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Exercise Less to Lower Set-Point & Burn Fat

I'm so excited to start this session now, right after having spent wonderful time with carrie brown who's actually with us in the audience now, which is fabulous because as delicious as those recipes were and as therapeutic and healthy as they were, I know there's still some people out there saying okay, but like, I don't cook at all now, like I do not cook at all. So where am I going to get the time to spend any time in the kitchen? And as I mentioned, when I talk with kenna, we're not anti exercise in the research isn't anti exercise, but what is so amazing is like we talked about research yesterday that was shocking and showed that we actually need to eat maur food to maximize our health, and we saw how to do that very cost effectively in very time effectively research actually shows that if our goal is metabolic healing, which is what our goal is for this class, that doing less but smarter exercise is the most effective way to do that bottom line. And then if you take some of the t...

ime you would traditionally spend in the gym, think about all the time you spend commuting, changing that's like ten to fifteen hours per week imagine if you could drop that too one hour per week achieve all the same health benefits, and mohr put maybe two more hours in the kitchen and you're still up twelve hours of free time for the week. So let's show you howto exercise less but smarter, and hopefully it shows up on the screen. There we go, all right, so first, just to ensure that this doesn't seem too good to be true. Starting with the research researcher jaballah over at mcmaster university, we thought the findings regarding exercising less but smarter in this study, they were doing interval training, which we'll talk about. We're startling because it suggests the overall quantity of exercise people need to do is lower than what's recommended. Okay, so the key thing to keep in mind throughout this entire session in the next session where will actually show specifically how to do these smarter exercises actually get all the audience members involved in to be a lot of fun is we have a very specific goal for our exercise. Our goal is to unclog our metabolism, lower our set point and to heal our body into enable it to pursue slim this for us. It's not to burn calories, for example, that's, not our goal. Our goal is also not to increase aerobic endurance. Our goal is also not to become a better baseball player or a better golfer like exercise is very activity specific. Right just like if you want to become better at golf you would do different things that if you wanted to become better at marathon running the form of exercise we're going to talk about today has a specific intention and that is metabolic healing and it is unequivocally the most effective way to do that and it doesn't take a lot of time which is cool and because we have a different goal it should seem not so strange that we have a different approach right? Because the traditional goal of exercise is usually burn calories right? You look on any piece of exercise equipment leave cardio machines the things staring you in the face is how many calories you burned so if we're saying that we've been fed a myth about calories and that's not really the arbiter of health or indicative of anything from a health and fitness perspective then what is the role of exercise so we have to redefine that right different goal is going to require a different approach and just like with eating it ends up being about the quality of the movement were doing not the quantity we'll get into this more but we say quality of movement we mean intensity or the force with which we're moving and that doesn't mean compromising safety we'll actually show us how you can exercise with dramatically more force engage more muscle fibers achieve a dramatic hormonal response in your body while also being more safe than almost any other form of conventional exercise so anyone could do it no matter how old you are, no matter how young you are before we talk about any kind of forceful activity we have to cover ah very reasonable fear some people have and that's exercising with with heavy weights or higher intensity will make them too bulky, right? We were this my wife tells me she hears this all the time when she talks about how she does a lot of strength training that of her friends will say, but I don't want to get bulky I don't want to look like a man I want to look petite and slim well, this is I think it captures it very well. This is a researcher from the newer, not a research. A reporter from the new york times gina kolata who's written a bunch of wonderful health and fitness book. She tells us that gradually resistance training change the way I look. The alteration was not dramatic but I love it. My back became broader, which makes my hips look smaller. My arms and legs are firmer and more shapely. I never grew big muscles but they are defined. You can see their outlines. I feel different to more confident of my body strength and of my ability to do almost any movement in daily life with little effort I just think that's great because when you think about health to health is not about starvation and it's also not about like boredom and running yourself into the ground and feeling tired and bored it's about becoming stronger and more capable and all of the exercises were gonna cover today are about strengthening