JJ Virgin argues that "eat less, exercise more" misses the point. Protein burns 25% of its calories during digestion while ultra-processed foods burn almost none. Intense calorie restriction backfires: the Biggest Loser study found participants' metabolisms slowed by 500 calories per day, making weight regain inevitable.
Eat less, exercise more. How's it worked for you? If you're like 95% of people out there, it didn't work so well. And there's a couple of reasons why. Now, here's the thing. Calories do count. However, where they come from counts more. So that's the first part of this. And here's how I can show you that. If you're eating a high ultra-processed diet, ultra-processed foods have a lower thermic effect of food. So if you're eating those calories, you're getting less of a caloric expenditure. Contrast that with protein. Protein is the most thermic of the 3 macronutrients. You burn about 25% of the calories from protein just by having to digest and assimilate the protein. And then look at fibery carbohydrates where the fiber isn't even coming in. Like when you really look at it, you should probably be just looking at net carbs because those fibery carbs, most of them are not getting absorbed. So you can't just look at calories as calories. There's more to it than that. Calories do count, but again, where they come from counts more. But let's look at the other side of the equation, which is move more. Our bodies really like to maintain homeostasis. And so one of the things that happens as you start to lower calories and move more is that your body starts to slow down its metabolic rate. It's something called metabolic adaptation. It's what happened to The Biggest Losers, where at the end of their time of exercising hard and eating less, they had about 500 calories less a day that they were burning than they should have been burning. Which is the last thing you wouldn't want to have happen and probably why 95% of people who go on a weight loss program gain it back. And that is what we're here to avoid. Yes, we want you to lose fat, but we want to make sure that you keep it off.
