Movement, Activity and Exercise, The First Lever of Weight Management
The Reshape Podcast Episode 161
Lever 1 of the 4 Levers of Weight Management (Part 1 of 4 mini-series)
This week Dave and Martin start a mini-series deep-diving into Dave's Four Levers of Weight Management. This week they explore Lever 1 - Exercise and Activity. How can Movement, activity and exercise help with your weight-loss efforts and things to watch out for. They share tips from their years of coaching clients and encourage you to identify how you can pull on this lever in your own life.
Visit the podcast page or search for 'Reshape Reboot' in your favourite podcast feed. To find out more about the podcast, and episode show notes visit davealgeo.com/podcast. Drop Dave a line at dave@midlifereshape.com to ask questions, offer feedback or suggestions for future podcast content.
Show Notes:
Overview: In this episode of the Reshape Podcast (Episode 161), Dave and Martin perform a deep dive into the first of the Four Levers of Weight Management: Activity, Exercise, and Movement. They discuss the underlying principle of weight management—creating a deficit between energy in and energy out—and explore how individuals must find the right balance among the levers, especially when starting out.
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Understanding the Four Levers of Weight Management
The four levers are the ways individuals can move towards managing their weight (losing or gaining):
1. Activity, Exercise, and Movement (Focus of this episode).
2. Dietary Focus (which includes protein focus).
3. Calorie Focus (or Calorie Restriction).
4. Time Focus (or Time Restriction).
Defining Movement, Activity, and Exercise
This lever primarily focuses on burning calories (energy out) to contribute to the weight loss deficit.
• Movement (Layman's Definition): General, day-to-day movement (e.g., moving in bed, or when up and about).
• Activity (Layman's Definition): Movement with purpose (e.g., walking to the car, going to the shops, or parking further away from the supermarket entrance).
• Exercise (Layman's Definition): A subset of activity specifically aimed at achieving a particular health or fitness goal.
• NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis): Martin's term for movement that is not formal exercise, such as gardening, cutting the grass, or being more active in the house.
The Danger of Pulling the Exercise Lever Too Hard (The "Red" Zone)
Many people start by treating exercise as the primary lever, expecting it to do the bulk of the calorie burning.
• Risk of Injury and Inactivity: Overdoing it ("pulling the lever too hard") can lead to injuries (like shin splints), excessive tiredness, and subsequent inactivity (lounging on the couch), which counterbalances the gains.
• The Licensing Trap: Pushing too hard can lead to psychological licensing—the feeling that one has "earned" the right to eat more. It is very easy to overcompensate with food; a slice of cake can put back double the calories burned during a 40-minute to one-hour run.
• Inaccurate Calorie Tracking: Smartwatches and trackers provide calorie estimates that are notoriously inaccurate. These figures should be used as a measure of effort (e.g., seeing if you worked a little harder this week than last) rather than a precise measure of calories burned to be traded for calorie intake. The experience of trying to burn 10 calories on an assault bike illustrates how easily the contribution of exercise is overestimated.
• DOMS: Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, which peaks 24–48 hours after unaccustomed exercise, can delay the return to movement and interfere with consistency.
• Even for the well-trained, the lever should only be pulled into the red once or twice a week; recovery days must stay in the "green" or "amber" zones.
Reframe: Exercise as a Tool for Health and Longevity
Exercise provides significant benefits for psychological health, mental well-being, cardiovascular fitness, and overall longevity.
• Weight loss is often a by-product or side effect of exercise; the true value is getting fitter and stronger for everyday life.
• A healthy body naturally does not want to carry excess body fat. By focusing on improving health through exercise and nutrition, the weight loss naturally follows.
• This lever comes particularly into its own for weight maintenance.
Practical Advice for Consistent Movement (Sprout-Sized Chunks)
• Start Small: Progress is smoother and more sustainable when starting with small, consistent steps, such as the Couch to 5K approach. Long-term weight loss successes often start small, such as walking to the end of the street and back.
• Consistency is Key: The cumulative effect of small, consistent actions over weeks and months is what ultimately has the big impact, not the individual activity.
• Avoid Dread: If an activity, such as a 5:30 am gym session, causes you to dread the next day, it is not sustainable. Give yourself permission to be flexible and fit movement into your life.
