Weight Loss, Part IV: Exercise
Hey, stupid, wanna lose some weight?
Popular advice for the thoughtless:
Exercise to lose weight!
My thoughts:
Eat better to exercise better, so as to be stronger, to be faster, and to have greater endurance—don’t exercise to offset the effects of poor eating (while continuing to eat poorly).
Besides, why would a sane person want to lose weight? Gaining weight is hard work—it takes extra time and money to either gorge oneself on an excess of good food or to deliberately eat junk the FDA pushes (low-calorie, high-grain, seed oils). It is hard to gain excess weight by eating high-quality, high-calorie foods because they satiate quickly, and for a long time too, so you don’t have cravings and any need for snacks. Further, high-quality foods energize so you can put that energy to good use, rather than sitting around being drowsy.
So, after making all those sacrifices to gain the excess weight—limiting physical activity and gorging oneself or eating junk—one is supposed to lose it? Where is any sense in that?
Filed under: Sports Nutrition | 4 Comments
Tags: cravings, Dr. Jan Kwaśniewski, excess weight, exercise, food, high-calorie foods, low-calorie, Optimal Nutrition, physical activity, Thomas Kurz
What is a good body fat percentage for an athlete?
You wrote in SCIENCE OF SPORTS TRAINING that it can drop to low easy.
Thank you very much
Healthy ranges of body-fat percentage are the same for athletes and non-athletes. In case of athletes, within those healthy ranges, “good” body-fat percentages are those at which they perform optimally and can stay healthy.
Tom, as always, your common sense approach is refreshing. Do you follow the Optimal diet recommendations pretty closely, or do you vary them based on what your body is doing/saying? Do you think those percentages are the same as you get older?
Hello Charles,
I follow what my body is saying, which comes close to the Optimal Diet.
Percentages of macronutrients recommended by Dr. Kwasniewski are given as ranges. Within those ranges they may vary depending on the volume and intensity of physical activity, as tolerance for carbs is greater with more exercise. So, as one ages and exercises less–because of family and work responsibilities, as well as paying dues for past errors (injuries)–one may need less protein and less carbohydrate.