Linking Nutrition and Exercise with Body Weight, Health, Mortality and Performance [Podcast Series]

“If you take two people, one who exercises a lot and eats whatever the heck they want to eat, and then somebody else who doesn't exercise much at all, but has a perfectly clean diet, at the end of six months or the end of a year or the end of 10 years, who's going, whose body weight is going to be lower, who's going to be more healthy, whose blood work is going to look better?”

“You know there are five components to physical fitness and nutrition will only impact one of them, which is body composition. The other four components of fitness, you have to exercise in order to make a change, right? Your muscles aren't going to get stronger no matter how much kale you eat. And so that's why there's plenty of research, not just his, but there's plenty of research that has shown that it's better to be fat and fit than to be thin and out of shape. And so in terms of health and longevity, that's why exercise is much more important than your body weight or your BMI, because it's the fitness that matters.”

“For many years, I've been hearing people in the fitness industry talk about how your fitness and your physique is 80% nutrition and 20% exercise. And all you have to do is take one exercise science class, and you know that that's incorrect. And how can your nutrition be four times more important than exercise?”

“They're interesting to study because twins who are separated and grow up in different environments, we still see that their body weight is more genetically controlled than their environment is, and so that's why those twin studies are so interesting, because it really brings the genetics to the forefront, that genetics matters the most.”

“And it didn't take long for me to realize not just the physical benefits of running, but all the other benefits that you get, mostly the the emotional and psychological benefits and how it improves confidence and creativity and and all those other things, how it helps you deal with discomfort, which you can carry over to other areas of your life.”

“There's always something unique about running that transcends everything else. And I think the reason is because it really is who we are as animals. And so when you run, you're fulfilling your destiny of being human, whereas when you play other sports, even though I love all different sports, it's not the same thing, because they're not natural to who we are as humans.”

“Running enables that, and endurance sports in general enable that opportunity to really exhaust yourself and push your body as hard as it can possibly go, so that you are completely exhausted at the end of the race.”

“And so for me, it's always been a blend of the science and the philosophy of challenging yourself and living up to what it means to be human, and being able to imagine yourself faster. Imagine a future that doesn't yet exist. Imagine a self that you have not yet become.”

“One of the things that's great about running is that it's probably the most accessible activity that anybody can do, because you don't need any equipment. You only need a pair of shoes. In some places, you don't even need that.”

“What you eat is important. However, the more you exercise, the more flexibility you have with your diet. If you don't exercise, then no donuts allowed, then your diet has to be perfect. The more you're willing to run and do other physical activities, then the much more flexibility you have.”

“If you have a donut once in a while, it's going to be okay, as long as you're willing to do the physical work. There's plenty of research to show that aerobic exercise can mitigate or even embrace the deleterious effects of a poor diet. But most fitness professionals don't know that because they aren't formally trained in that area, and they're never introduced to the scientific research.”

Growing Healthier As You Grow Older [Podcast Series]