Crystal OKeefe: Welcome to the MetPro Method Podcast. I am your host, Crystal O’Keefe, and today I am joined by MetPro founder Angelo Poli. Angelo, thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it.
Angelo Poli: Hello, Crystal. Thank you for having me back.
Crystal OKeefe: Well, I’m really excited because today is part three of our mini-series summarizing the research that MetPro has completed recently.
So, we’ve discussed the calorie restriction in part one, carbohydrate restriction in part two, and today we’re going to be talking about the exercise effects on body composition. So, Angelo, I know you got lots of thoughts about this one.
Angelo Poli: This is a topic I’m very passionate about and, hopefully, the light bulb will come on and we’ll learn some new things.
There’s obviously going to be a lot of common sense. Of course, you know, exercise is good. But there’s definitely a lot of things people don’t realize. In other words, people, a lot of people ask me, how much of a role does exercise versus nutrition have? Yeah. People ask me, really, what is better?
Should I be doing resistance training? Should I be doing more aerobics? Where is that line? So that’s all the stuff that we’re gonna seek to answer today. So, let’s dive in.
Crystal OKeefe: Let’s dive in indeed. All right, so what does that research say?
Angelo Poli: So there’s actually been a ton, as you can imagine, of published research.
So we had to really pick and choose. And so this represents just a fraction of the studies that we reviewed, that we highlighted for educational purposes. So here’s basically what it shows. and I’m just gonna read it straight here.
Excerpts, uh, data show that exercise plays a major role in the maintenance of weight loss fights, metabolic adaption, and in the case of resistance training preserves lean mass.
Now here’s the key point. Since weight maintenance remains the most challenging piece of the weight loss equation, It stands to reason that a comprehensive approach to weight loss should include exercise planning from the beginning. Research indicates there is much room for individualized exercise based on both body type and preferences.
We’ll dive into that. So here’s what people ask me all the time. If I’m, you know, being coached and I’m doing Met Pro with you, do I have to exercise? and the answer is no, but you should.
Crystal OKeefe: Yeah, that sums it up.
Angelo Poli: I’m gonna do everything within my power to convince you to do so. And so here’s some good research on the topic. So first study. A 10-month research trial demonstrated that aerobic exercise without energy restriction, in other words, without dieting, proved clinically meaningful weight loss and overweight and obese men and women when done at sufficient magnitude.
Now, the reason I used this study was because of two keywords that made me chuckle, sufficient magnitude. So this all comes back to, the mantra that I keep stating on these. You can’t just blindly with rose-colored glasses, say, oh, here are the highlights from a research study, and just, okay, that’s it.
You have to look with discerning eyes at the body of research to extract the truth when you tap into this study. The sufficient magnitude is between 400 and 600 calories of aerobic exercise. But a minimum of five days a week, that’s a lot. And that was merely to hit the clinical significance level. So here’s what that means…
You can lose weight with exercise alone. But this was a study done over 10 months with larger people, people who are already in that obese category, and they had to exercise, enough to burn, a minimum of 400 to 600 a day, five days a week for it to have an influence. So just to put that in perspective, that’s gonna be anywhere for these people from about, an hour.
Maybe an hour and a half at moderate intensity level, but for someone who’s much smaller and perhaps not obese, um, to burn five, 600 calories, you could be on a treadmill jogging or power walking for a couple of hours.
Crystal OKeefe: Five times a week though. That’s so much time. That’s a lot.
Angelo Poli: So what’s the moral of the story?
The moral of the story? Well, why bother with exercise? Nope. We’re gonna learn why that’s not the moral of the story. Okay? But what it does mean is if weight loss is your priority, It needs to be done in tandem with nutrition, with food also. You have to do both.
Crystal OKeefe: They go together.
Angelo Poli: They go together.
Yes. Another trial involving young, overweight men and women demonstrated exercise ability to prevent weight gain in women. And resulted in weight loss in men. And we’re gonna tap back into that. Cause I know our female listeners are going, what? Only maintenance for women and weight loss for men.
We’re gonna come back to that. Of note, this 16-month trial showed a statistically significant weight difference between the exercise groups and the non-exercise control groups for both men and women. Despite women remaining only weight stable over the trial period in both trials, men and women in the first, and men in the second, weight loss was almost entirely from body fat.
