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The Dr. Shannon Show
#194: Thanksgiving episode: can you really "erase" a meal with exercise?
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If you are loving what you're learning in the podcast and you want to start applying it to your fitness routine, you can try one of our free classes. No credit card required. Just drop your email to get access. This is a Upper Body Build class taught by myself. To take the class, visit portal.evlofitness.com I'm Dr. Shannon Richie. I'm a doctor of physical therapy, fitness trainer, and founder of EFL Fitness. In the Dr. Shannon show, you'll learn applicable tools to improve your health based on science. Welcome to the show. Hi everyone. Every year on Thanksgiving I do an episode about how you can't earn your food and how attempting to burn off what you eat doesn't work the way we think it does. And when I learned the science of calorie expenditure, it truly changed a piece of my relationship with food and exercise. It was a piece of the puzzle that allowed me to separate food and exercise and no longer use exercise as a tool to, you know, erase a meal or earn a meal. Because I realized that there's really no scientific validity behind burning off what you eat, at least to a certain extent. And I realized this content may be redundant for the weekly listener. I know I talk about this all the time, but sometimes it takes hearing things many, many times and in different ways in order for it to ultimately settle in. And I will add some different types of here at the end of the episode. So if you are used to what I'm about to say about how we burn calories and the science behind that, then stick around to the end. Cause I'm going to give a little bit of a different spin on this. And if you're new, welcome. This information can truly be game changing. It really allowed me to stop feeling the pressure to exercise as intensely as possible just to burn more calories. I truly stopped seeing that as necessary or beneficial. I stopped running my body into the ground just to try to like burn off what I was eating or burn fat. It also made me take more responsibility of what I was eating. And I stopped expecting my work off my workouts to burn off my food decision. So this ultimately helped form a more positive relationship around exercise around food. It made exercise suck less because I wasn't going as hard as possible just to burn more. I saw better results because I was actually focusing on the things that mattered when it came to food and nutrition. Um, so I also think this information can help you enjoy your Thanksgiving more, knowing that a day or two of indulgences are really not going to make or break you or that you have to like, earn or punish yourself for that. So in case you're newer here, I want to kind of talk about my history with exercise because I think this will help set the stage. So before I started eblo, before I started this podcast, I was in a cycle of, you know, thinking that I needed to earn every calorie that I ate or punish myself if I overindulged. I was in a cycle of overeating on the weekends and then spending the following week trying to burn it all off and eating as little as possible just to be starving come the weekend, eat all the food again and kind of repeat the process the next week. And that cycle would repeat for several weeks. Eventually, I got injured and had to take some time off, came back, and then it, you know, it got worse, right? Even more exercise, even less eating, and again injuring myself having to take time off. And really it was just this vicious cycle. And this behavior resulted in chronic pain throughout my whole body. My exercise routine was too aggressive. I wasn't prioritizing recovery. I was under eating, not fueling properly. So my whole body just felt horrible. And eventually this led to other types of symptoms. I was getting mood issues, I was, I had chronic fatigue. I eventually developed night terrors, so sleep issues that were disruptive and terrifying. And I think my lifestyle habits were a result of fitness and hustle culture, making me feel like I had to work really hard or I wouldn't see results. And from the outside, I looked like lean and thin. But I can say now those handful of years were truly the most unhealthy years I've had in my life in so many ways because of the chronic pain, my relationship to food and exercise, the kind of yo yoing and the irony is that once I kind of understood the science behind this and I started training smarter and fueling smarter, my body composition eventually improved so much more than it did when I was in this cycle of, you know, under eating, over exercising. And. And I didn't have the negative side effects that came with that. So I no longer have joint pain. I know I sleep so much better. I no longer have the, you know, extreme mood issues that I had back then. I feel so much more mentally. So for me, education on the science of exercise was a big piece in my journey towards improving my relationship to exercise and really improving my results and my overall health. So with that context, I want to get into this because again, I just am so passionate about this topic because I've been there and I wish I would have had this information before I started in that cycle. So we used to think that the more exercise we did, the more calories we burned overall. But research that was came out about eight years ago unveiled that we burn calories much differently than we once believed. So the constrained total energy expenditure theory emerged from the research of Herman Poncer who studied the had said, which was a hunter gatherer community in Tanzania. The Hadza were