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Creative Ways To Increase Your Steps Each Day
Steps are very important for your fitness journey - and sorry but I don’t mean the 90s pop band with whom I have a great affination - and yes that is a “tragedy”.
Sorry for the awful joke.
I mean walking. Or rather, I almost view it as physical meditation.
Steps are one of the single most important pillars to pin any fitness journey to for anyone. Simply because in terms of exercise especially, they are so easily accessible to everyone.
Although having said that, I have certainly noticed how much harder it is to get my steps in regularly since moving to Australia compared to living in the UK. Its a lot easier to walk in the rain than it is in the sun!
This is me most days here in Queensland.
Steps are a golden tool to help you in your fitness journey - especially if it is weight loss orientated - and so I am going to take you through as many ways as I can think of to help you increase those steps each and every day to help you conquer your goals.
The idea for this Blog Post came from a BBC article [1] I saw titled:
“Walking can boost your fitness and Mental Health says PHA (Public Health Agency)”
The article highlighted that in Northern Ireland two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese and that the average step count in Northern Ireland was 3000-4000 steps a day.
It also goes on to say that walking is often overlooked as a form of effective exercise, despite its ability to build stamina, burn excess calories and improve heart health.
The section that stood out to me the most was the comment by the NHS that said:
“walking is often overlooked as a form of effective exercise”
And I know this to be true. The number of times I have had to convince a client on the Strong & Confident Program that their daily steps are more important than their workouts, especially if they are wanting to lose weight is far too great. This is because the fitness industry and society will make you think that a workout burns more calories than it actually does compared to the daily habit of hitting that step target.
One thing the BBC article does miss out on is actually helping you figure out how to increase your steps so that you can improve your overall health and fitness. Which is exactly why I wanted to sit down and write this for you.
Now I am sure you have a million and one questions all about this topic - but don’t worry - I will of course take you through it all in the rest of this article.
Table of Contents for Creative Ways To Increase Your Steps Each Day:
Why Should You Increase Your Steps?
How Many Steps A Day To Lose Weight?
Can Walking Help Your Mental Health?
How To Increase Your Step Count at Home
How To Increase Your Step Count at Work
Why Should You Increase Your Steps?
I wanted to start by answering this question because without showing you the value of your steps each day it is far less likely you are going to nail the target you have set for yourself.
Let us start with your metabolism and how it is broken down.
Metabolism basically means the “amount of calories you burn each day” and it is a very hard thing to “break”. If you think that your metabolism is broken, and you don’t have hypothyroidism or another diagnosed metabolic condition by a doctor, then I come with good news.
Your Metabolism isn’t broken. It is more than likely you just aren’t understanding what goes into it and therefore what you can get out of it.
Our metabolism is a pretty static thing throughout our whole lives, even when as a woman, you go through pregnancy and menopause. Your Metabolism just doesn’t change.
As a study called Daily Energy Expenditure Through the Human Life Course [2] found out.
It looked at a cohort of people over their lifetime and analysed their metabolism from 8 days old to 95 years old and it found between the ages of 20 and 60 metabolism was stable.
You can see the trends in the graphs above. It should also be noted, there are some outliers from the trend, and if this is your lived experience then that needs to be noted.
READ MY BLOG THAT OUTLINES EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR METABOLISM:
Now that you know your Metabolism is pretty stable from the age of 20 years old, what goes into it and how can you get the most out of it.
The two sections I really want you to take note of in the above image are:
EAT and NEAT
EAT: This is your Exercise Activity Thermogenesis and it is simply how many calories you burn when doing a prescribed movement. HIIT, a Group Fitness Session, a Monthly Issue Workout, a jog, a bike ride - anything that is “fitness”.
And it is worth just 5% of your Metabolism or “the number of calories you burn each day”.
NEAT: This is all other movements you do in your day. Standing on the tube to go to work, doing your grocery shop, cleaning the house, brushing your teeth, fidgeting at your desk, and yes, your daily steps.
This is worth a whopping 15% of your Metabolism or “the number of calories you burn each day”.
And is also the biggest portion of your Metabolism that is directly under your control.
In a weight loss scenario, this is crucially important to know and is a huge reason one of my 5 Awesome Rules for Fat Loss Life is 10,000 steps a day.
Not that you NEED to do 10,000 steps a day - but more on that later.
Understanding your Metabolism in this way is also why I frame movement for all of my clients and have called my online coaching program the Strong & Confident Program. You won’t lose weight by doing some workouts in the Gym. Workouts are designed to get a human strong, not smaller, and your Metabolism would agree with me.
There are many other reasons you should increase your step count each day which will be sprinkled in the rest of this article.
How Many Steps A Day To Lose Weight?
No.
It really isn’t.
And here is the good news: you don’t have to do Ultra Marathons to lose weight.
Earlier in this article, I mentioned the dreaded: 10,000 steps a day.
There are studies that back this up, but with a kicker, seldom spoken about when setting step targets.
A study called: Pattern of Daily Steps is Associated with Weight Loss: Secondary Analysis from the Step-Up Randomized Trial [3] found the following from 363 participants in this 18-month study:
“Results support the recommendation of accumulating 10,000 steps·day, with approximately 3,500 of these steps per day being performed at a moderate-to-vigorous intensity in bouts of at least 10 minutes, to enhance weight loss in response to a behavioural weight loss intervention. While these results have implications that inform public health recommendations for physical activity.”
Key things to highlight here are:
Firstly the participants were in a Calorie Deficit.
The second is they completed 3,500 steps at a vigorous intensity.
Third is that it took 18 months for the participants to achieve a greater than 10% of body weight loss and only 263 of them managed to stick with it.
The origins of 10,000 steps a day are quite odd really, it was invented as a target by a Japanese company that wanted to sell their pedometers - and then the figure just stuck - and it was popularised by FitBit.
Essentially there is no magic number of steps a day to lose weight - and all weight loss efforts are futile if you aren’t in a Calorie Deficit.
But increasing your NEAT is always going to help you burn more calories and increase your weight loss efforts - all else being equal.
For some of you, this would be 10,000 steps a day.
For others, an increase in your step count could simply be increasing to 5,000 or 8,000.