• Manage Expectations: If you are exercising a lot but not losing weight, examine your expectations of this lever and then consider looking at the other three levers (dietary focus, calorie focus, time focus). If you are struggling with a sedentary job, break it up with small, sprout-sized chunks of movement.
Transcript:
@0:11 - Martin Whitaker
Okay. Hello, everybody, and welcome to the V-Shape Podcast. We are on episode 161, and today we're going to do a deep dive into Dave's four levers of weight loss.
And I think the one we're going to look at today, Dave, is exercise, activity, and movement.
@0:28 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah, yeah, because obviously a few episodes back, we sort of gave a bit of an overview, and it's more just about, over the next couple of weeks, just giving a bit of a deeper dive into each of the levers.
The underlying principle is that we have sort of four ways in which we can sort of move towards managing our weight, not just losing it, but even gaining it, I guess.
But primarily in terms of losing weight is how can we pull on these levers to work in our own lives?
Because, you know, somebody... Who's highly active might find a particularly activity movement exercise is something that they're readily doing and pulling on in terms of that, and, you know, they may not need to pull on the other levers as much, whereas, you know, we just need to kind of find the right balance for ourselves individually, particularly somebody who's starting out, they're starting out with exercise in particular, this is something we just need to be aware of, you know, that it's there, but also some caveats and some cautionary notes and some positives around it, you know.
So, just as a reminder, guess the four levers are, there's the activity exercise movement lever, there's the dietary focus lever, I'm changing it from dietary restriction to dietary focus, just because I think there's, that allows us to bring in the protein focus into that.
There's calorie focus or calorie restriction, if you wanted to look at it, and then time focus or time restriction, and we'll look at those three.
So, you can check out the previous episode, I can't remember the number off the top of my head, just to see what the overview is.
But yeah, today it's about really... We an activity exercise and movement, and the benefits of that in terms of weight management and weight loss, just to sort of define terms, I'm, you know, you're the physical activity expert, so you probably have slightly different technical definitions for these, as a layman, for of a better phrase, I tend to think of movement is just what we do day to day, generally, you know, we move in bed, move when we're up and about, and it's like, it's kind of generally what we do as human beings, we move.
And if we can move a bit more in life, then obviously there is that energy burn, the calorie burn.
Activity for me, I kind of define as just movement with purpose, you know, I'm moving to the car, I'm going to go to the shops, I'm going to do something specific around that, but I'm moving with purpose.
And then for me, exercise is kind of a subset of that, which is specifically around, I'm exercising to achieve a particular health or fitness goal.
Do you know what I mean? So I might be walking to the shops, and I wouldn't necessarily treat that as exercise,
But it's definitely going to contribute to the calorie burn, for example, or parking further away from the, you know, from the doors of the supermarket, et cetera.
But exercise is where I've kind of specifically got some goals in mind. Now, obviously, you might have a slightly different definition, so feel free to correct me on that.
I'm just thinking about it as a layman that, you know, I kind of have that in my head as those three, three kind of loose definitions.
@3:22 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah, I mean, I think it kind of fits. I mean, I use exercise and I use something called NEAT, which is non-exercise activity.
@3:31 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Thermogenesis.
@3:32 - Martin Whitaker
So the movement that you do that isn't formal exercise, that kind of fits in with what you, you know, what you talk about in terms of your activity and things like that.
@3:42 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah, yeah. And you probably, to be honest, you've probably simplified it a lot more than me there just by saying you've got exercise and you've got non-exercise stuff, which is fair enough.
I think the key thing here is this lever is about burning energy or burning the calories, you know, to sort of contribute to that weight loss.
Deficit, because it is all about creating the deficit between the energy in and the energy out, and I guess the reason that I wanted to just spend a little bit time on it is that it's often, and this is my own experience being all or nothing thinking, but also speaking to people and clients, it's often the thing that many of us will go to as the way, like almost like a primary lever, you know, if I don't change anything else but I get more active or I go to the gym more, then I'm potentially going to lose weight.
If I just keep everything else the same, which sounds, in theory, quite a good approach, would you agree?
@4:35 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah, I mean, it comes down to calories in, calories out, so if you can burn more calories than you take in, then ultimately, yeah, you will lose weight.