very active people. They were walking a lot, they were carrying things, they were, you know, gathering, working in the farms. Hunter hunter gatherers. And the researchers who were studying this group of people thought that they would be a group that burned a significant amount of calories since they were so active. But what they found surprised them. What they found was that this group of hunter gatherers total daily energy expenditure was similar to a sedentary westerners when they adjusted for body size. So like a sedentary American when they adjusted for body size. So they were like what is this about? These two groups of people have very different lifestyles and activity levels. Why are they burning a similar amount of calories overall? So this finding really challenged and the traditional model where energy expenditure is additive. So the more we exercise, the more we move, the more we burn overall. So what Ponser discovered is that the human body adapts to increase physical activity by reducing energy expenditure. In other systems this is called energy compensation. When we increase our overall energy levels, our bodies reallocate energy in several ways. So your body kind of borrows energy from other systems, whether that be when you exercise more, your inflammation may reduce. Inflammation is a way that our body uses calories or energy. Uh, you might have lower stress hormones, you might, your digestion might slow at a certain point, you might diminish kind of fidgeting and non exercise movement, again without your awareness. So all of these things are your body's smart way of compensating to keep your overall calorie expenditure within this narrow window. So how many calories can you burn before you stop increasing your overall deficit? Studies show that the average amount of active calories you can burn in a day before you plateau and stop burning calories overall and kind of start borrowing from these other Systems is around 800 active calories per day. The body essentially has this energy expenditure budget. I like to think of it where, you know, it carefully manages that budget and it reallocates energy rather than continuously burning more and more energy. So let's use an example. Let's say that your bmr, your basal metabolic rate, so the amount of calories that your body needs just to like keep you alive. I like to think of like if you were in a coma and you weren't moving, this is the amount of calories that your body would need just to keep you alive. Let's say this number is 1500 and you burn around 800 active calories throughout your day. This compromises all of your active calories. Outside of keeping you alive, people think this is just 800 calories in your workout. It's not. All of this adds up. So I'm burning calories right now, talking with my hands, moving my hands to talk and sitting up straight and moving my head around. And you know, you burn calories walking around your house, doing chores, getting ready, typing, and all of those active calories surprisingly add up to be quite a bit of overall energy expenditure. And then of course there's your exercise energy expenditure. So for me to burn around 800 active calories a day according to my aura ring, which side tangent isn't super accurate? Fitness watches and trackers haven't been shown to be super accurate, but it is the data that we have and that's so that's what I can use. Um, so for me, I easily burn more than 800 cal active calories per day for exercise. My days are generally like a walk or two with my husband, especially when it's nice out. We've been going on more than one walk a day, but let's just say like one walk and my EVLO workout and just my daily activities. So again, using my hands to talk, getting ready, walking in and out of my car, whatever it is that those amount of calories accumulate to be around 800 per day. And this is not, this is not me adding a really intense, sweaty, hour long workout. This is just my 35 minute workout and a walk and the addition of my other just daily activities. Quick tangent before we get into this. So if you are using an aura ring, I've had questions about this, so I want to answer this. The oura ring will give you like an active calorie burn number. For me, that's usually like depends on the day, but like between like 300 and like 600 active calories per day. But that's not a representation of this 800 number that I'm talking about. So if you want a more accurate kind of. And again, it's not super accurate because these fitness trackers can't really accurately account for metabolism because metabolism is super complex. But if you're actually curious about this, what you would do is you would Find your BMR so your basal metabolic rate using an online calculator, add 800 to that number and you'll look at your overall calorie expenditure for the day. Don't just look at those active calories. So if you're burning less than 800 in those active calories that aura gives you, that's not necessarily the representation that I'm talking about. So coming back to my example, if your BMR is 1500 calories, your overall calorie burn, including those 800 active calories, would be 2,300 for the day. So beyond that, even if you're adding more exercise, you're probably not burning overall more than 2,300 calories for the day. And this isn't to have you obsessing about these numbers or tracking them or really even paying attention. Because metabolism is extremely complex and can vary day to day. Some people may burn more than 800 calories on average before they plateau, others less. So because there's so much variation, trying to track these numbers just isn't very useful. I just recommend do your workout, stay overall active, and you're probably