Weight Loss Doctor Says ‘Eat Less, Move More’ Is Awful Advice

by Lou Schuler

September 20, 2019 2:00 PM

Spencer Nadolsky, D.O., is the kid every dad wants his son to grow up to be: a star athlete (as a heavyweight wrestler at North Carolina, he was at one time ranked fourth in the country) who was also a star student (academic all-American) and is now a doctor who constantly tests his own limits, jumping from bodybuilding to triathlon and from vegan to ketogenic diets. (He details his experiments at drspencer.com .)

Weight Loss Doctor Says ‘Eat Less, Move More’ Is Awful Advice

Hes also a family-practice physician and obesity specialist, which means he spends a lot more time with overweight and obese patients than the average guy with sub-10 percent body fat.

The first thing he learned? Those with obesity arent inherently lazy, he says. Losing weight and keeping it off are actually really tough. Only a small percentage is able to do it.

Which leads him to a crucial insight: Telling people who struggle with their weight to eat less and move more is absurd. In fact, check out the cartoon he created to hammer home this point.

Weight Loss Doctor Says Eat Less, Move More Is Awful Advice BusinessInsider USA Images

Dr. Nadolsky contends that if this is really all it took, we wouldnt have an obesity problem. Instead, hes learned to look beyond what people know they should do, and what theyre already trying to do, and figure out why it isnt working for them.

Genes are a consideration. So is their upbringinghow they were raised, and what they grew up eating. The combination of those two factors might predispose a person to simply be hungrier than the rest of us.

Ive had patients swear theyre only eating 1,200 calories, he says. Just by looking at them he can tell theyre underreporting. But when he digs deeper he learns the patients hunger overrides any attempt to cut back.

You put them on an appetite suppressant and all of a sudden they have an easier time adhering to the diet. These arent anti-lazy pills. They allow them to not feel miserable when eating less.

But prescription drugs can be expensive, which brings up another common problem: money. The less of it you have, the less you can spend on medicine or gym memberships. Individual coaching is out of the question. Life is more stressful, and when youre feeling that kind of pressure day after day, its hard to cope with the added stress of exercise and a lower-calorie diet.

Thats why one of his key recommendations is to find an online support group, where you can benefit from others experiences, or just vent about your own with people who can relate.

What never works is fat shaming, or accusing people of not having the fortitude of someone whos been in shape his entire lifesomeone like Dr. Nadolsky, for example.

They arent lacking willpower, he says. We have to realize that not everyone is the same, and telling someone just to eat less and move more is awful advice.

by Lou Schuler