What I tell all my clients who are working on a Fat Loss phase is, to work on creative ways to increase their steps over the day, and then still target a walk at vigorous intensity - and the best way to judge that is to challenge yourself to walk fast enough to struggle to hold a conversation, or if you are outside in a colder climate, to a point where you don’t need to wear a jacket.
Let me tell you about my client Jason who lives in Wisconsin and is on the Strong and Confident Program.
Jason is a truck driver. He gets up at 2am and drives from Wisconsin all the way to Ohio to deliver bricks and other materials for buildings, and then he drives back.
His ability to get steps in is really tough. We are constantly working on his diet to make sure he is in a Calorie Deficit when he is on the road, and we have had to come up with some really creative ways to help him regularly hit his step target. Things like walking around the truck when waiting to load and unload. Doing Truck laps when he is at a rest stop.
He has now lost 10kg in three months. His starting weight was 124kg, or as he is American, 272lbs. And in the last screenshot below you can see he hit 252lbs recently.
Here is a snapshot of the hard work he put into increasing his steps from his feedback forms over the last few months of his training. You can see his increased focus on steps week on week and the outcomes associated with them just from what he is feeding back to me.
It really is an awesome insight.
FOR MORE READING ON THIS TOPIC HEAD HERE:
Can Walking Help Your Mental Health?
It certainly can.
I am of the belief that a walk cures most things.
We know, at this point, that exercise benefits your mood, as it helps reduce stress levels, it increases dopamine in your system, releases endorphins and gives you a sense of productivity.
Walking also fits into this narrative very easily.
There is one other key benefit of walking that you don’t get from being in a gym.
Nature.
Being in nature is a great stress reliever as well. Getting Vitamin D on your skin, looking at trees, fresh air and all the good stuff that outside giving you is worth its weight in gold when it comes to improving your mental health.
Another added benefit to your mental health from walking is the fact you will sleep better. This comes from having increased activity levels, but also from your body being able to tell the difference between night and day. The more sunlight your body gets, the more it will help regulate your circadian rhythm which is responsible for the timing of your internal body clock.
I say to all my clients that a walk cures everything.
Stressed…go for a walk.
Anxious…go for a walk.
Angry…go for a walk.
Depressed…go for a walk (if you can).
Feeling pent up…go for a walk.
Feel like you need to move…go for a walk.
Walking demands you create space and time between whatever it is that is stressing you out, and your response to that stress. It allows you to process things not only mentally but physically too. Going for a walk is simply a way for you to iron out anything snags you have in your life.
And I think thats pretty cool - and something worth valuing in one’s life.
How To Increase Your Step Count at Home
Over the years I have trained many, many people who have office jobs and busy family lives.
Simply telling them to go for a vigorous walk at lunch was not possible.
Or, a walk when the children were in bed at night time, in East London, considering I train mainly women, was not a good idea either.
So we had to get creative - and I also had to educate them on what steps actually meant.
Your Apple Watch doesn’t just pick up steps when you walk, it picks up any intentional movement that also picks up your heart rate just a touch.
This means you can clock up your steps whenever you are doing any sort of task - because remember the goal isn’t to increase actual steps the goal is to increase your NEAT activity,
You can therefore increase your steps at home by:
Cleaning the house
Tidying up after your kids
Mowing the lawn (I have a two-acre yard, its like walking a marathon every time)
Squatting when you brush your teeth
Climbing the stairs in the ad breaks when you are watching Love Island
This reminds me of a very funny post I once did:
When I was working in London I had a couple of clients who refused to train with me if it clashed with Love Island - hence I decided to make them workout whilst they watched it.
As you can tell…I am not a Love Island fan…
Making your bed
Dancing in your living room
Having sex (hopefully lots of it)
Decorating
Doing some building work
Sawing some wood
Chopping some wood
Work upstairs so each time you need to eat you climb the staircase
Gardening
Chase your children
Play with your pets
Do calf raises whilst the kettle boils
Basically, anything goes in your house so long as it increases your activity level.
And yes, it may feel superfluous. It might feel a little weird, and a little forced. But the more you do it, the more normal it will feel, and the more you do it, the more likely you are to see the fruits of your labour, which will likely make you more and more motivated to continue.
And remember, if my fiancee was able to get 10,000 steps in a day when she was in a hotel room isolating as she returned to Australia during the covid-19 pandemic then I am sure there are many ways in which you can explore your entire home to increase your step count.
How To Increase Your Step Count at Work
You could set off a fake fire alarm…
But I don’t personally recommend it as you might get into trouble with the authorities.
This is quite a hard topic to approach because every job has different demands, and a nurse for example, probably won’t need to read this section. However, a lawyer or an administrator might need to. A truck driver has far less opportunity to increase their steps at work compared to a teacher.
What I will do is approach this section from the point of view of a generic “office worker” and hopefully some of it might give you some ideas to then adapt and take into your own professional life.
And remember, its not just about steps on your watch…its’s about increasing NEAT activity.
Park your car further away from the office
Stand on Public Transport during your commute
Offer to the morning coffee run
Make all the tea and coffee in the office all day for your co-workers
Drink lots of water so you have to make more journeys to the toilet (I recommend 2-3 litres a day)
Eat lots of fibrous food and remember Elmo…
Fidget at your desk
Walk on your lunch break
Have walking meetings
Always stand up when you are on the phone
Take the stairs, not the lift
Collect your own printouts
Hand out the days post
Greet your colleagues by saying hello each morning around the office
Go for a walk as opposed to grabbing a snack
Get a walking pad in your office
Get a standing desk
Get a foot cycling thingy like this:
As you can see, there are lots of opportunities in and around your office to help increase your steps at work. One thing I know very well from having worked in corporate and many different office setups, from being a City Banker to working in world-class stadiums, is that the first barrier to some of these changes is your co-worker’s judgement on what you are doing, and the second thing is really what is most important.
Focussed activity equals more productivity. I fully appreciate that the argument to your boss to allow you to work out during your work hours will likely fall on deaf ears - more fool your boss when you look at the science involved with this.
