Why You Can’t “Burn Off” Calories | Bright Line Eating Vlog (2024)

*Applications for a Boot Camp 2.0 scholarship are now closed.

We don’t talk about exercise a lot on the vlog, because Bright Line Eating is mostly about what and how you eat. But many people think they need to be more active when they’re trying to lose weight. The science indicates otherwise.

Consider the phrase “calories in, calories out.” There are flaws to this idea: your body is not just a step counter that totals up your activities to determine weight loss. It’s a very responsive, intelligent machine, and it accommodates and morphs based on what you do.

There’s a whole body of research funded by large food corporations that says that it’s not the sugar or ultra-processed foods we’re eating that are making us gain weight, it’s the lack of movement. But exercise won’t make you thin.

There was a study where they took hundreds of sedentary, overweight women and separated them into groups: one stayed sedentary (that was the control group), and the other groups did varying levels of exercise, supervised by a trainer. At the end of this long study, everyone weighed the same, regardless of how much they exercised.

And let’s look at the research of a man named Herman Pontzer. He’s an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University. He wondered about activity levels and caloric output in hunter-gatherer tribes vs. sedentary individuals in the Western world.

When Pontzer went to the Hadza people in northern Tanzania, one of the last true hunter-gatherer societies, he measured their metabolisms very accurately, at a molecular level, using so-called “heavy water.” What he found was that they weren’t expending any more calories than those sitting at desk jobs in the U.S.

What the body does when we’re extra active is that it compensates by burning less for the rest of the time. It shifts you into low gear so that you don’t burn more calories than you would if you were at a desk job. People around the world burn 2,000-3,000 calories a day, no matter what they do.

This makes sense. If you think about the times when food is most scarce, the body is trying to keep us alive, so it makes sense that it would downshift and steal calories from other systems to survive. So you might think you could exercise and add the number of calories burned to your baseline, but it doesn’t work that way.

This is built into Bright Line Eating. Our take on exercise is nuanced. The diet bashers think we’re against exercise. Tell that to my personal trainer! We’re not against exercise.

Here’s where we stand: The science is clear that exercise is one of the best ways to improve your longevity, your health, your cardiovascular fitness, your bone density, your sex drive, your self-esteem. It’s good for just about everything but losing weight.

We’ve learned from hard data that people who insist on exercising at the beginning of their Bright Line experience are the least successful. Exercise makes you hungrier, and causes a compensation effect where you justify eating more. And weight loss causes a dip in energy, making exercise at the beginning extra willpower depleting.

If you don’t have a standard exercise regimen, it’s not in your best interests to start one in the first few months of your Bright Transformation. Go easy on the exercise, and make sure you’ve got enough in your tank to get the food right. Getting the food right is what will ensure the success of your whole Bright transformation. Food is the driver, not exercise.

The beauty of divorcing exercise from food consumption is that when you get to maintenance, if your weight creeps up, your first thought isn’t to hit the gym, it’s to look at your food intake and see if you’re continuing to make Bright choices there.

Exercise is in a separate category altogether. You do it for your health, for joy, for flexibility, and for strength, and it’s not part of your weight management plan.

So if you have an exercise regimen, and it’s not addictive, keep it up. But easy does it for about the first four months or so of your Bright Line transformation. Once your food is truly automatic, if you still have weight to lose, or if you’ve already transitioned to maintenance, then start exercising.

You’ve got to handle your food first, then find out what brings you joy in terms of movement.

Before I sign off, I want to let you know that we have a scholarship opportunity for Boot Camp coming. As of today, December 13, 2023, scholarship applications are open, and they close on December 17. Then Boot Camp registration begins on December 31, and the Boot Camp begins on January 6, 2024. So if you’d like a scholarship, we have ten full ones available. Now’s the time to apply.

Why You Can’t “Burn Off” Calories | Bright Line Eating Vlog (2024)

FAQs

Why you don't have to burn all of the calories you eat? ›

Remember that most of the calories you burn each day are the calories that every cell in your body needs to do their thing - exercise rarely consumes more than 33% of your daily maintenance calories.

