Don't forget total activity!

I was going to title this "don't let diet and exercise sabotage your weight loss program". I have come across a number of recent studies lately that have suggested that some people decrease their casual activity in response to a calorie restricted diet and that many people significantly reduce their casual activity after starting an exercise program.

One group of women studied decreased calories burned in overall non-exercise daily activity by almost the exact same amount of calories they burned during their workouts. Another showed a pronounced decrease in casual activity in a group that participated in high-intensity type training.

These are mainly coincidental occurrences--that is, they do not represent a fixed physical response. It's important to remember to keep your activity levels high, or at least unchanged, when you start an exercise program. I think sometimes we subconsciously "reward" ourselves after a long or hard workout with extra rest--heck, I just ran 5 miles, I can take the elevator this time..........

A corollary to this also involves increases in casual or occupational activity that can affect one's workout routine. One of the reasons why I react somewhat negatively to posts by people who want to "count" their work activity as exercise is that, especially if one is starting a new job, an increase in work activity is very often accompanied by a notable decrease in exercise energy expenditure--decreases in exercise frequency, duration, intensity or all three.

I certainly experienced that when I started my new job last February. On paper, I should have seen a nice little drop on the scale. I went from being out of work and spending much of the day at the computer looking for jobs and doing a little housework, to a full-time job as an fitness specialist. I walk around all day, go up and down 20-30 flights of stairs per day, lift 500-1000lbs of weight plates left lying around, and demonstrate exercises.

Haven't lost an ounce, even though I haven't changed my food intake. Why? While I have maintained a pretty solid workout program, it's not what it was before. With a 1 hour (one-way) commute and 40-50 hours of work now on my schedule, there's almost no way it could be.

So, it's something to keep in mind--keep on movin', even after your workouts.