First up, have you joined the new Facebook group yet? If not, please do – this week I’ve written about calorie counting and whether it is important, and how to deal with mid-afternoon tiredness.
Now, for today, let’s talk about the importance of the minimum effective dose.
Sometimes, when we use the phrase ‘minimum effective dose’ it sounds a bit like a bad thing, but actually, I think it might be the only correct answer, especially when it comes to nutrition and exercise.
Imagine you want to lose a few pounds. You know that at its most simple, you need to eat less energy than you expend. So let’s imagine two scenarios:
For the first, imagine you reduce your caloric intake by the least you need to reduce it by in order to see the weight start to shift. You’re on the road to success! And when the scales stop moving (as they invariably do), you can adapt things and get them on the move again.
Let’s now imagine you reduce your caloric intake to the absolute minimum you can eat. Again, you will now be seeing the scales start to shift (and yes, perhaps a little more than with option A). But, when the scales stop moving, what happens now? You’re already eating the least you can eat. You’re stuck eating a miserable amount of food. Your metabolism will adapt to your intake too, and so if you dare to treat yourself to a bit of chocolate once in a while, it’s going to stick to you like glue.
Now, let’s look at the minimum effective dose from an exercise view point. Let’s imagine you want to create a regular exercise routine which you can maintain for the long term.
Scenario one here is where you realise that you have a busy life and you think your plan through and decide you can realistically do two short workouts each week. So, that is what you do. Your workouts are pretty likely to happen, your fitness steadily improves and you’ve reached your goal of a regular exercise routine. Perhaps at some point you might want or need to change this routine, but that can wait – this much works for now, and you’re able to stick with it consistently.
So what if we forget about our busy life and decide that because *insert expert here* says the only way for anyone to get benefits from exercise is to do *insert more than you can chew exercise routine here*, so you sign yourself up. In this scenario, it is so much easier – actually, it is inevitable – to allow the things that always happen in life to push you off track.
Not to mention the fact that, by doing more than you actually need to in order to see the changes you want to see, you’re adding more load to your body, your stress hormones are getting exercised more often, you’re less resilient to general life stress, and you’re probably increasing your risk of injury too.
It is so human to think that some is good and therefore more must be better.
Instead, try to really put it in your mind that there is no extra benefit in working harder than you need to, and actually working harder probably means a harder time in more ways than you intend.
Do you need some help figuring out how to get things right, for you? I’d love to help – send me a message and we’ll arrange a cup of tea and a chat.