How many calories is bright line eating? ›

The type and amount of food at each of your three meals is strictly dictated and adds up to about 1200 calories a day—a bit more if you are a man but otherwise, it's one size fits all.

What is it called when you eat less calories than you burn? ›

Burning more calories than you eat in a day is referred to as a “calorie deficit” and is the basis of many weight-loss equations. The idea is daily calories in minus daily calories out = caloric deficit. The first thing you need to understand is that one pound of fat is made of about 3,500 of extra calories.

What happens if I'm burning more calories than I'm eating? ›

You gain weight when you eat more calories than you burn — or burn fewer calories than you eat. Some people seem to lose weight more quickly and more easily than others. But everyone loses weight by burning more calories than are eaten. The bottom line is calories count.

How to get your body to burn stored fat? ›

The human body can act as a fat-burning machine by depending on low-calorie foods instead of high-calorie foods in addition to doing regular exercise, avoiding toxins and processed food, and applying any fat flush dietary program under the approval of a professional doctor.

Can I burn off all the calories I just ate? ›

When it comes to balancing food eaten with activity, there's a simple equation: energy in = energy out (in other words, calories eaten = calories burned). So, yes, it is possible to burn off food calorie for calorie with exercise. But it's not very practical.

What are the four rules of Bright Line Eating? ›

What are the 4 Bright Lines that lead to Happy, Thin, and Free? They are... * No Sugar * No Flour * 3 Meals a Day * Measured Quantities. Life changing!

Can I eat popcorn on Bright Line Eating? ›

popcorn is not a BLE-friendly food.

What is the easiest way to burn calories? ›

Running/jogging

Running at even a slow pace burns a lot of calories for 30 minutes. On average, running burns between 10.8 to 16 calories per minute and putting it at the top of the list of workouts that burn the most calories. To up the calorie burn, increase the intensity or add in sprint intervals.

Does eating less lose belly fat? ›

Many things can help you lose weight and belly fat, but consuming fewer calories than your body needs for weight maintenance is key ( 49 ). Keeping a food diary or using an online food tracker or app can help monitor your calorie intake. This strategy has been shown to be beneficial for weight loss ( 50 , 51 ).

What exercise burns the most calories? ›

According to Healthline, running burns the most calories. A tried and true exercise that requires little more than your legs and the open road, running burns just over 800 calories for a 155-pound adult per hour.

How to drop 2 lbs a week? ›

To lose 2 pounds per week, you need to create a calorie deficit of 1,000 calories per day. This is only safe if a healthcare provider has approved it. Calorie needs depend on a variety of factors such as metabolism, current weight, height, and activity level, which are different for everyone.

How to make your metabolism very fast? ›

Fat-burning ingredients like protein, spicy peppers and green tea have been proven to bump up metabolism. Eat some form of these foods, especially protein, at every meal. Protein is especially important: It takes more calories to digest than other foods and also helps the body build fat-burning lean muscle tissue.

Does fasting slow metabolism? ›

It's well established that very long periods without food can cause a drop in metabolism ( 28 , 29 ). However, some older studies have shown that fasting for short periods can actually increase your metabolism, not slow it down ( 30 , 31 ).

Does your body absorb all the calories you eat? ›

You don't absorb every calorie you eat.

Some foods, particularly those high in fiber, make their way through the digestive system without being completely broken down. Others, some of the higher fiber foods (specifically those in the soluble variety), can prevent absorption of fat. Whole almonds are a good example.

Why don't I burn as many calories as I used to? ›

Your body adapts to the same routine, and it becomes easier. This means you'll eventually burn fewer calories while engaging in the same workout. Essentially, you're becoming more fit and utilizing calories more efficiently. But if your goal is to burn more calories and lose fat, this can be a detriment.

Do all excess calories turn to fat? ›

When the supply of energy—the number of calories consumed in foods—exceeds the body's immediate needs, the body stores the excess energy. Most excess energy is stored as fat. Some is stored as carbohydrates, usually in the liver and muscles.

Is it necessary to burn calories? ›

Burning calories regularly will keep your pre-existing health conditions in check and reduce the risk of their severity. Exercising can improve the blood flow to the brain, reducing the risk of strokes. Burning calories can make your blood vessels healthier, lowering the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

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