There was a study [3] in Denmark 15 randomized trials took place in the workplace. It totalled 3500 employees across 10-52 weeks and gave the employee one hour of training a week. The training - matched something known as Intelligent Physical Exercise Training (which is a fancy term for a personalised training session with a Personal Trainer) as well as meeting other physical activity guidelines.
Its conclusions are rather epic. So epic in fact, I decided to give you the whole conclusion verbatim:
“Physical exercise training at work as IPET benefits the worker in terms of decreasing health risk indicators, improving physical capacity and functions as well as perceived health. Also, the employer may benefit from allowing the employees work time for such training through decreased sickness absenteeism and presenteeism in terms of improved or maintained productivity and workability. Finally, on the societal level exercise can be “more than medicine” since exercise in a specific manner can maintain the individual's ordinary daily physical functions and ability to move (walk, run). This is becoming more and more important among the ageing workers and in a public health perspective.”
Now because despite the evidence on display, your boss isn’t going to give you a free pass to head to the gym for an hour a week, it still shows that physical exercise, any physical exercise, even to the level of walking more, will make you more productive. It will decrease your sickness, it will improve your mood and it will give you more energy to focus on your tasks at hand.
So despite what your co-workers might think, despite how odd it feels pedalling under your desk, it will all feel better when you have far less stress relating to your job, when you feel more socially included with your co-workers and when you are being more productive.
So if going for a walk at lunch takes you some way towards that…then it can’t be a bad thing, and you are also increasing your steps whilst at work.
What a win-win.
A Final Word…
I truly hope you found this article helpful. I have spent the best part of the last decade of my life helping people reframe and reimagine what fitness means to them and how they view their relationship with fitness.
Whether that is their relationship with food, exercise or themselves, I have helped 1000s of people focus on getting stronger in their mind, body and soul to help them have more increased confidence and self-esteem.
I do this in a variety of ways:
My Blog - www.thegymstarter.com/blog
My Training Program - The Strong and Confident Program
My Books - 27 Ways To Faster Fat Loss
As well as the usual social media channels.
If you would like to find out more about getting stronger then please drop me an email by using the form below:
Have a great day,
Thanks for reading
Coach Adam,
References:
Connolly, M.-L. (2023) Walking more can boost fitness and Mental Health, says Pha, BBC News. BBC. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-65163071 (Accessed: April 10, 2023).
Daily Energy Expenditure Through the Human Life Course | Science (no date). Available at: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abe5017 (Accessed: April 10, 2023).
Author links open overlay panelGisela Sjøgaard and AbstractBackgroundPhysical activity (PA) includes muscle activity during exercise (2016) Exercise is more than medicine: The working age population’s well-being and productivity, Journal of Sport and Health Science. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095254616300096 (Accessed: 17 May 2023).
Is Your Metabolism Broken? How Does Your Metabolism Actually Work?
In life, there are many words that get wildly overused, combined with also being used in the completely wrong context and with the completely wrong meaning.
Literally.
I’m sure you have your own list. But words that spring to mind are:
Legend — this is often used when someone is quite good, but usually a long long way away from having legendary status
Crazy — nine times out of ten you are not referring to a situation that is “mentally deranged, demented or insane”
With all due respect — is usually said right before all respect is thrown out of the window.
Shouldn’t of — shouldn’t even exist. Its shouldn’t have.
Its not Rocket Science — No Sandra, you are right it's not Rocket Science. And if it was neither you are I would be discussing it because neither of us know the first thing about rockets.
and in Fitness one of these words is almost certainly….
Metabolism …Speed up your Metabolism. Slow it down. Fix it. Is your Metabolism broken? What foods speed up my Metabolism? Is Breakfast good for your Metabolism? Do you need to keep your Metabolism running? Workouts to speed up Metabolism?
The answers to all of these questions elicit a different more confusing response about the word, and when that occurs there is a void for the fitness industry. A void that gets filled by magic fixes, magic pills and really bad advice.
And when that happens you are in a losing battle.
Is Your Metabolism Broken? How Does Your Metabolism Actually Work?
So let me set the record straight. In this article I will cover the following:
What is your Metabolism?
How does Metabolism work?
What influences your Metabolism?
Is your Metabolism broken?
How does my Metabolism relate to weight loss?
Conclusion
Listen to an episode of The Fitness Solution on this very topic right here:
What is your Metabolism?
A clear straight definition looks like this:
“Metabolism describes all the chemical processes that go on continuously inside your body to keep you alive and your organs functioning normally, such as breathing, repairing cells and digesting food” [1]
Every chemical reaction requires energy for it to occur. That energy comes from the calories you eat.
With me?
Good.
So lets simplify it for Fitness and Weight Loss purposes. My definition for this context would be the following:
“The way in which you body burns calories to keep your body running. Like the speed at which a car burns fuel in order to make its engine work. You burn calories to keep your engine running”
The confusion comes when we look at how we burn those calories.
And if you have read many articles by me you realise in these moments I turn to Instagram:
As you can see in the Graphic your metabolism is made up of four chunks.
BASAL METABOLIC RATE (BMR) — this is 70% of your daily caloric burn (or 70% of what your metabolism does each day). A rather large portion.
LEARN HOW MANY CALORIES YOUR BMR BURNS EACH DAY BY DOWNLOADING MY FAT LOSS CALORIE CALCULATOR RIGHT HERE: https://www.thegymstarter.com/get-my-calorie-calculator
NON-EXERCISE ACTIVITY THERMOGENISIS (NEAT)— this is 15% of your Metabolism and the next biggest portion of your Metabolism and relates to all movement you do away from prescribed “fitness” or “training”. Think Daily Walks, Gardening, Fidgeting and Climbing the Stairs.
EXERCISE (EAT) — Just 5% of your Metabolism is what you burn in the Gym when you workout. Sorry, let me rephrase that…this is what you actually burn in the Gym when you workout. Its not what the Cardio Machine or your wristwatch has told you you have burnt. Activity Trackers can be up to 60% inaccurate when it comes to tracking Aerobic Activity [2].
