Eat Less & Move More

There are two ways I can target this question, I could say “yes” most people who need to lose weight/fat generally need to eat less and move more. 

Alternatively, I could say this is irresponsible advice, people can take it to an unhealthy and unsustainable extreme.

So, let’s break this down to get a definitive answer, if people were to reduce their intake of a currently not very nutrient-dense diet, they would likely stumble into some nutrient deficiencies and struggle to maintain this approach longterm. I often find that people don’t eat enough protein day to day, therefore if they were to overly reduce their current intake they would likely struggle to build and repair tissues, maintain the immune system, make enzymes and would generally struggle to function. 

Now let’s look at this from the other side, if you’re not losing body fat, it’s probably a good idea to move around more and eat less. If your body doesn't feel the need to breakdown body fat to use it as energy, we can safely say that you have a copious amount of calories coming in (unless you have some medical condition). So yes, eat less and move more!

Now, here’s my sound advice, take it or leave it….. If you’re not losing body fat and you want to, you should eat less, but focus on reducing the calorie-dense food that doesn’t provide many nutrients, then replace those foods with whole foods full of nutrients and foods that a generally quite satiating. Then move more, not just by going to the gym more, but day to day, take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk to the shop instead of driving, walk the dogs more often….in fact, just walk!

I’ll end this by saying that this post is not intended to patronise people by essentially telling everyone the basics, but more to allow people to grasp the simplicity of human physiology and that even though food quality is undoubtedly important, we can’t ignore the first law of thermodynamics which is calories in vs calories out.