Myth: Eat Less, Move More to Lose Weight

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Myth: “Eat Less, Move More” is Solid Advice

The fat in your body is a stored energy source. It has a potential for the use as energy but only under the correct circumstances.

To lose fat, more calories need to be leaving your fat cells than entering them. In other words, if you are burning more calories than you are putting into the system, fat loss occurs. That statement seems logical; it works on both sides of the calorie equation.

For this reason, it seems only logical that “eating less and moving more” would cause weight loss. It works on both sides of the calorie equation.

However, fat-burning has less to do with counting calories and more to do with what hormones are activated in the body. There are three fat-storing hormones in the body that will block your efforts at losing weight if even one of the three is active.

Most people who follow the advice of “eat less, move more” struggle with losing weight and end up gaining it back. There are physiological and biochemical reasons for this (1). Simply telling people to eat less and move more isn’t enough.

Telling someone with chronic weight problems to just “eat less, move more” is like telling someone with depression to cheer up, or someone with alcoholism to just drink less.

Bottom Line: Fat-burning in the body is more about hormones than calories. Understanding your body type and eating and exercising according to your body type will be more effecting than simply telling people with weight problems to just “eat less, move more”.

 

Reference:

  1. International Journal of Obesity (2015) 39, 1188–1196; doi:10.1038/ijo.2015.59; published online 26 May 2015

Dr. John Erickson, DC
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