One study took 34 adults from a US College Campus and once they were deemed capable of moderate exercise they were put on a Elliptical for 30mins on a “Quick Start” Function and this was the conclusion:
“Elliptical machines appear to overestimate caloric expenditure by a large number of calories. As is often stated, caution should be used when relying on exercise equipment for caloric expenditure information. Based on this data, individuals should expect caloric expenditure to be overestimated by approximately 100 calories each 30 min of exercise performed on elliptical equipment at moderate intensity” [3]
I have gone into more detail on this section of your Metabolism because in my experience people don’t believe me when I tell them this. When I say that one hour in the gym is not enough to lose weight if you do not work on other aspects of your life, as most people have a colloquial experience of a machine telling them that they are burning more than they are in the Gym.
The Fitness Industry to doesn't help. Trainers recommend an hour a week for clients, not because that is what is effective, but because that is what the General Population might be able to afford their services.
One Hour in the Gym, and ignoring other parts of your Metabolism is not enough for you to lose weight no matter what your Trainer tells you.
THERMIC EFFECT OF FOOD (TEF) — This is around 10% of your Metabolism and is responsible for how much energy it takes for your body to digest your food.
Have you ever heard the myth [4] that “You burn more calories eating a stick of celery than it provides”? Well, that claim exists because of the TEF rating of a stick of Celery. It's also responsible for fads such as the Celery Juice Diet which you may well have heard of.
That is what TEF is. Each food has a certain amount of energy (Calories) in it and each food goes through a digestion phase in the body, which uses up Calories as well.
Is Your Metabolism Broken? How Does Your Metabolism Actually Work?
HOW DOES YOUR METABOLISM WORK?
As I mentioned above when you eat food that food contains Energy and that Energy is measured in Calories. Your Metabolism is the Global term for how your body burns those calories.
So how does your body burn these calories?
YOUR BMR:
This is one of the hardest parts of your Metabolism to influence because it is the part of your Metabolism that is largely determined by your genetics and your body composition.
For example, someone who is 6ft 6in tall is that tall because of their genetic makeup. They will also naturally have a higher BMR as their body is just bigger. They will have bigger Organs and longer muscles. Muscle is a key contributor to your BMR because the more muscle you have you increase your BMR due to the fact that muscle requires more calories at rest compared to Fat.
This is why when I am with clients I explain to them that they can lose weight without Strength Training as a Caloric Deficit is all that is needed to lose weight and that can be achieved outside of the Gym. However, by lifting weights and getting stronger they are improving their Metabolism and giving themselves an insurance policy against weight gain in the future.
YOUR NEAT:
If you want to lose weight you underestimate NEAT at your peril. This is your 10,000 steps a day. Your fidgeting. Your Gardening. The cleaning of your house. This is all of the movement you do outside of the Gym, and you do a lot more movement outside of the Gym than inside it over a week.
Your NEAT is the highest proportion of your Metabolism that you have complete control over. This is the one thing you are solely responsible for…and if you increase it…then you are going to burn a lot more calories each day getting you closer or above your required deficit.
In The Fitness Collective each and every month we have a Step Leaderboard for this very reason and those who consistently post big numbers on the leaderboard are also those who lose the most weight. It's not a coincidence.
A study that researched data from 86 studies on Pedometer Analysis without a Dietary Intervention and found the following:
“The amount of weight loss attributable to pedometer-based walking programs is small but important from a clinical perspective. According to the meta-regression results, the average participant adhering to a pedometer-based walking program can expect to lose about 0.05 kg per week. That translates to a weight loss of about 1 lb every 10 weeks” (5)
YOUR EAT:
I feel like I went into this quite a lot in the previous section. Try not to read this as “EAT” (one word) but rather as E-A-T because this have everything to do with Exercise and nothing to do with food.
The Gym does not burn as many calories as you wish or for the amount of effort, it feels like you are putting in.
Some questions naturally come up around this topic like:
What about HIIT?
High-Intensity Interval Training has been found to burn more calories in the Gym over the period of time you are working compared to Cardio Exercise but its pretty equal to traditional strength training methods.
However, there are three caveats to that:
HIIT generally leads to an added Calorie Intake after exercise and therefore is not ideal for Weight Loss as you feel like the harder you have worked and been good then the more you have earnt some “bad” foods [6] and it stimulates your appetite more [7].
HIIT often comes with the term “EPOC” associated with it. This is known as Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption and is overly attributed for the “calorie afterburn” you get from a HIIT Workout. Studies show that the biggest factor in EPOC is the intensity of the workout whether that be from HIIT or Traditional Strength — the differences are very minimal. Both are a better option for this than running or cycling.
The more intense your exercise session the more it will impact on other parts of your Metabolism. Namely NEAT. This is due to your body trying to “Cap” the number of Calories you can actually burn in a day [6].
As you can see for the person trying to lose weight…there are a lot of pitfalls to be had when it comes to HIIT, although it is more superior than traditional Cardio is for weight loss.
READ MY ARTICLE ON WHY RESITANCE TRAINING IS SO USEFUL FOR FAT LOSS : What is most important for Fat Loss?
YOUR TEF
I have already discussed Celery, and I don’t really want to go back there if I can help it.
But this is where a Personal Trainers love of Protein comes into play.
Now I know what you are thinking…
“I thought Protein was just for building huge guns”
Is Your Metabolism Broken? How Does Your Metabolism Actually Work?
What influences your Metabolism?
I have gone over this in the previous sections of this article. But its always good to take a moment to summarise and be nice and clear.
Your Body Composition: Muscle burns more calories at rest than Body Fat, which is why when someone is after Fat Loss I will put them onto a strength-based training system in order to improve their muscle density and impact their resting metabolic rate (this doesn't;t happen overnight though).
Your Organ Size: A taller human has bigger Organs and will, therefore, burn more calories at rest.
Your Movement: The more you move the more calories you burn.
Your Food: The more nutrient-dense your food the more calories you burn digesting it.
Your Prescribed Exercise: Not as much as you think but does burn some calories.
As you can see, this is a very complex web of how your body works, because where one solution looks like it's going to be a good path to go down…it can cause a negative effect elsewhere in the body.
For example: Lift Weights to really high intensity as that burns more calories, can lead to increased calorie consumption.