hitting that threshold pretty easily. So with this understanding, can you really burn off a Thanksgiving meal? A typical Thanksgiving dinner might contain, you know, 2,000 to 4,000 calories, but even an intense workout may only burn max 800 calories before the body begins compensating by reducing energy expenditure elsewhere. And it truly isn't necessary to go do a super intense workout the next day because you can hit that calorie plateau or that 800 active calories with much, much less exercise and save your body kind of the wear and tear of a really stressful exercise routine. So maybe you could hit this with like a 30 minute workout and a walk in your overall daily activities and on Thanksgiving. You have to think about it this way. Maybe you're cooking and cleaning and moving around and socializing and entertaining. So you're likely getting pretty close to that number without even adding any formal exercise. Everyone will be different, of course. And I'm not saying don't exercise on Thanksgiving or the day after Thanksgiving, but trying to punish yourself the next day in your workout likely isn't putting you putting much of a dent in your overall calorie expenditure and maybe wearing you down for no additional payoff. I recognize that rewiring your relationship to exercise and food is not easy. I have been there. But my hope is that I can give you this science so that you can kind of rethink your relationship to exercise. And kind of think twice before you go into a workout thinking that you need to like, burn off what you ate or punish yourself for celebrating. So the freedom you will feel by being able to separate food from exercise is truly incredible. I can say this firsthand. I no longer feel guilt for not doing formal exercises. Exercise. On my recovery days on Saturday and Sunday, I now exercise and lift because how it benefits my muscle size, my overall health, my glucose regulation, rather than choosing a workout because it burns as many calories as possible. And then I ultimately feel horrible if I do a workout like that, right? I'm depleted, I'm exhausted, maybe my body hurts and is super sore. So it's just not a very sustainable way to view exercise and it's just not very effective. The next concern people have is if I can't burn off what I eat, I'm going to limit my food during celebrations to avoid weight gain. And I actually want to put some numbers to this because I think understanding the mathematics of holiday weight gain can really help reduce anxiety around seasonal celebrations. So let's make this a little bit more tangible with some numbers. Let's say your calorie needs for just maintaining your body weight is around 2000 calories per day. Again, everyone's going to be a little different. Your maintenance might be lower or higher, but let's just use a nice round number, 2,000 calories. And let's say your typical dinner is around 700 calories. One pound of fat requires approximately 3,500 excess calories. So to add one pound of fat, you eat in a surplus of 3,500 excess calories. Let's say your holiday meal is 2,000 calories replacing a normal 700 calorie dinner. So what this does is you could do the math if you want, but. Or just hang with me. This creates a 1300 calorie surplus for the day. Day. Assuming the rest of your meals are normal. So let's just say, okay, I, I eat my regular breakfast, lunch, dinner, a couple snacks, and then I have like a bigger meal at dinner. And this puts me in a 1300 calorie surplus for the day. Well, when this pattern, if you're like me, you're like, it's not just Thanksgiving, it's also the day after, we've got leftovers, and then maybe a couple days after. And then, you know, I've got Christmas and around and around the holidays, I'm, you know, going out to eat more. I have multiple celebrations and I like to enjoy all of food. And maybe I'm drinking more. So it's not just one celebration, at least for me, it's several. So let's say that this pattern repeats three to four times over the course of the holiday season. So your total surplus, if this repeated like four times, would reach 5200 calories. And 5200 calories results in about 1.5 pounds of fat gain, right? Because 5200 divided by 3500 is 1.49 pounds. Many times our surpluses are not even this big, they're much less than that and therefore don't result in any fat gain at all. This information isn't meant to cause stress, but rather empower informed choices during the holidays. Because understanding that a few celebratory meals spread across several weeks really won't lead to dramatic weight changes. This allows you to approach holiday eating with more of a balanced mindset. The key is recognizing that occasional indulgences, when viewed in the context of your overall caloric maintenance level, have quantifiable and really manageable impact on your body composition. I know this episode was very numbers heavy. And again, if you're like me and you're like, I kind of need that in order for me to change my mindset about this or start to initiate the mindset change, you kind of need the numbers. But the last thing I want to do is to encourage a restrictive mindset around the holidays or make you feel like you need to track this stuff. I truly don't believe that you should. My hope is that understanding the science of how exercise burn calories and how a few celebrations really won't derail you, you'll be able to enjoy yourself more over the holidays without feeling like you need to punish yourself the next day or ever. Happy Thanksgiving to all. I am so grateful for this community. The podcast is one of my favorite little corners of the Internet. So thank you for listening. We will see you all next week, same time, same place. Bye for now.