@4:43 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah, yeah, the challenge is, and I think this is where it comes into mindset for me, I mean, I've gone and said, right, I'm going to get fit and I'm going to get myself back on track, and I go out for a five-mile run, and then I come back, the next day I go out and I come back with shin splints or something like that, you know, I'm kind of overdoing it, because I'm putting everything.
I'm putting fully on the exercise lever and pulling it down into the red, really, and kind of expecting it to do the bulk of the work of burning calories, but what I've found, certainly for me in terms of the all or nothing, but a lot of clients who get started and want to get started is that we can often pull a bit too hard on that, and that can lead to overdoing it, perhaps those injuries, but more tiredness, and then less activity afterwards.
I don't know about you, but what I find is, you know, if you go out for that run and you've pushed yourself far too far, you know, from whether, you know, you're just getting back into it or what, I tend to spend the rest of the day lounging on the couch doing sod all, you know, and it kind of almost counterbalances what would have been probably a moderately active day if I'd just got on with other stuff.
@5:44 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah, I guess the worry with that is as well, is if you put on that lever too hard, you think you can, you can eat a little bit more to compensate.
Well, we then start shifting that equation, the cows in, cows out equation doesn't quite level off again, so it's about pulling on.
@6:01 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah. Yeah. I think that's the key thing because it's, it's just, I suppose if you're listening and thinking, yeah, I've probably done that before, or I can be prone to that.
It's, it's knowing that the, that, you know, certainly for me, I'm 55, I'm certainly not in my twenties. I can't just go out for a run without there being a cost in terms of energy levels and also appetite and hunger and that feeling that the, the, the phrase in, in sort of the, the psychological side is licensing.
We kind of license the right to, to, um, eat more. Because I've earned it. And we, we kind of do that almost subconsciously sometimes.
Not everybody, but, you know, some of us do it. And I certainly do, you know, I've, I've, earned this now.
And we can easily, easily eat. I certainly can. We weigh through Jaffa Cakes to the, to well over the amount that I might've burned on any run that I've done, you know.
@6:48 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah. I, I think back and I use this example quite a lot to when I used to be a member of a health club.
Um, health clubs kind of came along before gyms, didn't they? That was the, that was the big thing. In the kind of the early 2000s was health clubs and they all had pools and saunas and jacuzzis.
You don't really see them as much now in more gyms, but you'd come in and for some reason I never quite understood the reason why that the particular health club I used to go to used to always have lots of cakes and things like that behind the bar as you went in.
always had to walk through the bar to go upstairs to go and use the gym, but you'd come out and you'd find all these people.
People who'd been in exercising, it generally tended to be the aqua aerobics class for Em, and they would be sitting there all having a cup of tea and the big slice of cake because they'd earned the calories doing the aqua aerobics.
Well, in reality, they probably, yeah, they'd done some activity, but they probably hadn't done enough activity to warrant the huge piece of cake that they were having.
So it's about, you know, making sure the activity that you do warrants the reward, I guess.
@7:58 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's the thing, because if you were... If you were going to have the cake anyway, then the activity still is a bonus, but if you've kind of fallen into these social get-togethers, which it's lovely to do those social connections and get-togethers and what have you, so there is a trade-off here, and there's a decision to make, but I think what you're sort of alluding to is not falling into the trap of deluding ourselves that we've earned it, and therefore we can spend it, because it is so very easy to overeat, or to overcompensate with what we eat.
Like you say, slice of cake probably can put into touch a good run, can't it, you know? If you've been out for 40 minutes an hour, you pretty much can double the calories that you've burned with a slice of cake, I would imagine.
@8:40 - Martin Whitaker
Absolutely, yeah. It's surprising how many, you know, how much activity you have to do to burn off, for example, a slice of cake.
@8:48 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah.
@8:48 - Martin Whitaker
But, if you don't have that slice of cake, those calories, the calories that you burn can make a massive impact on your overall fitness and your weight loss over a period of time, if you can be consistent with that.
@9:00 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Thank Thank you. Yeah, I think that's where it's about the right amount, but also recognizing that tendency to overcompensate, because I was surprised actually, mean, obviously I've learned a lot in the last few years, but you know, I used to go for a run and think, right, I've earned this many calories, because I'd go online and find a thing that says, if you cycle an hour, you've burned a thousand calories, I don't know if that was right, I can't remember the numbers, but what I've come to learn is that they're notoriously inaccurate, and we're all very different, aren't we?