you and you'll see that has your body become stronger a lot of other aspects of of you and your personality becomes stronger and a lot of things in life become a lot easier. So it's a it's a pretty cool way to approach fitness so when we're thinking about bulk I want I want to get these concerns out of our minds because everything we're going to talk about today is a little bit more intense and weight training focused so I want to make sure we have no hesitations and no worries about that. So when you think about weight training and strengthening muscles it's it's worthwhile to think about traditional exercises that most people do to burn fat like cardio for example jogging aerobics no one worries that they will accidentally burn too much fat exercising right no one's like oh my god, I would totally exercise exercise but I'm worried that it's going to work too well no one has that concern right? Similarly we know it's not really easy to burn fat it's not you'll never accidentally build bulky muscles it's just not possible and the thing to keep in mind when thinking about muscle size is it's like anything else in your body there's a huge huge genetic component and we'll get into that in a second here but just getting back to the research. Dr kramer who's, the editor of the journal in strength conditioning research journal, tells us that women have been sold a myth about becoming big they simply don't have the genetics just like it's impossible for your average guy to look like a giant bodybuilder it's impossible for your average woman to look like a man? They simply don't have the testosterone levels the average woman has approximately the same level of testosterone in her body as a ten year old boy, so if you think about like you could put a ten year old boy in the gym all day he's not going to look like a gigantic man because he doesn't have the hormonal framework to do so women are the same way and I'm going to keep harping on this because resistance training and strength training is so critical I want to make sure that all of our female viewers are not scared to do that so average jane is never going to accidentally look like average joe and if you need a little bit more evidence we can get into the science we actually have a gene called gdf eight and that controls how big our muscles can get naturally this is why for example, there's a lot of men who tried to get big muscles they try really hard there's a multi billion dollar industry designed around producing products and services to supposedly help any man look like hercules and there's probably hundreds of men viewing today who could tell you despite their attempts to be bulky they can't even become bulky so please don't worry about becoming bulky accidentally threw weight training it will never happen and in fact if you don't wait train there's a good chance you will become bulky for another reason it will cover that in a second but another way to think about this bulk issue is to think about the size of your muscles so think of muscular size like a muscular speed so just like anyone can become faster by running we understand that but we also understand that none of us probably watching today no matter how hard we try will ever become an olympic caliber sprinter simply because we do not have the genetic framework to make our muscles fire fast and powerful enough to propel us off the ground like someone like a use ain't bolt could do there is a genetic upper bound to the speed with which your muscles can move all of us can become faster but we don't have to worry about becoming a world class sprinter accidentally muscle size is similar like by strength training you can become stronger but you will never accidentally become a giant bodybuilder. You just don't have the genes, so again, please don't worry about it. It caps are muscular size our genes do just like it caps the speed with which our muscles khun fire with so let's just put that to the side and talk to professor todd over the university of texas at austin that says, really, what you get from strength training is not bulky muscles it's a special sense of empowerment with resistance training, you don't feel as intimidated by being in a room full of men or by many of the tasks that face you in your daily life carrying groceries, carrying a child, opening heavy doors. These things that come for some women as real burdens with resistance training a relative small woman can see a big difference, and clearly it doesn't just apply to women, but if you go in any jim, what you'll often find is the resistance training area is full of men and the cardiovascular room is full of women, and I would encourage everybody if your goal is metabolic healing and will continue to get into the science, everyone should move over to the resistance training room it's going to give you way more bang for your buck, and by the time we finished the day, you'll understand exactly why, from a scientific perspective so if you don't do that, like if you don't resistant strain, because you think it's gonna make you bulky there's a good chance, you're going to become bulky. What I mean by that is the most effective way to keep that off your body is to heal your metabolism in a really effective way to heal your metabolism is to do strength training. You'll also develop compact in calorie hungry lean muscle tissue. If you have a healthy metabolism in a lot of muscle tissue on your body, it's very hard to store an abundance of body fat