How Being Mentally Tougher Can Make You Slimmer
Paul Lyons
Mental Toughness Expert | Helping athletes, coaches, leaders and their teams effectively measure, and develop #mentaltoughness for a stronger, consistent performance
I have recently lost weight, something I have attributed to a high degree of resolve, a better diet and an exercise routine. But which is the catalyst? In the absence of celebrity personal trainer Faisal Abdalla knocking on my door at five in the morning, to the answer that question I was nevertheless interested to read his view in a recent edition of menshealth.com
In his article below he thinks that even a small amount of regular physical exercise will help build your mental toughness that in turn strengthens your willpower to resist the culinary cravings. Certainly I have found the morning exercise routine beneficial in setting me up for a positive day. Also I have been able to productively use the grit and determination required to push myself to my physical limits in more mental pursuits.
Over to you, Faisal.
We’ve all been guilty of it: smugly swallowing a mouthful of greens before regurgitating platitudes such as, “Ab’s are made in the kitchen", or, equally misguided, “Its 90% diet". We’ve been fed the same message for years – changing what you eat is the surest route to getting in shape for the long term.
However, no matter how you serve it, it’s nonsense. Without rebooting both your training and your diet together, you’ll never tip the scales in your favour.
Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle confirmed this when they conducted randomised trials on overweight participants: a clean diet alone was nowhere near as effective for fat loss as combining good nutrition with exercise. What’s more, our obsession with food consumption could be distracting us from more urgent statistics.
A 2009 study suggested that poor cardiorespiratory fitness was responsible for nearly 17% of male deaths, while obesity accounted for just 3%, once activity levels were factored out.
In short, you’d better get moving.
People may counter that, while a regular fitness habit is laudable, you can still achieve rapid changes in body composition through your diet. If eliminating carbs helps you shed your spare tyre in two weeks, you’ll be motivated to commit to a healthier lifestyle, right? Wrong.
After five years, as many as 95% of dieters will be back where they started, and 41% will have regained more weight than they lost. One study even found that subjecting yourself to a so-called weight-loss diet just once doubles your odds of becoming overweight in the future.
When you change your eating habits too quickly, your metabolism slows and clings onto every calorie, making weight loss even harder. That’s why, whether it’s keto or juicing, I’m cynical about any plan that’s short term or tough to stick to. Commit to anything for less than a year and you’re not giving your body time to adapt. It’s exercise that makes a plan stick. As well as being beneficial in isolation, training has been proven to play a key role in diet adherence.
Most of us underestimate the mental toughness required to resist cravings, but research shows that even small amounts of physical activity help to strengthen willpower. One Dutch review concluded that forming an exercise routine leads to significant increases in self-control, probably because it increases blood flow to the frontal region of the brain.
That means hitting the gym not only improves cardiovascular fitness, muscle mass, blood pressure and mood, but also steels you against the lure of the Golden Arches. The same can’t be said of any kale smoothie.
If you’re training hard, don’t be afraid to break from nutritional austerity with a cheat meal. Or have a cheat day. Rely on food alone for transformation and there’s no room for slip-ups: you can’t burn off extra calories without exercise. Workouts are what turns any reboot into a sustainable lifestyle, rather than a short-lived dietary denial. To make this year your most rewarding year yet, lace up your trainers.
Paul Lyons is an experienced CEO who coaches leaders to improve their performance and wellbeing by developing their mental toughness.
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Teaching people how to leverage adversity
5 年My two cents? The relationship we have with food (i.e. what it represents for us) is what predicts our weight, and our ability to lose weight.
VP of Human Resources & People Analytics at Peak Dental Services
5 年Congrats on your weight loss! Altering your lifestyle for better health is not easy or simple. Thank you for the post.
Supply Chain, Logistics & Operations Management, Sophisticated Investor.
5 年Thanks for sharing Paul. On top of my “day job” for a number of years, I’ve also worked as a group outdoor personal trainer for a national fitness chain (plus my own private fitness & nutritional counselling). From professional experience, I can assure you that there is a direct correlation between someone either having (or acquiring) mental toughness and achieving their fitness & nutritional goals. In my sessions, I deliberately utilise physical exercise routines that rely on or develop, mental toughness to achieve the exercises in order to encourage, develop or maintain these mental toughness skills. On a lighter note, as I say to the clients arriving for their outdoor 6.00am sessions on a cold Melbourne winter’s morning - “getting out of bed to come to this mornings session is probably the toughest thing you will do today. It’s all downhill from here!”
Managing Director at AQR International
5 年Great post Paul Lyons
I help Sales Leaders & their teams become Exceptional ? Message me "SALES" to get you & your sales team on the fast track to exceptional ???Host of The Exceptional Sales Leader Podcast ??
5 年Fascinating Paul, thanks for sharing.?