So, what I've come to do is just a practical thing, is A, not to pull on that lever too hard, and obviously judge by my energy levels, and my ongoing programming for whether it's CrossFit or a walk or a run, but almost to not count them in to my daily activity, sorry, my calorie intake, so that it's almost like it is that, you know, I'm getting the benefit from it, I'm not sort of trading it off for calories in.
@9:57 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I always discourage the use of So many people have got smartwatches, smart trackers, that give you an estimate, and we've got to use that, it is an estimate of how many calories you've burnt, but by all means, use that as a gauge to how hard you've worked, but don't use that as a gauge to, I've burnt that many calories, I can now add that to my daily allowance, because that's, it's so inaccurate.
I like to just use calories burnt during a workout, during the day, as a gauge to how hard you've worked, or how much effort you've put into that, to that workout, so if did a, a workout one day, and you've burned 400 calories, and you, the identical workout a week later, you've burned 450 calories, use that as a gauge to say you've worked a little bit harder.
Yeah. Conversely, if it's the other way around, you maybe haven't put as much effort in for that workout as the other workout.
Yeah. you've kind of got it as a bit of a measure, rather than a measure of how many calories you've actually burned.
@10:58 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah, yeah. I think one of the most... Sobering things was when I went into, when I started CrossFit, and they've got the assault bikes, they call them, which is a good name for them, because they do physically assault you when you're on them, just about, they're kind of pieces of torture, but basically you're pedaling and you're moving your arms backwards and forwards on the handles as well, was, they'd often say, right, you need to hit a target, calorie target, because it will measure that, so you go to 8 calories or 10 calories, how hard it was to hit such a seemingly small amount of calories, really woke me up to this thing of, actually, do you know what?
I'm probably, I'm probably well overestimated how much contribution exercise does to actually burning calories.
@11:40 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah, absolutely, if jump on a assault bike and try and do 10 calories on a assault bike as fast as you can, you, you soon realise how much, how hard it is to burn 10 calories on a assault bike, you know, how hard it is to burn 10 calories, how much effort actually has to be put into it to do the work.
@11:55 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah, and I think that's where, and not to be sort of down on it, because there are, was just, you
You know, in terms of it, what I often say is, you know, yes, it's useful, it's particularly, exercise in particular comes into its own with weight management, doesn't it, when you're perhaps maintaining as opposed to losing, but it's really, really important, an important ingredient to it, but it also has so many other benefits, doesn't it?
You know, it's such, it's so good for all other aspects of your health, including psychological health and mental well-being, I would say.
@12:24 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah, cardiovascular fitness, in general, longevity as well, strength training, so many benefits for, not just for now, but also for later in life, protecting against trips and falls, and just overall longevity, having a better quality of life for longer, as well as the weight loss, which I see, weight loss is actually a by-product of exercise, not the diet, but You know, I see exercise as a way of getting fitter and stronger for everyday life, and the weight loss that comes.
And it, it's kind of a side effect of that, but a really good positive side effect of it.
@13:06 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's a useful reframe to work towards. It can be quite challenging if you're, you know, weight is the, literally the big issue for you.
But it's a useful thing to sort of psychologically try to move towards where you kind of put the idea, the goal of weight loss just at the back of the mind and focus on other things.
It can be, you know, I often say, you know, have the goal, focus on the day-to-day processes and the health, and then get busy and distracted.
So you're not always thinking about, I losing weight?
@13:37 - Martin Whitaker
How am I doing? And it's not always on your mind. Yeah. I mean, there's an old saying that a healthy body doesn't want to carry excess body fat.
So if you can, if you can reframe everything and focus on, you're not going to go out and lose weight, you're going to go out and improve your health and improve your health through exercise, through nutrition, things like that.
Then the weight loss then becomes essentially a bad. And that, you know, as your health improves, your weight will naturally reduce because your body becomes more healthy, so you don't want to carry the excess body fat.
@14:12 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah, and it's easy to say and harder to do, especially if it's something that you're constantly feeling very conscious about, but it is one of those things where that can be a real thing that helps somebody shift.
It's almost like, you know you're doing the right things, I'll just get on with my life and let that take its course.
