Wednesday, May 25, 2011

3 meal time words that can cripple weight loss


"Because I exercised"

And to be fair, I've had them run through my head as well.

What am I getting at?

Most of us folks, when we've exercised intensely, we tend to delude ourselves that we've earned some dietary leeway and indulgence.

That belief then leads to the suffix, "because I exercised".

"I can have seconds ... because I exercised",

"I can have that (insert indulgence here) ... because I exercised"
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And guess what, have the, "because I exercised" indulgence and more often than not, while you'll still be racking up the incredible health benefits of exercise, you'll probably be kissing any theoretical caloric benefits goodbye.

I think these 3 little words may in part explain why exercise doesn't tend to have a tremendous real-world impact on weight loss, despite having a theoretical mathematical one on paper.

That doesn't mean you can't, or shouldn't indulge.

It just means that the indulgent calories you can consume in a few minutes, to truly be "balanced" through exercise, are likely going to require a heck of a lot of exercise.

Or put another way, it means that the calories burned through exercise are usually much lower than most of us would expect, and that while indulgence is an important part of a rich and complete life, your choice to do it shouldn't be based on whether or not you've exercised, it should be based on whether or not you've decided the indulgence is worth its calories.