I recently read The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferris and it had several ideas in it that I found interesting. One of them is the minimum effective dose. The book explains that the minimum effective dose is the smallest dose that will produce the desired outcome. Applying the MED to exercise Ferris determines the least necessary to maximize size gain. According to him less than 30 minutes of gym time per week is needed. I’m more concerned with weight loss than size gain so I will test that at a later time.
For weight loss the book tells how a woman was able to lose 100 pounds with 20 minutes of exercise twice a week. The MED for weight loss is just 40 minutes of exercise a week. That seems easily achievable sounds so I’m going to do it and see how it works. She also had a slow carb breakfast. I’ve been doing that since I haven’t been able to stay on a complete slow carb diet, but just having a slow carb breakfast is easy. I’m not sure that will be enough for me and am thinking of switching to two slow carb and one carb meal a day. That will depend on my results with the current setup.
If the MED actually works it would mean I could achieve one of my major goals without too much effort. Since I like the idea of doing the minimum I’m trying to think of how to apply the MED to blogging. I’m not sure if the MED applies to blogging since you can do a lot of work before it ceases to be effective. Currently I’m not even doing the minimum so I need to determine what the minimum is. I’m thinking of setting a goal of writing one post a day. I have three blogs this is a minimal amount of writing for them. I’m still thinking of other ways to apply the MED to blogging. How would you apply the MED to blogging?
I’ve read that dieting is 80% food intake and 20% exercise. Being healthy of course is more 50/50. I’ve done well on low carb diets, as far as shedding the pounds.
The challenge with exercising is that it makes you more hungry and possibly more sedentary the rest of the day. So, I am looking forward to reading the 4 hour body, when my library has a digital copy. It’s loaned out right now.
One of the things the book pointed out was that many people were eating more calories in their post-workout meal than they were burning off in their workout. The book covers a lot of different topics and I figure it can’t hurt to test some of the ideas.
Pumping up my protein after working out really helps out. I have a hard time reducing my carb intake.
Good luck with the diet! Keep us posted.
With blogging, it seems the MED is about 2 posts a week. But those better be some engaging posts. I, too, have limited time and need to figure out my blogging MED, as well as my exercise MED. I think you should issue yourself an exercise challenge along with your blogging challenge and report on it once a month. It’d be great to follow along.
I actually have lots of time, I just haven’t been using it very wisely. An exercise challenge and blogging challenge may be coming although I haven’t done very well with sticking to those in the past.
I’d agree with Jacob and say two posts a week is probably the MED. Although, some really good bloggers get by with only 1 post a month or so.
Good luck with the diet! I hope it works out well for you. Losing weight is simply all about calorie intake. So, if you run 40 minutes/week and eat a crap ton of food, there is no chance you’re losing any weight. However, if you control what you eat and walk for 40 minutes then you’ll certainly drop the lbs.
Two posts might be the blogging MED, but there are also the non-writing parts of blogging to consider.
I definitely think the diet part is more important than the exercise. I’ll keep everyone updated on my progress.
I agree with Pat, 80% diet (as in what you eat, not necessarily going on a “diet”) and 20% exercise is key. I think consistency is another important aspect, too!
Good luck with your personal challenge!
Thanks!