Dr. Tim Noakes taught me that you cannot outrun a spoon! He is a runner. He has written two books on running. He is a professor in the Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at the University of Cape Town in South African. He trains to run marathons and has run several double marathons. Despite his very intense training for marathon running, he found himself gaining 40 pounds, becoming diabetic, and losing speed. He was training hard but going backwards. That was a real puzzle. He had written about the benefits of carb loading for those who engage in heavy exercise like marathon running. You need the carbs to provide the energy for the run—right? But he began to question this dogma, and the more he learned, the more convinced he became that carb loading was the root cause of his problem. He cut way back on carbs and sugar, lost the weight, regained his speed, and his diabetes became very easy to control. That convinced me that the main problem in weight gain is overeating the wrong kind of food.
That is a very important lesson for us. There are all kinds of programs that promise weight loss if we exercise hard enough. You have seen and read about the weight loss boot camp claims. Exercise is great for your health, but really, how many of us will exercise enough to train for marathons. Very few. It is important to realize that you only burn about 100 calories when you run a mile. One piece of white bread has 70 calories. That is really important. For most of us, our spoon outruns our legs. If you are serious about losing weight, you must change what you eat.
It is really not that hard. Almost all overweight Americans eat too much carbohydrate and sugar. They eat processed and fast food. Many of us will just keep on eating that food because it is so good. It is easy to overcome this problem. Eat real, whole food—lean meat, eggs, seafood, fruits, vegetables, beans, peas, and nuts. Expect to lose a pound or two a month. If you change what you eat, you can achieve long term success. You can even have an enemy meal once a week and still make slow, permanent progress. Just remember, you can’t outrun a spoon!
I love " you can't outrun a spoon" and "enemy meal". So true. Amazing that ultra exerciser gained so much. Glad he figured it out. But so many never will.
This is a great message, Bill. If I had a dollar for every patient of mine with hip/knee arthritis that said "Doc, if I could only walk a mile!" To which I replied "what would you do then". Folks just don't appreciate the math does not work in their favor. Having read your posts over the past month or so, I have a new personal rule "Steve, the kitchen closes at 7pm, and doesn't reopen till 8am or so".