Now, that is a, that's a work in progress for many of us and for, you know, but it can be something that's well worth working towards in terms of mindset, because I'm talking about, I know a lot of people and clients and myself included, where, when it's always on your, if it's always on your mind, then it's always a constant weight, not just physically, but psychologically, that, that's kind of pressing on you.
So if you can kind of work towards that and almost reshift and refocus on other things, that can be, that can help you get through the time as you start to get back into that weight loss.
Um, you know, the weight loss results come through, you know, yeah. Yeah. The other thing, um, I mean, we can maybe do a deeper dive on the, the different types of exercise, but this is where, you know, we've got, you've got the, the low impact, steady state, high impact, sorry, high intensity interval training and, and the differences you've got resistance training.
Um, so it isn't just, um, you know, going to the gym or trying to sit on a salt bike, burning 10 calories.
That's where the value of going for a walk or building a walk in routinely every day can be really useful.
because you might not see it necessarily as exercise, but it's certainly movement and activity, isn't it? And that can contribute to it as well.
So we're not just talking about what we might typically perceive as exercise, know, sitting on an exercise bike, going to a class, going to the gym, um, or doing something like go out for a run, you know?
@15:47 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah. It's the, it's what I call the need to the non-exercise activity, thermogenesis. the things you do outside of your, outside of your formal exercise sessions, outside of your formal gym sessions, outside of going for a run.
the things you say like, Walking, like going for a walk, being more active in the house, things like that, gardening, cutting the grass, spending time cutting the grass, that's activity, that raises your heart rate, it's about raising your heart rate a little bit, and being more active, all those little things add up.
@16:19 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah, yeah, and I guess one of the things around this is, what can you do that could pull on this lever just a little bit more than you're already doing, so, in terms of it, you know, we've got the lever that you can pull it into green, amber, red, so red is perhaps where we want to avoid, unless you're competing and, or you're well-trained and you're working towards a challenge, that might be the time that you push yourself just that bit more, but, day to day, you want to be between the amber, sorry, the green and the amber, don't you, and you just want to do a little bit more than you're already doing, and building that into the architecture of your day-to-day life, I guess.
@16:52 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah, and I think even, I think worth mentioning here as well, is for people who are well-trained, it's about pulling that lever.
The right amount at the right time as well, because if you are well-trained, you might think, okay, I can pull that lever into the red because I'm well-trained and I can do that, but you can't pull it into the red all of the time.
A great example there is when I was marathon training. So, you know, four months marathon training, long one every week was a minimum of a half marathon.
And, know, you start off at a half marathon distances. You start and point for a marathon training. So, and then it gets longer and longer.
So every week I'm pulling that lever into the red once a week for my marathon training for a long run.
I'm also doing some interval training. So again, I'm pulling it into the red. But then other days, so when do my weight training, might only pull it to the amber.
But other days you've only got to pull it to the green because you need to do some recovery exercise as well.
So it's not about pulling it into the red every single day. Even if you are well-trained, you can't pull it into the red five days a week.
You might pull it. I they read once or twice for those really intense sessions, but the other days, you've got to make sure that you're only going amber or even green as well, just to allow your body to recover.
@18:10 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah. Yeah. And I think I've learned that lesson. Well, I say I've learned it. I keep making that mistake because although I'm 55 in my head, well, in reality, I'm 22 in my head and I still think I can just go out and do these things.
And I've certainly made that mistake. You I competed in a CrossFit competition and then sailed on through that into marathon training, which was just the wrong thing to do.
Do you know what I mean? It just, I needed to build in some rest, but didn't because I, you know, you kind of fall into that trap, don't you?
So you're right. So it can, it can happen because we don't value the importance of not pulling on that lever as well.
Yeah.
@18:47 - Martin Whitaker
Well, I think that's it. it's value of not, yeah, as well as the value of pulling on it, you've also got to have the value of not pulling on it or not pulling on it as much can in some places be just as, just as important as pulling on
And that's particularly if you're new to exercise, you don't want to put on it too hard to too much.
And also, if you're really experienced in exercise, you don't want to make sure you don't overdo it and put on it too much, which then impacts other things later on, like sleep and recovery and things like that.
@19:19 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah. Yeah. And I, one of the things that I find with many clients who, who are embarking on a, you know, significant weight loss journey, how they often start.
is just by introducing, say walking or walking a bit further, et cetera. And that can feel frustratingly slow, frustrated, you know, get it really impatient with themselves.
