Men and Weight: Exercise to drop the pounds?

By Russ Klettke

Ask a woman what she does to lose weight, and chances are she’ll say, “I go on a diet.” Ask a guy and you get one of two answers: “I’ve never try to lose weight,” or, “I work out.”

A few years ago the Atkins diet challenged that assumption. Men everywhere loved this idea: eat all the crazy-rich meats you want – prime rib, bacon, hamburgers, pork rinds – as long as you stay away from carbohydrates (bread, pasta, French fries, rice, desserts) that are usually served alongside those dishes. It was a small sacrifice to make, and like magic, a lot of guys lost some weight.

For a while, anyway. But not too many stuck with it long term. Just try to think of one person you know who today continues eating by the Atkins method (just as well – missing nutrients from forgoing carbohydrates can cause a separate set of health problems).

But the fact this happened is pretty amusing. First, it demonstrated that a large segment of the male population really did want to lose weight. Second, they were willing to try tinkering with how they ate, even to the point of calling it a diet.

Where exercise works and where it doesn’t
Since the fall of Atkins, it’s been back to the gym for most men. This is practically male instinct. If you played sports in school, you probably remember what that first month of training did to tighten you up.

No mystery there: any time you engage in new and strenuous activity – playing basketball, swimming, lifting weights (it’s all good) – you are increasing your muscle mass. That revs up the metabolism because muscle is metabolically active tissue, much more so than fat. Just to exist, not counting the exercise, a pound of muscle burns through 50 to 70 calories per day. A pound of fat needs just 3 calories.

But are you really going to train as hard as an adult, with a job and other life responsibilities, as you did when you were in high school? Ninety minutes a day, maybe twice on Saturdays? Do you have a coached workout program, and teammates who will bury you in peer pressure if you slack off?

Perhaps not. Which is the reason just joining a gym (or ordering something off a fitness infomercial for home workouts) is a good start, but not always sufficient for managing weight.

Instead, we go back to the “d” word (diet). But this time, rethink it. A balanced meal of low-fat proteins (chicken, fish, legumes and meats that end with the word “loin,” because they’re the leanest), fiber- and water-rich vegetables, whole grain and other unprocessed carbohydrates, and even a little bit of sweet fruit in place of desserts, all can go a long way. You’ll have the energy you need to continue working out.

But “eating right” takes a little bit of life engineering. The next few blogs will go into this in detail, with ways to manage weight through a combination of exercise and diet. They both matter, and they work.