When working towards a specific goal, it is best to be intentional and efficient with the actions and decisions we make. To achieve a goal, there are usually many different paths that lead to the end result, but each one is not created equal. Why choose a direction or decision that will have the lowest impact when you can choose the opposite? With all the distractions and responsibilities that come with life, it is important to prioritize the things that will provide the most bang for our buck, both long-term and short-term. I find that people who spend a lot of their mental energy on health and fitness are often choosing a path that is inefficient and counterproductive and I want to try to illustrate why that happens and what to do about it.

As discussed in a previous article, here is how bodyweight change occurs (see this blog for more detail):

  1. Calories consumed < Calories burned = Weight loss
  2. Calories consumed > Calories burned = Weight gain
  3. Calories consumed = Calories burned = Weight maintenance

In order to achieve weight loss, gain, or maintenance, there needs to be some control of the variables at play. Here is what they are:

  1. Calories in – Food quantity and quality (processed/unprocessed foods)
  2. Calories out – Non-exercise activity
  3. Calories out – Exercise activity
  4. Calories out – Energy used to digest the foods we eat (processed vs. unprocessed foods)
  5. Calories out – Resting metabolism

If this is the menu of items to choose from, how do you decide which to address? The answer is different based on individual circumstances, however, for all the different goal scenarios, I want to pick the lowest hanging fruit each time. We know that resting metabolism (RM) is the largest contributor to the calories we burn (around 60%-70%). We also know that age, sex, muscle mass, hormone levels, stress (acute/chronic), overall weight, physical activity, calorie intake, and more are part of what makes our RM. We can only control a few of these things (underlined). In order to achieve sustainable success, we want our RM operating at full capacity for as long as possible, let’s exclude rapid weight loss for now. To keep our RM up and running, here are some things we can do:

  1. Avoid chronic dieting and extreme caloric restriction. This is the biggest contributor towards lowering our RM and a main reason why so many struggle to lose weight on low calorie diets. Couple that with excessive exercise and you will end up suppressing your RM.
  2. Maintain and build muscle. This is accomplished through resistance training combined with adequate protein and calorie consumption. The more muscle we have, the more food we can eat because more muscle requires more energy to build and maintain.
  3. General physical activity, including walking. This is where the 10,000-step concept comes from. Avoiding a sedentary lifestyle is ideal. Send a consistent signal to your body that you will be using energy throughout the day and you will be rewarded for it.
  4. Manage stress. Improve sleep quality, exercise, perform breath work, spend time with friends and family, disconnect from email/internet/screens, get out into nature, etc.
  5. There are most certainly more, however in my eyes, these are the most important levers we can pull.

Weight loss:

When we lose weight, we send a signal to our body that it will be receiving less energy than it requires. Being the incredibly adaptive species that we are, our body over time will lower our RM in order to get to a state of equilibrium. This is why, in order to make consistent progress, we need to do it progressively over a period of time to get in front of this adaptation or else we will plateau (avoid 0 to 100 mentality). The issue with weight loss is that it is very hard to maintain for most people and I think it is mostly due to the changes that have occurred to RM. If we can keep our RM normalized/high by following guidelines like the list above, it will give us the best shot at maintaining the results we achieve. If you opt for the crash diet and exercise approach and provide a massive signal to your body that you are going to provide inadequate energy coupled with excessive energy demands, your RM will adapt accordingly, and it will prove difficult to maintain the results.

Weight gain:

If you want to gain weight (usually muscle) you need to send a signal to your body that you will be providing sufficient energy to grow new muscle tissue. In order to make sure that the weight gain is primarily muscle mass, that energy surplus cannot be too large and you need to be exercising (resistance training). It is much easier to keep RM working well when the goal is weight gain as you are sending consistent signals across the board to your body that you want it to grow and use energy instead of store it.

Summary

The hardest part of achieving a goal related to our bodies is maintaining the change we have created. This is the reason that I choose to focus on the process and try to make the most efficient decisions. If the correct process is chosen, the habits formed will be sustainable and manageable when we switch over to maintenance mode. If we lost weight, ideally we did not lower our RM to an unsustainable level; and if we gained weight, ideally we have formed the right habits to maintain the results. When you want to achieve a goal, don’t just hope that the strategies you are picking will work. Instead take the time to understand the process so you can choose the best plan of attack, the plan that does not put you in a position to fail when you get to the goal. What is the point of accomplishing a goal if you just go backwards after? The main thing I do for a living is help people make the right decisions, and the longer that I do this the more I realize that eating the most food possible while making acceptable progress is usually the best way to achieve sustainable results.