But actually the number of time, the number of people we know who that's how they started and they've gone on to lose significant amounts of weight.
Kate, has been on the podcast, I mean, she lost nine stone and what she was doing was just started by walking to the end of a street and back and then built up and she's managed to keep it off now for years now.
And has transformed her life, but it started small, it started with a little bit of movement, pulling on that lever a little bit.
In fairness, it was probably even the walk to the end was probably moving her into amber, but it was a start and it was the difference between the reality and perception.
The reality was it was still a struggle and a strain, but there was also psychological barriers about getting out there and doing it versus perception of it's just a walk.
And actually, this is where it gets into the very, it's a very individual thing, isn't it?
@20:29 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah, absolutely, and I think it's where, if you look at something like the Couch to 5K app, think that works really well in that whole scenario where if you start with the Couch to 5K from the very beginning, it just pulls on that lever a little bit, it becomes very, very small, walk-a-run, walk-a-run, until eventually you get bigger and bigger.
It's all building on it rather than just assuming you have to go out there and start, you have to go out and start with a run, have to go and start with a gym session.
It's about starting small.
@21:00 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah. Actually, that's how I got myself back into just on the roll with things was I was struggling to get started and I was doing the old get out for five miles and not actually doing five miles, but just feeling and then feeling bad for about it.
And I just thought, no, let's just stop. I'd done a little bit of reading around behavior change, blah, blah, blah, cabbage to sprout, you know, that kind of thing.
So I did stick with the couch to 5k. And it's funny how going slowly, but consistently at first means you can, you just pick up, your progress picks up a lot smoother than if you just try to go all in because you burn out and then set yourself back.
Do you know what mean? So it really does work that kind of approach.
@21:39 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah. And one of the thing that's worth mentioning as well is, you know, if you put on that lever too much with exercise, you've got DOMS, which is delayed onset muscle soreness, which is something that you, the muscle soreness you experience.
Usually 24 to 48 hours is when it peaks after unaccustomed exercise. So if you start, if you're brand new to exercising,
If start, you get this muscle soreness, and it can potentially put you off going back or can slow your return back.
Ideally, you want to get back as quick as you can and start moving again. You've got to do some sort of movement, but it can put people off.
So if you do pull on that lever too hard, too much, too soon, you can end up with a lot of muscle soreness, which then delays your return to exercise.
@22:25 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah, yeah. And I've certainly experienced that many a time being consistently inconsistent. Over my years, I've definitely experienced that quite a lot.
And it does, it kind of interferes with the flow of things, especially when you're getting started. But even when you're in it, you know, you have a tough session.
It can then knock the consistency over that time. So definitely worth thinking about. Yeah. Cool. I think, is there anything else that we want to cover off?
Because these are just intended just to be a little bit more of a deep dive into the levers, but to get you thinking, really.
It's more about where are you in your journey? Are you just starting? Are you restarting? Or you're already in.
In it, but struggling to sort of maintain consistency, or getting frustrated that why I'm exercising a lot, why am I not losing weight, I think the key message for me is just to have a look at how are you pulling on that lever, and what are your expectations, because if you're pulling quite hard, maybe it's about easing back off, maybe, but it's also maybe thinking, right, well, I'm okay, I've got the lever right, I need to look at the other three levers, which are very much on their side of calories in, energy in, and kind of just putting it in the right, perspective, and giving it the right level of attention, and focus, and not expecting too much from it.
@23:36 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah, I think for me, it's about, if you're already pulling on that lever, the exercise component of it, in terms of exercise, but you're not looking at the other activities, the movement, the things like getting extra steps, what I call the need to the non-exercise, the non-exercise activities, what can you do with that?
You know, if you are struggling with your weight loss, you are, I am pulling on that exercise lever. But are you doing the other stuff as well that all contributes towards it?
Are you trying to get some steps in every day? Are you moving a little bit more? Do you have a sedentary job?
A sedentary job, naturally, you'll move less during the day if you have a sedentary job versus an active job.
@24:17 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah, yeah. And I think, to be honest, I think that's often the challenge, isn't it? Many of us are sitting in front of a computer or a laptop for hours, and we can get sucked into just working and keep it, I'll do it when I finish.
