Motion is movement and movement requires energy. With this being the case it’s moving that I’m concentrating on with my body experiment.
While many claim many health benefits from diets, they are actually wrong and my experiment is trying to prove this.
So for this post I’m going to make the argument that movement is the best form of fat loss. I’m going to look at the physical benefits of moving and also look at the mental benefits of moving.
But first we need to look at the reason for us wanting to move more… getting rid of fat.
So fat is a carbohydrate made of two parts - Glycerol and fatty acid tails, of which there are three.
A carbohydrate is literally something made of Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen. So with fat is no different. The Glycerol part is made of C3 H8 O3. The fatty tails are made of C16 H32 O1 but there’s three of them giving a total of C48 H96 O3. Together we have C51 H104 O6.
While this is good to know stuff it will soon become apparent why we shouldn’t be scared of carbohydrates like we are constantly being told.
First though we need to understand how the body uses carbohydrates.
We’ll explore fat as the carbohydrate because it’s what we’re trying to lose.
There are two ways to lose fat. The first is through ketosis. This is where the body produces ketones in response to lower insulin levels as a result of lower sugar or glucose. There’s two problems with this. The first is that ketosis is very inefficient. The worst problem has to do with the reason ketosis is started in the first place… low insulin levels. The very idea that we faff about with insulin levels seems like a stupid idea. I mean is that not the very definition of Type 2 Diabetes? It might be a good way to start losing fat initially but it will be by no means sustainable without the possibility of leading to the very thing your doctor is trying to avoid.
So let’s rule ketosis out of the picture. This leaves us with only one other option to reduce fat… Exercise.
This option might be more feared than Diabetes but it’s the best option because it’s lower risk. But when we exercise we do something pretty amazing.
Now, for those expecting a hugely scientific rundown as to what happens to fat then look away because you’re not my audience and you’re certainly not my peers. No, my explanation is going to be very layman focused and will ignore a bunch of other stuff that also goes on.
When we exercise we use our muscles. As such we need energy to operate those muscles. Contrary to popular belief, exercising does not convert fat into energy as this is chemically and physically impossible. That process completely ignores physics and chemistry rules. But exercising does create energy. Here’s how.
So remember all those numbers with regards to Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen? Well, these are all bound together with something called Covalent Bonds. Think of them being balloons tied together with strings. When we exercise our bodies realise we’re using our muscles and so releases into our blood stream enzymes which “eat” away those bonds. Once those bonds are gone the atoms are now essentially free floating. But Carbon, Hydrogen, and Oxygen are unstable elements from an electron standpoint.
Hydrogen has 1 electron and needs 2 to be stable. Carbon has 6 and needs 4 to be stable whereas Oxygen has 8 and needs 2 to be stable. But each of these bind nicely to each other. They won’t stick to themselves though which is great. So Hydrogen will bind to both Carbon and Oxygen but it will more readily bind to Oxygen. Carbon will also bind nicely to Oxygen.
These form two common elements - H2O (water) and CO2 (carbon dioxide). For those paying attention you’re probably trying to work out how each is cancelled. There’s not enough Hydrogen to get rid of all the oxygen and there’s not enough Oxygen to get rid of all the Carbon. But what happens when we exercise? We increase the amount of breathing we do and what comes in with each breath? Carbon and Oxygen.
This means the byproduct of using our muscles is water and carbon dioxide. The water is either used by our cells for hydration, sweated out because we’re exercising, or peed out. The carbon dioxide is breathed out with each breathe. Here’s the kicker, around 80 something % is turned into carbon dioxide and thus most of the fat is breathed out.
For a better and more visual explanation of this I recommend viewing this video:
So now we know why exercise should be prioritised over diets we need to look at what is considered exercise. Here’s the kicker because it’s better than you think.
So we’ve determined that the only way to safely reduce our fat is to move our muscles. But this is something encouraging because that means every movement we make is going to burn fat because every movement we make requires muscles. See where I’m going here?
Think about the movements you make in a day. Say you walk to work. Great, that’s a lot of muscle burning. Say you take the bus to work. Not so much but if you’re scrolling on your phone then you are using muscles to pull on the tendons that move your thumb aren’t you? Same for holding your phone. Now, don’t get me wrong, that will burn very little fat but it will burn something.
Writing this post has burned around 2 - 300 kilojoules which is a result of the chemical reaction mentioned above. To lose weight I must use no less than 5784 kilojoules or consume no more than 5784KJ. Sure, it means I’ve got 5484KJ to go but you can see where I’m getting at don’t you?
All forms of movement count to reducing your fat!