Crystal OKeefe:Okay, so did they just say even though weight remains the same, body fat goes down in both? Is that what I just heard?
Angelo Poli: Yes. They did say that, that any of the weight loss was from fat, but here’s more specifically what they are intending and what they’re explaining from this study.
They’re counting it as a success except, the women didn’t actually lose weight. How could that be a success?
Crystal OKeefe:: Inches were lost, I’m assuming.
Angelo Poli: Close. Okay. Close. Um, actually the reason is that most people when I say, okay, I’m gonna start a program, or I’m gonna do a routine or start exercise, and then you talk to them 16 months later.
Right. Okay. So almost a year and a half later, I’m the same weight. It was a failure from a clinical setting, from a research foundation that would be considered a success because the females in the control group, what happened to all of them?
Crystal OKeefe:They gained weight.
Angelo Poli: Correct.
Crystal OKeefe: I see.
Angelo Poli: It is the classic assumption that my weight.
If my environment doesn’t change, I will just stay the same weight. There is no research on the planet that indicates that is the case. In fact, human population across global societies, give or take, based on what region of the world you live in. Continue to gain weight until about 57, 58 years of age.
At what point they’re their heaviest, then they start to decline a little bit in weight. And of course, we know the aging process and muscle mass. So to assume that I’m gonna be the same weight, five years from now, 10 years from now, flies in the face of all the research and what studies have shown again about populations and demographics.
Now, why is it the men lost weight and the women didn’t do? Men just lose weight easier?
Crystal OKeefe: Well, they do, but I don’t think that’s what you’re getting at.
Angelo Poli: So the research is also interesting. Now, in all these cases that we’re discussing now, it’s mostly about, aerobics is what we’re talking about now. What they did was most research studies, you have to look at how they’re set up, and most are set up based on time.
When you think about that, oh, research shows exercising 30 minutes a day, does XYZ ? Well, generally speaking, what we find is based off gender. If a man is exercising for 30 minutes and then a woman is exercising for 30 minutes, now there’s always exceptions to this rule, but in general, men on average being larger, burn more calories in that 30 minute window.
So when they redid the studies and took time out of the equation and just said, you’re gonna be on the treadmill, on the bike, what have you, until you burn 300 calories, until you burn 500 calories, regardless of gender, demographic, et cetera… What they found is the results were nearly identical. Very small difference.
There was a little difference, but very, very marginal between men and women, and that absolutely parallels our experience at MetPro and what we see because it’s not always, oh, men lose weight quicker. I have some women that hustle. And I have some guys that need to kick it into high gear that aren’t working hard enough.
And guess what? The women burn more calories. You give her 30 minutes on the treadmill and she’ll burn more calories than he will. It really comes down to total expenditure. So just the little side point, it’s interesting when you actually look into the data that, it has more to do with total energy expenditure and not so much gender.
Now the next research paper that we selected was a meta-analysis. So, you know, the difference between –
Crystal OKeefe: A meta-analysis is like a group of a whole bunch of studies that have already been deemed clinically significant.
Angelo Poli: Exactly. So this was this meta-analysis. They considered 25 years of weight loss research.
And it highlighted a central theme. And here it is, diet or diet plus exercise is a significantly more effective intervention for weight loss when compared to exercise alone. No surprise there,
Crystal OKeefe:Right? I mean, that makes perfect sense.
Angelo Poli: Of note. The difference between Diet plus exercise versus diet alone becomes the most significant for weight loss maintenance.
This reinforces the general consensus that exercise is critical for the maintenance of weight loss. That I would say strongly parallels our day in and day out experience at MetPro. We work with people of all different walks of life. And our data, our stats show that when they follow the nutrition, that’s the most, influential piece of their weight loss.
But when we look at the data over time, those who have also. established an exercise regiment consistently exercising, their maintenance is significantly better and they do lose more weight, but the diet has to be in place, okay, now now’s where it’s gonna get a little technical, so we’re gonna have to put our thinking caps on a little bit for this part.
While researchers agree the type of exercise performed can impact weight loss, there is no consensus on exercise effect on resting metabolic rate. That’s R M R. In other words, the researchers come up with different results each time.