on your body, you know it makes you look really bulky, really quick, storing a lot of body fat on your body. So, ironically, the fear of becoming bulky causes many of us to avoid the specific form of exercise that is most effective at preventing actual bulk, which is the bulk we experience when we store excess body fat a little bit of, ah, paradigm shift there. It also is fabulously healthy as we age to ensure we're developing and maintaining muscle tissue over the university of vermont. We're told that a decrease in fat burning with advancing age and healthy women is associated with a decrease in muscle tissue and not age interventions that increase or preserve the quality of muscle tissue, enhanced fat oxidation, and thus lesson age associated fat game, translating that sometimes we think that as we age, our metabolism just slows down, and that that's, this un unavoidable burden that we're that we're faced with as we age. If we don't consume adequate protein, and if we don't perform smarter resistance training, you're not doomed, but your muscle will waste away. In fact, just like we know about osteoporosis for our bones there's, an equally diabolical condition called sarko pina, which is the gradual deterioration of your muscle tissue, and, in fact, lean muscle tissue was one of the most compelling indicators off longevity and health into old age, so maintaining in building lean muscle tissue throughout our life is critical not only for health, but for fat loss and the key thing to keep in mind. And this is the whole muscle weighs more than fat thing, so to be very clear, muscle doesn't actually weigh any more than fat. A pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat, right? A pound is found is abound, but what is difference is the density muscle is very dense, meaning a pound of muscle is going to take up a teeny tiny fraction of the space that a pound of fat would take up. The reason I bring this up is because people will often see small individuals be a men or women let's take my wife as a case study who this was obviously the happiest day of my life when she decided to become my wife so my wife is five six she used to be a cross country runner, state qualifying cross country runner and then upon our beginning of dating she decided to go saying and get east centric with me and eccentric is the form of resistance training we'll talk about today and she dramatically transformed her body from it, becoming a very almost emaciated type look, it became strong and it became resilient and she just started to feel stronger and more capable, but you know what happened to she actually started away more although she looked dramatically better, she started to weigh more and I want to call this out because if we're using again the scale as our barometer which I said throw your scale out again, you'll never resistance train because by resistance training you will build muscle that will make the number on the scale go up and you'll think your failing while you're actually succeeding very concrete. Lee when you see a fit strong woman who is about average height let's say five six most often we're like, you know what? That woman she weighs one hundred pounds she weighs one hundred five pounds false my way for wife weighs one hundred forty pounds which a lot of people would say like like I don't think ah five six woman who weighs one hundred forty pounds looks like that they do because muscle is dense and compact and beautiful we're all about strong people so let's make sure we're not afraid of becoming strong right ever do not be afraid of that muscles small fat is big you will not get bulky by resistance training you will get bulky by not resistance training right? So here's how we increase the quality of our exercise here's how we do that here's how we make this metabolic change and safe moscow development that we're after first and foremost doctor izumo over at boston university the type of muscle tissue developed by smarter exercise led to impress improved insulin sensitivity and reduction in blood glucose, insulin and leptin levels. These effects occurred despite a reduction in physical activity. Now I really want to highlight a few things about this quote so first of all, if you've ever resistance trained intensely, you know that you really can't like do a squat with weight on your back for sixty minutes, right? Like the amount of time you spend exercising is universally related to the intensity of your exercise you cant sprint as long as you can walk by definition so when we say exercise less but smarter just hinting at what will talk about for the rest of the session were saying I want you to exercise with a level of intensity in the level of safety. Thatjust prohibits you from exercising for a long duration, and in fact, if you are exercising for a long duration, you know by definition that it's, not that effective, because if it was, you wouldn't be able to do a lot of it. And when you do this shorter, more high intensity form of exercise. It's not about calories, it's about hormonal and metabolic change. As dr resume over, boston university tells us it improves insulin sensitivity, aka helps us avoid diabetes. It drops are blood glucose levels and are leptin levels. Lepton is aki hormone involved in our set point and in the automatic regulation of our weight. And those things happen despite doing less activity, not because we're lazy, but because we have to exercise less when we exercise with higher quality.