It’s well known that a commitment to regular exercise is the most important thing you can do to assure successful long-term health and weight loss. Countless studies have shown that dietary changes without exercise rarely lead to sustained weight loss. The problem is that the definition of exercise is not clear. You may think doing housework is exercise, while someone else would consider that normal activity.
If you think you’re exercising but you’re really not, you’ll be disappointed when you don’t lose weight. In order to successfully lose weight, working out just for the benefit of heart health is simply not good enough. We need exercise to shed some serious pounds. For this reason, I’ll give you the definition of exercise that I believe is most effective for long-term weight control.
What Exercise Is NOT…
I’ve seen countless overweight patients who claim to exercise regularly. I don’t think they’re lying; rather, they think they are exercising. They may stroll around the block or watch TV on the treadmill, perhaps even every day. Not surprisingly, they don’t lose weight with this regimen because they aren’t really exercising.
How do you know if you’re really exercising? If you answer yes to the following questions, you are not really exercising:
1. Can I carry on a conversation during the exercise?
2. Can I read during the exercise?
3. Am I running at the same speed, cycling for the same distance, or lifting the same weight as I was a month ago?
4. Am I at my goal weight or waist size?
What Exercise Is…
On the other hand, if you can answer yes to any one of the following questions during a workout, you are really exercising.
1. Am I unable to complete sentences because I am breathing too hard (for aerobic exercise)?
2. Am I unable to finish the last set of my exercise (for resistance exercise)?
3. Am I wondering if I’m going to be able to finish this exercise, lift this weight, or make it out of the gym on two feet?
4. Can I lift more, run farther, cycle faster, etc., than I could a month ago?
With respect to aerobic exercise, the best gauge of whether the activity you’re doing is truly exercise is whether or not you can speak in full sentences during the exercise. You may be able to speak a few words at a time, but not a full sentence, and certainly not an entire conversation. If you’re able to speak in complete sentences, turn up the speed, incline, or resistance to increase the intensity. If you’re doing resistance training, you should be unable to finish the last few reps of the last set of each exercise. If you’re able to finish the entire last set, increase the load or number of reps until you are no longer able to finish.
As much as it is essential to do real exercise, it’s more important to be consistent. Remember that whatever exercise program you choose, the minute you stop is the minute you start losing the gains you’ve made. If you’re not going to exercise for the rest of your life, you’re doomed to eventually gain the weight back.
For this reason, the specific type of exercise program you choose at first is less important as long as it meets the definition of exercise (i.e., intense enough) and as long as you do enough of it. Here are several suggestions that may help you stay consistent:
1. If you love it, do it. If you were born to run, then run. If you’re a biker, hit the streets. If you love water polo, dive in. However, if the activity you love doesn’t get you to the level of real exercise, or if you get bored with it, move on to something else.
2. It’s a good idea to have multiple options to help combat boredom and lack of motivation. Expose yourself to different types of exercise. Constantly try new things to add to your options. One day you may feel like running, another day like doing aerobics, another day cycling. If you have multiple options, you won’t be held back when one of the options is not available. Once you create a consistent commitment to exercise and change your lifestyle, move on to more advanced and varied exercise routines. The most important thing, however, is to make it a permanent part of your life.
3. Record everything. Write down the days you work out, what you do, how long, how much, how far, how fast, etc. You want to be able to pat yourself on the back for your hard work and see the progress you’re making in black and white.
Don’t be too hard on yourself if you skip a day or two every once in a while. If you’re consistent and committed, a few days of slacking here and there won’t matter. If you’re skipping more than often than not, however, you’re unlikely to make the change necessary for long-term success.
One of the major obstacles to consistency is cynicism. This comes in the form of “It’s not working,” which leads to “What’s the point?” Remember that you aren’t likely to have results that are noticeable on a day-to-day basis. The changes will be gradual. If you expect magic results, you’ll become discouraged.
That said, you want to know that all the hard work is paying off. The main weapon to combat this problem is recording your progress. You must log and measure. This will allow you to regularly see the progress you’ve made, even before the progress shows up on the scale.
I recommend that you record at least the following things:
1. A log of the days you exercised on a calendar. This will allow you to look back on what you’ve done and pat yourself on the back for being consistent. Put a check on the days that you get in a really good workout and an X on the days that you get off the couch but without sufficient intensity (still an accomplishment).
2. A log of specific exercises that includes all the details of the exercise. Include as much as you can about the exercise itself, e.g., how far you went, how much you lifted, your time, etc. This will allow you to look back and see your incremental progress. For example, if you run, you can go a fixed distance and measure your time, trying to go a little faster every time, or you can set a fixed time and record your distance, trying to go a little farther each time. Not only will this make you feel good about your progress, but you’ll also find yourself looking at your log and trying to beat your prior scores.
3. A log of your weight or body fat percentage. Avoid putting too much stock into how much you weigh on a daily basis. A lot of things can cause short-term fluctuations in weight that have nothing to do with gaining fat. It’s better to log your weight every week or every other week. Even better is to log your body fat percentage as it changes over time. It’s more important to lose waist than to lose weight, so don’t get too caught up in what the scale says.
No matter what metric you use, don’t get discouraged if you have a bump in the road here or there. The overall trend is what’s important.
Some hypothetical examples to illustrate the point:
Ellie loves the elliptical. She has just started an exercise program of her own design where she goes at the highest level she can until she can’t do anymore and then does level 5 for four minutes. She’s done this three times a week for a few weeks. One bad day, when her boss yelled at her and she wasn’t in the mood, she looked at her log and saw that at the end of week one, she was able to do six rounds with her max high intensity interval on level 10, lasting for 24 seconds. She saw that at the end of her last session she did eight rounds with her max high intensity interval on level 15, lasting 40 seconds.
She knows what she’s capable of, and the thought of the numbers going down is more painful than the thought of having to do the exercise. Even though she feels lousy and depressed, she gets on the elliptical and does level 15 for eight rounds, her longest time being 43 seconds. You can imagine how she feels when she leaves the gym after beating her cynicism and bad day and heads to the mall to buy smaller-sized clothes.
Now imagine yourself sitting at a table six months from now with your exercise logs in front of you. Picture the calendars with tons of checks on all the days that you really pushed yourself. Imagine looking at the workout log and seeing that three months ago you weren’t able to run a mile at all and now you can do it in 10 minutes. Imagine seeing that three months ago you could only do 10 pushups on your knees but can now do 30 regular pushups.
This is all 100% within your capabilities. Focus your goals on things that are measurable and attainable so that you will see your progress and then increase them little by little, day by day. Let your success be your motivation. You don’t want to see too many empty spots on your calendar. You don’t want your numbers to go down. You want to feel good about your progress. All of these things will combine to keep you going, regardless of how much weight you lose. Eventually you’ll also see a major change in your weight, how you look, and how you feel.
That will be the icing on the cake, only with far fewer calories.
Daniel Grove, MD, is the Assistant Director of Critical Care Medicine at Union Memorial Hospital and the author of The Weight Loss Counter Revolution. More of his weight loss advice can be found at wlcrblog.com.
