Diets Don’t Work and Exercise Won’t Make You Thin

Certain ideas have a way of working themselves into paradigmatic status, mostly because ambiguous “evidence” appears to tell us what we want to believe. Joining the old saw “Diets don’t work” is now the belief that “exercise won’t make you thin.” But let’s look at what’s really driven these assumptions.

First of all, diets DO work! Most of them really do, quite well. For awhile and if you’re completely compliant. Somebody buys a new diet book, loses weight the first month and announces they’ve found THE one new diet that really works!! Well, get back to me in two years and tell me how well you’ve maintained that loss. Tell me how that diet completely changed your life and how solidly well-established your new lifestyle habits are. Then check back with me again at the five-year mark. I’ll be so happy for you, I’ll write a book for you.

Diet’s “don’t” work for two reasons. First, we can’t stay on these “programs” for very long. Most people innately think of a diet as something they go “on” and there will be a time when they will go “off.” We use up years of our lives going “on” and “off” diets of all kinds. When someone gushes effusively over their fabulous success with a recent diet, I admit to a bit of snarky eagerness to see where they are way down the road. The long-term success rate of any weight loss attempt is ridiculously low, like a percentage in the single digits.

The second reason why diets don’t appear to work is because of our own bodies and minds. It can be extremely difficult to find the right combination of diet and exercise that will result in the response we want. It can be so difficult that we begin to believe it’s the regimen that’s faulty and flawed—but really, it’s the mystery of these black boxes we all live in. It can be very tough to keep trying until you find something that works for you and that you can stick with!

I’m pretty amused by the whole “exercise won’t make you thin” dust up. It’s an interesting conclusion to make based on the studies that have been conducted. For the most part, test subjects engaged in certain types of exercise regimens without making any changes to their diet. And what a shock! They didn’t lose tons of weight!   Human physiology has not changed. It IS still about taking in fewer calories and expending more energy. What do you think is happening to the people on Biggest Loser when they exercise for hours and hours every day? It’s an extreme and rather ridiculous example that the math has to add up and for most people, exercise they might introduce into their lives won’t be sufficient to compensate for a calorie intake that still exceeds their energy expenditure. Somehow, we just don’t want to believe that truth. We’re hoping there’s some magic secret we’ll stumble upon and it will unlock this great mystery and everyone will be able to manage their weight with ease and minimal effort.

My situation right now is an interesting example. My weight was completely stable for about seven years. Obviously, I had developed a lifestyle of eating and exercise that maintained the formerly very obese me at half my highest weight. It took an extended period of extreme inactivity to throw off that balance, resulting in a regain of about 20lbs. Maintaining my diet of simple whole foods, I attempted to increase my daily energy expenditure, but I wasn’t making anything happen. What worked seven years earlier wasn’t going to work now. Clearly, I needed to work harder! I can do nothing but accept that as what my body requires at this time in my life. I am  finally losing weight again but it is taking two hours of daily vigorous HIIT cardio. When I return to my previous stable weight level, I will need to carefully determine if long-term maintenance will require something different from what it did before.

It IS about calories in, calories out but our bodies make it very difficult to know exactly what to put into that equation for our own particular needs. We can only work at trial and error. There’s never going to be any magic secret.

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    • Marlen on May 22, 2013 at 11:39 am

    What’s interesting to me, is that I can commit to all kinds of hard work that does not relate to weight reduction. You are helping me to see what I am allowing to get in my way, and with posts like this, you are also helping me to face the reality of the situation. Loving food/flavor should not be my excuse not to work harder to get into better shape. The challenge is not using that love of food and flavor to reward myself when I exercise. Nothing is simple!

    1. Oh boy I’m with ya on that, Marlen!! I think it’s a big step in itself to let go of that hope that you’re going to find some incredible diet, some amazing exercise gadget, some magic pill—It takes giving up things you’d like to be able to eat all the time and doing more exercise than you thought you might ever have to do. Some folks have an easier time of it but for some of us, this is our cross to bear! But if you’ve got to pick from what might bring difficulty into your life, being resigned to a lifetime of healthy habits is not so bad.