We can explain why that is. I think we’ll get there, consensus on exercise effects on resting metabolic rate while under the effects of calorie restriction. No consensus. Aerobic exercise is consistently associated with fat mass losses, losing body fat, but has limited effect on the maintenance of fat-free mass.
They’re always gonna use these technical terms when they say fat-free mass, they mean dominantly muscle. There’s other things involved in that, but that’s really what we’re talking about here. Aerobics interval or steady state of, here’s my phrase again, sufficient magnitude, trigger an increase in resting energy expenditure.
That’s REE for at least 22 hours, based on a study of elevated REE following high intensity exercise. So you’ve heard it said when you exercise, it’s gonna raise your base metabolic rate. Or your resting energy expenditure? Here’s what the science says. That’s true. In fact, about 22 hours is what you’re gonna get.
It’s gonna stay elevated for on average 22 hours. However, During this study, energy balance was not hyper caloric like it would be while dieting. So now here’s a caveat, it’ll stay elevated, but that’s not a study taking into effect someone who’s dieting. Once someone is dieting, now they have pressures pushing down against that extended energy burn
Crystal OKeefe: is that the adaptation that you talked about in the last couple of episodes? Is that piece a piece of that?
Angelo Poli: That is absolutely a piece of that. So because we can’t put our finger in every single case in exact number, there’s so much degree, diet, severity, length of time, place of adaptation, all of those things play a role. What we can reasonably conclude, my opinion from what we’ve observed and now from this study is that at best you’re gonna get about a 22 hour window of elevated resting metabolic rate from aerobic activity
here’s the catch. RMR and REE are very similar. They essentially mean the same thing for practical terms, resting energy expenditure was not increased following eight weeks of aerobic training when exercise was restrained for 60 hours. When exercise was restrained. That means when someone stops exercising for about three days.
There wasn’t that boost anymore. So what does that mean? Means that aerobics are gonna have a more immediate impact on your resting energy expenditure. It’s not going to be as long term. Okay. So therein enters the debate. Should I be doing more strength training? Should I be doing more aerobic training?
It asks some good questions considering this. Yeah. Consensus has not been reached for studies combining aerobics and diet-induced weight loss. Some studies show a sparing effect on resting energy expenditure while others do not. Does that make sense to you, Crystal?
Crystal OKeefe: Some show, like you’re going to have some pullback and some you’re not, but is that based on the person? Is that based on the type of activity or they’re saying they don’t know?
Angelo Poli: Precisely they’ve done similar studies and in some cases they’re showing that your base metabolic rate is improved in the presence of diet, and some are showing that it’s not improved as much. Why would that be?
Well, I’ve listed examples of studies. This first study is an example of a study I consider complete rubbish. Oh, okay. see if you can figure out why. Okay. So here’s the deal. In a study of exercise metabolism and severe caloric restriction, researchers observed that 30 minutes daily at 60% VO2 max reversed the decrease in RMR while consuming only 500 calories a day.
Crystal OKeefe: Only 500 calories a day?
Angelo Poli: This is why you have to tap into the studies, however, The test was only conducted on five obese individuals and was of short duration four weeks.
So you see how conclusions can be so misleading? Well, of course it offset likely these five individuals. This was a massive. Transition for them. They were not used to training anywhere near 30 minutes at 60% VO2 max. So for four weeks their body was in shock. Right. I can promise you that if this study had continued out, I’m shocked.
It was even four weeks had it continued out. It’s going to show the same thing as all the other studies, and that is that survival mechanic will kick in. It’ll find a way to lower their resting metabolic rate so they don’t die.
Now, look at this larger study, 65 moderately obese participants. Researchers found that over eight weeks of calorie restriction in training both groups, aerobic training and resistance training, lost a similar amount of weight. However, the strength training group lost significantly less fat-free mass compared to non-exercise and aerobics only groups.
Authors concluded that strength training significantly reduced the loss of fat-free mass, loss of muscle mass during dieting, but both groups still experienced a decline in RMR or REE. What that means is that as, as I have been preaching for years and shouting from the rooftops, it doesn’t matter what you do if your body
perceives an assault on it restriction to an extent that it can’t create homeostasis.
