1. Continue eating the same amount of daily calories (about 2000, your maintenance level) and perform enough physical activity to burn 500 calories



2. Reduce your food intake by 500 calories daily



3. Some combination of 1 & 2 above

Let's say you choose to create your caloric deficit through #1 above. Let's assume you go to your local gym and hop on the treadmill, set your weight on the display screen at 180, and adjust the speed to 3.5 mph (a brisk walk). You've told yourself you are not going to get off the treadmill until the machine tells you you have burned 500 calories. 100 MINUTES LATER, YOU HAVE FINALLY REACHED YOUR GOAL!! YIKES!! OVER AN HOUR AND A HALF OF WALKING!!

Now, let's say, instead, you chose to create your caloric deficit through #2 above. You decide to shave 150 calories off of your breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and eliminate one 50 calorie snack. Doing this achieves the same goal as walking on a treadmill for 100 minutes (it eliminates 500 calories), but, there is just one thing: THIS DIDN'T TAKE ANY TIME ON YOUR PART!

It's obvious option #1 above is the screwdriver and option #2 is the hammer...both are capable of driving the nail (creating a caloric deficit) but the hammer does so much more efficiently. The obvious message here is trying to "exercise off" body fat is going to leave most people very disappointed (unless you like to spend all of your time exercising and actually have enough obligation free time to do so in the first place) and is going to take an exorbitant amount of time.

I know I've harped on this over and over again on this blog, but, if you are serious about REAL fat loss, you need to get your diet in line. If you are serious, and ready to start "using the hammer to drive the nail", CONTACT ME for more information about the new custom 4 week accelerated fat loss diet and nutrition protocol I've devised.