Dr. Emily Cooper from the Diabesity Research Foundation joined KING 5 Morning News to explain the importance of properly fueling before exercise.
Joyce: I used to run half marathons but never really lost weight for any length of time and in fact my weight was increasing. So we're talking about what I'm doing about it now.
It's true –before we started Get Fit you had lost 30 pounds cutting out carbs and exercising but then even though you were still following the same plan, you started regaining the weight. You were really confused about how that could happen. I explained that your deprivation diet on top of the exercise was causing your brain to perceive starvation. For protection, your body stored fat. So clearly the answer wasn't to go on another diet!
Joyce: It was the only thing that actually made sense because I was seeing my weight increase even though I was supposedly doing everything right.
I advised you to eat ALL the food groups including those carbs that you had cut out before, like bread, crackers, cereal, pasta. And I recommended NO exercise.
Joyce: That really surprised me! Can you explain that? I had thought exercise speeds up metabolism!
For people with healthy metabolisms, exercise can speed it up for a short term, but when it's not burning freely, exercise can have the opposite effect. You were gaining weight at a rapid rate while avoiding carbs and doing regular workouts. This is true for so many of my patients, so I knew right away that your metabolism was in a defensive mode. Your lab work showed big elevations in starvation signals that make it easy to gain and very hard to lose weight. Adding exercise and taking away carbs amplified these signals! So you had to stop exercising.
Joyce: And it did help – I've been eating all food groups including bread, cereal, oatmeal, and not exercising and my weight came down and is really stable.
At first, you lost weight when you started eating more, backed off exercise and started medication to help correct the problem. But then as soon as you did the jitterbug camp –an intense weekend of dancing – your weight shot up and then when it finally calmed down you started training for the Boston Marathon ---but again it was too soon. Now your starvation signals are still elevated even though they have improved. It's worth seeing if you can add some exercise without triggering more problems by supporting it properly.