It will always prioritize keeping you alive first. So any of these proposed benefits of exercise or the special resistance training or this special high-intensity training, any of that, that may all be true until your body thinks that it can’t keep you in homeostasis throughout that. So when there’s a severe enough assault, it will always adapt to become more efficient, and burn less calories. And this is why so many people insist their treadmill lies to them when it says they burn 600 calories and they’re not losing a pound a week.
The treadmills, even the great, devices. Now the wearables that we have cannot account for where you are at in that metabolic adaption process and that survival mechanic, it can only take standardized. I’m this height, this weight, and here’s what my activity levels were and give you ballparks.
That’s why what you’re getting is so much conflicting information. Let’s keep digging. We’ll see if we can extract a few more details. In a study of body composition and resting energy, expenditure researchers observed women: 48 African American and 46 European American who were premenopausal and overweight as they underwent weight loss to a BMI of less than 25.
They found that the aerobic training and no exercise groups decreased in resting energy intake with weight loss. Hmm. While the resistance training group did not. So what you’re seeing here is research that’s showing different outcomes. So some research is basically saying, oh, if you exercise, it’s gonna offset any declines in RMR, right?
This research is saying, wait a second. It offset it only if resistance training was present. Why aren’t they all showing the exact same outcome? Again, each of these studies are conducted differently and each of these participants, are subjected to a different degree of restriction.
Full circle why We’re always going back to saying, how much should I restrict? And our answer shocks people when we say the absolute least necessary to trigger weight loss or an adaptive response if that’s your goal. Why? Because your body’s going to see an assault if you get too aggressive. It’s why we’re always telling people, oh, well, you may not feel hungry.
You may feel like you can survive with less fuel, but the longer term, the, eight weeks out, results are always gonna be better if we can keep your base metabolic rate, your resting energy expenditure higher. , and one of the principal ways we do that is instead of just using energy restriction from food we use a combination of both and find that sweet spot for as long as we can until your body plateaus.
Crystal OKeefe: And so a lot of times whenever people are like, I’m losing weight, but I wanna go down fast. I wanna cut again, I wanna get less food. And we’re like, Nope, nope, nope. Let’s let it ride. Or even when you’re on a build and you’re losing, let it ride.
Let your body do its thing.
Angelo Poli: And that, and that’s if it’s the long game. Now, if I have a client who’s like, I’m two pounds from my goal weight, I’m fine. We can sprint, we can cut, and then we can add back in. But if someone has 40 pounds more to go, we’re not gonna even consider. Assaulting their BMR just to lose the first five of that 40 slightly faster.
We have to look at each individual and build a custom approach and strategy for what’s going to get them and sustain them at their goal weight. Now here’s something interesting. While research has consistently shown that resistance training is effective for maintaining or increasing fat-free mass, I wish they’d just say muscle.
Neither resistance training nor aerobics have been consistently shown to negate the impact dieting has on REE, this impact has only been demonstrated in some studies, not in others as seen previously. So this has been officially observed in the research that there are times where even the exercise can’t offset.
And again, that all boils down to we have to understand. and honor that survival mechanic and how our metabolism adapts when there’s restriction. So what do the authorities say, some of the foremost bodies of information when it comes to exercise and what all this data means? Here’s what the American College of Sports Medicine says.
In 2009. The ACSM published a position stand adopting the stance that resistance training does not seem to be an effective means for weight loss. Gasp.
Crystal OKeefe: Gasp, indeed.
Angelo Poli:Resistance training does not seem to be an effective means for weight loss.
There’s gonna be an addendum to this. Instead, resistance training is associated with numerous other health benefits, including decreases in many chronic disease risk factors and increases in fat-free muscle muscle mass, and decreases in fat mass. So you wanna improve your body composition, resistance training,
Crystal OKeefe: Gotta do the lifting, the weights. Yep.
Angelo Poli:And remember, in some studies it was demonstrated that resistance training did offset, right? It is more likely than any other form of training to offset decreases in BMR/REE. It simply means that starvation trumps that mechanic. You are not always going to be dieting, right? You shouldn’t always be dieting.
Take a long-term view of it create those habits. Now it goes on to continue, this is again, ACSM in regards to moderate intensity physical activity it’s gonna be aerobics. The ACSM suggests that 150 to 250 minutes a week with an energy equivalent. See now they’re adding that ah, of 1200 to 2000 calories a week.