    • JoAnn on May 22, 2013 at 7:13 pm

    This post is pretty darn perfect. I also like that we are not supposed to use the word diet even though it just means what we eat. The assumption is that it is lower calorie or restrictive. Guess what? It is! Although it would be nice I didn’t lose this weight by eating whatever I want whenever I want. I, in fact restricted a whole bunch of thing that I’d like to eat in excess. Doesn’t mean I never eat pizza, but I don’t eat a whole one nor do I eat one a day when I had a double cheeseburger, fries and a shake.

    The truth is that my tastes have changed and I do appreciate fruits, vegetables and generally higher quality food overall. I feel and look better for it. That combined with an excellent workout routine has made the difference.

    I still believe “Eat less, move more” is overly simplistic, but there is a grain of truth in it. As you say, you have to find what works for you not go lockstep with some program.

    I love your voice Dagny.

      • Dagny on May 22, 2013 at 8:46 pm

      Thank you so much, JoAnn! Transitioning to a simple whole foods diet is about as close to a “reset” as any of us are going to get. It can be a long, slow ordeal to keep certain foods out of your life but you do pass a point when they just don’t taste the same anymore if you try to go back. It’s like quitting smoking; try to go back and you have to “re-learn” how to tolerate the smoke. So folks like you and me have to make sure we don’t put any effort into “re-learning” to eat the stuff we used to or to eat in the ways that we used to. Time does take care of you, as it does with so much of what we deal with in life. It’s been so long since I’ve spent an entire evening eating a giant take-out dinner, I don’t suppose I’ll ever do that again.

  1. Interesting post and kudos to you to have lost so much weight AND kept it off. Going on and off diets is not a good idea as you rightly pointed out. If people want to lose weight and/or maintain a healthy weight, they need to eat a healthy diet–I don’t mean “go on a fad diet,” just mostly eat healthy foods and not too much of it. That’s what I meant when I tweeted you, not “go on a diet.” Also, as you already pointed out, working out in addition to eating healthy is the most efficient approach to getting and staying skinny. However, when I read that you do two hours of HIIT cardio sessions every day, as a trainer who has worked with many clients over the last sixteen years, I paused. If you truly do high-intensity interval training, that’s very hard on your heart, not to mention your joints. If you’re in your 40s and my client–I looked at your photos and from those I assumed you were closer to 40 than 30, I apologize if I’m wrong–I’d have you do full-body weight training every other day, HIIT twice a week and steady pace cardio twice a week. While interval training can build some muscle–and the older you are, the more muscle you need to replenish to maintain a good metabolism–straightforward full-body weight training is more efficient. Those are my two cents, take it or leave it:)

    1. Hi Julia! Thanks so much for stopping by! I really appreciate you taking the time to comment!!

      I’m 53 years old. I weighed 340lbs back in 2005. I’ve dealt with weight my entire life. As I usually describe it—My memories of being “the fat girl” go back as far as my memories of school! In my work today, my focus is on people who’ve been very overweight for all or much of their lives.

      This post is from May and I was doing a bit of an experiment on myself at the time! Last year when I wrote my book, I went for an extended period of time when I became extremely sedentary AND started eating for convenience. For the first time since I’d lost half my bodyweight, I experienced regain!! I put 20lbs back on!

      After completing my book, I went back to the simple whole foods diet I’ve used for the last several years to manage my weight. It’s largely plant-based; I do not want to cut calories from it. I went back to my usual regular workouts but I didn’t lose any of the extra weight! I tried stepping up my exercise. Still nothing! I pushed it up to a pretty crazy exercise level and I was barely losing about a half pound a week! Things sure were different from when I’d lost weight back in my mid-40s.

      I visited my parents in Florida for the month of May and I took the opportunity to give my body a good JOLT! My mom had a bike and I was in a gated community where I could get out and ride-ride-ride. I’d go out for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, riding HIIT style with the aid of a heart rate strap. During the month, I dropped 11lbs.

      I’ve been pleased since I’ve been home, the 11lbs have stayed off! But that level of vigorous activity is hard to duplicate as I HATE just sitting on machines! It’s been interesting to use myself as an experiment. Being in my 50s and now menopausal is definitely changing the game!!

      You might be interested in this blog post— How Fit Can You Be? How Much Weight Can You Lose?

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