Therefore we must view our metabolism as a global thing that must be treated with balance and understanding over a long period of time.
Can I speed up my Metabolism with the foods I eat?
There is some evidence to suggest that this is possible…however the effect is pretty minimal.
If you remember back to the Bar Graph of your Metabolism then you are aware that your TEF is only about 10% of your Metabolic output. Therefore you really are misplacing your focus.
A lot of these foods relate to increasing your Heart Rate for a period of time over a day like Coffee and Tea and Chilli.
The other foods that speed up your Metabolism generally stick to the rules that I outlined above in relation to Protein and the fact your body will try and use so much of that food that it spends a lot of energy digesting and absorbing nutrients.
Interestingly and one part of this argument that I am on board with is the subject of Water. Water has been shown to be able to increase your Metabolism by up to 24–30% [8].
This relates to a phenomenon which is called Water Induced Themrogensis. To you and I though…its bascially the body using energy to heat the water up to Body Temperature. It also has to be noted in order to do this you have to drink above your normal intake. And a study in Overweight Children concluded that cold water had a slightly better effect [9]
Again, though…this is all limited, and is definatley a very small piece of a much larger pie. I wouldn’t advise you to go away from this article and think that by drinking 500ml 4 times a day is suddenly going to imporve your Metabolism beyond compare.
Its just a consideration you can factor in…and is one of the reasons it is in my Five Awesome Rules For Fat Loss Life:
Is Your Metabolism Broken? How Does Your Metabolism Actually Work?
What about MetCon? And other workouts that “speed up” my Metabolism?
In a word.
Marketing.
Its a Marketing Campaign from the trained or gym you are in that is based on conscience at all.
It's clever too.
It makes you think that there is something wrong with your Metabolism and that this workout will help fix that. It makes you think that the person selling you this Metabolic Conditioning workout is actually going to fix you.
And they aren’t. It's basically a clever way of saying “Lift weights to improve your BMR by adding muscle to your body”
That's it. As you can probably tell right now, there is a lot about your Metabolism that you can’t impact quickly in the gym. It takes a long time to add muscle and reduce body fat…and that is the only way you can enhance your Metabolism inside the Gym
Is Your Metabolism Broken? How Does Your Metabolism Actually Work?
Is your Metabolism Broken?
No.
Its not possible.
Wait. Let me change that.
Unless you have a medically diagnosed Metabolic Condition then no. Your Metabolism is not broken. I am not a Doctor or an Endocrinologist so in this sense, I speak from my own experience.
Even if you do have a Metabolic Condition usually relating to Hormonal Imbalances in your body (PCOS, Thyroid Issues, Pituarty Issues) then your Metabolism isn’t likely to be as broken as you think it is.
I have a client who has Pituitary Condition and in researching it for her we found that the weight gain relating to the hormonal issue is only going to be between 5-10lbs of weight.
In fact, The British Thyroid Foundation state this:
“In general, 5-10 pounds of body weight may be attributable to the thyroid, depending on the severity of the hypothyroidism. Finally, if weight gain is the only symptom of hypothyroidism that is present, it is less likely that the weight gain is solely due to the thyroid.” [10]
But focus not on the numbers, but the last thing they say: “its less likely…solely due to the thyroid”
Here they mean that it is more than likely to be a lack of a Caloric Deficit and other behavioural issues that are leading to your weight gain.
Its still significant enough. But it is nowhere near what she would have believed had we not have found out more.
For those of you reading this who are not diagnosed with these issues then again your Metabolism isn’t broken.
The truth is that it feels slow because you are not concentrating on what you need to concentrate on to affect your Metabolism more positively.
You are not adding muscle to your body
You are not eating Protein-rich Nutrient-dense foods
You are not moving enough outside of the gym
Your exercise option in the Gym isn't congruent with your goal of “improving your metabolism”
I know that can be hard to read…but genuinely it's important.
Taking responsibility for yourself in relation to your Metabolism, if you want to lose body fat is very important.
Many people will tell you its broken. But that not physically possible. But Metabolism is an easy scapegoat for failings elsewhere in what you are doing to achieve fat loss. There is nothing in relation to your Metabolism that means you will not be able to achieve a Caloric Deficit, and therefore that means that your Metabolism is not the reason you are not losing weight.
Is Your Metabolism Broken? How Does Your Metabolism Actually Work?
How Does Knowing All Of This Relate To Weight Loss?
You could have got this far into the article and felt one of two ways:
Utterly Defeated by the fact there is now 70% of your Metabolism that is really hard to effect and change.
Amazed by the fact that there is now 30% of your Metabolism that is totally under your control and that you can change in order to reach your goals.
30% is a huge amount.
If you had a Calorie allowance of 1500kcals a day and you under ate by 30% every day you would then have saved yourself 3150kcals in a week. Which would amount to losing around 1lb a week ontop of where your deficit is already set at.
If you could influence anything by 30% I reckon you would see that as a positive thing
What if your bank gave you 30% more interest?
What if you earn 30% more each month?
What if you had 30% more holiday allowance each year?
You would consider that as pretty life changing. I know I would.
So actually you have a lot of power to change your Metabolism and to help getting it working more efficeintly for you.
Don’t get me wrong…to lose weight you do still need a Caloric Deficit. The rules of Fat Loss will never change. However understanding this side of your Body and manipulating it to your advantage…to make it more efficient will in no doubt help that Deficit happen for you.
FIND OUT A LOT MORE ABOUT A CALORIE DEFICIT RIGHT HERE: What is A Calorie Deficit Diet Plan?
THE BOTTOM LINE
Here is the good news:
You aren’t broken. You aren’t on the scrap heap. You do have control over you Metabolism and how it can burn more calories each day.
To do this you need to:
Increase your NEAT
Focus your diet into more nutrient-dense options
Stop spending 30mins on a Cross Trainer and start picking up the 5kg Dumbells
Lift weights consistently enough over a long period of time to increase your muscle density and therefore improve how many calories you burn at rest.
And that's it.
Remember the rules of a Caloric Deficit are always the governing factor when it comes to Weight Loss, and your metabolism is responsible for how many calories you burn each day.