Seems sufficient to prevent weight gain greater than 3% in most adults, and may result in modest weight loss. So they consider that a success. You’re only gonna gain 3% of your body weight. Why? Because what does research show? Until you’re about 58 years old.
Crystal OKeefe: You’re gonna keep gaining. So if you don’t gain woo!
Angelo Poli: No, that’s it. That’s assuming, obviously we’re not focused on a strategic plan, to reduce weight, to improve our fitness to whatever the goals are. This is basically populations unaffected, right? The ACSM recommends adult participate in at least 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity physical activity aerobics to prevent significant weight gain and reduce associated chronic disease risk factors, and they acknowledge the organization noted.
Their position is also endorsed by the ADA American Dietetic Association.
The New England Journal of Medicine studied 141 obese older adults completed a trial that showed that lean mass decreased less in combination. That’s resistance and aerobics. And the resistance only group compared to the aerobics only group while losing weight. This study was of particular interest because it focused on one of the most at-risk demographics for losing muscle while losing weight, obese, older adults.
So this study showed that’s even for elderly participants. Resistance training helped improve, maintain, or actually increase muscle mass. This allows us to reason that with younger populations, that mechanic would even be stronger, and that was formally observed in a meta-analysis of resistance training in healthy adults.
Males research identified 1,927 participants and uh, 111 articles published between 1973 to 2018. The results of the overall effects on muscle mass before and after resistance training regiment showed significant improvements between pre and post test, which means if you are doing resistance training, if you are lifting weights or doing some form of strength conditioning, it will have an effect.
Keep going.
Crystal OKeefe: That’s encouraging.
Angelo Poli: Even studies focusing on older women demonstrated the efficacy of resistance training for increased strength due at least in part to muscle hypertrophy. Okay, now we get to that study that it was incredible but not structured properly depending on an individual’s priority.
Data indicates a combination of aerobics and resistance training may be the most effective to achieve weight loss. in a larger study in coordination with Duke University Medical Center. And East Carolina University researchers separated 119 sedentary, sedentary, overweight, or obese adults into resistance training.
That’s the first group aerobics training, that’s the second group. And a combination of aerobic and resistance training for the third group. For an eight-month exercise protocol. Of note, the resistance training exercise prescription represented the upper limit of the amount recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine in terms of sessions per week and sets per session.
That’s huge. This is why I love this study because in a lot of studies when they say included resistance training.
Crystal OKeefe: Hmm. It’s like, oh, I did a bicep curl with a three-pound weight.
Angelo Poli: There’s such a delta for individuals and really what does that mean? In order to get really good data, you really have to know what’s going on.
So, I like that they really emphasized. Yeah. In this regiment these people were legit strength training. Yeah. And I actually read through the protocols they had them doing. It was legit. Here’s the outcome. The resistance training group induced significant gains in lean body mass and strain, but a substantial amount of resistance training alone did not reduce body mass or fat mass.
You don’t lose weight just from resistance training alone. Okay. Why? Resistance training causes muscle hypertrophy.
Crystal OKeefe: It creates muscle growth, which means your muscle’s getting bigger, which means you’re, you’re probably gonna weigh more before you do. Right? Yeah.
Angelo Poli: No diet is involved in this. No protocols to effect calorie restriction, energy expenditure beyond minor amounts, this isn’t circuit training. This isn’t interval training. This isn’t CrossFit. This isn’t any of those things. This is a classic strength training protocol. I’m doing, you know, five sets of six reps. I’m resting 90 seconds to two minutes in between each set my the amount of time under tension is seconds because I’m lifting a heavy weight, so I’m not burning tons and tons of calories. I’m actually focusing on increasing muscle strength. That’s what happens.
And so a lot of personal trainers out there, a lot of physical therapists out there. It’s good to actually see the research keep encouraging your clients to strength train for all of the reasons we know, plus the long-term benefits.
Metabolically but if you’re trying to help someone lose weight by next month, resistance training is important, but it’s not going to be the direct correlation on the scale. What is the aerobic training and at plus resistance training groups reduced total body mass and fat mass more than the resistance.
