“Caloric restriction alone does not work.”

Frustrated with those extra pounds that hang on no matter how hard you workout? Let’s face it, exercise alone rarely results in sustainable weight loss. In fact, if you want to lose weight, a surgical approach focusing on diet just might be the key.

In short, you must consider many variables as you design your pathway to wellness through weight loss. We acknowledge that exercise alone is not the key. In fact, it is very apparent that you must dial in your approach to food over exercise, if you want to see results.

In today’ episode, I review the work by Dr. Peter Attia, founder of Zero Longevity and the Zero fasting app. Dr. Attia promotes an in-depth understanding of three approaches, or leavers, if you want to achieve sustainable weight loss.

These are:

1. Taking into consideration the amount of time you are in a feeding window.
   
2. The degree that you restrict calories (calorie tracking).
   
3. Restricting what is allowed in your diet (animal products, sugar, etc.).
   

Each must be considered and manipulated to fit the results you are looking for. As you will see, doing nothing, or only focusing on caloric restriction, has proven ineffective.

FMP 073 – Losing Weight Without Exercise

1. What We Do:
   
   • Behavioural Medicine and Health Psychology
     
   • Providing easily accessible content designed to help you design your own transformative experience.
     
   
   
2. Today:
   
   • Review of Dr. Peter Attia’s framework for weight loss that does not include exercise.
     
   • Dr. Attia describes three levers – Each of which we will describe.
     
   • Dr. Attia is the founder of Zero – an iOS fasting app.
     
   
   

Losing Weight Without Exercise

1. My Own History
   
2. Weight Loss – Should You or Shouldn’t You?
   
3. The Intuitive Eating and Body Positive Approach
   
   • Does not mean giving up.
     
   • IE and BP address our relationship with food and how we treat others, how you treat yourself.
     
   
   
4. The Three Levers:
   
   • Time Restriction – Increasing window for when you do not eat.
     
   • Caloric Restriction – Reducing caloric intake (calorie counting)
     
   • Dietary Restriction – Reducing dietary options (vegan diet vs. keto diet).
     
   
   
5. Lever Considerations and Nuances:
   
   • Pull none of the levers – Standard American Diet.
     
   • Pull on none with intense exercise – Likely not successful.
     
   • Only pulling on Caloric Restriction is not sufficient and unsustainable.
     
   • You need to pull sometimes on all three to varying degrees.
     
   • You likely need to pull on two (e.g. Time Restriction and Dietary Restriction).
     
   
   
6. Other Factors
   
   • Training for an athletic event.
     
   • Sugar – Is it the real culprit? (”That Sugar Film”).
     
   
   
7. A Work of Caution
   
   • Weight loss yo-yo
     
   • Consider your overall health from a holistic perspective, not simply a number on the scale.
     
   • While we know that excessive weight contributes to diabetes and some cancers, it is important to not panic and take the long game. Quick solutions equal quick rebound.
     
   • An active individual who is overweight is far better off than an inactive individual all around.