I’ve emphasised that because it’s singlehanded the most important statement you need to understand in terms of fat loss.
Remember what I’m trying to prove? I’m trying to prove that “Eat Less, Move More” works. I’m trying to prove that given accurate knowledge, rather than knowledge from people peddling drugs or diets, you will be motivated to not just start but continue.
The “Eat Less” portion of the equation is not that important. Sadly, we’ve put the “Move More” part at the end but it’s the part of the equation that is the most important.
If you watched that video then hopefully you’d have heard and registered that the speaker lost at least 5 kilograms just by moving more. 5KGs is what I’m trying to aim for at minimum. So it can be done.
The point of this post is to encourage you to get off your fat lazy butt and move. Yes it is a fat lazy butt because you’re like me. You’re in the same shape or worse than me because you’ve done very little for yourself. But you’re worth it and you owe it to yourself to be better than you are now. Don’t do it because your doctor or your partner or your parents or the girl next door are telling you to lose weight. Do it for you because you are an amazing person and the world is lucky to have you and you owe it to yourself to keep living. I know you probably look in the mirror and hate yourself. Even if you don’t, you deserve to carry on living because you’re one in 8 billion. There is no other you. Sure, the same applies to every other human on the planet but guess what? I’m talking to you.
Start small. Start by walking up and down the hallway or around your apartment once or twice. Once you get more confident walk the hallway in your apartment or walk between three lampposts or power poles.
If people make fun of you then use that negative energy to fuel positive results. Don’t give up. Every day they mock you keep doing what you’re doing. Sooner or later that mocking becomes encouragement because they can see your determination. Then you build a following of supporters. Once you have supporters you’re down the end of the block. Then you’re around the block. Now you’re unstoppable.
Movement doesn’t have to be intense. It just has to happen more than what led you to the body you have now. “No Pain, No Gain” is a moron’s mantra spouted by people with big bodies and little heads. Intense workouts put a massive strain on your body and trying to do HIIT or 45 or whatever the flavour of the month is with your body is going to ensure you’re in the grave a hell of a lot faster than you would be in the condition you’re in now.
Think about this logically. When you go to the doctor and you say you want to lose weight what do they tell you to do? They mostly tell you to walk, right? Walk to the door, walk to the end of the street, walk around the block? Great advice.
Now, look at one of the first things said when it comes to gyms or exercise machines etc. “Please see your GP before performing these exercises”. Think about that. There’s really no warning from the doctors about walking but there is generally a warning that is NOT in fine print for gym memberships and exercise machines.
Why are we not paying attention to that? Why are we believing that high intensity training is the best for our fat loss goals when they include the most amount of warnings?
NO!!! Stop that now. You don’t need high intensity training. You just need to move more than you did and keep moving. Moving until you hurt does nothing for you. Working through the pain does nothing for you. What does work for you is working out doing what is comfortable for you.
So my recommendation is track how much you move. For this reason I love my Apple Watch. Most other fitness watches are more or less just glorified pedometers. Apple Watch is a movement tracker and so if you put it on your dominant hand like I do it records all the movements you do as opposed to whatever movement you do on your opposite hand. You will be surprised how much you move in a day.
Once you have that information simply do more than that. That’s the key to fat loss. Simply do a little more than what keeps you in your current shape.
But what about the mental side of movement? I’ve explored it a little with the motivation as the result of naysayers. But there’s more to it than that.
Initially the mental benefits come from motivation. But once you get moving you start to let your mind wander. Sometimes that can take you to dark places but often you start to correct that thinking. Dwelling on where you were verses where you are now is a great way to boost that thinking. Now you’re in a better headspace and now the world is your oyster.
Now you’re calmer when you go for a walk you start to think of funny things or solutions to problems.
There is also a well known link between exercise and mental health. I’m linking you to a podcast episode from The Rock which is a radio station here in New Zealand. The episode is from the Drive Show with Jay and Dunc and is an interview with John Kirwan, one of New Zealand’s most successful sports people. But he is a proponent for mental health and he gives some amazing advice. But you need to take note about his link between his surfing and his mental healing.
Incidentally, I recommend his app Groov because it’s designed to get you thinking about mental health.
Moving is what we’re designed to do and it can be done simply. If you’ve got the space then create a garden. If you don’t have that space or desire then there are other ways. In that podcast episode JK surfs. You can choose some other activity that works for you. That could be painting or photography. But make sure that these activities that you do make you happy.
This is cyclical. If you get your mental health right then you can move forward with your physical health and once you get your physical health on track you boost your mental health. I’ll explore this in more depth in a later post.
My next post will deal with the other half of the mantra: “Eat Less”.
