Don't Be the Red Queen: Running and Making No Gains Is a Bad Idea!
Who is the Red Queen?
The Red Queen is a character from Lewis Carroll's Through The Looking Glass. She has to run very fast just to be able to stay in the same place. I find her an apt comparison to the countless people I see always running or jogging and expecting to lose weight and be healthier to no avail.
Almost half of the people in the U.S. do not meet the recommended amount of aerobic activity per week (1), so when I recently spent a week in South Beach, I was impressed at the number of people jogging outside in the balmy weather. I love running, cycling, and most forms of regular cardiovascular conditioning as part of your overall health program. Jogging was virtually unheard of when I was a child in the 1960s. It came into vogue in the 1970s as the way to optimal weight and heart health. Unfortunately, many joggers are hardly specimens of optimal health and remain so after many years of effort as they ignore other important ingredients for optimal health. Often running by itself proves to be little more than a waste of time, with zero results and increased injury rates. I want to muse a little on why that may be.
Jogging is a Good Idea For Most
I am a big believer in incorporating movement practices into our daily lives. Many of us would be wise to start jogging and adding other physical activities to our daily routines. Here’s how to do it properly. Participation in physical activity reduces the reported incidence of diabetes, high blood pressure, stress, heart disease, asthma, and arthritis, and being in fair or poor health in general. It is as essential as flour is to cake mix. (2)
There is More to Health Than Cardio
But flour alone cannot make an edible cake. I have NEVER baked a cake in my life; I like the analogy that ingredients must balance - whether making a cake or a happy, healthy, vibrant human. To quote from Craftybaking.com:
"A cake's structure is created mainly from the combination of the flour's starches, by the proteins in whole eggs, egg whites, and/or in milk. But, if the recipe is unbalanced, for example, if there's too much sugar and fat, the cake's structure is weakened so much it cannot support its own weight and will collapse. Too much flour and too many eggs may make the cake tough and/or dry".
The problem with relying on cardio training alone to lose weight and be healthier is that it is only one ingredient in the recipe for optimal health. Oxygen, sleep, stress reduction, nutrition, good relationships, and sun are the other ingredients. I have more information on the other ingredients in my post called MY RECIPE FOR A HAPPY HEALTHY VIBRANT HUMAN BEING.
Diet or Dash?
Results of a 2011 study show that isolated aerobic exercise is not an effective weight loss therapy in the participating patients. (3) A 2019 paper concluded that increased activity results in increased hunger; therefore, weight loss becomes difficult with jogging alone. (4) The authors of the 2011 study also concluded that diet increased the benefits of isolated cardiovascular exercise. Finally, Hansen et al. determined that exercise plus a dietary restriction program does not induce a more significant fat-mass loss than dietary restriction alone. (5) Since we are talking about overall health, not just fat loss, this last study is less important, but if weight loss is your goal, diet is more important than activity. Among other benefits, cardio improves overall health, like raising "good cholesterol" HDL and lowering blood pressure. (6)
Ditch the Stress (PS. Overtraining is Stressful)
In America, we tend to think that if a little of something is good, then more must be better. But as I have written about previously, overtraining causes chronic stress. Chronic training raises the "stress hormone" cortisol, which increases food consumption enriched in fat and sugar, resulting in abdominal obesity. (7)
Sleep Your Way to Health and Weight Loss
Cortisol is also elevated in sleep deprivation. The average American only gets 6.8 hours of sleep per night. (8) Better sleep quality increased the likelihood of weight-loss success by 33%, according to one study done in 2012. The authors concluded that sleep quality and quantity might contribute to weight loss in intervention-based studies designed to promote weight control in overweight/obese adult women. (9)
Run Towards Your Friends and Away From Toxic People
In 2016 a group of researchers concluded that positive, rather than instructive, support appears beneficial in weight loss maintenance. In other words, you need supportive friends, not taskmasters. I think this may be the most crucial aspect of health and longevity. Sadly it is often ignored. How many of us have "friends" that are often barely tolerable or are quick to point out our flaws?
Some "Friendly" advice From Juliane Holt-Lundstad
Julianne Holt-Lunstad studied long-lived populations and looked at diet, exercise, marital status, if they smoked or drank, and how they took care of their health. She concludes that those with adequate social relationships have a 50% greater likelihood of survival compared to those with poor or insufficient social connections. The magnitude of this effect is comparable with quitting smoking, and it exceeds many well-known risk factors for mortality (e.g., obesity, physical inactivity). (10) This is quite remarkable. We have an overwhelming tendency in the health profession to address diet, exercise, smoking, and drinking over the simple fact that just having a stable relationship is more important. (11)
Conclusion
If you are going to incorporate running or jogging into your life, follow the links below to maximize the benefits by:
Not Overdoing it
Dieting: Not starving yourself. Adopt a whole foods approach
Minimizing your stress
Maximizing your sleep
Getting support from true friends who will support you no matter what you do
Run outdoors for the UV benefits