And then when we finish, we're tired because we've been sitting and what have you. It's how can we break that up with even small, sprout-sized chunks of time and movement in that can be really useful as well.
@24:39 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah, absolutely. And as well, you know, another example is you may move three or four days a week, but what do you do with the other three or four days?
How can you make that exercise, that extra movement consistent over those days? What can you do? Because a lot of us, we won't move the same amount every day.
Um, depending on work patterns and shifts and weekends as well. Uh, you might be brilliant five days a week, but over a weekend, you might hardly leave the house, but what, what could you do on those days to put on that lever just a little bit or a little bit more than what you're already pulling on it?
@25:16 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just looking for those little wins and, and, and sort of thinking about, um, how movement, activity and exercise generally fits into your life.
Is there opportunities where you can maybe take the pressure off if you're already, putting a lot of expectation on exercise and not focusing on the other side, the, the, the, the, the three levers, but also where can I build in little bits?
Where are the opportunities for sprout size wins or movement activity, or just like a, a walk that you wouldn't necessarily do on a, on a weekend, something like that.
Where can you find those? Because cumulatively, over times you say, once we build it in, that has its impact.
@25:52 - Martin Whitaker
That's where it comes into its own. Yeah. It's about the, you know, like I'll say the word, , , , , cumulative.
@26:00 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Ah, no.
@26:00 - Martin Whitaker
See ya. Put it in your head now. Put it in my head now and I can't see it. It's about the big effect, the large part.
@26:06 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
The ongoing.
@26:07 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah, that's right. Not the individual activity. It's about the activities together over the week.
@26:16 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah. And then the weeks and the months. And I think that's where if you set off too hard, you can think, I can't keep this up.
Whereas if you do something a little bit smaller, but sustainably, and don't get into that place where it becomes a trauma or a pain or just a nightmare that you dread, if you can try and have it at the level where you, you may not enjoy it.
may be something that you build and you grow to enjoy, but at least it's not that trauma. You're going to more likely stick with it and keep it within your life.
@26:43 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah. I mean, I've got clients who come and train with me at the gym and they'll openly say, yeah, it's not, I don't enjoy coming to the gym, but I don't hate it.
I see it as a, as an essential part of, of my day. see it. I I You know, for them, it's an essential activity that keeps them fitter and healthier, and it's about that long-term goal.
It doesn't mean you have to absolutely hate something or absolutely love something, but if you can kind of frame it as an activity that is beneficial to you, it might make it more appealing.
@27:23 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's a good call as well, because sometimes we just need to be honest with ourselves.
I was looking at, I might never love this, but the benefits way outweigh it, so I'll do just enough to get that benefit without sickening myself off, you know?
So that, and that's, again, another thing, because there's not just the physical pulling on the lever to red, there's a psychological pulling off that on this lever into red as well.
I know I've done, like, tried stuff that I've just, I just don't like this, and, you know, getting up, make me, well, it's not so much the activities that, like, I'm going to get up at 5.30 or 4, not 4.30, but you know what, really early in the morning to do this.
And all that happens is I end up going to bed on a night dreading them. Next morning. It's not sustainable.
doesn't work for me. Whereas if I just put it a little bit later or fit it in such and such a time, shrink down the time, it fits into my life.
And I think that's what we've got to try to do with all of this.
@28:13 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah, I think that's what it is, isn't it? It's fitting it into your life and not making it as regimented as you must get up at 5.30am and go to the gym because that might not work.
@28:24 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Yeah. Works for some, but if it's not for you, then give yourself that permission to be a bit more flexible.
There's many ways to do this, isn't there? There's many ways to do it. Yeah. Great. Well, thanks, Martin. I think that that's really just probably a good point to leave it.
It's just food for thought, pardon the pun. What can you do that perhaps pulls on that lever a little bit more?
And where can you perhaps lower your expectations of it if you're putting far too much onto the results that you were expecting from it?
And then we'll look at the other levers over the coming weeks as well and get you thinking about those.
@28:57 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah. Sounds brilliant.
@28:58 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
Great. And as always, if you've got any questions... If feedback, drop us a line at davidmidlifereshape.com, and we'll catch you in the next episode.
@29:06 - Martin Whitaker
Yeah.
@29:06 - dave@stressedguru.com (Dave Algeo)
See you next time