You can influence 30% of that amount which is a huge portion.
But in order to do that you have to take action and start making your Metabolism work more efficiently for you.
Stop thinking it is broken. Start taking responsibility and start moving towards making your Metabolism efficient…not inefficient.
By doing that you will watch the weight come off you as you wish and it will add to all of the feelings of wellbeing and health that you are craving.
Remember…you got this. You aren’t broken. You don’t need fixing. You just need to start fine tuning a few things…
And now you know how.
Is Your Metabolism Broken? How Does Your Metabolism Actually Work?
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References:
2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-weight/metabolism-and-weight-loss/> [Accessed 22 June 2020].
News.iastate.edu. 2020. Activity Trackers Not As Accurate For Some Activities, ISU Study Finds • News Service • Iowa State University. [online] Available at: <https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2015/08/19/activitytrackers> [Accessed 22 June 2020].
Caloric Expenditure Estimation Differences between an Elliptical Machine and Indirect Calorimetry Exerc Med. 2018;2:8. Published online April 18, 2018, <https://doi.org/10.26644/em.2018.008> [Accessed 22 June 2020)
WATSON, T., 2020. Could You Survive On Celery Alone?. [online] Www108.lamp.le.ac.uk. Available at: <https://www108.lamp.le.ac.uk/ojs1/index.php/jist/article/view/2546/2499> [Accessed 22 June 2020].
Richardson, C. R., Newton, T. L., Abraham, J. J., Sen, A., Jimbo, M., & Swartz, A. M. (2008). A meta-analysis of pedometer-based walking interventions and weight loss. Annals of family medicine, 6(1), 69–77. https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.761
Pontzer, H., Raichlen, D. A., Wood, B. M., Emery Thompson, M., Racette, S. B., Mabulla, A. Z., & Marlowe, F. W. (2015). Energy expenditure and activity among Hadza hunter-gatherers. American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council, 27(5), 628–637. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.22711
King, N. A., Hopkins, M., Caudwell, P., Stubbs, R. J., & Blundell, J. E. (2008). Individual variability following 12 weeks of supervised exercise: identification and characterization of compensation for exercise-induced weight loss. International journal of obesity (2005), 32(1), 177–184. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803712
Vij, V. A., & Joshi, A. S. (2013). Effect of ‘water induced thermogenesis’ on body weight, body mass index and body composition of overweight subjects. Journal of clinical and diagnostic research : JCDR, 7(9), 1894–1896. https://doi.org/10.7860/JCDR/2013/5862.3344
Boschmann, M., Steiniger, J., Hille, U., Tank, J., Adams, F., Sharma, A. M., Klaus, S., Luft, F. C., & Jordan, J. (2003). Water-induced thermogenesis. The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism, 88(12), 6015–6019. https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2003-030780
British Thyroid Foundation. 2020. Thyroid And Weight - The Science. [online] Available at: <https://www.btf-thyroid.org/thyroid-and-weight-the-science> [Accessed 25 June 2020].
Why You Don’t Have To Earn Your Calories In The Gym…
I chose this photo for this blog post for many reasons. Number one its what the world is doing…or at least its what the world wants you to do. Run away from the food you have eaten..or more…try and banish the food you have eaten from your body. Secondly, she has a smile on her face. This smile could mean two things:
She has realised that she doesn’t need to run anymore from the cake and ice cream, and banishing the calories you have eaten through exercise is a daft thing to suggest.
She is just enjoying movement because the movement is there to make us happy.
I fear I am being overly optimistic about the photo. I think the photo in truth was designed to promote the banishing of calories from your body.
This article arose from a TV Programme that was aired here in the UK. It was called Horizon. The tag line for this show is the following:
“Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you’ve never seen before”
This particular episode was focussing on “The Restaurant that Burns Off Calories”. All you need to know at this point is that a Doctor and a Restuarant Owner teamed up and built a restaurant full of the UK’s “favourite dishes” and built a gym behind the restaurant where there were about 40 Gym Bunnies all ready on Cardio Machines to burn off all the calories that were consumed in one service in the restaurant. The whole menu had been calorie counted, and then the figures were totalled up, and those on Rowing Machines, Treadmills and Exercise Bikes saw this figure ever-increasing and had to keep working towards the final of total of, 45,687 calories.
The show came into much criticism on Social Media as it is promoting the idea that you “have to earn your food in the gym”. Which you simply do not. And anything that promotes this notion is going to be criticised for helping push people towards very real and dangerous eating disorders.
In this article, my aim is to move your mind away from the very worrying and potentially damaging thought that you have to “earn your food”. I would also like to say right from the start, I have never had an eating disorder, and I am also not an eating disorder professional. Throughout the article, I have cited where I have got my information from, and the sources that I believe to be very credible.
My sole purpose in this article is to try and show you how all food including, cakes, donuts, crisps, alcohol, sweets and ice cream as well as exercise and training play two very important roles in maintaining both your physical and mental health. And above all…why you do not have to earn your calories.
If you have found this article, and are suffering from an eating disorder please stop reading, and seek professional and medical advice right here: https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/support-services
We will go through the following:
The Dangers of “earing your calories”.
The Dangers of overtraining.
Why did the BBC Produce this TV Show? and the problems within it.
The best foot forward…
THE DANGERS OF “EARNING YOUR CALORIES IN THE GYM”
This article arose from a TV Programme that was aired here in the UK. It was called Horizon. The tag line for this show is the following:
“Horizon tells amazing science stories, unravels mysteries and reveals worlds you’ve never seen before”
This particular episode was focussing on “The Restaurant that Burns Off Calories”. All you need to know at this point is that a Doctor and a Restuarant Owner teamed up and built a restaurant full of the UK's “favourite dishes” and built a gym behind the restaurant where there were about 40 Gym Bunnies all ready on Cardio Machines to burn off all the calories that were consumed in one service in the restaurant. The whole menu had been calorie counted, and then the figures were totalled up, and those on Rowing Machines, Treadmills and Exercise Bikes saw this figure ever-increasing and had to keep working towards the final of total of, 45,687 calories.