But they weren’t different from each other. The resistance training and the aerobics and resistance groups increased lean body mass more than the aerobic training. In other words, they had more muscle. They had more of what you want, less of what you don’t want. Though requiring, and this is the part where, I don’t know why they structured , the research in this way though, requiring double the time commitment because they had them do aerobics and, and strength treating instead of just doing, you know, less of each for the same amount and ’em do both.
A program combined aerobic training and resistance training didn’t result in significantly more fat loss. Or body mass reductions over just the aerobic training, however. So here’s the big asterisk. So even if you do want weight loss, here’s why you still wanna do some resistance training. However, having the benefit of both modes of exercise allowed the aerobic and resistance training to decrease body fat percentage significantly more than either the aerobic training or resistance training alone.
Crystal OKeefe: That’s very important. Yeah. We all want that. Well, okay, that’s it. Most of us do.
Angelo Poli: This is due to decreased fat mass, combined with increased lean body mass. So you have an option, you can just do aerobics, or you can split it between aerobics and resistance training, and you will not lose more weight if you go aerobics and resistance training.
But you’re likely gonna fit in that sports jacket a little better. That’s not my opinion. That’s the research, okay? That’s what the research says. Here is a final note on it. Waist circumference decreased significantly more with AT and RT than at or RT alone. , however, nearly twice as much time again, why they structured it this way was spent in training for the group that did both.
So we have to look at this reasonably and say, okay, the people in that group invested double the time. Likely the results would’ve still showed a similar outcome, maybe not as significant if it was all equal as far as time investment. So ultimately the study concludes that balancing time commitments against health benefits.
It appears that aerobics is the optimal mode of exercise for reducing fat mass and body mass. While a program including resistance training is needed for increasing lean mass. While a combination of aerobics and resistance training may be the most effective activity for fat loss, there might be an alternative for young, healthy persons of average or better fitness, and I’ll explain that next.
So before we get into that final section, the research that they conducted here at duke University and East Carolina. Mirrors, personally, for whatever it’s worth, I’m giving my personal opinion here. It mirrors my 21 years of experience in the field and thousands and thousands of clients watching.
I have so many clients who’ve come to me and I worked with, you know, Bob at the gym down the street and he told me to do this for weight loss or he told me to do that, and it’s all good any exercise you do, you’re gonna get health benefits. You are gonna get metabolic benefits either on the front end or the back end, depending on what you’re doing.
It’s all good, but not everyone fully understands how exercise impacts our body. Not everyone understands the role of exercise in long-term weight loss. And so I’m gonna give you an illustration now. I’m deviating from the research here. I’m giving you my opinion, but it coordinates with what the body of research is saying.
Angelo Poli: When somebody starts with me, week one we will give them a very unique instruction and it’s something that only happens on week one. You’ll never hear this from me or any other MetPro coach. You ever talk to we will tell them if they are not currently exercising, don’t start exercising now if they are exercising, don’t stop. What we want is someone to not have any variables outside the change to their diet for week one.
The reason we do that is because we want to be able to track, measure, and identify with accuracy, the precise impact. And Delta, the change to their diet alone is having get that exactly where we want it, and then we add the exercise on top of it for an even accelerated and improved, heightened, experience.
Most people in their mind think if I am losing two pounds this week, I would’ve lost three or four had I exercised also. And I am okay with you thinking that if it will get you to exercise, but I’m gonna tell you how it actually works. Actually, no. With exercise, you’re gonna lose not three or four pounds.
You’re gonna lose 2.2 pounds. You’re gonna lose two ounces more that week. And it’s critical that you do it because it’s not about losing significantly more weight. Right out of the gate. a very common experience. Someone starts the very first meal plan. Cause we’re gonna give someone a meal plan and we’re gonna fine tune it until it triggers weight loss.
Whatever triggers weight loss is only gonna trigger weight loss for a few weeks and then their metabolism is gonna go, yeah, I’m used to this. It’s gonna recreate homeostasis. They’re gonna stop losing weight until something else changes. So very commonly, just as an illustration with someone not exercising, they’ll lose three pounds the first week, two pounds the second week, one pound the third week, maybe one pound the fourth week, and then they plateau.
