FAQ - Diet V Exercise? pt 1: Defining the Key Terms...
Movement, Activity and Exercise - What are they?
Our house is now rather full of Easter eggs and chocolate. And some of them are Cadbury's! I know other chocolate is available but this is like cat-nip to me. I already owe Rosie two big bars of Dairy Milk and a packet of Buttons! How's anyone supposed to stay on track with the healthier eating too?
Sprout-sized food for thought:
This has prompted my thinking to drift to questions that I regularly receive from listeners and clients, and in particular those around the question of what to focus on - Diet or Exercise. In this FAQ, I share how I define the key terms and clarify what we mean by 'movement,' 'activity,' 'exercise,' and 'diet' before answering the big question.
Why?
Because when we differentiate between 'activity' and exercise' in particular we can really see some opportunities to boost our weight loss and health efforts before even factoring in whether to focus on exercise or diet.
Transcript is below
#weightmanagement #weightloss #weightlossjourney #coach #midlifecoach #midlifewomen #midlifemen
#weightmanagement #weightloss #weightlossjourney #coach #midlifecoach #midlifewomen #midlifemen
Dave
Dave Algeo
Midlife Health and Weight Management Coach
Reclaim your Health, Life and Sense of Adventure in Midlife and Beyond
https://www.midlifereshape.com/#weightmanagement #weightloss #weightlossjourney #coach #midlifecoach #midlifewomen #midlifemen
Why not sign-up to the ‘Restless MidLifer Chronicles’ my weekly newsletter featuring updates food for thought on weight loss and managing our midlife health and my own experiences in managing my own health and weight.
Transcript
The first terms that I do want to define are movement,
activity,
and exercise.
Now, what I'm not going to do is give you a textbook definition for these or a dictionary definition.
What I want to do is give you what I would sort of, how I would approach these and define these operationally, I guess practically when I'm working with a client or I'm talking to somebody about these. Because what it can do, be useful in, is helping us particularly work out the difference between activity and exercise in particular.
And I'll get to that very shortly. So, if we start at the very basic,
movement.
Now, as human beings and, you know, in common with the majority of creatures on the planet, we move. And we move in various different ways. And I think that's not rocket science. But that movement is part of what spends the energy or takes energy in our day. Yes, there's other functions within the body, the brain, etc. And that actually takes a fair proportion of our energy expenditure in a given day.
But so,
you know, in terms of our movement and how much we move in a given day is a key part of that.
And it's important to recognize that with that,
you know, the modern world, I guess, has moved or inclined to less movement than more. You know, back in the day,
my gran used to tell me stories of how they used to walk to work,
you know, two miles every day, etc., etc. They'd walk to a dance on a night, walk back.
Very physical activities that the majority of them did in that time.
So, you know, the idea of gym and activity and exercise was probably not, well, would have been laughed at, to be fair, I guess, by a lot of them. Because,
you know, they didn't need it. It wasn't even a factor. Because they moved plenty. Plenty of movement going on in all sorts of ways, whether it was dancing, moving, walking, swimming, whatever.
So if you think about movement and then tie it into activity.
Because we,
in order to fulfill the various activities within our lives, movement,
no doubt, or invariably plays a huge part in that.
And that could be driving a car. It could be going for a walk. It could be sitting at our desk. There's still movement there to different degrees.
But the movement and how we move is often shaped by the kinds of activities we do. And those activities are there to serve a particular purpose. Whether it's to get work done, to clean the house, to do professional work, personal work, to get from one place to another,
to childcare, friends, meet friends, that kind of thing. There's lots of different things. And I'm sure you get that. It's very basic.
But the reason I dwell a little bit on this is because I do want to differentiate between a particular activity, which is, I guess, movement with purpose, just for want of a very rough and ready slap-on label.
And kind of get us to think about that and how it differentiates from exercise.
In my terminology, in my book, as it were.
Exercise is that kind of deliberate,
perhaps planned, or we plan it in. We plan to do it.
Activity that is deliberately done for its own sake or for the sake of getting us to move it more. Perhaps move more intensively. Move more flexibly. Build strength. You know, that fitness in a particular direction or multiple directions. There's balance,
strength, fitness,
endurance. All of those factors.
So that exercise is more of a planned thing with a specific aim. To improve our level of fitness. Physical fitness. And perhaps even psychological and emotional fitness. Because there are big links there.
And I think it's important, before we get on to the diet versus exercise question.
That we differentiate between activity and exercise.
Because there are... It does play quite importantly into the question of diet versus exercise.
But it's also important to recognize that exercise may, for many of us, it may form a very little part of our day. Or if it does, a day or a week.
But if it does form it, it's often contained within a half an hour here. Or a gym session there. Or a Sunday run and two sessions during the week. You know, depending on our level of activity.
Our goals.
Those kind of instances of exercise are often contained within very discrete sort of modules. For want of a better phrase.
And yes, they can contribute to our energy burn. You know, if we're talking about weight loss. And also our level of fitness improvement.
But what we can often forget is that activity.
The activity that's wrapped around all of that. I mean, exercise is activity in itself. It's a subset of it.
But activity in general is something that perhaps is less intense.
It's more unconscious a lot of the time. If we're just going for a walk because we need to walk from the car park to the shop. Or from the house to the car.
Or, you know, to go and pick up such and such. Whatever it is. That kind of activity is perhaps we give a lot less thought to it.
And naturally the way the world is, which is built towards convenience. We probably do less of it, as I say, than previous generations. Perhaps we do do over time.
And that actually is an important thing to recognize. Particularly for mid-lifers. And it's something that factors in when, you know, if you're a woman. And you're kind of experiencing or facing perimenopause or menopause. You know, time of life.
One of the things is the body changes. The hormonal changes. It can start to play havoc with a lot of things in the system.
And things like weight gain can be a particularly worrying and upsetting factor for many people.
And that is something that is often put down to those processes. And no doubt it has a place as a factor in it.
But often what is happening anyway,
sort of as the soundtrack to our life. Is that as we tend to get older, we tend to move less. We tend to find that the stuff that would naturally burn up the energy when we're... You know, my little daughter Rosie just bounces around. We've got an exercise ball in the house.
And she invariably sits on it to watch telly. And not one second is she still.
And,
you know, imagine the amount of energy that's burned by her doing that. Compared to me sitting on the couch watching the same TV program. Or the same rubbish on YouTube as it tends to be.
There's a big difference. And this is the challenge with us as we tend to age. There's other things. There's other factors obviously within the general aging process. Declining muscle mass and strength in particular. But the level of activity in small,
seemingly insignificant ways.
Can reduce to an extent that cumulatively has a significant impact on our overall level of energy expenditure.
And that's why it's important to recognize that there is a difference between activity and exercise. Or exercise is a subset of activity.
Because we can sometimes look at exercise as a bit of a saviour for making up for a lot of those things. And yes it can. It can contribute to that.
However,
as the cliche goes, you can't out-exercise a bad diet or what have you. And often we can perhaps put too much value on the exercise we're doing in terms of the benefits we're getting. Whilst not taking into account the soundtrack or the background noise of activity that we are not doing.
So that's important to recognize the difference.
It's not that exercise is not important. It really is.
And this brings me on to that question of exercise or diet.
And I suppose the it depends then factors into this.
And I suppose the it depends then factors into this.
Sign-up below:
Dave
Dave Algeo, Restless Mid-Lifer' It is never too late to get life back on your terms and have even bigger adventures!'dave@restlessmidlifer.com