The show came into much criticism on Social Media as it is promoting the idea that you “have to earn your food in the gym”. Which you simply do not. And anything that promotes this notion is going to be criticised for helping push people towards very real and dangerous eating disorders.
When we equate the food we eat in a direct correlation to the amount of exercise we have to do to burn it off…it is a battle we will always lose, because you cannot exercise that much. Or if you do…it will likely lead you towards very excessive behaviour patterns and destroy your relationship with what exercise is, and what your food is.
When you adopt purging behaviours (verb. to physically remove or expel (something) completely) you are treading a very very dangerous line between both your mental health and your physical health.
Here some infographics I once made:
From @thegymstarter on Instagram
As you can see from the infographics…it is merely impossible to:
Do 239 minutes of running at 6mph every time you have a Pizza.
Do 526 minutes of walking, just because you ate Christmas Dinner.
Do 24 minutes of walking every time you consume a Glass of Red Wine.
The sheer thought that you might think, when you sit down on December 25th to enjoy your Christmas Dinner that you will then be faced with nearly 4 hours of walking (depending on your weight) will suck out all enjoyment of that dinner and the true meaning of Christmas. Despite the fact, I don’t know many people that will willingly engage in that much time on a Treadmill (I ran a half marathon on a treadmill once…I do not recommend it).
So what is the other option…you purge the food away.
Every time you do this you are setting up a neurological behaviour that equates food with pain. We all need to eat food. We all need calories to survive. Without them, we will die. This is a fact of life.
And when you become overwhelmed with the idea of how much exercise you will have to do in order to banish the food from your body you will look for the shortcut…which will then lead you into directions such as:
Avoiding social situations.
Living with a feeling of shame.
Relating food enjoyment to painful behaviours.
Changing your brains chemistry to a reward system for these behaviours (1).
Engaging in compensatory behaviours can become addictive. Self-induced vomiting can actually change an individual’s brain chemistry, affecting serotonin levels and releasing endorphins.
This can result in a high that those with purging disorder might strive to recreate following a meal. Similarly, it can be difficult to cease laxative use if an individual’s body has become reliant on them to produce bowel movements (1)
Studies have shown that living on a Very Low-Calorie Diet typically less than 800kcal a day, but can be as little as 1000kcal a day it can have the same physiologically as total starvation (2).
CAN THAT MUCH EXERCISE BE DANGEROUS AS WELL?
Overtraining is a serious subject as well…and if you start walking down the path of “earning your calories” you will have to engage in copious amounts of exercise to compensate.
As I mentioned above, I once ran a Half Marathon on a Treadmill, and it was not a good decision. It took me 2 hours. And yeah…it left its mark. So much so I wasn’t able to train for 4–5 days. But that was a one off stupid incident during marathon training from someone who was very well versed in the ability to run. If I did that day in and day out over a long period of time other issues will begin to arise such as:
Increase in weight
Heavy mood swings
Constant muscle aches (different to DOMS)
Overstressing of muscles leading to frequent injuries
Fatigue and exhaustion
Sleep quality has decreased
In order to actually create a change in the body through training, it must be backed up with a very disciplined regime of sleep and nutrition. Without these two things, you will not build that body you want, and therefore you will always be chasing your tail. If you are considering your food as something you have to burn off, and you educate yourself on the calories contained in foods, then you will be moving towards poorer nutritional choices (ie too few calories), combined with a tendency to overtraining.
According to a study in May 2002, approximately 80 percent of patients with anorexia nervosa and 55 percent of patients with bulimia nervosa compulsively exercise. Female eating disorder patients who exercise report higher levels of psychological distress and psychopathological traits than non-exercisers (3).
Therefore you can see how it will begin to affect both mental and physical health.
WHY DID THE BBC PRODUCE THIS SHOW AND THE PROBLEMS WITHIN IT
A piece of research came out in 2019 from Loughborough University that stated when people know how much exercise they will have to do to burn off their food, as displayed on a food label (knowns as PACE labelling) they are likely to reduce their caloric intake by 103kcals a day (4)
An NHS Blog post (5) states this as the conclusion:
Researchers found:
1. people were less likely to buy a sugary soft drink if it was labelled with PACE information, compared to no label.
2. people selected on average 64.9 fewer calories if food or drink was PACE labelled, compared to no label or other labelling (95% confidence interval (CI) -103.2 to -26.6)
3. people ate on average 80.4 fewer calories if food or drink was PACE labelled, compared to no label or other labelling (95% CI -136.7 to -24.2)
I remember when this story broke as I was invited to talk about it on BBC Radio 5 Live. I was merely approaching it from the relationship of PACE labelling and weight loss. I didn’t really see the relationship this would then have with eating disorders until I looked into it more.
The premise is a fair one. Let's get that out the way right now. The idea that anything that reduces our caloric intake could be a win-win is always going to be a “good idea” especially when we are facing huge increases in obesity globally. But I would like to think that the first half of this article has made you realise the very serious consequences labelling food like this can have.
The show itself was very lukewarm on two fronts. One, its dietary information and the message it tried to get across, and two its understanding of the role exercise plays in our metabolism.
I could pull the show apart, trust me, I made enough notes on how sensationalist it was at times throughout the programme. But also just how sensationalist the whole premise was. Having 40 or so people, all who were not a cross-section of society in terms of their exercise habits, their age and weight working out on Cardio Machines to burn off food others had eaten is simply sensationalism. And the fitness industry has dabbled in sensationalism far too much. This is one reason why eating disorders are on the rise (6) because of Diet Culture and unrealistic expectations of what is achievable being spouted left right and centre to everyone.
Other issues I noticed with the show was that there was no given metric as to how they were monitoring how much exercise the subjects had to do. They didn’t look to me like they were wearing heart rate monitors or were going through a VO2 Max Test as they were doing it to determine truly how many calories they were actually burning.
The lack of information about how the exercise subjects output was being monitored might lead some people to jump on a treadmill and take the numbers that the machine gives you as fact. The numbers of calories burned on a Treadmill, Exercise Bike or Rowing Machine are to be disregarded at all times. They are wildly inaccurate and will nearly always give a higher reading close to 15–20% than what you actually did.