See that all the time, right? And then of course we change the diet and then start. Okay, two pounds. Two pounds, one pound, one pound plateau, change the diet, rinse and repeat. with people who are exercising. It’s very common to see this. They’ll lose three pounds the first week and three pounds the second.
Now maybe the third week, two pounds, and the fourth week too. And the fifth week too. Not until the sixth or seventh week does it drop to one. and then they stay losing 1, 1, 1. Sometimes I can double or triple the time that I get them to continue losing weight without having to drop their intake when exercise is present, which means I have more cards in my hand to play.
We have more options and ways to manipulate to continue getting someone to lose more weight. Over time when exercise is present, which is why all the research shows exercise being present in a multidisciplinary approach to weight loss enhances the sustainability and maintenance and long-term outcome.
Crystal OKeefe: That’s what we want. I mean, that’s always the goal. So, If I’m hearing you right, it keeps doing exercise. Start with exercise, always be doing exercise. And even if you’re doing the weightlifting, that’s fine. You’re still gonna be getting a benefit from that. Like don’t, you don’t have to not do weightlifting.
Angelo Poli: Well, and keep in mind, and then just one extra point on that weightlifting. didn’t increase somebody’s weight by virtue of the weight lifting alone. It just shifted their body composition. So fat takes about seven times the physical space on your body for the same amount of weight and muscle.
So you could, like you were accurately alluding to those inches. That composition, that all can improve. Do it all. Now we’re almost done. We got just one more section to go on. Okay. Hybrid training, but until now, we’ve exclusively and purposefully been talking about exercise modalities in isolation, pure aerobics, pure classic strength conditioning.
The truth is you go to any sort of class today and you almost always get a hybrid effect out of it. And that’s great. So here’s a little research on that. While a combination of aerobics and resistance training may be the most effective activity for fat loss, there might be an alternative for healthy persons of average or better fitness in the article, and here’s the name of the article, metabolic adaptions to Short-Term High-Intensity Interval training a little pain for a lot of gain question mark researchers found several potential time efficient metabolic adaptations and response to high-intensity interval training. These adaptions are usually associated with traditional endurance training that requires much greater volume and time as suggested in the article’s name.
These efficiencies come with some pain. So, the take home message is if you’re able, you can do some high intensity interval training, create that intensity in less time, but it’s vigorous. In some cases very vigorous. So start slow, especially if you’re a beginner or you’re just getting back into it.
So, what they found is there’s two different, slants to this, and I won’t read all the research on it, but I’ll paraphrase here. The first is interval training, and that’s where you’re doing a sprint on a bike and then low intense intensity in a sprint, something like that. We’re familiar with that?
Yeah. Burn calories. You also get some mild hypertrophic resistance training effects from that, but more so similar to what you would get with aerobics. You can also do it the other way around and you can do high-intensity resistance training either in a circuit or in bursts where you are lifting weights, but you’re out of breath for 35, 40 minutes straight, right?
We’ve all done that type of circuit training that gets you benefits dominantly in line with strength training, but you also get some of the aerobic benefits as well. Both of those modalities have been shown to be highly effective. Now there’s some evidence based on the Heath Carter Somato type assessment. Okay.
Body types we’re discussing now that has led some researchers to pursue an approach to exercise prescription based on body type. while evidence supporting a particular formula for each body type needs further research, some conclusive studies hint at a strong correlation between body type and performance outcomes.
So I’m going to go out on a limb and say, We’ve done that research for 21 years. I can tell you there is a correlation Absolutely. Between body type. Absolutely. Yeah. Comes and I’m not gonna attend. If you disagree with me, just say so, but I’m not gonna tell you anything that isn’t like, yeah, duh. I know this.
So we’ve heard this. Women shouldn’t be afraid to go in the gym and lift heavy weights. They’re not gonna get bulky. Or we should go and we shouldn’t do this. Where’s the truth? We’ve heard all these right? The truth is it absolutely depends on your body type. If you are the type of person who is stocky and muscular and you build muscle easily, When you lift weights, you will build muscle easily.
That has nothing to do with the fat mass that may be present or may not be present based on what you’re eating. Your energy expenditure that has to do with the size of your muscles and there’s no such thing as lean muscles and going for tone and going for this and going for that. Your muscles are, they’re bigger, they’re small.
