Many of my clients first contact me with the question "how to lose weight without exercise". They are lacking in energy and want to lose weight. They believe that if they want to succeed at weight loss, then they need to exercise. I certainly understand why they make think this.
So many people are still under the misconception that the balance of calories in and calories out is what determines weight gain or loss. The logic follows that if you don’t want to consume fewer calories then you should exercise to burn more calories.
What people fail to realize, is that the balance of calories only plays a minor role in weight control. For most people, being overweight isn’t the actual problem but rather a symptom of a more serious underlying problem.
99% of the time, that problem is poor nutrition.
For the majority of the people I coach for weight loss, we don’t start with any exercise at all unless specifically requested.
In order for weight loss to be successful, it needs to be long term. This means that lifestyle changes have to be made. UCLA did a meta-analysis of 31 long term diet studies with the conclusion that DIETS DON’T WORK. In fact they found that the single biggest predictor of weight gain was if a man had been on a diet at some point in the past.
Certainly if you only eat cabbage soup for a month you’ll lose weight. But the problem is that you’ll lose more muscle than fat and your body will be missing out on key nutrients. So eating cabbage soup forever isn’t an option (well it is, but only if you want “forever” to be a very short time!). When you go back to your regular diet, the muscle you lost will mean a slower metabolism than you started with which will result in you gaining more weight than you lost.
For long term results, you need to make long term changes. As humans most of us tend to stick with the things that we enjoy and stay away from things we dislike. So if you like exercise, that is great and I say go for it. But if you have to force yourself to exercise, then we all know that your exercise program isn’t going to last.
So instead of focusing on their calorie balance, I have my clients focus on other aspects that are supported by science and tend to produce far greater and faster results.
First and foremost is cellular cleansing. Most of the fat we are carrying is not there to keep us warm or provide us for energy during periods of starvation. Rather, those fats cells are there to protect us from the toxins we have been exposed to from dozens of different mediums. If we can cleanse ourselves of those toxins that fat can now be burned as energy and our immune systems are quieted.
Second is focusing on controlling the hormones that control fat and muscle building and burning. Human Growth Hormone (HGH) builds muscle and burns fat. Cortisol builds fat and burns muscle. A hyperactive immune system is one mechanism for encouraging the production of cortisol.
Another aspect of hormone control is not the number of calories consumed but the type and timing of the calories. Protein will encourage the production of HGH, whereas simple carbohydrates are more likely to block the production.
WikiHow has a few good tips for how to lose weight without exercise, but many of them are still too hung up on the calorie aspect. I do agree with their points regarding a good breakfast. Breakfast should be in high in protein and low in carbs. I also agree with their suggestion to avoid late night snacking. I’ll explain the importance of these 2 items in my article on hormone manipulation.
What I have found is that most people who are overweight are also lacking in energy. Like I said, being overweight isn’t the problem but ONE of the symptoms of poor nutrition. Low energy levels are another symptom.
So with my clients I like to guide them down a path of cellular cleansing and proper nutrition. Unlike a diet that starves and stresses the body and can only be practiced for a finite time period, proper nutrition and cellular cleansing nourishes and vitalizes the body which results in a much welcomed, long term lifestyle change.
One of the ironic outcomes of this, is that many of my clients came to me asking “how can I lose weight without exercising?” But once they burn off some fat and increase their energy levels, they come back asking me what sort of exercise they could do. You see when the body has energy, it wants to exercise. At that point, all systems are go and my client has switched the rotation of her lifestyle. What was once a negative loop where one bad thing would compound with another bad thing, now it’s a positive loop where one positive thing creates a synergistic effect on the next positive thing.
In future articles I’ll discuss the best exercises to encourage weight loss and improved health. To find those articles and others related to health, nutrition and weight loss please visit http://www.how-to-eat-healthy.com/nutrition/
Mike Caldwell is a retired firefighter and advanced care flight paramedic with a Bachelor's Degree in Biology and a Master's Degree in Management. Mike is the author of V.E.A.R. Toward Success, a motivational/inspirational book that using real life examples explains how to apply your Vision, Energy, Attitude and Resolve to achieve any of your goals. In 2012, Mike decided to get serious about his Ironman triathlon racing, but given his resistance to long hours of physical training, Mike turned to nutrition to facilitate his race improvement. Within 2 months both Mike and his wife Monique lost over 30 pounds of fat each. Mike has gone on to improve all his race time personal bests by an average of 20%! http://www.how-to-eat-healthy.com/