This is important to know because you will be giving it your all on a Cardio Machine, tracking that number…not seeing results that you think you deserve and then you will want to give up again.
I also felt that nearly every shot of the exercise subjects you saw, they looked downtrodden, deflated and absolutely exhausted. I mean…who wouldn't be? Having to do that much exercise.
The meals that the restaurant were serving might have been “typical” to the UK, but they are only typical to the UK when we are eating out. Something that we do not do all day every day. So to directly correlate the very stark image of that many people, looking that hot and sweaty, because of food that someone has eaten, is falsifying the truth. Home Cooked Food vs Restaurant Cooked Food is always going to have big variances in the Caloric value due to things like Oil, Salt and other flavourings that are used in the food.
One of the hosts gave a very simplified version of how your Metabolism worked, and she followed this statement up with “you can’t do much to influence your BMR”, again, which is not giving you the full truth. Which is what makes this programme so very wrong indeed. The sheer fact that the programme is telling you only what you can and cannot do in one exercise session to burn away your calories is very misguided.
The show took in no regard for what happens over long periods of time when you add muscle to your body, and how that helps you maintain your weight. The show gave reference to the fact that Muscle requires more calories to maintain than body fat…but it didn’t look into that any further — which again is giving a very imbalanced view.
It also didn’t mention EPOC (Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). EPOC is responsible for the continuation of burning calories post-exercise. It occurs both in Cardio work and Resistance Training. However, it occurs to a greater degree in resistance training (7), although the studies I could find do say it is a small difference, and it is an incremental difference over long periods of time.
One last point on the show which I think sums the whole thing up. There was a moment when Angela a middle-aged woman who was enjoying a meal ordered a dessert. The waiter then showed her the PACE labelling for the item she ordered. Angela changed her mind to a different less calorific dessert. However the look on her face would have suggested that she was neither happy about choosing ice cream, and she seemed even less impressed that she felt guilt-tripped into having it.
She also says as her husband is eating the Cheesecake “I have pudding envy. I really wanted the cheesecake”. She was out having a nice meal and has now had her dinner somewhat spoiled by the fact that she now knows she saved 335kcals on her meal.
They went on to ask her about this and she said that she has a goal in mind to fit into a dress for a wedding…and this choice will get her one day closer to getting into that dress.
Which is a nice thought? But it won't help her. It won’t help her because she is encouraging herself to move away from the enjoyment of her food and into a place where she is having to avoid things she enjoys, simply because she is viewing her food as like for like exchange for calories, and weight. She also states later in the programme that “she isn't careful about the food she eats”.
Which brings me to my last point in this section. You can’t build good habits with food if you are building it on a foundation of sand. Shocking people into better choices will not work, because an awful lot more goes into why people chose the foods they eat each day. It's down to their emotional behaviours, their environmental factors and their relationship with themselves.
Not their relationship with their food labels.
THE BEST FOOT FORWARD AND CONCLUSION
So what should we do? If PACE labelling isn’t the answer what should we do instead?
Like with most things two words spring to mind.
Education and Balance.
The education required would be to acknowledge that Exercise is responsible for just 5% of your Daily Metabolic burn.
Read that again.
Exercise is responsible for just 5% of your Daily Metabolic burn.
Above is your Metabolism each day set out as percentages. And you can see Exercise Activity is responsible for just 5% of that.
So I ask the question…why was the show expecting people to burn off 100% of their meals?
Energy In vs Energy Out is what it is important here. And that bar in my infographic is 100% of your energy out. Therefore a keener focus on the big sections of the bar would be useful.
You can improve your BMR by lifting weights, maintaining muscle mass, sleeping better, eating more protein and enjoying the compound effect of these lifestyle changes over a long period of time will help improve your metabolism.
Increase your NEAT. This is your Daily Movement. Fidgeting, Standing, Climbing Stairs, Walking, Gardening, Dancing and everything in between.
We can even increase our Thermic Effect of Food due to making sure the food we eat has a higher Protein focus.
Add all that up and you are increasing 95% of your Metabolism. Yes, it will take time but this isn’t nor should it ever be a like for like situation. Your metabolism is a lot more complex than Exercise = Calories, and the sooner we can understand that the sooner you will start protecting your future self from increased weight gain.
If you want to lose weight and don’t want to spend all day on the treadmill just because you ate a burger …then you can need to do the above.
I would also suggest that you get yourself Calorie Educated. Spend time learning what calories are in your food, and learning how that can work into your numbers for each day. I repeat:
You do not have to earn your calories eaten in the gym.
I have a system called the Five Awesome Rules For Fat Loss Life which I outline in this video which will be a great place to start your understanding of how this all weaves together and why not equating calories eaten to time spent on a Rowing Machine is a good idea.
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References:
1.Ekern, B., 2020. Purging Disorder: Signs, Symptoms — You Need To Be Aware Of This. [online] Eating Disorder Hope. Available at: <https://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/blog/purging-disorder-signs-and-symptoms> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
2. Uclahealth.org. 2020. Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD) Plan : RFO Weight Loss Program | UCLA Center For Human Nutrition. [online] Available at: <https://www.uclahealth.org/clinicalnutrition/vlcd> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
3. Eating Disorder Hope. 2020. Exercising And Eating: What Are The Risks And Effects Of Over-Exercising. [online] Available at: <https://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/information/orthorexia-excessive-exercise/risks-over-exercising> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
4. Davis, N., 2020. Exercise Advice On Food Labels Could Help To Tackle The Obesity Crisis. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/dec/10/exercise-advice-on-food-labels-could-help-to-tackle-the-obesity-crisis> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
5. nhs.uk. 2020. Exercise Advice On Food Labels Could ‘Change Eating Habits’. [online] Available at: <https://www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/exercise-advice-food-labels-could-change-eating-habits/> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
6. Marsh, S., 2020. Hospital Admissions For Eating Disorders Surge To Highest In Eight Years. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/15/hospital-admissions-for-eating-disorders-surge-to-highest-in-eight-years> [Accessed 23 April 2020].
7. Unm.edu. 2020. Resistance Training And EPOC. [online] Available at: <https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/epoc.html> [Accessed 23 April 2020].