Everything else is fabricated. To help illustrate to for, for marketing terms and for illustration purposes, you either have. Big muscle there, or a small muscle there, or a medium muscle there in between. Okay. To want the muscles bigger go lift weights. Yeah. It’s, it’s, it is real simple. And by the way, it is not the cardinal sin.
Don’t boo me off the stage. If you only want certain muscles bigger. , you can emphasize those muscles. And the muscles. You don’t want bigger, you don’t have to work as much. And I say as much cause you don’t wanna create imbalances. You want some conditioning for your whole body. But it is absolutely okay to emphasize some exercise over others.
So collectively, these studies demonstrate that there is a link between preserving fat-free mass and resisting declines in resting metabolic rate. However, a component of adaptive thermogenesis appears to persist through a maintenance of fat-free mass, which may explain why not all research is in agreement.
And I would say I conclusively wholeheartedly agree with that statement. What we have found at MetPro. What I have found personally with my clients, even long before MetPro is that that survival mechanic, everything else you’ve heard about exercise is true, but that survival mechanic. trumps everything else.
Your body will always prioritize survival first. Understanding that helps us make intelligent decisions about where to invest our time. So here was our research, a retrospective data, analysis. We compared 203 overweight and obese adult females and males with a BMI of over 25 these are all past MetPro clients where we’ve declassified and aggregated just the data. So there’s no lying here.
This is the real data. 57 participants exercised one to two times a week. 146 participants exercised three times per week or more, by the way, no measurement of intensity was taken for this study. Just that they worked out, just that they were because everyone’s level’s different.
Somebody taking their dogs for a walk around the block is vigorous exercise that counted for this study. For other people, they’re doing triathlon boot camp training. Just that they exercised here was the outcome. Participants were coached in the MetPro disciplinary multidisciplinary approach for over a year.
To qualify for the analysis, participants had to be actively engaged. Data tracking for one year, no faking it. At the end of one year, the group exercising three to four times a week, lost 34% more median weight relative to the group that exercised less frequently while both participated in exercise and both had a favorable outcome.
In other words, both groups lost weight, the increased weight loss in the group with more training volume confirms the impact of exercise and its correlation to dose. Wow. So if you exercise more consistently, you’re gonna have a better outcome,
Crystal OKeefe: 34% more.
Angelo Poli: 34%. Wow, that’s not trivial.
Crystal OKeefe: No, that’s huge. Not trivial. Huge.
Angelo Poli:And so the reason Crystal this is so fun is because when we go through the research, sometimes you’ll find things that are like, okay, that really. Makes sense. And that parallels what we see as coaches in the trenches day in and day out. And then when we tap into the research, we see, oh yeah, that’s why it, okay, that all makes sense.
And then we can explain with the research why we have somewhat intuitively leaned one way or the other. But then sometimes the opposite happens, which goes wait a second , that doesn’t feel right. That’s not what I’ve seen with my clients. And then when you tap into the research, you really find some wonky setups for how the study is conducted.
So you have to look at the parameters of the research to really extract the truth behind how it impacts us.
Crystal OKeefe: That’s a very eye-opening when it comes to exercise and body composition. Is there anything else you wanna make sure that we include today for listeners?
Angelo Poli: That’ll be our last segment, our fourth segment.
Now we’re gonna tie it all together so it’s like, okay, we have this raw data. What do we do with it? What does it mean? In other words, we just learned that exercise can do all these glorious things, but your metabolism can basically come along and sweep the rug out from underneath a measure of the good effects.
So how do we combat that? We’re gonna learn about that in last segment. Nutritional periodization and metabolic effects.
Crystal OKeefe: So wonderful and we’ll try to have that next week. That’s our plan.
Angelo Poli: Thanks for letting me talk, Crystal. Always a pleasure.
Crystal OKeefe: Well, thank you for being here. I really appreciate it, and I am looking forward to hearing more about the nutritional periodization
and listeners, that is all for this week. You can find all the MetPro Method episodes anywhere you get podcasts, or you can go to metpro.co/podcast. Please be sure to follow the show and rate and review that lets other people know what to expect. And I’ll be back next week. Until then, remember, consistency is key.
