Blog

I recently got a question about how much exercise you should be doing for weight loss versus weight maintenance. My answer is whatever you can maintain, whatever is sustainable.

For example, if you’re doing two hours of cardio a day right now and it feels like hell, I highly recommend you don’t do that because honestly, it’s more about you staying in this for the long term than it is about losing weight in a short period of time.

I wrote a post a while back called “If You Can Lift a Fork, You Can Lose Weight.” You don’t have to exercise in order to lose weight, but it will speed up the process, and you get tons of great physical benefits from it; you can actually change your body composition if you’re doing the right types of exercises.

If you’re eating at a calorie deficit, you will lose weight, so the question becomes, what is sustainable for you? What is the amount of exercise you’re willing to do for the rest of your life? I call it your minimum. What is your minimum that you’re willing to do? Just as an example, my minimum is I want to walk at least 10,000 steps each day; I like to take several walks a day. And I do a minimum of three strength training workouts a week — that’s my minimum. Anything above that’s gravy.

If I feel like it, great; I’ll sometimes throw in two HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) workouts, but that’s about it. I don’t go out of my way to kill myself at the gym, and I’ve maintained my weight doing that. When I was losing weight, I did a little bit more cardio, but not an excessive amount. I realize even then I didn’t have to; I just enjoyed doing certain classes at the gym.

It has to be enjoyable. If you’re miserable, chances are you will beat yourself up if you don’t do the workout you had planned when you really aren’t feeling it, and then you’re going to let your eating go, and then you’re going to find yourself right back where you started. It’s better to create a very nice minimum for yourself of what exercise you’re willing to do and adhere to that. I started at 280 pounds with lifting weights.

If I had to pick one thing that I would say to prioritize more than anything else, it would be strength training. Pretty much every personal trainer I’ve talked to will agree with me that no matter what weight you’re coming in at, if you’re lifting weights, you’ll get more benefit from that long term and in your body composition than you would if you’re doing excessive cardio. Even if you’re just doing it two days a week, whatever you can do as your minimum is what I would recommend.

It’s got to be sustainable. If you’re miserable doing it, you’re not going to keep up with it, and then you’re going to say, “To hell with it; I’m not doing enough.” Then you’re going to give up on the eating, and before you know it, you’ll be right back where you started. Don’t do that to yourself, OK? Try to find what is sustainable, what you can see yourself doing for the rest of your life. I’ll walk for the rest of my life. I’ll hit the weights a couple of times a week for the rest of my life. That’s doable. Some of this other crazy stuff, not so much.

You have to find your minimum and be willing to do that. If you’re miserable, stop doing what you’re doing; it’s not necessary.

On Mother’s Day, I went to Cracker Barrel. I had three pancakes, two servings of eggs and bacon. I also went to Chipotle and had what I usually get there, and then I had Cold Stone ice cream for dessert. I ate what I wanted and I enjoyed it.

For a long time, I would have denied myself these things, then binged or overate on other things that maybe I really didn’t want, then deprived myself extremely the next day. I have given that up.

Now I actually plan for these indulgences. I say OK, I want to indulge in this. I allow myself to have it, no guilt. The next day, I just eat like I normally do. If I’m in a fat-loss phase, I take a 500-calorie deficit off my maintenance calories. If I am maintaining my weight, I just eat at my maintenance calories.

I don’t beat myself up for that anymore, and I’m going to urge you to do the same. If you have a treat or a day where you eat off what you normally would, don’t beat yourself up for it. Don’t deprive yourself of food the next day for two reasons.

One, your body wants to get back to its normal state, its homeostasis. Two, what happens mentally if you go into the day knowing you were “bad” the day before and feeling like you have to cut way back on what you’re eating and over-exercise to make up for it?

First, you’re not going to enjoy the food that you had the previous day as much because you feel like there’s a punishment attached to it. And second, chances are it’s going to be hard for you the next day, right? You’re not going to feel as good as you would.

I’m sharing this with you because I was in that cycle for a long, long time. I’m telling you, you don’t have to extremely restrict the day after having an off day where maybe you ate way above what you would normally eat or you ate things you wouldn’t normally eat.

Your body will readjust down as soon as you get back to your normal way of eating. I’m going to urge you to do that. Enjoy food. Enjoy the day that you’re in when you’re having it. The next day, just get back to what you normally do. You don’t have to extremely restrict. I’ll tell you now, if you do eat a lot of carbs and sugar, holy mackerel will it bring about an improvement on your workout! After my Mother’s Day meals, I deadlifted 205 pounds, five sets of five. I have not been able to do that. That’s all carbs, baby.

You have a great day. Pick up where you were and just keep moving forward. Don’t deprive yourself today.